Chapter 4

Football practice started as soon as the fall semester started. The first day, I realized that working on the apartments was not the same as working out with weights. I was out of shape... in spades. It took me three weeks before I could say that I was getting back into shape. Getting back... not there yet. Every night it hurt just to lie in bed. In the morning I had to roll out of bed and pull myself up on the dresser. It seemed like it was ten miles from my bed to the bathroom. By the time that the first game was played I felt like I could whip a pack of tigers with ten lions thrown in for good measure. The first hit that I took in that game knocked half of that confidence out of me. We won the first game and all but one after that.

The first year went by fast. Between football, studies and working at the pizza place I had little time for myself. I think that I went out for a beer maybe four times all year. There was always some girl coming up to me on campus and gushing about how I was the greatest player on our team and how she thought that Arizona State would be in last place without me. Usually I would just thank them for their kind words, knowing that she was just blowing smoke, and hurried to class. A couple of times, when I was feeling really horny, I would take them back to my apartment for a quickie.

I just couldn't get into the typical college bullshit. I stayed away from all of the picketers that knew that the government was trying to exterminate everybody or whatever bullshit they were preaching this week. To me, college was preparing you for life after college... the working part of your life. I burned plenty of midnight oil. When the grades came out I did better than any other person on an athletic scholarship. I was very pleased with myself. I knew that companies didn't give a hoot about your best touchdown catch. They wanted to know what your grades were. It was hard to explain to a prospective employer how catching a pass would help you run a company. There were those good old boys that loved to hear how you won that big game, but when you were done talking they wanted to know how you were going to make money for the company.

When the school year was done I locked up the apartment house and my apartment and went back home. I slept for two days and then went to see Dan to see if he needed me for the summer. I waited for an hour before he walked into the office. I stared at him for a minute before I could speak. I really wasn't sure that it was Dan when I first saw him. He saw me and walked over and shook my hand with his boney hand. He let my hand go and motioned me into his office. He pointed to a chair and I sat down and looked at him. Dan looked like he had aged twenty years in the nine months since I had last seen him and he was only half the man that I knew as Dan Longren.

"How's it going kid? Are those cheerleaders taking good care of you?"

Dan's wife, Abby, walked into the office and began to pat me on the arm. She had always worked in the office on the books. She's the one that kept the company solvent. She made sure that they got paid on time and that the bonuses were paid to all of the men.

Abby would stand toe to toe with any of the other contractors and fight for the money that was due them.

Dan and Abby never had any kids. I don't know why and I would never ask. Lately it seemed like Dan ran the company more for the employees than for himself. The employees were well paid and Dan took ten percent of the profits every year and gave it to the employees at Christmas time. He distributed the bonuses according to how long that employee had been with the company. Each month that the employee had worked with the company was considered a share. He added up all of the months that the each employee had worked at the company and that was the total amount of shares to be distributed. As a quick example, if there were one thousand shares (months) in the company and an employee had worked for the company one hundred months he would get ten percent of the bonus pot.

I could see that Abby was worried about something and she kept looking at Dan. The concern on her face was heart breaking. She shoved some papers in front of him and told him that they needed to be signed. Dan pulled out a pen and began to sign each paper where she pointed. I could see that he was weak. When all of the papers were signed she smiled at me and left the office.

Dan leaned forward on the desk, "Damn, I'm sorry that you have to see me like this. They've been pumping one drug into me after another. Cancer. On top of that my doctor says that my heart isn't that great either. They have to go slow or my heart will get me first. I'm going to beat this though. Now how was your first year at college. I watched every one of your games. You were great."