Chapter 3

The house that Paul had been sharing with the four morons was too much for him to handle alone. Carl Johnson moved in with him, but that was still not quite enough. He offered a room to me, and after considering it a bit, I agreed. My lease was almost up on my apartment, so all I would lose would be access to the complex's swimming pool. The house was big enough for the three of us and at least one more. I used some of my furniture to replace worn out items in the house, and my dad came over to help repair things that had been let go. Carl said that he knew at least one other vet who needed a place to stay and we all decided that that would be it, no more roommates.

Carl had been in first Cavalry, Air Mobile, and had been US, a draftee. What I hadn't noticed at first meeting him was that a grenade had taken off his left leg below the knee. I had put the tourniquet on him that saved his life. The timeline told me that it had been a couple of months before my own injury, but I still had no memory of it. His recovery had been about the same amount of time as mine had been, but he needed a year of prep school to be accepted at Purdue so he was a freshman. He hadn't chosen a major yet, but was thinking along the lines of teaching math or science. The new guy, Dominic Sanchez, had been in the Third Marines. He was a short fireplug with a deep gravelly voice, a jarhead through and through. As an enlistee he had been kept after the conflict ended and was also a freshman. He was studying aeronautical technology with the intent to go into design. Paul was the leader of the house and was a year ahead of me.

I got along with these guys much better than I had been doing with the general population at Purdue. We had something in common that the rest of the student body couldn't identify with. When someone next door set off a cherry bomb in their yard I marveled at Dom's reflexes as he beat me getting behind the couch, even though he was farther away from it. I was glad these guys were my friends as they would not be good enemies. Playing fair was a concept left behind along with our innocence.

Moving did not get my girls out of their durance vile either, if anything it got more intense. We now had to meet at the field house three days a week to swim, and while my housemates were good about cleaning up, the girls did most of the general housework. Brenda also spent a lot of time with Paul and helped when I would allow it. Neither Carl nor Dom had steady girlfriends. Carl had no problem getting dates, while Dom was a little quieter in his social life. I noticed him giving Christine some long soulful looks in her bikini working outfit though. It had been two months since Christine's attack and both girls were shaping up rather well, I was already moving into maintenance workouts. Sometimes they would both share my bed, but most of the time they alternated. They were gaining confidence and it showed.