Port Washington: holding the head of a vomiting Pemulis

timeline_event

pivotal · 6 Nov YDAU

When: 6 November YDAU — the annual mammoth E.T.A.-P.W.T.A. meet on Long Island
What: The timeline's emotional center, and the book's one scene told partly from Schacht's own point of view. In the freezing tarp-passage behind Court 1, Schacht kneels holding Michael Pemulis's head as Pemulis, deep in the hell of pre-match nerves, vomits his breakfast into a spare-ball bucket. Schacht strokes his head, covers for him ("to Schtitt and deLint it's all a silent movie down here... That was a freebie, in terms of stomach-incidents"), builds him back up, and — knowing nervous incapacity gets logged at E.T.A., and that Pemulis has a vested emotional stake in the WhataBurger — quietly plans the cover-up. Then he goes out to #3-B singles against his supposedly French-Canadian spin-artist and feels blandly happy, playing in private, way down past the gallery's panel.