Sterling Silverspoon’s feet were practically mythic, forged in the crucible of a legendary high school athletic career. They pivoted on the varsity soccer pitch, anchored him as a lineman on the gridiron, and powered a baseball swing so potent that professional scouts whispered his name. This team captain, this iron man, had never spent a day on the injury list. But when a less-exclusive invitation arrived from Uncle Sam, those same invincible appendages suddenly contracted a peasant’s affliction: bone spurs. The horror.
Fortunately, Daddy’s portfolio included a building with a conveniently pliable physician on the second floor. Dr. Craven produced X-rays as foggy as his ethics, diagnosing a case of “calcified cowardice” so severe it required immediate deferment. For four years, Sterling, the indestructible athlete, bravely hobbled into his draft review, a martyr to his own self-preservation.
The moment the last transport left Saigon, a divine healing occurred. Sterling’s feet were born again, freed from their bony prison. He could now storm the diamond with a ferocity he’d so carefully avoided applying to foreign beaches. His feet, once scouted by the pros, were, like his service record, miraculously spotless.
craven, poltroon, dastard, recreant, milquetoast, weakling, milksop, chicken, scaredy-cat, yellow-belly, wimp, mouse, jellyfish, faintheart, sissy, quitter, sneak, funk, baby, big baby, chicken-heart, caitiff, cur, deserter, flincher, funker, alarmist, shirker, malingerer, skulker, truant, chinless wonder, scaredy pants, lily-liver, chicken-liver, pantywaist, cream puff, namby-pamby, sheep, invertebrate, pansy, pussy, pusscake, cowardice, cravenness, pusillanimity, spinelessness, timidity, fearfulness, faint-heartedness, dastardliness, gutlessness, chicken-heartedness, timorousness, trepidation, meekness, recreancy, yellow streak, cold feet, apprehension, diffidence, feebleness, irresolution, softness, weakness, poltroonery, spiritlessness
