Chapter 1
What is a man? In today’s society and culture, especially on MTV or in Hollywood, the title of a man has been associated with being a ladies man, popularity, money, and success. To me the definition is entirely different. To me a man is someone who shows respect for others, someone who is not arrogant but still confident in himself and his abilities. A man to me is also person who fights with integrity for what was right or just; one who is not afraid to defend innocent people in harm’s way. When I think of an honorable man, I think of people who serve their country, and give back to their community, or mankind. I tend to reflect on that Bob Dylan song, that contains the lyrics, “How many roads must a man walk by before you can call him a man?”
There comes a time in every young boy’s life when they must learn how to be a man. Sometimes it isn’t until they find an event/reason and/or purpose in their lives to fully change themselves and their ways, that they fully express and display the true qualities and characteristics of a man.
Spring fever is in the air, and it was difficult for most students to focus on their studies. Two guys that are roommates named Philip Allen Clepson and Jack Gregory Tailorman are playing football on the college campus of the NavalAcademy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Annapolis is a sophisticated kind of town with charming shops and restaurants. It is also known as a fishing village; an area where the fishermen would bring their fish to the market to sell.Every Wednesday, the midshipmen would march in the parades.
The Naval Academy is right on the Severn River. The Naval Academy has white-stoned, confined buildings, which were separated by a short walking distance. Every Wednesday, Philip and the other midshipmen would march and were judged by marine officers on various points assigned to each company. There were 26 companies all together and Philip was assigned to Second Company. Each company would be judged according to demerits. Each week was the noon meal formation, which was a white glove inspection. For every midshipman or midshipwoman, you were required to wear your best uniform. Every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon, the four thousand members of the midshipman would march in a full-dress parade for the edification of both the tourists and the natives.
The midshipmen were composed of the highest-ranking midshipmen officers and non-other members of the brigade. To them fell the serious responsibility of teaching the freshman the cheerless rudiments of the fourth-class system during plebe week. The cadre was a diminutive regiment of the elite, chosen for their leadership, their military sharpness, their devotion to duty, their ambition, and their unquestioning, uncomplicated belief in the system. But in my junior year, the midshipmen of fourth battalion had surprised both me and the Commandant’s Department by selecting me as member of the honor court, a tribunal of twenty-one cadets known for their integrity, sobriety, and honesty.
It was dangerous to have a sadist in the barracks, like Larry O’Brien; especially one who justified his malice on others by religiously invoking the sacrosanct authority of the joys of being in the military and being someone who could get away with criminal mischief and crimes against innocent and vulnerable young women. The system contained its own high quotient of natural cruelty, and there was a very thin line between devotion to duty, that is being serious about the plebe system.
There existed a rigorous attitude of extremism and exemplary instruction in the barracks, which enforced a type of conduct and expected behavior to the rules and policies to be enacted. Those who violated the rights of midshipmen or stood out and were different from their peers were not condoned. Philip had noticed that in the actual hierarchy of values at Annapolis, the sadist like Larry O’Brien rated higher than someone who took no interest in the freshman and entertained no belief in the system at all. In the Law of the Corps, it was better to carry your beliefs to an extreme than to be faithless. For the majority of the Corps, the only sin of the sadist was that he believed in the system too passionately and applied his belief with an overabundant zeal. Because of this, the barracks at all times provided safe regency for the sadist and almost all of them earned rank. Philip placed a high premium on his enmity with Larry. He personified the Institute’s capacity for deviance. He had the face of a young wolf-thin, carnivorous, and rapacious.
The engineering facilities at Annapolis were world-class such as the marine engineering facility. All the socializing that took place at Annapolis occurred in Bancroft Hall. It was a white-stoned, distinctive, copper-topped building that was the largest continuance dormitory. It was all one building, which contained eight wings. In Bancroft Hall, they had a rotunda, which was where all the Naval history was contained. In there they had pictures of battles and famous admirals.
For training at Annapolis, Philip would go on cruises. After his freshman year, Philip served on the Destroyer, as a working enlisted man. He chipped bait, went down and cleaned down the boilers and did all the work that a junior seaman would do.
The Naval Academy had a rigorous reputation for delivering cutthroat academics and for the manner in which the upperclassman drilled the midshipmen.
The sprawling Bancroft Hall, the original wings completed in 1906, is one of the world’s largest dormitories. Named after former Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, the individual who is most responsible for the creation of the Naval Academy, it has one thousand, eight hundred residential rooms and almost five miles of corridors, and is home to more than four thousand midshipmen.
The Naval Academy has grown substantially in physical size since its inception in 1845. In 1847, the school dubbed its original ten acres through the attainment of neighboring property. The largest addition followed the Civil War when Prospect Hill and Strawberry Hill farms, a total of one hundred and thirteen acres, were acquired across College Creek.
By 1941, the Academy had grown to two hundred, forty-five acres. Dewey and Farragut Fields were created in 1960 by dredging the Severn River and Spa Creek. The Academy’s campus, also called “The Yard”, has grown from its original ten acres to three hundred, thirty-eight acres, while its student body has increased from fifty in 1845 to more than four thousand midshipman today.
Over the course of the last century, the physical appearance of the Academy has changed immensely. Contemporary granite buildings replaced the old wooden structures of the Naval Academy and Fort Severn and new buildings were also added to the Yard. An ambitious reconstruction plan began in 1899, designed by architect Ernest Flagg, when a new armory, Dahlgren Hall was started.
The building of Macdonough and Bancroft Halls followed soon afterwards. MacDonough Hall is an outstanding athletic facility for swimming, gymnastics, boxing, lacrosse, and volleyball. Dahlgren Hall is comparable to a student union at civilian colleges, complete with a hockey rink, cafeteria and reception area.
The Division of Professional Development, including seamanship and navigation, and a planetarium are located within Luce Hall. The Division of Mathematics and Science is housed in Chauvenet Hall and its sister building, Michelson Hall. Rickover Hall houses the Division of Engineering and Weapons and contains the Academy’s sophisticated laboratories.
The Nimitz Library holds more than a half million books and can provide study-space for one thousand, five hundred midshipman at one time. Alumni Hall, completed in 1991 is named in honor of alumni who together contributed more than one-half of the construction cost. It can seat six thousand, five hundred in the round and boasts a two thousand, four-hundred-square-foot stage.
Alumni Hall is the site of home games for Navy basketball. Alumni Hall is also where new plebes are processed into the Naval Academy on Induction Day.
Dahlgren Hall was formerly an armory and drill area and is now used as an activity center for midshipmen. The N3N3 training aircraft was built by the Philadelphia Naval Airplane Factory in 1943 and was used for flight training at the Naval Academy until 1961. The midshipmen affectionately knew it as the “yellow peril”. The colorful flags represent the fifty states, the District of Columbia and United States territories, all origins of the midshipmen at the Academy.
The Hall is named after Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, an American inventor who created the smoothbore cannon, commonly used in the Civil War. The US Naval Academy was built in 1854 as the first Chapel, which was built with a Greek portico, which can seat three hundred people. Following the Civil War, a second Chapel, was built with a redbrick Victorian gothic with a steeple and was erected where the superintendent’s quarters sits today.
In front of the USNA Chapel stands a lovely gazebo bandstand, which was built in 1923 and named after Bandmaster Charles A. Zimmerman. Bandmaster Zimmerman was the director of the band from 1887 until 1916 and created its own tradition of composing a new piece of music for each graduating class.
The Buchanan House, which was completed in 1909, serves as the residence of the current Naval Academy superintendent. Buchanan House was named after Admiral Franklin Buchanan in 1976. Admiral Buchanan was appointed a midshipman in 1815 and became a commander in 1841. He was the primary advisor to Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft in planning the Naval Academy and became the Academy’s first superintendent.
The Superintendent’s residence sat next to the Naval Academy Chapel. It was designed by Architect Ernest Flagg in Beaux Arts style, who designed the architecture of Bancroft Hall, the chapel, Mahan, Maury, and Sampson Halls, among others. Buchanan house has hosted some of the world’s most distinguished individuals, such as heads of state, US presidents, foreign royalty and ambassadors and has entertained more guests than any other official government residence except the White House.
It was a bright day in Annapolis.Two days earlier, two roommates at Annapolis,
Two weeks ago, Philip and Jack return from Spring break in Cancun, Mexico. Today is a Saturday and it is very hot outside, about 90 degrees. Philip and Jack are both incoming sophomores at the Naval Academy. Philip is walking back from a football game that he had played with Jack. Philip had always wanted to attend school at the Naval Academy ever since he was nine-years-old. At a young age his Father would tell him stories about the school. Philip thought of it as a prison because of the brutal treatment that he and the other midshipmen endured their first year at the academy. It was a free education paid for by the government. But now he was a sophomore, and things were a little different.
Philip is a chemical engineering major, which made it difficult for him to have a social life. This was due to the fact he had to work diligently to receive good marks in his classes. He had to work harder in school than his peers because he wasn’t as smart as some of the other midshipman and women on campus who only studied three hours a day for each class and still made all A’s. Furthermore, in chemical engineering, at Annapolis the classes demanded a lot of time to study and understand the material. It had been a long day for Philip. He was very lonely in this period of his life. He was often called, “The Phantom”, by his friends and classmates due to episodes when he would disappear from everyone and go out in solitude to a certain destination to relax and reflect on bothersome obstacles in his mind he felt he could not overcome. During these episodes, Philip would also drink alcohol alone straight from the bottle until he calmed down.
Jack was sometimes referred to as P G, T, aka his real initials. His birth name was Paul. However, his nick had become Jack growing up. P, G, T, stood for Jack’s notorious reputation as a womanizer, and being known as Pretty Good Time. Jack’s last name was Tailorman.
One of Jack and Philip’s friends at Annapolis was a guy named Jeffery was also known as, “Booger Beach.” He didn’t like his first name because it was taken after a father who abandoned him and his mother when he was an infant. He also loved going to the beach as he was freckled with red hair and blue eyes. All his relatives had warned him of the danger of ultraviolet rays on redheads. He could care less. He loved to ride the waves on his surfboard and check out the women on the beach when he was at Virginia Beach during the summer and spring breaks.
All the guys had nicknames that lived up to their reputation socially. The plebes arrived on the following day. They came from forty states and seven foreign countries. Seven hundred freshman, most of them accompanied by their parents, entered through the Main Gate on a day of astonishing clearness, a sweltering, bone-rustling day beneath a blue sky that made the heat seem all the more potent and dazzling. The campus was weightless and tense.
This was the day officially set aside for the swift business of transformation; a day when civilians would become recruits and boys would be treated with brutal force. The cadre was brisk, efficient, and courteous. The courtesy would vanish when the parents departed from campus that afternoon.
CHAPTER 1
Philip is a fresh-faced, six-foot-two, 170 pounds, nineteen-year-old young man, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Jack is a six-foot-four, 180-pound, young guy with broad shoulders and was fresh-faced with some freckles with dirty-blond hair, and blue eyes.
Jack, “Hey Phil go out far I’m gonna throw this one to you. Run out further”
Philip catches the football, which was about ten feet away from where Jack is standing. Jack catches the football and throws it back.
“Whoa yeah.”
Jack and Philip are walking out on the Annapolis football field throwing a football back and forth.
“Whoa go out farther I’m going to throw this ball out a long way. Go out further.” Jack yells.
“Yeah Man.”
“Do it ball. Please do it!” Jack says, being silly.
“Thirty more of these and I know I’ll be ready for the game.
“Oh yeah. When we play Army. Did you see the guns on those guys? There’s no way those guys get that by exercise alone. No freaking way.”
“Yeah I guess we could call it a day. Hey man what did you think about those Spanish twin dancers in Cancun? They were hot.”
“They were trashy. I can’t still believe that I have one of their numbers like in my jacket.”
“You’re kidding me right? Dude, call her and her twin and tell them to come back and meet us.
“Actually, don’t call them, I’ll call them up and asked if they want to go get married in Vegas. I’ll be a polygamist like Hugh Hefner. I’ll be Hugh Hefner and you can be my cousin. Yeah we can hang out at the Playboy mansion. My brother’s a Hollywood agent. He could get us in. Sit and watch hopping playboy bunnies.”
“Well, this fantasy better be soon. Time’s running out.”
“How would you know?”
“So, what will you be doing when you get out of the Navy?”
“Go to Duke University.”
Jack stares at Philip incredulously.
“Oh yeah here we go with this Duke crap again. You’re like the only guy I know who spends half his life on his studies and already knows where he wants to attend graduate school.”
“So. I have a plan? It’s good to have a plan. Prepares you in life. What the heck is wrong with that?”
“It’s just annoying to hear about all the freaking time. Don’t you want to focus on your social life. Social mobility? Climb the ladder socially, I mean?”
“To what? Being a ladies man like you? No, man I want my dignity.”
“Who cares about one’s dignity while at college? Man, you need to live a little.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
Philip and Jack walked back to the campus. They were laughing and wisecracking one another. They walked into to their dorm slowly. They walked in still joking and sat down. Jack sat on the love seat and Philip sat on the couch.
A few minutes later, an upperclassman came to see Philip and Jack in their dorm. He suddenly burst open the door and shut it. He walked around condescendingly like he owned their territory and stares at Philip and Jack. Suddenly a smirk appears on his face. The upperclassman says,
“Hello men I have come to inspect your dorms and make sure that you are in order. You have to go run four miles and do your exercises. So, by the way how was Cancun?”
“It was wonderful. Phil and I met these Spanish twins. One of them walked out on Phil?” Jack says.
“What?” Philip asks alarmed and infuriated.
“Man, you were too drunk to even notice.” Jack says, laughing.
“What?”
Philip asked in a dumfounded and incredulous manner.
“Yeah man. You suffered from alcohol poisoning the next morning. The Spanish girl left after that.”
Philip looks dumfounded. Why does this imbecile of a friend make fun of me? He was. I never knew I had suffered from alcohol poisoning. I thought it was just a hangover; I didn’t know that something in the alcohol was contaminated. I also hate when Jack encourage us midshipmen to get wasted, to the point that they could barely hold their liquor. Jack was a natural. He could control his liquor consumption like some Canadian Ice Hockey Player could control the Canadian beer and the puck used in hockey to keep score.
“You jerk, you didn’t tell me,” Philip says angrily.
Jack was always acting rambunctiously by drinking and making jokes at other’s expense. Jack had the energy of a 300-pound Japanese Suma wrestler. Jack had the exuberance and a ravenous drive for doing everything in excess, living life to the fullest, and exploiting innocent and vulnerable individuals.
“Sorry man. I didn’t know. Hey, Ted, we all know that I’m going to be married before this guy over here ever finds his dream girl,” says Jack.
“Yeah dude if you do get married, let’s have an awesome bachelor party in Vegas,” says, Ted. Ted is an Upperclassman who is in Jack and Philip’s dorm to inspect their rooms and see if they need to do demerits.
“Yeah man, you know it,” agrees Jack.
They hi-five each other with their elbows and bounce into one another with their chests as a brotherly love that show a bond of friendship.
“Well guys I want to tell you that the meeting is tomorrow night. Right now, you both have to go do your drills,” says Ted.
The upperclassman says whose name is Jeffery, also known as “Booger Beach.”
The upperclassman leaves with a big smirk high fiving Jack on the way out with his hand. Philip looks at Jack disconcertingly. “How the heck can you say that you’ll be married before I will? You don’t even believe love exists.”
“Love doesn’t exist,” exclaims Jack.
“I don’t believe that. Yo, um Jack. Just out of curiosity where did you learn that?” Philip asks.
Jack turns his face away with a blanketed look and didn’t answer Philip’s question. Jack’s brow becomes furrowed after feeling resentment and hate in his heart causing swift pulsations.
“Hello? Jack? Are you there?” Philip asks a second time.
Philip stops talking for ten seconds as he notices Jack’s indignation. Jack looks angry.
After a couple of minutes of Philip being silent and Jack being angry Jack finally says, “My dad walked out on my mom, when I left for college. If my dad can’t be faithful to one woman, there’s no way in hell that I can.”
Philip decided that was a substantial reason. Philip couldn’t imagine how divorce must hurt children and young adults, who try to live their life, and have to deal with a divorce, that happens suddenly without their knowledge. Philip felt that Jack blamed his father for the divorce and had a difficult time forgiving him for leaving his mother and having affairs with women at work.
That day almost 250 plebes arrive to campus. Philip hated his plebe year. He was always being yelled at during his plebe year for the most ridiculous things. He would get yelled at for not making his bed the right way. He would get yelled at Mess Hall when he didn’t sit properly in the cafeteria table. He lost ten pounds that year and would ask his Mother to send cookies or decadent chocolates because he was so famished.
She would send treats like decadent truffles wrapped in a box from Harry and David or crab cakes and oysters from a Chesapeake Bay catering company that send packages of prepared foods.
Philip loved his mother who had taught him to win people’s heart through dignity and honesty. He knew one day he’d leave Jack in the tracks, but right now for his safety he needed him around. He was fed up with the harassment at the college and the hazing that had continued. Years later he learned how hazing had been eliminated at many colleges across the U.S. for the detrimental effects it had on young people. The military hazing was more brutal but expected as it prepared you for your entry into the Navy.
Jack and Philip get dressed and go outside in their tee shirts and shorts, which they wore when doing exercises and drills.
“Attention men! Get down on the ground and give me seventy push-ups! Now You Bastards! Attention Young Ladies! Get down on the ground and give me seventy push-ups. You weaklings.”
All the men and women went and did their drills. “Now seeing that most of you succeeded in your drills, except for some lazy ass weaklings, you know the usual. Run four miles.”
Philip brazed through the run moving his legs back and forth and stretching his arms out.
Philip is doing his routine, running four miles, when he starts thinking.
Is anything going to change this year? Am I finally going to find the right girl? Am I going to do well in my classes. Hoping to make his parents proud he wanted to maintain a high GPA. Freshman year was tough. He lost a lot of weight and was always being yelled at. Sweat is perspiring from his forehead. Philip really wanted a serious girlfriend. He was so tired of girls who treated him like some sex toy. He was also tired of party girls who he met a lot through Jack.
All the party girls would like to do was to get drunk, flirt with him, and impose sexual desires on him. It seemed difficult for Philip to not accede to Jack’s demands or expectations of a ladies’ man or womanizer. He idolized Jack and wondered if that was healthy. The reason for this was because Jack felt to him like a true friend ever since he came to Annapolis. Jack had saved Philip from being hazed a dozen of times by ruthless upperclassmen who appeared sadistic. Plus,
Jack knew all the cool midshipmen at Annapolis and had helped him become an all-around good guy with the popular midshipmen. Phil was hoping he wouldn’t lose the respect he had earned at this college. The next evening around seven o’clock, Philip was doing some studying at his desk when Jack came in the dorm. He was studying financial accounting and had his head pretty much stuck in the book reviewing bar graphs and numerical studies. Jack asked him by the doorway, “Hey man you want to meet two wild chicks tonight?”
“Okay. When?”
“Let’s go now.”
Jack and Phil walked to Jack’s Escalade and got in. Jack drove thirty minutes to the University of Maryland to pick up two girls named Betsy and Tracy.
Betsy and Tracy were dressed in low-cut skirts and halter-tops. One skirt, which Betsy was wearing, was embroidered in a magenta color. The other one Betsy was wearing was a skirt embroidered in lavender. Betsy had red hair with gray eye shadow on and mauve lipstick. Tracy had strawberry-blond hair, black mascara, and cranberry lipstick on.
The girls were standing outside smiling and giggling. Jack waved to them. Phil got out of the car and lets them both sit in the back.
“Hey Jack. This is your roommate Phil?”
Phil turned behind and shook the two girl’s hands.
“Yeah. Hi. I am Phil.”
One of the girls was staring at Jack and talking to him, while Betsy was staring at Philip.
Betsy asked Philip.
“So, when was the last time you’ve been out on a night with Jack?”
“In Cancun.”
“That must have been fabulous. I would love to go with you to Cancun.”
“But you don’t even know me.”
“Who cares about that?”
Philip looked nervously around him in the car.
Jack is so rich he had his own driver set up by his father. His father did this because when Jack went out he would get so wasted that he couldn’t drive and his Father did not want him to get charged with DUI. In college Jack would get pulled over by cops for speeding and some nights especially New Years Jack got so drunk, he called Philip to drive him home. If Annapolis had known how many times he had been drunk, he could have been expelled from the college. They arrive at the restaurant called The Chesapeake Bay. Philip and Jack held the door for Betsy and Tracy while they stepped out of the car in their high heels on the street outside.
Jack puts his arms around Betsy and Tracy. Betsy put her arm around Philip.
Philip pushed away from Betsy. Betsy tries to ignore Philip’s rudeness.
One by one, Jack, Philip, Betsy, and Tracy walked into the restaurant. The hostess asked them,
“How many?”
“Four please.” Jack replied. The waitress shows the foursome to a booth.
Betsy sat next to Philip and Tracy sat next to Jack.
Betsy was giving Philip the elevator stare, looking him up and down.
“So, who was the last girl you dated?” Betsy asks.
“Oh yeah, we don’t have to talk about that,” insists Philip.
“Why what happened?” Betsy looked over at Jack curiously.
“It was his high school sweetheart, Veronica,” explains, Jack.
Philip stared at Jack insistently trying to convince him to stop speaking.
“Jack, we don’t need to talk about it,” demands Philip.
The waiter comes over. She is tall with long dark brown hair and blue eyes. She is wearing a jean skirt and a tee shirt that says The Chesapeake Bay Restaurant.
“So what will everyone be drinking?” The waitress asks.
“I’ll have a Bud Light.”
“I’ll have the same.”
“I’ll have a Margarita.”
“I’ll have a Bud Light.”
Jack and Tracy started talking directly.
Betsy looks over at Philip with a pleasant smile. Then she looks at him again in a seductive manner thinking that she can get seduce him with her eyes and words. Little did she know that Philip possessed a strong sense of self-control and was not the type of guy to sleep with someone he just met. Philip is interested in a woman who had a great amount of self-worth and respect for herself. Philip despised women who try to seduce men and make them their slaves.
Philip wanted a nice wholesome woman to marry and who had physical and inner beauty. A girl with intelligence and the desire to help improve the world and to inspire others.
He grew tired of seeing his friends fall for girl’s whose main focus of a Friday night was to get drunk and spend the night with someone who had no respect for them, and/or they didn’t know very well. He didn’t respect girls who had one-night stands. He knew he was selective of girls, but he saw nothing wrong with that. Jack would berate him for having such high standards when it came to women, and laughed at him in a judgmental way, when girls he desired, failed to meet his expectations. Betsy asked sounding concerned,
“So that girl really hurt you?”
“Yeah, but life goes on. She was going to the University of Virginia, and I came here. We went our separate ways.”
Betsy stares at Philip in an erogenous way checking him out rubbing the collar on his shirt.
“You must get very lonely.”
“Oh, I am fine really. I keep myself occupied. I work hard in school, play football, and I am in a band.”
“Oh yeah? What do you play?” She asked curiously.
“No, I sing. I play a little guitar.”
Philip stares at Betsy, who he just noticed has striking blue eyes and fine auburn hair.
The waitress comes out with their drinks and hands them over. The waitress is very attractive and has dark-brown hair and blue eyes.
“One Bud-Light.”
“Thank-you.”
“One Bud-Light. One Margarita. And another Bud-Light. Will that be all?”
“Yeah just the drinks. Thanks.” Jack replies and smiles at the waitress checking her out.
“What kind of music do you like?”
“Blue grass, like Jamie Cullum. I like Dave Matthews, Moby, Sting, U2.”
“I went last night with Tracy to see Train. It was awesome.
It was out near Smith Beach in Virginia. Would you like to go somewhere with me tonight?”
“Like where?”
“To this party my friend Sophie is having. It’s right next to the Chesapeake bay. We could get to know one another better.”
“In just one night?”
Philip looks at Betsy in a disdainful manner, releasing a look of judgment and disapproval.
“Look Betsy I don’t know you and from what I see, you are looking pretty trashy tonight. I am looking for a good girl that I can bring home to Momma. Not some tramp like you.”
Betsy becomes infuriated at Philip.
“Good luck with the ladies. You’re going to need it. You loser!” yells Betsy.
Betsy then pours her beer all over Philip. Philip is shocked. He sighs.
“Oh crap!” yells Philip.
Everyone in the restaurant is staring at Betsy and Philip appalled. Even the waiters, waitresses, and owner take notice.
Jack comes over to Phil with a smirk on his face.
“Looks like you brought this on yourself,” says Jack, laughing at Philip.
Phil is covered in beer and wet from his stained and soaked shirt down to his pants. Philip tries to keep his composure from getting mad and making a more of a scene.
Jack and Tracy stare over at Philip.
“C’mon Jack, let’s go. That guy is a loser for calling me a tramp. Who does he think he is? What a wasteful effort! I can’t believe he was so rude! I’d rather have you around,” says Betsy.
Betsy puts her arm around Jack.
Jack went over to Philip. Betsy eyed Philip like the bubonic plague.
“Man, what did you do?” asks Jack.
“I want to have a relationship Jack. Not a one-night stand!” yells Philip.
“You are so pathetic!”
Jack sighs frustratingly. “We’ll take you home.”
Betsy and Tracy are laughing hysterically in the car because they are drunk.
Jack drops off Philip near the dorm around the Navy Football Field. Then Jack cruises on out of the campus in his Escalade.
Philip went back to his dorm covered in beer wiping it off with a towel. He couldn’t believe the ass he made of himself. Why had he mistreated Tracy?
Sure, she was coming on to him, but he made himself looks ridiculous in the process. Jack suddenly enters the dorm the next morning looking dishelmed and wasted.
His mouth smelled of beer, his pupils were dilated, and he had circles underneath his eyelids.
His hair was messy, and his clothes had lipstick smears on them. Jack walked. Suddenly, he fell down on his back. He hardly felt the fall from being so drunk and wasted. Then he regained his composure, stood up and said,
“Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder. You missed a good time last night. Man, what the hell were you thinking?”
Jack, a young man who possessed a remarkable faculty of recuperation from the effects of drink, had waked from his sleep, and remembering his engagement, had exerted himself to overcome the ravages of last night’s debauchery.
“Dude you look awful,” says Philip.
“Yeah so what? I had more fun Phil than you’ve ever had in your life. Now back to that hottie Betsy. Man, what were you thinking?”
“I didn’t even know that girl Jack.”
“She goes to school with my friend at Maryland. Why did you have to call her a whore?”
“Did you see what she was wearing? She looked like she worked for the escort service,” says Philip.
“So, what man? She looked hot.”
“Look man you’re not getting it. I am looking for something that will last more than one night.”
“But you’re young and in college. Who needs to worry about that now?” Jack asks.
“Dude, look it’s my choice,” insists Philip.
“Okay man it’s your loss. You’re
man. Very few people in the world think that way and if they do and they’re men, they’re tulips.”
Philip asks demandingly.
“Are you calling me a tulip?” asks Philip.
“I am sorry man; it just sounds really pathetic.”
“Man, I should box you out right now. You wanna go?”
“I am just being honest Phil.”
“Fine it’s okay. I don’t care about fighting you. I only fight when it’s necessary.”
“Your loss to show you can box me out. You haven’t cracked a good joke since the millennium.”
Jack smiles at Philip. Philip gives Jack a rude look.
“I’ll break you jerk if you don’t shut up.”
“Yeah. I’d love to see you try.”
“Remember Jack, muscle weighs more than fat,” insists Philip.
“Shut up before I kick the crap out of ya.”
Philip rushes over to Jack and pushes him. Jack falls off the chair.
“Nice one. Try that again and you’ll be sent to the hospital.” Jack turns on the TV and sits down on the love seat. He flipped the remote to a MSNBC channel to see a stock closing. Jack had a tenacious memory for financial details. He wanted to be a stockbroker on Wall Street.
Jack is really a good at math and science. He knew how to size up situations in his social life. He was street smart and people smart. His older brother was a graduate of USC and was the same as Jack. With Jack, everything was a game or scheme to get money or girls, or power.
Jack was what you called a taker. He felt like he could subdue everyone around him to his charm and his charisma.
What people couldn’t always see was that Jack didn’t let himself get emotional or attached to anyone that came into his life. He knew that if he got emotional, he would lose in the end.
“Yes man GE is climbing. I knew my Dad was right. Yes. Hey, Phil, do you play the stocks?”
“Yes, not as much as you but now and then I am a risk taker.”
“Listen Phil at all times you must be a risk taker. People are making millions every day. There are big opportunities when it comes to chances. I mean life is all about chances. Chances which you cannot pass up or ignore.”
“Yeah well Jack if I feel there’s something worthwhile to come out of any. I’ll let you know.”
“Dude, I know. I spent my whole life taking chances on women, tests, you name it.”
“I am sure that you did.”
“Sure, sometimes it got me in trouble with my parents and maybe the law but then you just move on,” replies Jack.
“You got in trouble with the law? You never told me that story?” asks Philip.
“Oh, it was this girl, I committed criminal mischief on,” says Jack.
“What did you do?” asks Philip.
“I trespassed into her yard threw a garter snake into her yard and scared her,” replies Jack.
“Why the hell would you do that?” asks Philip.
“Because. It was hilarious. You should have seen the look on her face. Priceless,” says Jack.
“That is cruel.”
“Yeah. So is life though.”
Philip can’t believe Jack’s response. He sounded like a sadist.
“So, are you scared to be a risk taker all the time?” asks Jack.
“No. Why?” asks Philip.
“Cause I have hopes for you this year man; that girls are gonna be coming after you and you have to take chances with them. Like that night in Cancun, you told me about. You got drunk and almost scored. I mean you’re young. Why not indulge and consent to a life of wild nights and pure pleasure?” asks Jack.
“Why did you go in the Navy if all you care about is partying and girls?”
“I wanted a free education man.”
“So, you have money. You could get accepted anywhere.”
“Yeah but I can pick up more girls being in the Navy.”
“But you want to be a trader?”
“After I’m a navy guy. I want to make money first things first.”
Jack seemed obsessed too with earning a six-dollar figure, driving an Escapade and living in a colonial home in an upscale neighborhood just like the one he grew up in back in Newport, Virginia. He didn’t care about helping the world or finding a love. Everything was a game to him. He loved also being a risk taker. The bigger the risk the more fun. He took risks with partying and women. It didn’t matter the damage it did to others around him.
Philip stared at Jack incredulously. Jack was such a narcissist. Is this what the next three years would be like? Having to listen to him and his sexual escapades? His nights of recklessness and debauchery. Jumping off balconies, and partying.
Why did he join the Navy? Just to get women? That wasn’t a useful answer. No, he deserved someone better. Jack was fun though and had introduced him to a whole new world of using machoism to get what he wanted out of life. Philip used to want to be like him. He would sleep with girls like Jack and party. Now this year around he was in need of a new role model and way of life.
“You pick the night, and we’ll go.”
“Last night was your chance. Last night was the night for you to unleash that little animal in you and you blew it,” remarks Jack.
“Whatever. I don’t see that as a loss,” replies Philip.
Philip went to sleep while Jack has the TV on and is watching the business channel where the focus is on Money and Stocks. Jack wanted to be a trader for a man out in Miami. At Annapolis, Jack gambled. Jack and his older brother would go to casinos in Las Vegas.
Jack is very smart mathematically. He could do math problems in his head. Jack loved placing bets with his friends. One of Jack’s friends had to grow a beard for losing a bet. Jack would go with his friends to Saratoga Racetrack and the Kentucky Derby and bet on horses. Jack was a very confident, charming, supercilious, and competitive, young man in that he knew how to get what he wanted; at the rate and pace he desired.
