Hal v. Stice: the failed service game, logged as a hieroglyph
Stice hit his second serve as hard as he could again and netted it, and pursed his thick lips a little as he walked into the net’s shadow to retrieve the ball [...] DeLint was putting a pejorative hieroglyphic in a box on his chart marked STICE.
Context
The double fault at full resolution: Stice overhits, then "hit his second serve as hard as he could again and netted it," a body over-torquing under the shadow until the serve won't go in. And the instant it fails, it's recorded — "a pejorative hieroglyphic in a box on his chart marked STICE." The body's bad moment becomes a mark in the secret ledger before he's even retrieved the ball.