Jerry Manifolds

The hall coordinator remembers

After sixty people came into a city hall for bingo, the organizer discovered the small cage had no eleven. Jerry Manifolds filled the minute it took the treasurer to go to a cupboard full of props and write eleven on a ping-pong ball. He read out the names people had given their lost gloves that autumn. One entry started a kitchen argument over who had come home with a left mitten. Lo Creel was still laughing after the cage was back in front of them. When the event needed somebody to handle equipment on a permanent basis, Jerry made sure his name was first on the list of applicants. The winning qualification turned out to be his ability to carry a chair through a narrow door while holding a clipboard.

Jerry says the treasurer handed him the spare handle later, to thank him for making the room seem as if everybody had planned to be there early. Now he keeps the handle in the top slot of his work bag and makes himself leave it alone.

Jerry on the Prelude

The Honda 1998 Prelude first went to a closed-course practice on a trailer driven by Lo. Jerry had written a running order that started with an easy practice turn and left plenty of time to return it. He says he got light after the gate, gripped the wheel too firmly when he couldn't judge how the turn fell away, and came back telling everyone about how the car had gone to look for somebody else's apex. Lo asked him what part had looked unfamiliar. Jerry offered a second line about putting up a street sign. It was the third line he heard himself starting that made him see she'd actually been waiting for an answer.

They borrowed a monitor and played back the run. A late steering movement was plain enough to see. It was less obvious whether Jerry had made it before or after the rear had started to move out. He still likes to show the clip to a person who won't give him the answer at once. Daniels asked him to watch what his outer hand did right before the Prelude moved, which gave him somewhere useful to start.

Lo on the minute after

Lo says the last minute of practice has become his best one because he uses it to make a proper request. For a while all she had to do was turn the small old bingo handle over on the cart. She never understood why he kept the thing in his race bag until he said what it took when a room fell quiet. More recently they've spent the time on two long questions that couldn't have been asked in the other order. When Bob found three old names under his registration card, Jerry managed to read all three aloud before anybody called a driver back. She was glad to hear him enjoying a pause again without finding out later that he needed it.

Jerry on next Saturday

The ambition is to run an early blind bend well enough to describe where he felt himself lighten the steering. Jerry would also like Lo to come watch him use the first turn he'd planned before they try the hard one again. The next bingo cage goes out with a full set of balls. He checked. The door to the hall is propped open far enough for one chair. Somebody else can tell the opening joke.