BACK ON CAMPUS... Adjusting (Part 37c)

It was getting late and I knew we weren’t going to make it back in time for Joanne to help in milking the cows. I also knew it was useless to try and change her mind so we continued on our way. I don’t think she spoke a word the rest of the way back. When we arrived I drove up as close to the house as I could get. I figured she would make a mad dash for the door but she remained in the truck. I’d started unloading some of the apples onto the porch when I heard her father yelling from the milking barn wanting to know where Joanne was. At first I didn’t know what to do. I got along well with her mother but her father always seemed a bit distant. I went to the passenger door window and passed on the “message” to Joanne. I honestly thought that would motivate her to move, but it didn’t. Her father continued to call for her and finally I saw her mother headed our way.

I met her at the back of the truck and told her I thought that Joanne had an “accident” and was too embarrassed to get out of the truck with me there. She went up to the truck door while I continued to move more of the apples. I didn’t see Joanne get out but I did get a glimpse of her walking up to the house with her mother. Even though it was getting dark and Joanne’s coveralls were of dark denim I could see that her whole backside was even darker. Had it been anyone but Joanne I might’ve enjoyed the sight. But I was concerned about her psyche. She’d made such progress since I first met her and I could only hope that this wasn’t a setback.

Mrs T came back outside and asked me to stay for supper. She said it was the least she could do for me after having given up a whole afternoon. At first I thought it wasn’t a good idea, thinking that my staying would put more pressure on Joanne than she already had. But Mrs T persuaded me. She was good at that.

I ended up moving most of the apples down into the root cellar. Joanne never did go out to the milk barn. When I was finished I went into the house to wash my hands and Joanne was there in the kitchen, setting the table for supper. As soon as she saw me I could see her blush as she looked away from me. At that point I wished I’d said “no” but I was already committed.

I was almost as uncomfortable as Joanne when I followed her into the living room. When she saw me she started to turn away. I called her name, probably a little sterner than I should’ve. The look on her face told me that I’d gotten her attention. I really didn’t know what I was going to say. I remember telling her that what had happened, although embarrassing wasn’t “the end of the world” and that I fully understood just how she felt. As soon as I said it I wished I hadn’t. She immediately looked down. We were probably 10 to 12 feet apart at that point. I, more or less, knew that I’d made the situation worse but continued talking. Long story short... I ended up telling her about Elle’s “problem”. On the trip to the orchard I’d told her almost everything, but that, about Elle. My memory of it is that she didn’t believe me at first. The point I remember stressing was that Elle, in spite of her “problem” was living a fairly normal life and that she had let it "get to her". The first thing that Joanne said was something along the lines of “That’s terrible...”. I remember jumping on that and telling her that it wasn’t. I told her that people didn’t judge her on that but accepted it because she was such a nice person. People who cared about her (and I stressed that I certainly did) overlooked it and made their decisions about her based on other more important things. At that time I could see that she had relaxed a bit and continued on. I told her that what had happened in the truck didn’t change anything between us. I told her that it wasn’t her fault and she’d done nothing wrong.

She wasn’t ready to do a dance or anything but clearly she was more at ease with me. I think it was about then that her mother showed up and we joined her in the kitchen. Joanne hadn’t returned to the comfort level that we’d shared in the truck on the way to the orchard but I was satisfied that my talk had helped. I remember thinking that if and when I ever brought Elle to the farm I would have to make sure that Joanne didn’t bring up the subject of Elle’s “problem”.

The fact that I’d been working after classes and living at the racetrack those first few weeks of the semester meant that I really didn’t have a good “read” on the pledges to the fraternity. I’d heard that they really weren’t an impressive group at all. I’ll admit that having heard that I was pretty biased in my first observations of them. The fraternities on campus were put into general categories. There were the “jock” houses who focused on getting the athletes and a couple of “preppie” houses for those who were viewed as being elitist. There were also houses for the “nerds” (now called dorks) or “unibrains”, as we called them. The majority of the houses were considered to be “party” houses and mine fell into that category. What I didn’t realize at first was that after my class had been admitted there was a huge upheaval in the administration. The first thing that was done was to totally restructure the admissions procedure. At the time I applied the college was considered one of the best Liberal Arts schools in the East. Although academics was important, having well rounded students was given almost as much attention. But, starting with the class that was now in their Sophomore year (and were pledges) a whole lot more emphasis was put on academics. The pledge class that I was observing showed it. The group, as a whole, just didn’t seem to have any personality as compared to my class and the guys who were Seniors. We had “characters” galore. After watching the 25 or so pledges go through various hazing exercises I couldn’t find but two or three that left any sort of impression. The rest were sort of "faceless". There were a bunch of us who decided to really “ride” the group and hope that some would just drop out. At that time it was about 3 weeks until “Hell Week” (which included initiation) began. That was the beginning of “The Unholy Alliance”.

To be continued...