A finger

The crowded holiday party was near its end. Rock knew no one there, though he had conversed over a two-way radio with an old former sportswriter he knew twenty-five years earlier named Wadie Moore.
It was time to leave. "Wadie, it's been great talking to you, but I have to get out of here. I think they're closing up shop."
"Sure, Rock, great talking to you, too."
A crowd approached the door to leave. It was nearing midnight. A large, powerfully-built African-American man bumped into Rock, who turned just as the man said, "You know what, I've been here all night and I still haven't stuck my finger in a white man's mouth."
He looked at Rock and held out an index finger. "Would it be all right if I stuck my finger in your mouth?"
Rock couldn't imagine. "No, please don't," he said.
They were all about to walk outside, and it suddenly occurred to Rock that he didn't know where he had parked. He wasn't sure whether his car was anywhere nearby and was afraid the man might pursue him.

Before midnight

It was Christmas Eve and almost midnight, but Rock didn't feel hurried. He was in a high-end liquor store in a fancy shopping mall and looked at his watch to see that he still had nearly a half an hour to buy whatever he wanted. But in the next moment he realized the small store was jammed with late shoppers. There were lines for everything, and the limited supply of bottles were nearly all gone. All that remained were very expensive wine and liqueurs.
"You moved too slowly," a young woman said to him. "I don't think you want any of that stuff."
Rock looked at his watch. It was 11:35 p.m. "No, you're right," he said. "I'm just going to find an open grocery store or a mini-mart and buy some beer."
But as he headed toward the mall's main exit, he saw a large group of teenaged girls dressed like golden angels. The each clung to long strands of fabric that hung from a rotating ball near the ceiling, and they were dancing in a huge circle. Rock tried to go around, but his legs seemed nearly stuck to the floor. He wasn't sure he would ever make it out.

Beer-fueled roller luge

It looked like a road block, and Rock was worried. He was drunk and riding a luge sled on rollers, traveling west on I-40 near the U.S. 67-167 interchange in North Little Rock. It was a cold, wet, windy morning and Rock struggled to maintain balance as he rolled to a stop.
He was second in line. A state trooper talked to the driver of a station wagon in front, but he paused to look back at Rock. Rock knew he had booze on his breath and was consequently greatly relieved when the trooper waved him through.
Just after he rolled past, Rock noticed a shopping center to his left that he had never before seen and decided to turn into its parking lot to give himself a chance to sober up.

A walk interrupted

Rock walked north along University Avenue, a block south of First Tee Avenue when he passed a short, stocky man dressed in a scruffy white T-shirt and old, filthy blue jeans.
"I'll show him," Rock overheard the man say to an equally forlorn, unkempt woman. The man looked angry as he approached Rock. "Who do you think you are?" he said.
Rock feared a fight was about to begin.

An extra point

Rock was confused. His coach asked him to hold a ball for an extra-point attempt and tossed him a black plastic tee that was the size and shape of a shot glass. The ball slipped out of his hand as he tried to place it on, or in, the tiny tee.
"What is this?" Rock said. "Please give a me a real tee."

NBA final

With just a few seconds left in Game 7 of the National Basketball Association final, scheduled for completion later that afternoon, word leaked that Los Angeles Lakers Coach Pat Riley would have Kobe Bryant take a four-point shot in an attempt to break his team's tie with the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Rock heard this report as he stood near the Central Arkansas Transit bus station on Capital Avenue, a block and a half east of the Democrat Building, and knew it meant a lot of work ahead. To start, he did not think the NBA had changed the rules to allow four-point shots. He wondered how Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson would respond. Did it mean Arkansas would have to guard Bryant no matter where he was on the court?
He knew he would need to talk to Riley before the game restarted but thought it would be nearly impossible to get his phone number on this sort of short notice. Perhaps someone in the sports department could tell him how to get to the Lakers's practice court.
Among a multitude of issues, it occurred to Rock that he had not seen a single play of the game even though he was assigned to cover it. This was clearly one of the most significant athletic events ever staged in Arkansas, and Rock had forgotten about it. He began to panic, and to make matters worse suddenly realized he didn't know where the game was being played.

Office fight

After Rock had worked at his assigned desk at the newspaper for an hour or so, he noticed things all over the sports department floor that would ordinarily be at most people's stations. There were staplers, scissors, calculators, pens and pencils, books, all sorts of the things. It occurred to him that the mess might be the result of a fight and walked to a coworker's desk to ask.
"Yeah, there was a bit of a throw down last night," Frankie said. "It happened right after these two Mexican guys came and went."
Before he was given any more information, Rock had to share something he learned earlier in the day. "Did you guys know that the casino at Oaklawn has changed its blackjack number to thirty-eight?"

Flexibility

Rock could tell as he jogged around the parking lot that his legs were remarkably fresh. A running coach had talked him into a five-mile run on the Little Rock side of the River Trail, and Rock was eager to get started. Foremost among his warmup cues to indicate a new, vaguely familiar fitness were that he could not only touch his toes but put his palms flat on the pavement without bending his knees at all.

He couldn't resist showing this ability off to other members of the running club.
When he and the running coach started, Rock knew he would run tirelessly along their out-and-back route.

Temporary quarters

This sporting event would take so long to cover that Rock was compelled to rent a small apartment until until it was over, and the one he found was perfect. It couldn't have been larger than two-hundred square feet, but it had everything he needed, including an outdoor antenna to which Rock easily connected his television.
In fact, his ability to connect the TV in no more than a few seconds absolutely delighted him. He had always been frightened by technology and considered victories over its complexity among his most satisfying.
Rock called his cousin Crutch, who also had a room in the one-story building, and bragged about his achievement. "I'm not kidding you, man. I hooked this motherfucker up in less than a minute, and now I'm sitting her watching a Reds spring training game as we speak."

An old acquaintance

Mike Ross and Rock were hanging out with some mutual friends as if they had been close for years, when in fact they hadn't seen each other or had any contact since the summer of 1980.
Ross had since spent his career in politics, first as an Arkansas state legislator, and then for twelve years as a U.S. representative from Arkansas's fourth congressional district.
Rock still remembered when Ross told him in one of their final conversations that his goal in life was to become a national congressman. He shared that with the men around them.

UALR Airline

Walt sat with Rock in small bleachers near an outdoor men's basketball game between the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and the University of Arkansas at the main campus in Fayetteville, but their attention was drawn from the game by a steady stream of low-flying, UALR Airline passenger jets.
The jets flew by closely enough to expose their shabbiness, which surprised Walt. "Man, who would be willing to fly in planes that looked like that?" he said.
Rock was quick to defend the new airline from his alma mater. "Heck, Walt, they're just doing whatever they can to keep their rates down. They're not willing to blow money on fancy paint jobs."

The new Oaklawn Park

Oaklawn Park had made small, subtle changes nearly every year since Rock first began to go there on a regular basis, way back in 1987, but this year's changes were mind boggling.
The entire barn area had been merged with a touristy shopping district. Barns were intermingled with bars and restaurants and high-end clothing and outdoor shops. It seemed unimaginable to Rock that all of it could have been constructed in the three months since he was last there.
His primary objective was to locate Racing Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, but he could not find Lukas's Royal Glint barn among the many stores and boutiques. Rock was about to give up when suddenly Lukas appeared, just like that, walking from a lingerie shop. "I don't have time for any interviews today," Lukas said. "As you can see, this place has gone to shit."