Honing The Talent
B Pascal
Chapter 2
A Freshman Again
My parents both drove me here, mostly because, I think, my mother was having a hard time with sending her first-born off to college, where she wouldn’t see me for some months. The last couple of days before we left she looked like she was getting misty-eyed and trying to avoid breaking out in sobs.
As in everything else in this document, I make a point of obscuring names, locations, cities—anything that would possibly link back to me, for reasons I already mentioned. Call it paranoia, if you will, but you’ll have to humor me. The school that awaited me you would recognize immediately. I’m not giving anything away by telling you it’s in the Ivy League and located in the Northeast.
My dad rented a small U-Haul trailer to hold my stuff, and we drove here, all of us, including my kid sister, Mindy. I’m sure that was because they wanted her to start thinking seriously about college, too. The trip took the better part of a day before we finally turned in to the entrance to —————— University. There were students with clipboards posted there to direct cars to the dorms we had been assigned.
We found the dorm without too much trouble, and with four of us lugging boxes it took only a short time to unload everything. I had been assigned a roommate but apparently he hadn’t arrived yet. The dorm was coed, but men and women on different floors. My dad raised an eyebrow when he figured this out and muttered, “Didn’t have anything like this when I was in college.”
My room was halfway down the hall. There was a 3x5 card on the door with the names of the occupants. There were toilets and showers at one end of the hall, and a common room with couches and soda machines at the other.
When the last box had been stacked in the corner of the room my dad said, “Well, looks like you’re all set now, you just gotta put everything away. We should probably get going so we can find our motel and get something to eat.” He pulled me in for a hug, something he doesn’t do frequently. “We’re really proud of you, Tom. Try to give us a call every few days, let us know you’re still alive.”
My mother finally couldn’t hold it in anymore, and she threw her arms around me and wept.
It was a little embarrassing, but I’d seen some other guys here on the same floor going through the same thing with their parents. Finally, my father said, “Jane, we need to go. He’ll call soon.”
Reluctantly, she pulled herself away and walked out, looking back over her shoulder.
And that was that. I was alone, stuck here for the next few months. I don’t mean to sound like I wasn’t looking forward to this. This was my first choice school, and I was really excited about the next few years. The only thing that could have made it better was if Karen were here with me, but she was now thousands of miles away and I had no way to get in touch with her until she could send me her mailing address.
I sat on the bed and looked around, listening to the bustle from the rest of the floor as students got settled. These were all freshmen—higher classes would arrive in a few days—and we had various orientation activities scheduled for tomorrow and beyond.
I looked at my watch and saw that it was past dinner time. I was on the meal plan but I thought the dining hall wouldn’t be open yet, but I had to do something so I grabbed a jacket and went out to look for it.
I had a crude Xeroxed campus map and was able to get oriented without too much difficulty and, sure enough, it was closed and a sign said it would be open at seven the following morning.
Well, I’d probably miss the excitement of the doors opening because I wasn’t going to get up at seven no matter how good the breakfasts were.
So using the map I found what I thought was the business district and quickly located a coffee shop that was still serving, so burger and fries and a Coke and I was good till morning.
With only one quick look at the map I found my way back to the dorm which was now sounding like party central, with parents gone and students realizing that there was no one to tell them to keep it down. I found my room and the door was partially open, so I walked in.
He turned as I stepped in. “Hey, just a wild guess here, but you must be my new roommate.
I’m Larry Krugman. Just got in.”
“Larry, Tom Carter, nice to meet you.”
He was a bit shorter than me, and a little soft looking. He’d look better with perhaps a few of those extra pounds lost. Brown hair, a little long, but a pleasant looking fellow. I’d know more later, but he looked like there was intelligence hidden in there. I was assuming that, while he may have been a ’legacy’—a kid whose ancestors had attended the school—he also had a decent enough academic background to meet the minimum standards.
We spent a couple of minutes trading background info, interests, and so on. I noticed that he had only a small suitcase sitting on the other bed.
“Travelling kind of light, aren’t you? Is there more hidden out in the hall?”
“Nah, Ames will bring it down in the van tomorrow. I just brought a change of clothes and my favorite pillow.”
“Ames?” I asked. “Your... brother? What?”
“No, he works for the family. His given name is Fred, but we call him Ames. I think it’s because you’re not supposed to get too familiar with the help, so we were told as kids to call him
’Ames’.”
He saw me looking, trying to work it out in my head.
“Yeah, I come from money. I’m expected to continue the family tradition, part of which is going to —————— like my father and his father, then joining the family company.”
“Which is...?”
“Allied Electronics.”
Even I had heard of that. Money indeed. He could probably buy the school and have lots of money left over.
“I’m picking up a sense that you’re not completely on board with this life plan, Larry. Am I reading too much into this?”
“Let’s just say that I’m not yet fully invested in it. I’d like to see what my interests are after four years. I’ve gotten an inside look at what running the company does to people and it might not be the way I want to go. There’s a lot of bad decisions to make in the next four years, so I want to make as many of them as I can.”
“That’s the kind of ’can-do’ attitude I like to hear, Larry.”
“Sounds like some on the others on the floor are starting their bad decisions plan early.”
He was right. It was getting pretty raucous, shouting and too-loud music. The two of us went out to look, and a couple of the dorm rooms had the look of party central. There were bottles of alcohol visible, which I was pretty sure had been packed in among the schoolbooks, and a few guys already had a glazed look about them. Dorms normally had resident advisors—RA’s—to keep the hordes from going off the deep end, but it looked like they were not yet on duty.
We toured a couple of other floors, and they had a similar look. There were always a few party animals looking to push the boundaries. I was pretty sure the RA’s would clamp down pretty soon.
At least I hoped so, because the noise was going to make sleep a challenge.
By the time we got back to our floor the noise had calmed down a bit. Somebody had barfed in the doorway to a dorm room, and I saw at least one guy passed out in the hallway. They wouldn’t be able to keep that pace up for long and I expected a number of them wouldn’t last the semester.
I wondered if the female floors had similar excesses. I suddenly realized how tired I was. It wasn’t that late, but my eyelids felt like they had lead weights on them. I told Larry that I was going to try to get some sleep. I found some sheets and a blanket and had the bed made quickly.
My mother—and I wondered what crystal ball she had used to foresee this—had packed me a set of drugstore ear plugs, and with those in place, I could ignore most of the party down the hall.