Chapter 02

Pat’s Freshman Year

The first day of college is organised mayhem, just like it is at every educational facility around the world on the first day of the year. But Pat has no problems because he’s already been all over the campus several times to plan where he’ll park and how he’ll move from class to class, as well as to the other locations he needs to visit, like the cafeterias.

He already has all of his text books for those classes with set books, so he only has to wait for the course notes for the two classes where the teacher hands out notes instead of assigning text books.

Pat’s first lecture is in a huge lecture room with hundreds of other students and the room looks only a bit over half full. Most students walk up the stairs to the upper level to enter the room from the doors in the back so they can sit near the back of the room; however, Pat enters the room from the lower level to sit in the front row. One other student sits in the front row with Pat, and her guide-dog sits at her feet.

The lecturer and two assistants walk into the room from a door at the back of the low stage. They go to a large desk against the wall on one side of the stage, put down the baskets they’re carrying, turn equipment on, and the lecturer clips a microphone unit on her ear while an assistant passes the belt of the power pack and transmitter around her waist. The other assistant is busy stacking papers on the side of the desk. They look ready but stand and talk for a moment while the last of the students enter the lecture hall and take their seats. The lecturer says something to the assistants who then pick up a stack of papers each before they move down the four steps to leave the stage.

Turning to the students the lecturer switches on the radio unit at her waist and says, “Good morning. I’m Professor Darling and this is the first lecture for... , “ she goes on to name the subject and set out all of the administrative details for the semester while the assistants hand out the printed course outline. The process takes several minutes before the actual lecture starts. Pat is surprised there’s no attempt to check the roll. After handing out the course outlines the two assistants quietly pack up their things and leave. Five minutes before the end of the ninety minute lecture Professor Darling gives them their first homework assignment to be completed and emailed to her by the start of next week’s lecture.

When she turns the radio unit off Pat asks, “Excuse me, Ma’am, but don’t you need to list who attended the lecture?”

She grins as she says, “Your student identity card has a chip in it, so does your student charge card. All of the doors have recorders on them to pick up the information on the chips as well as count the number of bodies in the door. That’s sufficient for the records, in most cases. If the number of the chip counts doesn’t match the number of bodies on a regular basis or they’re out by more than a couple in the count we’ll do extra checks. However, it’s not our responsibility to see you learn, that’s the student’s responsibility. Our job is to present the material in the best way possible for you to learn it and then to test you in assignments and exams to see if you’ve bothered to put in the effort to learn it. Why the concern? And why the seat at the front, I’m not used to seeing any students sitting there, except for special needs students like Miss Mathis.”

Pat smiles as he says, “This is the first time I’ve sat in a class where they didn’t take the roll at the start so I asked about it. I sit at the front because I’m here to hear what you have to say as that’ll help me to know and understand the subject better. A friend advised me against sitting at the back because the snoring from all of the party animals will interfere with hearing the lecture. Also, I’ve got lots of room to spread out down here. Nor do I have to get up to let people by due to the extra walking space in front of the stage.” Both the professor and the other student at the front laugh at the reasoning in his reply.

When Pat reaches the door he holds it open while saying, “I’ve got the door open, Miss Mathis. So you don’t need to search for it.”

She smiles as she says, “Thank you. I’m Laura, Mister...”

“Nolan, Pat Nolan. We should compare schedules. If we’ve many of the same classes I can help you moving between the buildings from class to class. I know you can manage well because you got here today. But I can help give you extra warning of anything unusual in the way.”

“Thank you, Pat. I’ve now got a class in Room One Twenty-five.”

“Sounds like we got the same admissions clerk, so do I.” On the walk from the lecture hall to the classrooms in the building they talk about what subjects and classrooms they have at what times. Their schedules are the same so they also make arrangements to lunch together on the days they have the same classes before and after lunch.

The first lecture sets the tone for the whole semester and the rest of Pat’s time at the college. For some reason unknown to Pat his schedule for the second semester, and later years, doesn’t match Laura’s again. He thinks the extra classes he does between the semesters pushes their schedules out of synchronisation, but he’s not sure. Although he does see her on the campus during the later semesters.

Pat studies hard and he does well in all of his exams. However, he does have to amend his study plan when he finds a couple of the courses are harder than he expected. The result is he ends up having to cut back on some of his business studies so he gets a minor instead of another major with his degree, as was his original plan. It doesn’t affect possible future work but it does remind him plans and real life don’t always mesh the way you want them to. It also frees up a little more of his time for other studies.

During his years at college there are no real surprises or troubles with his studies or his classes. However, the same can’t be said for life events outside of the classrooms at the college or at his residence or his time out and about the town. Some of them leave Pat wondering if he’s a magnet or a catalyst for the types of events he gets involved in.

College Capers

Although they didn’t bother Pat at high school he did see enough of the obnoxious behaviour by the school football players to not like many of them. Most were good guys, but there were enough trouble makers to make many students keep away from all of the football players. Like in high school the top athletes at the college are at the top of the student social structure, especially the football players. But one good aspect of the college teams is the fact most of the athletes are on sports scholarships of one level or another. Also, the teams are tightly scheduled in regards to their training and games as well as them having their own dorms and cafeterias. For the most part the only times the athletes interact with the other students is in the classes, at which times they’re usually too busy for the few troublemakers to cause much trouble for anyone. Another factor is the colleges work hard to weed out real trouble makers because a negative image impacts on college status, enrolments, and revenues.

This means the troubles from the athletes is usually related to what they do to relax and not with general bullying activities of the type that happen in high school. This is good, but the down side is the bully types who don’t make the college teams then do end up in college are put in the general student population, and they’re very unhappy about not getting a scholarship to be on the team. Most are soon taught the error of their ways and they change their behaviour, but some don’t adjust their behaviour at all. Add in the run of the mill bullies and you have a small group of bullies and bigots within any student population. Like such people the world over they tend to cluster into groups and they move around the campus in packs of trouble makers. There aren’t many at the college, but there are enough to be a problem to some students. Pat has some issues with such packs.

Thursday of the first week at college Pat walks into the cafeteria, gets his lunch, and turns to find a seat. The sixth table down on the left has a group of students who look to be of Hispanic descent sitting at it. At the end of the table is a large student who’s placing his tray on the table with his left hand while he waves his right hand out wide when he says, “You dirty Mexican illegals can go somewhere else as this table is for us citizens.” Standing a bit back from him are three other large students.

Pat grins while he walks down between the tables. He passes the three smirking students watching their leader harass the other students. Pat has his tray in his right hand while walking. When he’s half a pace from the bully Pat reaches out with his left hand, grabs the bully’s belt, and he heaves back as hard as he can. The bully isn’t expecting anything, thus it’s easy for Pat to pull him backward. Because of how Pat pulls him the bully lands on his arse and slides a few feet along the floor. All of the other students in the cafeteria are watching the confrontation and they laugh at the bully sliding along the floor while Pat stands beside the table as he asks, in Spanish, “May I sit here with you?” One of the students at the table glances at the others, sees no objections, looks at Pat, and nods yes. So Pat puts his tray down and he moves to sit down.

The bully is up off the floor and heading for the table again when one of the campus security staff arrives at the table. A few words are exchanged, then the bully grabs his tray before stomping off to another table. Pat sits down and he starts on his hot roast pork lunch.

One of the other students further down the table says, almost as if a question, “Señor Nolan.”

Pat looks at her and responds, “Rosa Anna Maria Sanchez, so this is where you’re hiding. How many times do I have to tell you to call me Pat? And how are your studies going?” The other students are now turning to look from Pat to Rosa and back again. Rosa is a Junior this year and is well known to them from the previous two years there. The fact she knows Pat is making them happier to let him sit with them.

“Señor Nolan, you know my father will be upset if I don’t show you the proper respect. You’re our Patrón, so I must address you properly.”

Pat sighs as this is a problem he’s had with a lot of the local farmers and he’s not been able to get anywhere with them over it. He says, “I’ve only been your landlord for a bit over a year while you’ve known me for several years.”

“True, you’ve been our landlord since your grandfather died. But you’ve been our Patrón since you were ten years old, Señor Nolan.”

“Rosa, although your father won’t believe it, I do not walk on water, I need a boat or a bridge to cross water.”

She laughs as she replies, “He knows that, Señor. He thinks you fly over it. Just like any other angel flies over things.” Pat half frowns so she adds, “Have you not heard what your nickname is in our community?” Pat shakes his head no. “Many were calling you ‘The Little Angel of Death’ after the fight at Maria’s and the shooting on the road. But after Señorita Santiago told us of you rescuing her most now call you ‘The Little Angel’ because you do so much for our people. That is why we see you as our Patrón, and have since you saved Señorita Santiago.”

“I didn’t know of the nickname, but that does help explain how a lot of the people react to me. Thank you for telling me. Give my regards to your family when you next talk to them.” She seems a bit hesitant to reply to that so he asks, “What’s wrong, Rosa?” She’s reluctant so he frowns at her as he says, “I asked what the problem is! Tell me!“

Rosa sighs and says, “Some of the subjects had extra costs we didn’t know about until I went to pay the fees this year. The fees and books are a lot more than what we budgeted for and father doesn’t have any more money to give me. So I make do by not phoning home, I live in a very cheap trailer, and I don’t eat much. I’m getting by, but only just.”

Pat gets out some of his business cards and hands one to each of those at the table as he says, “If any of you have a problem please call me. I’ll help you if I can, or I’ll find someone who can help you. The least I can do is to listen to your tale of woe.” He looks at Rosa, “Tonight I’ll look at where you’re staying and talk to your father. He should have called me or Mia. What time is your last class today over, and where is it?”

“Three o’clock, Señor Nolan,” and she names a building and room.

“Good. My last class today is in the same building and it finishes at the same time. I’ll see you in front of the building after class.” Rosa gulps as she nods her acceptance of this order from her Patrón before she introduces him to all of the others at the table.

After his last class Pat walks out of the building to find Rosa waiting for him while talking with another girl from the lunch table. He waits for them to finish talking before he leads Rosa over to his motorcycle. Pat opens the pannier with the helmets, gets his out, puts it on, hands Rosa the spare helmet to wear, adjusts it for her, hands her a pair of gloves to wear, puts his gloves on, instructs her on where to sit, waits for her to sit on the bike, then he gets on, and tells her, “Move up close to my back, lean on me, hold on tight, and when I lean just go with me. Don’t try to lean, just stay with me.” When her arms go around him he starts the bike and he rides off a lot slower than he usually rides.

In just a few minutes Pat is stopping in front of the apartment garage to let Rosa off of the bike before he puts it away. After putting the helmets and gloves back in the pannier Pat runs his bag of books and gear up to the apartment before the two get into the Yukon to drive to where Rosa lives. It’s a little further away than the apartment so Pat asks, “How do you get to college each day, Rosa?”

“I ride a bike. I hope you’ll go back for it when we’re finished.”

The trailer park isn’t all that big, but it looks like it can do with some work. The trailer Rosa is renting is very small, very old, and clearly on its last legs. When she lets him into the trailer Pat takes a quick look around and asks, “Where’s the owner live? What’s the lease terms?”

“The owner is in the nice blue trailer two doors up the road toward the entrance. There is no lease. I pay on Saturday for the coming week.”

“Pack all your things in the Yukon. You’re moving.” Rosa starts to reply, but he waves her off as he says, “Get busy.” He turns and leaves.

A moment later Pat is knocking on the door of the owner’s trailer. A women in her mid-forties comes to the door and Pat asks, “Excuse me, Ma’am, do you rent the little trailer to Rosa?”

She replies, “Yes, I do. I should charge her more but she’s in such a bad situation. I was going to replace that old thing when she arrived to ask about cheap rentals. Why?”

“So it won’t be any hardship for you if she moves out, will it?”

“No. If she leaves I’ll go ahead with my plans to trash the little thing and buy a bigger one to rent out on that spot. I’ve four trailers here I rent out. Not a great income but I do OK. I can get a lot more for a big newer trailer than an old little one. That’s the one I lived in for years and I’d just moved into this when Rosa came around asking for a place to live. Why is she moving, and where to?”

Pat replies, “The college fees this year are a lot more than she or her family expected or can really afford. Rosa has managed by moving to the cheapest rental she could find and cutting down on food. I just started here this semester and I found out about it. I’m moving her to a spare room in the apartment I rent.” He hands over one of his cards as he adds, “This is my card with my numbers and address. Please send on any mail to her there. I’ll call her family tonight. I’m not happy they didn’t tell me about her problems.” The woman looks up with a frown. “Rosa is one of my people. Her family work a farm on my land. They know to talk to me about problems, but they didn’t. I’m not happy about that.”

“How would you have helped?”

“Paid the extra fees. I’ve got more money than I can spend, unless I waste it. Which isn’t my way. So I spend some helping my family and friends. Now I know about this I’ll take care of it.”

“It’s good to know Rosa has someone looking out for her. She’s paid up until the end of the week. All she needs to do is to move her things, give me the keys, and that’s it. There’s no deposit because she didn’t have enough money for one.”

Pat smiles as he says, “Thank you for looking after Rosa for the short time she was here. She’s loading her things in my car now, so I better go and help her.” The two shake hands and Pat leaves.

While Pat walks away the woman rings Mrs Warren to ask about Pat because she recognises the address and she knows her. After speaking to her the woman phones Rosa’s mother to talk about Pat, and is a little surprised about how happy Rosa’s mother is to have Rosa move in with Pat. After a few minutes she learns it’s OK because Pat is their Patrón and they know he won’t take advantage of her.

Fifteen minutes later all of Rosa’s things are in the Yukon and she’s handing the keys back to the owner. Rosa says, “Thank you for your help over the last few weeks. I couldn’t have managed without it. Now I have to explain things to my family.”

The woman smiles as she says, “I spoke with your mother while you were packing. She’s happier to have you under Mister Nolan’s direct care than having to live out here and ride your bike in each day.”

“That’s good. But I still have to tell them myself. Señor Nolan will look after me and they know he’ll protect me, just as he’s protected all who live on his land. God bless you and take care, Missus Jones.” The two hug then Rosa leaves to get in the car with Pat.

They return to the apartment to find Ann, Betty, Charlie, and Curtis all waiting to help Rosa move in. Pat parks in the drive, looks at the waiting group, gets out, faces Ann, and says, “Missus Jones knows you, the address, and rang you. Right?” He gets a nod of yes in reply. He just slowly shakes his head and they all get busy moving Rosa’s gear into the bedroom beside Pat’s. That way she has a bit of space from anyone else Ann allows Pat to sub-lease to. It only takes a few minutes for them to move Rosa into the room then Ann and Betty take Rosa off for a chat.

About half an hour later Pat drives Rosa over to collect her bike.

That night the call to Rosa’s family is long, a little heated, but all is soon smoothed over and everyone is now happy about Rosa’s situation.

During the next week the two settle into a simple routine for sharing the apartment. Each is responsible for cleaning up after themselves and Pat pays Ann to thoroughly clean the apartment once a week. Both Rosa and Pat take turns cooking the meals when both are at home for the evening meal while breakfast and lunch is up to each to get their own, also evening meals by themselves are a personal responsibility. Usually the one who doesn’t cook cleans up after the shared evening meal.

Exercise Exercise

The college has a policy about the use of the sporting facilities where the intercollegiate teams have first call on the best facilities for all their games and practice sessions, then the intramural teams have the next call on the majority of the facilities, with rentals in third place, and open student usage in fourth place. Some facilities are reserved for the games of the intercollegiate teams only, and the rest are either booked or have open session times. If there’s no specific booking or session they can be used by students without needing a booking. All of the indoor facilities are booked at all times, in one form or another, while many of the outdoor facilities are open for use by anyone because the only bookings are for teams or organised games. The area most used by students is the intramural field which is an ‘L’ shaped open field consisting of two areas of two hundred feet by four hundred feet placed at ninety degrees to each other with the end of one being an extension of the side of the other. When it’s not in use for intramural games students are often there for many types of exercise activities from flag football to running.

At nine o’clock of the first Saturday Pat and Rosa arrive at the field for some exercise. They park in the attached parking lot and they walk out onto the open field. Rosa isn’t too happy about being dragged along to get fit but Pat insists, so she’s there in shorts and t-shirt with jogging shoes while Pat is in his usual exercise gear of BDUs. He was raised to do everything at the ranch in BDUs so he keeps it up. They’re here at this time because there’s a walking club who meet here to do an hour of power walking around the field for exercise and Pat wants Rosa to join the club while he does his exercise routine before he does some running.

On the inside of the ‘L’ of the field is a building with restrooms and change rooms in it. Standing in front of the building is a group of fifteen or so students, mostly young women, and many have t-shirts saying they’re the college power walking club. What is surprising to Pat are the five women wearing a loose dress and hijab in the college colours. What is disturbing to Pat is a group of twenty or so young men in the Army Physical Fitness Uniform (APFU) of black shirt and shorts with ‘Army’ on them in gold lettering who are making rude anti-Arab comments to the young women. Pat isn’t happy with their behaviour.

Pat is a bit short when he says, “Rosa, join the walking club while I deal with the misfits.” She nods acceptance of his order as she moves toward the women while Pat heads directly for the young men. What neither sees are the two men in Army woodland pattern BDUs striding down the field from the parking lot about three hundred feet behind them. Both look angry while they walk across the field.

Pat is still about twenty feet from both groups when he barks out, “Attention.” The young men in the APFUs shut up and snap to attention at the same time as the two men look a little stunned at the volume and tone of Pat’s command. Quickly moving up to the men Pat stops about ten feet away and loudly says, “The Reserve Officer Training Corps is supposed to be teaching young people how to be officers and leaders. You men must be on your first day of ROTC because it’s clear you’re not even good enough to be bad officer candidates.” Pat moves around to be in front of the men so they can see him, at the same time the older of the two men in BDUs slows down while he puts his arm out to slow his companion down as they watch what’s happening. Pat is speaking loud enough they can clearly hear him from two hundred feet away.

Stopping directly in front of the middle of the group Pat says, “The key aspect of being a good officer is being a good leader, and to do that you need to have the respect of the troops you lead. You do not get that respect by the pinning on of a badge of rank, you earn it. Part of earning their respect is to show respect for all others. Your display of abusive remarks and rude comments while I walked up means you all have a very long way to go to learn what respect is. Now form into four ranks, drop to the ground, and we’ll do push-ups until your regular instructor arrives to take you in hand. That may work off your excess energy.” The men move about to form ranks and lie on the ground. Pat turns to the women they were making comments to and politely asks, “Will one of you ladies please help us by counting off the push-ups for me by giving the command ‘up,’ wait a moment, then the command ‘down,’ and give the count before the next ‘up’ command?”

One of the women in a hijab smiles, steps forward, and says, “Yes, Sir, I’ll be glad to do that for you,” with a strong emphasis on the ‘you.’

The woman waits for Pat to assume the right position before she says, “Up,” waits for a part second and says, “down,” then “one,” and repeats the sequence, and she keeps repeating it with the rising number.

The two men in BDUs smile as they slowly make their way over to the group. They wait until the count reaches twenty-five before the older one says, “Thank you, Miss. We’ll take over now.” She smiles and nods while he waves a hand and the man beside him wearing sergeant’s stripes takes over the commands and the count until he reaches fifty. At which point the older man says, “That’ll do for now, Sergeant.”

The sergeant nods yes and gives the command, “Stand up and fall in.” He takes over control of the exercise period for the ROTC students.

The older man turns to Pat and says, “Come with me,” then he leads Pat away from the group. Pat looks over to check on Rosa in the group of walkers moving around the field before he follows the man. The man says, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Pat glances at the man’s rank insignia on his shirt, snaps a salute, and says, “Captain Nolan of the Maverick Marauders, Major. I’m a student here at the college who came down to do some exercise and I found some of your troops behaving in an unacceptable manner.”

“I’ll come back to my cadets later. You’re a bit young to be a captain, and what’s this Maverick Marauders?”

With a big grin Pat says, “Well, when the commissioning board said I needed to have a rank they told me I was too smart to be an enlisted man, I didn’t make enough mistakes to be a lieutenant, and didn’t have enough experience to be a major or colonel, so they commissioned me as a captain. I argued against it, and I lost. The Maverick Marauders is a small group of private militia in Maverick County, Texas. The unit lives on a ranch on the Rio Grande where we have a lot of issues with armed drug smugglers entering the ranch. Most of the residents are retired military so they formed a militia, naming it for the county. When I was ten years old I started to live there with my grandfather and they started training me to be a good soldier. When I’d learnt all they could teach me they gave me a commission and they made me the commander of the militia.”

The Major smiles as he say, “Very interesting. I bet they immediately gave you all of the administration work to do.”

“Yes, they did. But I got them by immediately delegating it to them.”

The Major can’t help himself, he laughs. A moment later he settles down and says, “They’re right, you’re definitely captain material. No lieutenant would think of doing it that quickly. I guess they got you to wearing BDUs all the time.”

“Yes. For the first five years they had to be special made because I was so small. Now I’m large enough I can buy them ready made, Sir.”

“How old are you? And have you been in any combat situations with the drug smugglers of the types you say they were involved in?”

“I’m eighteen, Sir. I’ve been involved in five combat situations. The first few were when I was ten years old and the last was a year ago. After the first four events the smugglers kept away from us for a few years. In one early case I was unarmed when attacked by three men, but I was able to take the gun of the first man to shoot the others to kill them all. The other four involved me shooting the attackers, and two of them involved attending the funerals of friends who didn’t make it.”

“Damn! Why didn’t you sign up for ROTC?”

“Sir, I was advised by four Army sergeants, a Marine Gunnery Sergeant, and a Navy Chief Petty Officer not to sign up. They said I should check out the ROTC and maybe do some of the classes, but all of them had concerns on how I’d fit in with the regular military. They’re concerned over the fact I’m already fully trained in all they could teach me, plus my experience in combat with the drug smugglers. They all used to be Drill Instructors, at times, and they all agreed I’d easily pass the final tests for basic training as well as many of the speciality courses they’ve had experience with. The only training they could’ve given me, but didn’t, was parachuting because I was too young to get a permit to jump from a plane. But they did put me through the ground training they give for it. The four sergeants were Airborne men, Sir.”

“What unit?”

“The Five Oh Fourth Parachute Infantry Regiment of the Eighty-second Airborne Division. All were time expired career soldiers.”

“Right, Captain Nolan, I’d like your contact details and those of who I can speak to about you.” Pat gets out one of his cards, writes the details of the ranch and Bubba on its back, then hands it to the Major. The Major takes the card, smiles, nods to show he’s done, and turns to walk away.

Pat salutes him and moves over to a spot away from others to start his warm-up exercises, moves on to his regular general fitness exercises, then he jogs around the park for forty minutes to complete the ninety minutes of training he likes to do as often as he can; daily when possible.