Bryce

The Second Semester

Chapter 25 - Two Weeks

            Over the next two weeks, Bryce and Damon spent a great deal of time planning.  Spring break began after the last class on Friday, March 5, but that was going to be another busy day.  It almost seemed that the faculty engaged in a conspiracy to make certain there was a major exam on the day before something like this break.  As a matter of fact, that was true to some extent, although it was an individual decision, not a conspiracy.  Many faculty members got exasperated with the tendency of students to extend their breaks by taking off early, so they did purposely schedule an exam on the day before a break or holiday to prevent that.  Bryce had his mid-term exam in French scheduled for that day, and the rough draft of his term paper in History was to be turned in on that same day.  Damon also had an exam scheduled that day.  To make matters even worse, Sigma Alpha Tau scheduled a “spring break” party for that Friday evening.  More than one brother wondered what they had been thinking when they approved that schedule.

            Bryce learned that until his trip to Nebraska to visit the Winslow family at Thanksgiving and Christmas Damon had never been farther from his birthplace in Chicago than Clifton.  He decided to plan a spring break which would not only be enjoyable, and a change of pace from their ordinary location and activities, but also add to his partner’s experiences.  They talked it over extensively, with Damon initially reluctant to accept a vacation as a gift from his lover.  Bryce told him to get over it.  “I have money.  You know that.  Consider it community property.  Let’s enjoy it and not make a big deal out of it,” Bryce insisted.  After some thought, Damon gave in, but with the qualification that, in May, when the semester was over, Bryce would accompany him back to the projects in Chicago, even if only for a day.  After all, that would be extending Bryce’s experiences, wouldn’t it?  And so it was planned that, for spring break, the two would visit Puerto Rico.

            More immediately, Bryce completed the rough draft of his History paper.  The Church of England in the eighteenth century was in bad shape when considered from the spiritual perspective.  After the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, overthrowing the Catholic King James II, church matters became increasingly politicized.  The Test Act was strengthened, requiring reception of communion in the Church of England at least once each year as a test of loyalty needed to hold any public office, including a commission in the army, a license to practice law, or even admission to one of the universities.  England had at that time only the two universities founded during the Middle Ages, Oxford in the twelfth century and Cambridge in the thirteenth.  With the accession of the Hanoverians in 1714, the situation became even more politicized.  By law, the King had to be an Anglican in England, a Presbyterian in Scotland, and a Lutheran in Hanover.  Obviously, the theological differences among these denominations meant very little to the ruling class.  The only salient factor was that they were not Catholic.  In England, bishops were chosen for their political loyalty, without respect to any religious qualifications.  Religion became for many merely outward conformity to legal requirements.

            It was into this situation that John Wesley came, born in 1703, the fifteenth child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley.  His father, a clergyman of the Church of England, held rather puritanical views, many of which John inherited.  Wesley entered Oxford, which was then far from the center of intellectual life it had once been, or would become once more.  In 1727 he obtained his M.A., and was ordained.  Unlike most of his fellow students, Wesley led a simple and abstemious life, putting aside money to help the poor.  It was from his organized method of ordering his days that the term Methodist originated.  After two years as his father’s curate, he returned to Oxford for further study, where he joined with his brother Charles (1707-1788), George Whitefield (1714-1770), and others to form the Holy Club, the real beginning of the Evangelical movement.  In the later 1730s, the Wesley brothers visited Savannah, Georgia, coming into contact with some Moravian Brethren during a heavy storm on the voyage, who influenced John’s thinking as well.  The mission to Georgia was less than successful, but returning to England in 1738 he renewed his contacts with the Moravians, and began his preaching activities in London.  There, too, he organized the first of his “Methodist Societies” and began open air preaching, as he was excluded from the pulpits of the established churches.

            With a dynamic, charismatic style, Wesley appealed to the masses, who were neglected by the establishment.  He spent the remainder of his life technically a clergyman of the Church of England, but on the fringes of the establishment.  His concerns were the poor and neglected, including a strong stand against slavery and in favor of prison reform.  Wesley was a friend of John Newton (1725-1807), a former seaman on a slave ship who, after his conversion, wrote the well known hymn “Amazing Grace,” first published in 1779.  Unlike Whitefield, who adopted a Calvinist doctrine of predestination, the Wesleys insisted on the importance of free will and grace in their theology of salvation.  Even among those who disliked the emotionalism of his revivals, Wesley had a strong influence in strengthening the spiritual life and social awareness of the Church of England.  Only after his death in 1791 did many of his followers in England split from the establishment and form a separate denomination, although that division had already taken place in America.

            As Bryce’s paper was to be a comparison between Wesley and Samuel Johnson, he was especially aware of both differences and points of convergence between the two.  Wesley appealed to the masses on an emotional level, while Johnson’s influence was largely among the literate upper classes on an intellectual level.  But both were devout Christians, members of the established church, and concerned with social issues, such as the early efforts to abolish the slave trade.  For the first time in history, the Evangelical movement prohibited consumption of any kind of alcoholic beverage as a religious obligation, whereas Johnson was known to enjoy his wine.  It would not be until the following century that the Church of England experienced a general revival, but the seeds were laid by men such as Wesley and Johnson, each in his own fashion.

            In his French class, Bryce completed his studies leading up to his mid-term with the works of Émile Zola (1840-1902) and Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893).  Zola produced an extensive portrayal in twenty novels of two families, the Rougon (respectable middle class) and the Macquart (scoundrels), which are closely interrelated.  The setting is the Second Empire of Napoleon III, which, perhaps influenced by hindsight following the French defeat in 1870-71, is seen as a period of corruption.  Perhaps the best known novel is Nana, the ninth in the series, published in 1880, in which the title character rises from streetwalker to courtesan (if that’s a rise).  Zola is primarily remembered for his blazing newspaper article entitled “J’accuse,” published on the front page of the newspaper L’Aurore on 13 January 1898 in which he came to the defense of falsely convicted Captain Alfred Dreyfus, and accused the military establishment of protecting a well-born officer guilty of selling secrets to the enemy.  Dreyfus was chosen as the scapegoat because he was Jewish.

            Maupassant was greatly affected by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, in which he fought as a young man.  His first, and some say his best short story is “Boule de Suif” about a prostitute traveling in a coach with complacent middle class figures.  At their urging, she goes with a Prussian officer in order to obtain permission for the coach to proceed, but then all her fellow passengers avoid and despise her.  The theme is clearly the hypocrisy of the self-satisfied middle class.  His second novel, Bel Ami (1885), features the character George Duroy, a corrupt journalist (is that a redundancy?), whose name and novel have been taken over by a current producer of gay erotica.  Maupassant contacted syphilis while in his twenties, which later caused him severe mental problems and loss of vision, and contributed to his death.  He was quite a character, being an unrepentant pursuer of women and extremely anti-religious.  He also despised the Eiffel Tower, constructed for the celebration of the centenary of the French Revolution and opened in 1889.  Maupassant regularly dined in the restaurant on the first level.  When asked about this, he replied that it was the only place in Paris from which he could not see the tower.  By that time he was approaching the mental illness which caused him to spend the last two years of his life in a sanatorium.

            Bryce found that he did not care for either of these authors as persons, even while he could appreciate their talent as writers.  He was especially fond of the short story “Boule de Suif” which the class read.  However, there is only so much being dragged through the mire that one can put up with, especially as a healthy eighteen year old, so Bryce did the work required, but no more.  He hoped the twentieth century, to be covered after mid-term, would be a little more positive.

            Saturday, February 27, was a trash pick-up day for the fraternity.  Despite the fact that he had his history study group on Friday afternoon, and a party at Mike Sandoval’s fraternity that evening, Bryce loyally turned out at 7:00 Saturday morning, accompanied by an equally sleepy Damon.  It was still dark out at that hour, but the strip of highway leading to the airport was well lighted, so, while they might miss some smaller items, the guys would at least get all the larger bits of trash lining the road.  It was also cold as well as dark.  Although by the time they covered all the ground it had become light, it was still cold.  Picking up trash was not energetic enough to generate sufficient body heat to counteract Mother Nature.  Once the entire crew was back at the SAT house, they were warmed up with hot chocolate.

            Damon decided he needed to do some “homework” for his PE class in beginning swimming if they were going to the beaches of Puerto Rico during spring break, and besides, the pool in the fitness center would be warm.  Bryce was tempted to join him, but was just too tired to make the trek to the other side of campus.  Consequently, Damon took off, while Bryce settled in a comfortable chair, “just for a minute” before heading back to the dorm.  The next thing he knew, he was awakened by someone laughing nearby.  Where he was located was a nook in the fraternity library, hidden from the rest of the room by a good sized bookcase.  Slowly, Bryce became aware that two people were talking on the other side of that bookcase.  His attention was captured when his brain cleared sufficiently that he recognized the voices.  They were the voices of Cory Blaine and Harry Dwyer.  It had been Harry’s harsh cackle which passed for a laugh from him which had awakened Bryce.  The first thing Bryce could make out clearly was the end of a sentence.

            “... so you think that will do it?”  It was Harry speaking.

            “Yeah,” Cory replied.  “I think Curtis will be more than willing to cooperate when he sees what we have in store for him if he doesn’t.”

            “What’s taking so long?” Harry asked.

            “It’s detailed work putting the pieces together.  If I were better at this sort of thing it would move faster, but we’ll still have plenty of time.  By the time we get back from break, I should have everything ready to go.  Then it’s bye-bye Curtis.  And once he’s neutralized, we can cleanse the fraternity of the filth he’s let in.”

            In response, Harry cackled again.  “And I’ll be the next president.”

            “You got it, Harry.  It’s a shoo-in.”

            “That calls for a celebration,” Harry said.  “Let’s have a beer.”

            “Lead on,” Cory agreed, as Bryce heard the shuffling of feet as the two departed.

            Damn! Bryce thought.  Why couldn’t I have wakened a little earlier.  Then maybe I’d know what the hell they were talking about.  One thing’s for sure, they seem awfully confident.  I’d better go see Curtis.

            But Curtis had no more idea what the two dissidents could be working on than Bryce did.  They considered several possibilities, even speculating that the two evil partners were planning to kidnap Maddy, but the fragment of a conversation overheard by Bryce could fit so many scenarios that speculation was useless.  They just would have to keep alert for any clue, especially when they got back from spring break.

            On Sunday, Bryce and Damon went to the 11:00 Mass at St. Boniface as usual, and made contact with the Sandoval family.  By this time, it was a regular thing that Kyle Sandoval be accompanied by his girlfriend Kathy, and both the Sandovals and Kathy have given up protesting when Bryce insisted on paying when they went out for lunch afterwards.  Damon told them it did no good anyway.  This Sunday, Bryce wanted to talk with the Sandovals about the soup kitchen.  He and Damon would miss the next Sunday, and quite possibly the one after, as they would be away on their spring break.  Mike assured his friends he would be around.  His father once again took advantage of the break in the academic calendar to schedule his son for a full week of work at El Rincon Latino, he disgustedly reported.  Kyle added that, although his high school had spring break at the same time, he was no more fortunate in escaping the family business, so he would also be around, and actually grateful for the change of pace.

            “Are you suggesting that I’m boring?” Kathy teased her boyfriend.

            “Not you!  I was talking about work!  It wears me out,” Kyle protested.

            Mike grinned.  “I think Kyle gets as worn out when he’s with Kathy as he does working.”

            Bryce, Damon, and David erupted in laughter at that.  It took Kyle and Kathy a minute to grasp the implication.  They both turned bright red, and Kyle attacked his older brother.  Fortunately, they had completed their meal, and were in the parking lot at the time.  Isobel Sandoval once again had to call her sons to order, although Bryce was certain he noticed a smile on her face as she did.

            That same afternoon Bryce and Damon showed up as usual to help at the shelter house.  By then, Mike and Kyle had patched up any consequences of Mike’s teasing, and were working together efficiently.  Their experience at their family restaurant made them especially valuable volunteers at the soup kitchen.  Bryce had to tell his two young car watchers and Deacon Jeffers about his plans for the break as well.

            Malcolm told Bryce, “You’d better get back on that second Sunday.  That’s my birthday.  If you miss that, you’re fired as my boss.”

            “I didn’t know I was your boss, Malcolm,” Bryce said.

            “You pay me to watch your car every Sunday, don’t you?” Malcolm insisted.

            “Yeah,” Bryce admitted.

            “So, I do the work and you pay.  That makes you my boss,” the almost nine year old reasoned.

            “You win,” Bryce conceded.  “And we’ll definitely try to get back for your birthday.”

            On Monday, before French class, Marc Rimbault approached Bryce.  Bryce had not had much to say to Marc lately, as they seemed always to be going in opposite directions.  But with midterm coming up on Friday, Marc suggested a study session.  The French majors seemed to do their own thing, and did not invite others to join them, but in addition to Bryce and Marc, there were two other non-majors in the class.  They agreed to meet on Wednesday evening, as Bryce still had his English study group on Thursdays, and his History group on Friday afternoons.  Bryce wondered how Marc was getting along.  When they talked earlier in the semester, he seemed pretty much a loner, but now he was the organizing agent for this study session, and he seemed to know the other two non-majors pretty well.  Bryce concluded that his attention had been focused on Damon, the fraternity, and the GLBT Club to the extent that he had simply not been paying attention to the other students in this class.

            On Tuesday morning at the gym, Bryce again noticed Hunter Matthews, the student he thought was entirely boring and uncommunicative.  Hunter was there about three times a week, but he was so anti-social Bryce usually did not even notice him.  On this occasion , it was Hunter who made his presence known.  There were two guys pressing iron on the bench next to Bryce.  One was complaining about getting anonymous e-mails of an insulting and threatening nature.  He suspected they came from the ex-boyfriend of the girl he was now dating because of the content.

            “But,” he concluded, “there’s no way to tell where those e-mails came from.”

            “Nonsense,” Hunter unexpectedly insisted.  He had just been walking by, and was evidently attracted by the other fellow’s statement.  “If you know what you’re doing, you can trace an e-mail back to a particular computer.”

            “What makes you so sure of that?” the other student asked.

            “It’s my major.  I can do it.  No big deal,” Hunter insisted, and walked on.

            The two guys looked at each other, then left what they were doing to go after Hunter.  Bryce thought that interesting.  It was the first time he had ever known Hunter to initiate a conversation.

            Tuesday evening was the regular business meeting of Sigma Alpha Tau fraternity, of course.  This would be the last one before the break, and there would be no meeting during the week of spring break.

            As they gathered prior to the meeting, Bryce and Damon happened to notice Harry Dwyer by himself for a change.  Lately, he seemed to always be in the company of Cory Blaine.

            “Hello, Harry, where’s your puppet master?” Damon said.

            “My what?” Harry replied.

            “I think Damon means Cory.  You always seem to be with him lately,” Bryce explained.

            “Oh.  Cory had a problem at his apartment.  Busted pipe.  He had to be there to deal with the plumber.”  Then, suspecting he was being led on, Harry added, “I’ll tell him what went on at the meeting.”

            “I’m sure you will,” Bryce replied sarcastically, but Harry evidently did not catch the sarcasm.

            Bryce decided to goad Harry a bit.  “Tell me, Harry, Dwyer is an Irish name, isn’t it?”

            “It sure is,” he responded, “I’m one hundred percent Irish.”

            “Are you Catholic, then?” Bryce pursued the topic.

            “No.  We don’t belong to any church,” Harry answered.

            “Why is that?  Are there no Catholics among your family at all?” Bryce asked.

            “Oh, yeah.  My grandparents on both sides go to church, and some cousins, I guess, but my folks and I never did.  I guess I never thought about it,” Harry replied.

            “I don’t understand,” Bryce sighed.  “For centuries, you Irish preserved the Faith in the face of severe persecution from the English government, then you abandon it to secularism for no particular reason you can give me.”

            That left Harry confused, but it was time for the meeting to begin, so he could not come back with a comment, even if he had one.  When they parted, it sure did not look like he had one.

            The rest of the week was busy but uneventful.  Although Bryce and others were on the lookout for any hint as to the plans of Harry Dwyer and Cory Blaine, nothing new emerged. 

There was the French study session on Wednesday, the English study session of Thursday, and the History study session on Friday.  In addition, there was the French midterm exam on Friday morning.  Once again, Bryce felt he did a decent job, but it could have been better.  When comparing his answers with those of Marc and others, however, he thought he did a more thorough job than they.

            Friday evening was the Sigma Alpha Tau spring break party.  As the History study group broke up about 5:30, Bryce had time to grab a bite to eat and go help set up along with Damon this time.  He got his old job back, working the door, checking identifications and collecting an entrance fee from non-member males over 18.  Attendance was definitely down.  Bryce calculated that the fraternity would not even break even after paying for the supplies.  Although Bryce had invited Caroline Koehler, as for past parties, she had already left that afternoon for her own spring break activities, which included attendance at a music camp.  Likewise, Kitty Jansen had left campus, so Damon was denied his usual dance partner.  Mike Sandoval and his partner, David Simpson, loyally attended, more to support Bryce and Damon than for the party itself.

            Harry and Cory were there, carefully taking notes.  They clearly intended to blame Curtis for the failure of the party, when in fact Curtis had spoken out against having a party on the day before spring break officially began.  It had been a majority of the brothers back at the beginning of the semester who had insisted, and so the officers went along.  Bryce noticed Terry Hoffman, the fraternity secretary, and had a word with him.  He suggested that at the first business meeting after the break Terry come prepared with the minutes of the meeting early in the semester when it was decided to hold this party, so there could be no mistake that it was a decision of the whole fraternity, not of the officers alone.  Terry, like most of the brothers, respected Curtis, and definitely did not want Cory and his front man, Harry, running things.  He grinned, acknowledging the intent of Bryce’s comment, and agreed that would be a good idea.

            Despite the poor attendance and concern over the dissidents’ plans, Bryce and Damon managed to have a good time, talking with friends and trying to eat and drink as much as they safely could, “in order not to have things go to waste,” they said.  The party ended earlier than usual, and the two remained behind to help clean up.  If most brothers were going to be gone for the next week, they definitely did not want garbage left unattended during their absence.

            Returning to their dorm rooms, Bryce and Damon expressed their love for each other as a kind of seal on the first half of the semester, and a promise of a good time in Puerto Rico.  The next morning, they caught their flight to San Juan.