He thanked me. Not for the match. He did not mention the match at all. He thanked me for what had been done for the federation, and he named 2 of my players while he was saying it, and then he gave me the one line from that podium I can still hear.
"You have given them something they will not put down."
I said something back. I hope it was thank you.
Somebody put a medal on me. Clk. The clasp at the back of my neck.
I did not feel it go on.
That is not a turn of phrase. I have gone back over it and there is a gap in it. There is a hand coming toward my chest, and then there is me on the grass at the bottom of the steps with a cold thing against my sternum and a wet ribbon stuck to my neck.
And then the Prince came down after me, and he did not go where the cameras were. He went to the ones nobody was pointing anything at.
Shp. Shp. Shp. Handmade shoes going through standing water, and he did not once look down at them.
