Chapter 21: Alice talks, Sammy listens

At 9:14 a.m. on January the 27^th I was given a demerit when Mr. Krown caught me gazing out the window in Social Studies Class. It was the first one I had received since the first quarter and it was well deserved.

The guys in room 3 C were bullshit! "You went all last quarter without getting a single one and now you've got your head up your ass again," Craig yelled at me, making sure I could see the two stripes on his sleeve. "We're going to take up a petition to have you removed from this room."

"Quiet, Corporal Craig, He needs to study and so do you," Smitty said. But Craig continued his rant. Being promoted had really gone to his head. Also, he had gotten laid over the weekend and he wanted to tell everyone about that.

I deserved the demerit. I couldn't get the vision of Alice out of my head. She was with me every minute, even when I slept. Mr. Krown knew I hated Social Studies. He also knew that the C grade he gave me was the lowest one I received the second quarter. Alice was watching me through the window and I'll swear she winked at me just as Mr. Krown called my name. "Cadet Oldham, front and center."

The demerit could not have come at a worse time. I had vowed to apply myself in Mr. Krown's class and I had promised Smitty that I would bring my grade up to a B, at least. It was one thing to have my Social Studies instructor pissed off at me. Mr. Krown was also the head coach of the Junior Varsity and would probably coach spring football. Would he want me on his team? I knew the answer to that.

At 9:45, a few minutes before lights out, Dale received a message from Jordan Foster. "Oldham, you're in for it now. The Captain wants to see you," Dale said.

I got advice from everyone in the room about what to wear, how to report and what not to say. I disregarded everything they told me and knocked on Jordan's door wearing shorts and shower clogs. He was dressed the same as me. I stood at attention for five minutes before he turned from a white board and looked at me.

"What's gotten in to you Oldham?" His voice was low and even, like he was talking to a friend about some inconsequential matter.

"I had my head up my ass, Sir. It won't happen again."

His stare was long and direct. "Good," he said and turned to the giant white board he had been working at when I came in.

It's hard to do an about-face wearing shower clogs but I had turned about 170 degrees when Jordan said my name. "Oldham, what do you think of this?"

He pointed to the white board and stepped aside so I could see two columns of names. There were cross-outs and arrows from one column to the other. I got the general idea. The two columns represented the names of players on two teams. He was assigning us to the team we would play on during spring football. I saw my name in one column and Russell's on the other one. I must have shown my dissatisfaction.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Is that how you dividing us up?"

"This is the best way to make the teams equal in skill level. We considered picking two captains and letting them choose their players, but what if the captains don't have the same ability to analyze talent? That would favor one team over the other one from the beginning.

"I thought you were going to put Russell and me on the same team," I complained. That was all I could think of at the moment, splitting the talent equally didn't matter to me.

"What would you suggest?" He challenged me.

"Why not play the second floor against the third floor? Company B and C against D and E." I hadn't thought it through; this was off the top of my head but it assured that Russell and I would be on the same team.

"What would we do with Company A?" Jordan asked.

I thought about it. At least he was listening to me. If I fucked up now he would go back to the columns on the white board. "Take a look at the talent on both floors and even it out with the guys from Company A. The floor with the least number of returning varsity players gets first pick from Company A."

"Your idea may work. I'll take it up with the committee. You best get to bed,"

"Yes sir," I said and was doing another about-face when I heard him call my name again.

"Sam?"

"Yes sir."

"Not a word about this. We didn't have this talk, okay?"

"Yes sir," I said and turned without even trying to do a clean 180.

It was dark in the room and everyone else was in their bunks so I didn't get any questions about how much chewing out Jordan had given me. Craig was retelling the story about how he had seduced a girl from his home town. "She lives in back of me, but I've hardly ever talked to her before. She must have been impressed when she saw me in my uniform. Anyway, she said she going to be babysitting in the house across the street from my house and invited me to come over there after she got the kids to sleep."

"She saw you in your uniform?"

"Shut up Oldham," Craig said.

"She saw you in your uniform? When was this?" I repeated.

"I told you to shut your mouth so I can tell this," Craig yelled at me.

Dale interceded. "Let Oldham talk. When did this chick see you in your uniform? Was it last weekend?"

"Yeah, I took my uniform home so my mother could sew my new stripes on," Craig said.

"Something doesn't add up." It was Smitty. "Did this girl come over to your house while your mother was sewing on the stripes?"

"Not exactly," Craig said.

"He was strutting around in his backyard wearing the uniform so she would see him," I said, causing uproar of laughter.

We didn't hear the rest of the story. Craig became quiet and except for an occasional snicker, nothing more was said.

On Friday, Captain Foster's committee announced the spring football program. Agreements with Bancroft Preparatory School and Dearborn Military Academy had been made for C.M.A. to play home and away games with both schools. The spring football schedule would be announced soon. Nothing was mentioned about the makeup of teams at C.M.A.

That afternoon, we marched to the Speedwell School to celebrate the end of the second quarter. Our greatcoats had to be stored on tables set up in the auditorium outer lobby with our rubber boots on the floor, underneath the tables. It was my practice to ignore Paula at school dances and she had given up sending word that she wanted me to invite her to dance. But I often asked Margaret to dance with me. She was cute and always in a good spirits, but young and impressionable. I thought she relied on Paula too much for guidance. We kept our conversations light and cheery, never talking about the night at the cottage when she witnessed my sexual encounter with Paula. Margaret saved her prying question until the end of our dance. "Are you the only freshman that didn't get promoted?" I laughed, knowing it was not her question; it had Paula written all over it.

Charlie was eager to dance with Margaret. "Go ahead, you don't have to ask me for permission," I said and watched him cross the room, like he was going to be late for supper.

I told Russell about my meeting with Jordan. We agreed that two teams with equal talent would be far better than placing the most skilled players on a Varsity team and the rest of us on a Junior Varsity team. Russell congratulated me on my suggestion to match the second floor against the third, which would place us on the same team. It wouldn't be as much fun if we were on different teams.

Charlie came back from his dance with Margaret and announced that they were going on a date the following weekend. The thirty mile distance between their homes and the fact that his mother would have to drive didn't seem to faze him. "Our little boy is finally growing up," I said to Russell. Across the room Margaret was looking at me, beaming.

Alice was sad that she may have caused me to receive a demerit. I blamed myself for telling her about how it came about, seeing her face through the window. But I wanted to share something personal. What better than to show her how often I thought about her?

We were lying together on the couch, having gone through that awkward moment that happened every time we had been apart. During those first weeks Alice had second thoughts about what we were doing. It took a few minutes for her to set aside the difference in our ages. I somehow knew she needed some time to let her feelings to surface and let them overcome logic, the absurdity of caring for someone ten years younger. As time passed, crossing that society stimulated stigma became less difficult, but in the beginning it took patience on both of our parts to let the magnet that drew us together work.

"I almost didn't come today," Alice said when we took our seats on the couch, our jacket still zipped as we waited for the heat to raise the temperature in the cottage. The front door was unlatched and the tape player silent.

"Alice, I don't know what I would do if you didn't come today. This time with you means more to me than anything," I said, speaking from my heart. It didn't occur to me to ask what her reasons were. Selfishly, I was only thinking about my own need to be with her. "This is the only thing I look forward to," I added.

"I know Honey. Now that I'm here it's hard for me to think of not coming. Forget that I said anything. Let's enjoy our time together." As a demonstration of her sincerity, she unzipped her jacket and began talking about her week. She and her daughter had played in the snow and her brother was home for a few days. It struck me as strange that I didn't know she had a brother. I couldn't picture Alice as anyone's sister, not even to Jocey, whom I knew of. I didn't want her to be anyone's sister.