Devil at My Heels by Louis Zamperini

Author:Louis Zamperini
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780061972768
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-10-10T05:34:14+00:00

ONE DAY THE commandant decided to stage a track meet, featuring me. It was weird. My muscles had atrophied; I couldn’t run. I entered the high jump instead, and won it. I guess I was so skinny, I didn’t have much to lift. After that, I made a point of exercising to get in better shape.

Soon, with great fanfare, they brought in a local runner because what they really wanted was for me to run and lose. I told the grinning officers that the race would be unfair, that the track was hardly adequate for going distances. Most important, I had no desire to run. I shouldn’t have said that. They told me in no uncertain terms that if I didn’t run, not only I but the whole camp would suffer. My pride was not worth that, so I ran, and surprised myself at how light and comfortable I felt, considering my condition. I let the local runner set the pace and allowed him to stay ahead even as the finish line loomed. Then I stretched out and passed him; I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t resist.

Moments later I woke up on the ground. Someone had hit me on the head from behind with a cherrywood club.

They brought up another runner a few weeks later, and I beat him, too. After the race he took me aside and said, “Next week I bring my girlfriend. Let me win, so I can say I beat an Olympian, and I’ll give you a rice ball.”

No problem. I let him win. Instead of giving me a rice ball, he left with his girlfriend. But two days later he came back and gave me two rice balls. I guess I’d helped him win with his girlfriend, too.

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