Second Part, Sections 8 through 10 Summary

8 - Jerome describes the route to "the prettiest little concrete half court basketball place in town," hidden in a grove of trees. Writing in third person ("You can have this court anytime by yourself..."), Jerome describes how a hawk sometimes watches him as he practices, how great it feels to play there, and how it's possible to play there both summer and winter.

9 - Jerome says that he spent most of his summers alone at that secret basketball court, describing the one day he wasn't alone, but was accompanied by an acquaintance named Poke, whose presence, Jerome comments, ruined being at the court on his own for a while (see "Quotes," p. 42). Jerome describes how he eventually got his sense of privacy back and that, "It felt exactly right, although [he]later found out it wasn't".

10 -...