Free Bay of Souls by Robert Stone

was a man.' So he understands that death is part of life," Michneicki declared complacently. "He matures."
    "The novel is about war, Keith. It's not just a coming-of-age story. It's about the purifying effect of struggle. It's not about discovering personal identity. It's about transcending it."
    Michneicki frowned, shrugged and looked at Michael for help.
    "What do you get out of a game like hockey?" Michael asked him. "Does it make you feel like a small child again?"
    "Huh?"
    "Does it make you feel a small child? Like you're returning to infancy?"
    "No way," Michneicki said.
    "You're an enforcer out there. I've seen you. You like to hit people?"
    The young man laughed. "Not a whole lot." He flushed and looked at his big hands. "Not really."
    "Are you afraid of getting hit? Does it hurt a lot?"
    "No," Keith Michneicki said.
    "No. And how do you feel after a game?"
    "If we win," Keith said, "great."
    "Part of something bigger than yourself?"
    "Well," said the young apple knocker, "the game's not about one guy."
    "What's it about?"
    "Winning?"
    "No, I'm asking you. Is it about winning?"
    "Naw," he said. "Not really. Not for me."
    "How about making the beer taste better?"
    "
All right,
" Keith said. "OK. Right."
    "Because you've been up against it. Because you've been part of something bigger than yourself. It's a kid's game but it's not really a kid's game, is it?"
    "At a certain point," Keith said, "it's not a kid's game anymore."
    "What is it? What is it like?"
    "Like everything else," Keith said.
    "It's like life, isn't it?"
    "It's life," Keith said. "But it's awesome. It's better."
    "More perfect," Michael suggested. "Transcended."
    "Right," said Keith.
    "Take another look at the end of
The Red Badge.
Get on the Web and search out the phrase 'moral equivalent of war.'"
    Keith looked up at him from the act of writing it down. "Isn't that a cliché?" he asked.
    "It's a cliché when politicians use it because they don't know what it means. Otherwise it remains a living insight. Write me something about it for extra credit. See if you can do a search for the origin of the phrase."
    "My girlfriend's a kind of a hacker."
    "Good," Michael said. "As long as she doesn't write the paper for you."
    Michneicki packed up his notebook and his copy of Crane. Before he left, Michael said, "Ask her if she knows how to get around a password."
    "Whoa," the youth said. "I don't know if she's that kind of hacker."

5
     
    I N THE COURSE of the spring semester, Norman Cevic managed to introduce himself to Lara and ask her to lunch. They met at a dichromatically jacked-up space called Chequers with a Q, an eating house that would prove to be a local inevitability. The place catered to middle management from the handful of high-tech plants that clustered around the university. It supported a large tank full of illuminated tropical fish and for years had offered a busy, pretentious array of precooked "cuisine" that arrived at the kitchen frozen in plastic bags inside cardboard boxes, like low-grade trail mix. Subscribers to the boxed food also served the bloated lyrical menu, which was full of jokey, familiar insolence at the expense of the clientele. There were smiley managers to curse under their breath at the staff, but no cooks.
    When Norman arrived Lara eased their conversation toward the subject of Michael.
    "A good guy," Norman said. "Good."
    "That's rare," she said.
    "I wonder how rare. There's absolutely no statistical data."
    "The anecdotal evidence is troubling, no?"
    Norman, amused, pounded the bottom of a salt shaker. "Yes it is. But without reliable numbers we're flying blind."
    "Why do you say he's good?"
    "Well, let's see. He keeps his promises. He thinks about what he does. He's considerate, concerned with other people. He's a good teacher and he works hard." Norman paused to dip his fries in ketchup. "That's a start. Boy," he said, "I like the french fries here."
    "Yes, they're quite well done. What else is he? Besides