Chapter 9

"So, Will, tell us about yourself," Roy Senior said to me, handing me a fresh cold one.

"Well, sir. I just graduated from UNC. I met Tess just recently, while caddying at your club, and that's how we got together."

"Yeah, well, Tess has told me that much. I mean, tell me about your plans. The stuff you're interested in. Your family. What's your father do?"

"He works for the Coca-Cola Company."

"Really? In Atlanta?"

"No, no. He's right near by, in the Raleigh area. He drives a truck. Delivering product to retailers."

"Hmmm. And you? What are you planning to do with your degree?"

"Well, sir, I plan to continue on, get a Masters. Become a college teacher. History teacher."

"Where are you enrolled? Are you going to continue at Chapel Hill?"

"I -- uh -- don't know yet, sir. Actually, I was planning to take a year off, get a job, accumulate some money for the graduate degree first. And I'm going to try to line up some scholarship aid, for grad school."

"But first, you're spending the summer driving around the country with Tess."

"Yes, sir."

"Tess says you make a great team."

"She's going to be a fine golfer, Mr. Henderson. Look at what she's done already."

"Call me Roy. She says you've helped her -- a lot."

"I don't know about that, sir, but I do try to take some of the pressures off. You know, like -- 'leave the driving to us.'"

"Uh-huh. And you're fucking her, too, aren't you?"

"Sir?"

"You heard me." He was right. I had heard him. I had just been hoping I hadn't heard him right. I was hoping nobody else had heard him, either. He wasn't being all that careful about keeping his voice down, and the other men, and Big Brother, there, Roy Junior, weren't that far removed from us.

"Uh. What makes you think -- uh -- that, sir?"

"Aren't you? Jesus Christ, boy, are you gonna deny it?"

"No, sir."

"Is that why she hired you to drive for her, and caddie for her? How long you been slipping her the meat, boy? You charge extra for that? The stud service?"

"How old is your daughter, sir?"

"Tess? She's 23. What's that got to do with anything?"

"She's 23, and a college graduate. Did you expect she was, maybe, still a virgin? What business is it of yours, who she's sleeping with?"

"Feisty little bastard, aren't you, boy?"

"I'm not feisty, nor little, nor a bastard," I told him, rapidly losing my cool. I'm a friend of your daughter's, invited, by her, to a family gathering."

"Oh, yes... And I'm not behaving like a gracious host. Is that your point?"

"You're behaving like a bully and a shit," I said. "I think I'll just be going, now."

"Hold up," Roy Senior said. "Sit down, Will. Please. You're right. I was out of line. Really... No, really, sit down a minute, drink your beer."

I sat down. But I was wary of the apology.

"When you're older, and you have a daughter of your own," Roy said, "you'll understand better where I'm coming from."

"I understand how a father feels about his daughter. I've got two sisters at home, younger than I am."

"All right. Maybe you -- kind of -- understand. I'm just saying, any father, he's gonna worry a little, about who's banging his daughter."

"She could do worse than me," I said. "She probably already has. Maybe my father drives a Coke truck for a living, but we're not exactly white trash."

"No no no!" Roy was abashed. "That's not what I was implying! Not at all!"

"Well, what the fuck were you implying then?" I asked him. A couple of our fellow loungers looked over my way. I was still hot. "Your 23-year-old daughter brings home a clean-shaven, disease-free grown-up college graduate for a cookout, and you start in with your offensive routine. What the hell am I supposed to think?"

Roy, Senior was pretty much defeated, now. I'd run him off his own reservation with nothing but a few harsh retorts.