Chapter 46: Graduation

Thursday, May 26, 1977

I made sure I stayed visible whenever the pledges were around the house and didn’t travel anymore on weekends. Marilyn seemed to understand, and she spent a few weekends driving down to see me. I really didn’t mind, since she would often come down and spend time lounging around the pool in one of her little bikinis or the crocheted one piece. I watched one freshman as she sauntered up to the pool and undid the wrap around her hips and dropped it to the side; he was watching her instead of where he was going and walked straight into the pool. Marilyn blushed when she saw what an effect she had. I liked that effect.

Finally, it was graduation week, the week after finals. For the first time in I don’t know how long - years! - I didn’t have something to do. I could goof off totally! My classes were over. My dissertation was done. I had passed my orals. All I had to do was hang around the mostly empty frat house for another week. On Friday those of us in ROTC would be commissioned as either 2^nd Lieutenants or Ensigns, and on Saturday everybody would graduate. Marilyn came down as soon as her classes and finals ended and stayed with me for the entire week. After graduation, she would help me move to my advanced training school.

We had all gotten our orders a couple of weeks ago. A lot of the guys got deferred orders, like Joe. He would be commissioned along with me, but he was deferring his service until he got through grad school. Like before, he was heading to Wharton. All the rest of us were heading out to our specialization training. Bruno was going to Fort Belvoir in Virginia since he was going into the engineers. I was heading to Fort Sill in Oklahoma for artillery school.

I had a week’s leave following graduation to get to Sill, which we should be able to do in two or three days. As soon as Marilyn showed up, I went out and rented a panel van and we went down to the storage locker I was renting and emptied it out. Then we went back to Kegs and loaded up all the stuff I wouldn’t need over the next week, like my textbooks. Since Joe was going to be around, Marilyn and I moved across the hall to a room abandoned for the summer and camped out there.

That’s where we were Thursday afternoon, taking a nap. We had been swimming in the pool after lunch, and I had offered to help Marilyn dry off - all over!

“You just want to take my swimsuit off of me,” she countered.

I tried to look shocked. “Marilyn, how can you say that? You know the possible dangers of chafing! I’m just looking out for your best interests.”

“Why do I think you just want to get me naked and have sex all afternoon?”

“Marilyn, I am disturbed by this conversation. It’s not my fault if you can’t control your lusts when I’m around.”

“Bullshit!”

“Let’s go find out. I’ll dry you off and you try to control yourself.”

Marilyn giggled and took my hand and we scampered upstairs. I have to say, she tried to control herself, but ended up totally failing. First, I slowly peeled off her bikini, and then gently patted her down all over, before letting her lay back on the bedcovers. Then I brought out some hand lotion and applied it to all the areas that had been covered by the swimsuit, to make sure they were properly moisturized. This did seem to influence her libido, since she was moaning and writhing on the bed as I did this. Then I used some special moisturizer, the kind on my tongue, to reach deep inside and treat the deepest parts I could reach. That was when she simply lost her composure and demanded that I have sex with her!

Well, I am a gentleman, and Congress was going to recognize that fact in another 24 hours. I helped her out in this time of need. She pulled me on top of her and used her hands to spread her pussylips and guide my cock inside her. We huffed and puffed our way through a very noisy fuck. Afterwards, still not satisfied, Marilyn played with my cock until I was stiff again, and then I rolled her onto her stomach and crawled on top of her, straddling that plump little ass while I fucked her pussy from behind.

So, there we were, starting to nap, with Marilyn face down on the covers and me face up, when we heard a commotion in the hallway outside our room, on the landing. Then I heard, quite clearly, Joe Bradley tell somebody, “He’s right across the hallway. Just go on in, he’s probably got his headphones on.”

I didn’t have a chance to do a damn thing about it. I was just trying to sit up and grab for my pants when the door burst open and Suzie barged in, followed by my mother and father. Suzie’s eyes opened wide, and her jaw hit the floor. My mother just screamed and dragged my sister back out of the room. The door slammed shut, but I could hear Bradley laughing loudly across the hallway.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, BRADLEY!” I yelled as I climbed to my feet and grabbed my pants. He just laughed louder.

Marilyn had fallen asleep and was rolling over. “What’s going on?”

“My family just barged in and saw us lying here.”

Marilyn stared at me for a second as I pulled my pants on and pulled up the zipper. I damn near caught my dick in the zipper, which would have been a great way to culminate the afternoon. “You mean...”

“I mean, Suzie and my parents know all about that little mole in the small of your back,” I answered.

Marilyn just gabbled in panic at that, so I tossed her the sundress she had started out wearing this morning, and she scrambled to her feet and pulled it on. I grabbed a t-shirt and pulled it on. Out in the hallway, Dad was calming my mother down, and Joe was still laughing. “I am going to kill Joe,” I told Marilyn.

“I’ll help!”

We made ourselves as decent as possible in the little time we had, and I straightened out the bed clothes. Then I looked at Marilyn and shook my head in disbelief and opened the door to the landing. My family was staring at me with different expressions on their faces. Suzie was giggling and laughing at us. My father had a resigned and embarrassed look. And my mother was red faced and furious.

I remember that when our first daughter Alison was born, the nurse looked at her and then said, ‘She looks just like you.’, referring to me. All three of us kids take after Mom, quite strongly. Instead, Marilyn and I looked at our daughter, red faced and crying and yelling up a storm, and then we grinned at each other, and I replied, ‘No, she looks just like my mother!’

“Carling! How dare you!” She glanced at Marilyn and decided to not say much more, since that would be taking our troubles out of the house.

I just shook my head. “Hey, Mom, you barged in on us, not the other way around. We ain’t apologizing for anything.”

She huffed, “Well, I never!” and glanced at my father, who was trying to study the ceiling.

I couldn’t help it. I said, “Well, you had three kids, so I suspect you actually did.” That set Suzie to outright laughter and both my parents turned beet red. Marilyn punched me from behind.

Change the topic. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s your graduation! Where else would we be?” she answered.

I just stared at them for a few seconds. Yes, it was graduation, and I had invited Suzie to come up. The plan was for her to fly up and I would pick her up. Then we would bring her back when we drove down and drop her off in Lutherville. I was going to drive the panel van and Marilyn was going to drive my Impala. Then we would continue to Lawton, Oklahoma. Afterwards, once I was settled in, I would put Marilyn back on a plane to Albany, where she could catch a cab over to Kegs and pick up her car and go back to Utica. I had this all worked out with Dad.

Neither of us counted on Mom, who decided to come up anyway. I hadn’t seen her or Dad in two years, not since the first summer I did basic, and we went out to dinner that one night. Suzie had visited with Marilyn last summer, before our breakup, but I hadn’t seen her in a couple of years, either. I hadn’t seen Hamilton since I had busted his jaw three years ago. “We? Where’s Hamilton?” I asked.

“He couldn’t make it. He wasn’t feeling very good.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. I turned to Marilyn. “An old jaw injury, I bet.” Mom gasped, Suzie giggled, and Dad told me to settle down. I just rolled my eyes. “Where are you staying?” I asked. The original plan was to have Suzie stay in the frat house with us, in one of the empty rooms.

“We’re staying up in Glens Falls. It was the closest place with an empty room,” my father said.

I wasn’t surprised. There were at least two other graduations this weekend, and despite being the state capital and one of the largest cities in the state, Albany wouldn’t have enough hotel rooms available. At least 20,000 people had descended on the area. I just nodded. “Well, Suzie can stay here with us. That way you won’t all be crammed into one motel room.” Suzie looked relieved at that, although Mom was obviously worried about the influence a fraternity would have on her underage daughter. That was crazy, since Suzie was better behaved than I ever was, now or then!

“What are your plans?” I asked.

Dad answered, “We were planning on having dinner with you. Know anyplace we can get into?”

“Good luck with that,” I replied. “Listen, I have reservations at a couple of places, for tomorrow and Saturday, but you’re going to have to scrounge for breakfast and lunch. I was planning on feeding Suzie here at the house. I can make us all omelets for dinner.”

Mom looked like she wanted to protest. She obviously had visions of the great matriarch of the family going out to dinner but forget about a decent place tonight. Dad quickly agreed with this plan and said so.

“Great. You guys go downstairs, and we’ll get cleaned up. We’ll meet you downstairs in half an hour.” Mom glanced through the door to the bed we had been frolicking on, and then turned red, and turned around and headed downstairs, Dad and Suzie in her wake.

Marilyn and I grabbed our toilet kits and towels, and I opened the door to my old room. Joe was grinning broadly at us, so I flipped him off, and we went down the hallway to the bathroom, while he laughed behind us. We locked ourselves in the bathroom and took quick showers, but there wasn’t any romance involved. We had neither time nor inclination. I had shaved that morning, so afterwards we just wrapped the towels around ourselves and ran back to the room, and then put on clean clothes.

My family was waiting in the formal room. Mom was sitting primly in an armchair, hoping not to touch anything that might contaminate her, while my father and Suzie were wandering around looking at the portraits on the wall. My father looked at one, and when he saw us enter, he asked, “You were your fraternity president?”

I nodded. “Chancellor, but it’s the same thing.”

“Huh,” he said, nodding to himself.

“You had a dog?” asked Suzie. Trust her to focus on the important stuff.

I glanced at the portraits. In a couple of them Jefferson had been prominently displayed. Hell, he was smarter than most of us. “That’s Jefferson. He moved out last year, but yeah, we had a dog.”

“What happened to him?”

“One of the brothers adopted him when he moved out.” I headed towards the kitchen. “Hungry?”

Along the way we passed a few of the other graduating seniors, and I had to introduce them to my family. A couple of the guys started immediately hitting on Suzie. Well, she had grown up, a lot, since I had last seen her. Now she was Mom’s height, about 5’9”, a slim and leggy brunette who looked older than her not quite sixteen years.

“Hey, ever hear the phrase fifteen will get you twenty?” I asked. Dad chuckled, Suzie flirted, and Mom tried to shield her. The guys sloughed this off and followed us to the kitchen.

“What’s for dinner?” asked Bradley, coming in with them.

“Nothing for you!” responded Marilyn, shaking her fist at him.

“I’ll tell you later,” commented Joe to the other guys.

I just shook my head and smiled. “You guys hungry, too?” Everyone nodded and said they were hungry. “Okay, this is my last meal as the Master Chef. Tonight, we’re doing omelets. Go set a couple of tables and tell everybody to get their butts in gear and put in their orders.” I shooed my brethren out, as my family looked on mystified. I looked over at them. “I’m also one of the house cooks on Sundays, one of the better ones, if I do say so myself, and one of the house specialties is the famous Three Egg Omelet. Marilyn helps me, sometimes.”

“You cook?” exclaimed Suzie.

“The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach,” I misquoted.

“Is that what you were doing earlier? Cooking?” she giggled. Dad snorted and Mom stewed at that.

“Never you mind what we were doing!” Marilyn and I went into the pantry and dug out the eggs, milk, and some cheese and ham. By the time I had a couple of small pans on the stove and a small mixing bowl on the counter, Joe was back.

“I got orders for six omelets, and I couldn’t find everybody, so there might be more,” he told me.

“Great. In reward for that stunt earlier, you just got elected as the dishwasher. Congratulations!”

Joe just laughed at that. “So, who’s the Master Chef next year going to be?” he asked.

“Not sure, but I suspect Smitty gets the title. You have to admit, he makes a burgundy and mushroom chicken to die for! I stole his recipe.”

Dad asked what we were talking about, and the guys explained the Master Chef vote. He looked at me and said, quietly, “Fraternity president and head cook? It’s like I don’t know you at all.” What was there to say to him? He was right; he didn’t know me at all anymore. I just shrugged.

Suzie helped Marilyn, while my folks stood back and watched. They were both excellent cooks - I learned from the best! - and watched their eldest son whip up a bunch of omelets. Hamilton was hopeless in the kitchen. The cooking gene must have been recessive in his case. It was probably hiding behind the normal gene, itself damn near invisible.