Gene continues to be amazed at how special Finny is. The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session is a huge success and Gene comes faithfully every night, despite missing Chapel or class because of Finny's influence. The wishes of his friend begin to consume him. Despite the fact that jumping from the tree terrifies him, each night when the secret club meets near the Devon River, he and Finny still jump off together to initiate the meetings. One day the two boys are walking in the playing fields where the seniors had been training for the war and come to a wooden tower near The Cage. Finny finds a ball nearby that he picks up and is joined by Bobby, Chet, Leper, and others. Finny begins making up rules for a game he calls blitzball, short for "blitzkrieg ball," to make it related to the war, just as jumping from the tree had been. The game is very popular throughout the summer and Gene notes that a version of it is still played on campus even after fifteen years.
He reflects next on the America that lives on for him in memory, an America that is "a dull, dark green called olive drab." America is where,
"[w]hen you are sixteen, adults are slightly impressed and almost intimidated by you. This is a puzzle, finally solved by the realization that they foresee your military future, fighting for them. You do not foresee it....In such a period no one notices or rewards any achievements involving the body unless the result is to kill it or save it on the battlefield...." Chapter 3, pp. 33-34
Gene, fifteen years older, still sees his country as it was while he was at Devon School that summer. It was the war period from 1942-1943 that shaped him into a man, so the mood of that time has remained with him.
One day Finny decides to break a swimming record just for the fun of it. A. Hopkins Parker's name was engraved on a plaque since he had last set the record in 1940. Phineas, who had never been on the swimming team at all, broke the record after his first attempt in the swimming pool. Gene, stunned, insists that he should do it again for an official timekeeper while Finny insists that he wants his feat to be kept a secret. He is confused by this and hardly understands Finny's desire for anonymity unless it is that he had won so many awards already that another one would hardly matter to him, nor was it needed. "To keep silent about this amazing happening deepened the shock for me. It made Finny seem too unusual for -- not friendship, but too unusual for rivalry. And there were few relationships among us at Devon not based on rivalry." Chapter 3, pg. 37 The competitive school atmosphere, preparing them all largely for the war, gets in the way of Gene's friendship with Finny and confuses him as he struggles to understand this behavior. While still pondering this, Phineas suggests that the two go to the beach since swimming there would be better than the pool. Although it's breaking the rules and Gene knows that he really does not want to go because he has a big test to study for, he agrees.
The pair ride their bikes for hours during which Finny talks endlessly and sings, performing tricks on his bike. Upon arriving they dive into the water immediately and Gene is overwhelmed by the strength of the waves until they force him back against the sand where he stays, resting. Phineas continues to frolic and play, checking on his friend every few minutes. Then they have dinner at a hot dog stand and walk along the Boardwalk, where everyone stares at Finny's body, tanned by the sun. Yet he humbly remarks that everyone is staring at Gene's tan instead of his. They end their evening by drinking a couple of beers at a bar, after showing fake military draft cards that exaggerate their ages. Before falling asleep out upon the sand dunes, Finny tells Gene that he's his best friend. However Gene is silent and offers no response saying, "I should have told him then that he was my best friend also and rounded off what he had said. I started to; I nearly did. But something held me back. Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth." Chapter 3, pg. 40 After allowing himself to be dominated by Finny for so long, he is resentful and does not call Finny his best friend but keeps his silence, for it would not be the truth. Finny is not his best friend.
