A DIFFERENT KIND OF SUMMER... Adapting (Part 45a)

I worked with the horses as long as I could, right through the Saturday night before I had to register on campus for my Summer courses. I left for home as soon as I woke up on Sunday and made it about mid afternoon. I stopped at the drug store to see Elle before going home. In my mind I had us going out that night but, in keeping with my incredible bad luck, found her not feeling well. In fact, she’d called one of the other girls to come in for her so I waited to take her home. Another thing I’d been going over in my mind on the trip home was what my parents would say to me, face to face, about my grades and Summer school. It didn’t take long to find out. I took Elle home and was talking with her when the phone rang. It was my mother telling me to come right home. That was not a good sign.

The long and short of it was that they were not very happy with me at all. I was told that, for me to go back to school in the Fall, I had to get at least a B in each of my Summer courses. As far as working was concerned I was told I could give it a try but if it interfered with my studying in any way it had to stop. It was surely a wake up call.

That night I stopped back at Elle’s house and found that the reason she wasn’t feeling well was that she had her period... again. She had it when I left and it was back again. It seemed like it was yesterday. Another disappointment.

Disappointment continued on Monday. One of the two Economics courses that I’d pre-registered for didn’t get enough people so it was canceled. That left me scrambling for another course that would be accepted by my college. I was meeting the fraternity brother (Van) who I was to live with after registration. He was also taking two courses and I got the idea to take one of them with him, knowing that the school had approved them. That was until he told me they were both Political Science courses which would do me no good. But he said he’d seen a couple of guys he recognized from school and that maybe they were taking courses that would fit my needs. We managed to track one of them down and one of the courses he was taking was an English course.

Common sense would have dictated that Psychology would now be my “minor” what with all the courses I’d completed. But I felt so betrayed by my advisor I had decided that I’d have two “minors”, Education and English. I could use the English course in that pursuit. The title of the course was Contemporary Drama and I had not a clue as to what it was about.

Back in the late 50’s there was a very popular TV personality by the name of Gary Moore. I had actually met him in person a few years before. It was a shock when I walked into my first class to see that the instructor was a dead ringer for him. It turned out that his personality was also similar, especially with his humor. But he was also a no nonsense type and had a definite plan. There were 18 of us with only three males. The instructor started off with attendance followed by assigned pairings. My “partner” was to be a girl named Rose. The idea behind the pairings, or teams, was that he felt we could get deeper into the subject matter if we were to constantly challenge each other. When we were asked a question in class we were to speak as one. It was certainly a different concept.

I hadn’t paid attention when attendance was taken so didn’t know which of the girls was Rose. They were all pretty much ordinary looking with one being quite short. We were given three booklets with each one being a different play. The first assignment was “Inherit the Wind”. We were let off early so we could find our new teammate and to get acquainted. Rose turned out to be the short one and seemed very nice. She was also very rich as her father was a big wine importer. They lived in the city in the Winter but had a Summer home about halfway from the campus to my house. That was where she was living while she attended Summer school. She appeared to be accepting of me and willing to work.

It was obvious that the Economics class was going to be mind numbingly boring. The instructor really didn’t want to be there and it showed. We were basically on our own. Fortunately, I saw that I would be able to use the text and hoped that it would work out.

Van, my fraternity brother and who I was now living with, had really been reamed out by his parents for getting kicked out of school when he got home. They took his car from him and made him go to work as a laborer, hoping that it would be a wake up call for him. I found out right after I caught up with him that he expected me to be his wheels for the Summer. As far as I could see nothing had changed with him. He was a party animal while at school and it appeared that, at least in that vein, nothing had changed. When I took off for the racetrack to look for work that first night he was very disappointed. He'd wanted to go out and I felt a little bad but I had to do what I had to do.

My disappointment barrage continued when, after arriving at the track, found that Benny, the trainer/driver who AJ had shipped his four horses to, wanted no part of me. Maybe I was expecting too much. Unfortunately, I didn’t respond to his snub very well. Bottom line was he wasn’t going to use me and wouldn’t give me any assistance in meeting people who might. I thought about getting in touch with AJ but decided it was probably better if I didn’t. There was nothing left to do but go back to Van’s house.

Van had found someone to take him out to party so I was basically alone. His father had to leave for work at 6am so went to bed around 9pm. So, while alone I got to thinking about the possibility of commuting from home. That way I’d get to see more of Elle. It made sense in that I wasn't going to be able to work with the horses and was only an hour and a half away. I decided to stick out the week and make a decision once I got home for the weekend.

To be continued...