The Braintree Commitment: what Gately can say to a hall but not to Francis, and the ride home

texture · Jul YDAU

• When: "this past July" YDAU — the Tough Shit But You Still Can't Drink Group Commitment in Braintree, then the drive back up Rte. 3.
• What: Speaking at Braintree about feeling not nothing but Nothing when he prays, Gately confesses "dark doubtful thoughts he wouldn't have fucking ever dared tell Ferocious Francis man to man" — "He can't even look at F.F. in the Crocodile's row" as he says the God stuff makes him want to puke from fear. Afterward, in F.F.'s old car up Rte. 3 — no smoking allowed because of the oxygen tank; Crocodile Dicky N. riding shotgun; Glenn K. cracking wise in back — the sponsor says nothing either: "Ferocious Francis kept moving the toothpick around in his mouth and looking at Gately in the rearview." Presence instead of commentary; the whole scene's counsel is that look.