the boy who has not said one word
John Wayne hasn't said one word this whole time. The contents of his locker are neat and organized. He always buttons his shirt all the way up to the top button as if he were going to put on a tie, which he doesn't even own.
Context
Through the whole clamorous locker-room hour the top player in the room says nothing at all, sealed and orderly, buttoned to the throat for a tie he does not own. Wayne's total silence sits inside the banter like a closed door, a person present and unreachable, the figurant-in-waiting the book will later stand mute at the edge of every scene he is in.