After his declaration about abortion, Bryce was emotionally exhausted. He retreated to the bedroom to lie down for a while before doing anything else. Damon, of course, respected his partner’s situation. He appreciated Bryce taking the time to explain his position, even though he was not certain he completely agreed. He remained bothered by those cases where the life of the mother was endangered. When Bryce arose from his nap, he found Damon again perusing his textbooks in political theory. Damon was beginning to understand that societies could be based on a variety of beliefs or principles, and those beliefs or principles governed what that society was like, even if they were unspoken assumptions. The repressive dictatorship of a Stalin made perfect sense given the Marxist principles on which it was based. If one assumed that opposition was based on greed or ignorance, then suppressing opposition was justified. Imprisoning dissidents in a psychological ward, as in the case of Solzhenitsyn, made sense if one assumed that all opposition to “the dictatorship of the proletariat” is acting against self-interest, and that is literally insane.
But Damon readily agreed to set aside his studies, and accompany his boyfriend on an excursion to the riverside park and some communion with nature on such a beautiful summer day. They strolled about, becoming acquainted with the park, for about an hour, and then engaged in a contest, running along a track beside the river. As they did, commercial barges and a variety of pleasure craft passed them on the water. The thrill of the run exhilarated them, adding to the competition. After a good run, they collapsed panting in sweaty heaps under a large oak tree. It felt good to challenge themselves in this manner, and so, despite their heavy breathing, they laughed.
When the laughter overcame the panting, Bryce grabbed Damon and kissed him. This only led to more laughter, as the two began to walk back towards the car, hand in hand. Although there were other people about, no one chose to challenge them, or even came near them as they made their way back to Bryce’s Mustang.
When they arrived back at the Caldwell house and stabled the car in the carriage house, Bryce sniffed. “We smell terrible. I’m going to have to fumigate the car before inviting anyone else to share it.”
“Ah, the trials and tribulations of the plutocrats,” Damon teased. “Not owning a car, I don’t have that problem.”
Bryce chased him up to their apartment and into the bedroom, where they enjoyed another type of exercise which also left them panting.
After giving his car the proper refreshing, Monday evening was also given over to relaxation in anticipation of busy times once the fall semester got underway. After dinner at their favorite small restaurant, they spent several hours at Pat’s Tavern, where they found several friends with whom to socialize.
On Tuesday morning, Bryce was greatly pleased to find Curtis arrive at the fitness center only a few minutes after his own arrival. Curtis Manning had been his most reliable partner in working out last year, but Bryce was not certain he would continue this year as he was newly married in June.
“Hey! Glad to see you,” Bryce greeted his friend.
“Same here. I hear you and Damon had a killer summer,” Curtis replied.
“Our trip to Europe was great. We enjoyed it, and had some really great experiences. Met some interesting people as well,” Bryce replied. “And you? I’m assuming you and Maddy spent the entire summer in bed,” he teased.
Curtis chuckled. “Not quite, but we did enjoy what you might call our marital privileges. We spent some time at my uncle’s cabin in the mountains, and also just enjoyed being with each other. I think it was almost like getting to know each other all over again.”
“I know what you mean. In a sense, Damon and I experienced that during our trip abroad. But I kind of think we’re continuing to experience it. We’re getting to know each other more every day. We’re growing on each other,” Bryce agreed.
Curtis nodded in agreement. “I hope the busyness of the new semester does not cause us to neglect that growing on each other. I think that’s what happens to a lot of couples. The day to day activities take over, and they forget to appreciate each other. Maddy and I talked about that recently, and decided to do something just for the two of us at least once each week,” he said.
“That sounds like a good idea. I’ll try to do the same with Damon,” Bryce replied, as he spotted Curtis. “To descend into those day to day activities, anything significant on the agenda for tonight’s meeting?”
“No. Just ordinary stuff. Planning to get the semester started, and a little advanced planning for rush week,” Curtis informed him.
“What are you guys doing for accommodations? I’m assuming you will not be living in the SAT house,” Bryce asked with a smile.
“Absolutely not!” Curtis replied with emphasis. “Maddy and I have acquired an apartment off campus, but not so far away that walking will be a problem on decent days, anyway. We moved in yesterday afternoon. Our fraternity advisor put me onto it. In an older house belonging to a retired member of the faculty.”
That sounded awfully familiar. “Don’t tell me you’re renting from Dr. Caldwell,” Bryce exclaimed.
“Yeah. Do you know him?” Curtis asked, surprised.
Bryce laughed. “Damon and I rented an apartment there just last week, also on the advice of Dr. Dickinson. I guess you have the back apartment on the second floor.”
“Damn! I won’t be able to escape your ugly mug even at home,” Curtis joked. “But, seriously, it’s a great bargain. Lots of room, a really pleasant atmosphere, and a reasonable price.” Then Curtis burst into loud laughter. “I just remembered, when we made our arrangements Dr. Caldwell told us we could move the bed in the smaller bedroom up to a storage area on the third floor and use that room as a study area. He said the couple in the front apartment had done the same thing only last week. That must have been you and Damon.” Curtis roared with laughter again. “Wait until I tell Maddy who that couple are.”
Bryce digested the information that Dr. Caldwell had obviously figured out his relationship to Damon, and it was not going to be a problem. Greatly pleased by this, he finished his workout in high spirits, and walked back to Belgravia Court with Curtis. They mounted the steps to the second floor, then each went to his own abode.
After showering, Bryce decided to make breakfast before waking Damon. Only a short while into this task, the smoke alarm went off, and Damon came running into the kitchen. Bryce was frantically attempting to turn off the smoke alarm while at the same time dealing with a skillet of blackened ruins which had once been bacon slices. Damon turned off the burner on the stove, then dealt efficiently with the smoke alarm, while Bryce sat in a kitchen chair looking frazzled.
“What were you trying to do?” a magnificent, nude Damon asked with a smirk.
“I thought I’d fix breakfast for us before waking you,” Bryce meekly replied.
“In the future, confine your culinary attempts to cold cereal or doughnuts. I will deal with anything that requires any skill. At all!” Damon emphasized, then broke out laughing at his woebegone partner.
Bryce grinned sheepishly. “Okay.”
Later that morning, as the two descended the stairs on the way to the campus, the connecting door opened to reveal Dr. Caldwell. He had obviously been listening for their clomping down the stairs.
“Do you mind telling me what the racket was about earlier this morning?” their landlord asked.
Bryce turned red and mumbled. Damon laughed. “Bryce attempted to fry some bacon, but made a botch of it, setting off the smoke alarm,” he explained.
“I trust this will not be a frequent occurrence,” Dr. Caldwell hoped.
“No, Sir. From now on, I will be doing all the cooking,” Damon assured him.
“Very good,” the professor replied, and retreated to his domain.
While on campus during the morning and afternoon, Bryce retreated into the library, and began working on a special project he had been mulling over ever since their visit to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach that summer. He remembered the tombstone of Benny E. Watson, located next to that of Philip Ludlow Bryce, and was determined to see whether he could link that up to Damon. He recalled that Damon’s ‘father of record,’ as he called him, was named Ernest Watson. Federal Census records would be no help at this phase of investigation, because the 1940 censuses would not be released until about 2012, and there was very little chance Damon’s father was born by 1930, but he could do some preliminary research. If he did find anything, it would be a great gift to his partner, who several times had revealed his regret at his apparent lack of roots. Two possible sources of information occurred to Bryce at this point. He could contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis and request a copy of the record of Benny E. Watson from the Military Personnel Records division, and he could check the obituaries in the Chicago newspapers for anyone named Watson. If that did not pan out, maybe he could find out from Vanessa the maiden name of the common mother of her and Damon, and work from there, but he just knew Damon would prefer the paternal line. He did not get on at all well with his mother, and besides the DNA study he had obtained for Damon last Christmas, linking him to the Bambara speaking people of West Africa, had been through the paternal line. Bryce would also consult his mother, who was a member of many lineage organizations, and knew quite a bit about genealogical research.
While Bryce was thus engaged, Damon returned to his study of political theory. He was obviously concerned about this class, never having dealt with that aspect of Political Science before, and wanted to prepare as well beforehand as possible. Hence, he spent much of the day reading Plato and Aristotle.
Picking up his campus mail, Bryce found that, as an officer of the GLBT Club, he was expected to help man the booth during registration the next day. After spending the day on campus, getting their student identification cards updated, acquiring textbooks and other supplies as well as pursuing their respective studies in the library, along with meeting some friends, and then having dinner at their favorite small restaurant run by the Coopers, Bryce and Damon entered the Sigma Alpha Tau house. There, they encountered Curtis Manning, the fraternity president. He was looking concerned, but when he saw Bryce and Damon, he got a grin across his face.
“What were you guys doing after we got back from the gym this morning?” he asked. “It sounded like a three alarm fire from where Maddy and I were.”
Once again, Bryce turned beet red, while Damon calmly explained that Bryce tried to burn the house down while engaged in the simple task of frying bacon.
Curtis gave Bryce a leery look. “I hope we are not disturbed in this manner every morning. Maddy and I were just getting intimate when the noise began, and it kind of ruined the mood.”
“Oh, geez!” Bryce exclaimed. “I guess this calls for another excursion to El Rincon Latino to make up for my blunders.”
“I like that idea, and so will Maddy,” Curtis assured him. “Can we expect this often?”
“No way!” Damon proclaimed. “My heart will not survive being awakened that way on a regular basis. I am taking over all kitchen activities that involve the stove, or, come to think of it, just to be safe, also anything that is electrical. I don’t want goop from the mixer all over the walls and ceiling, either.”
“Geez!” Bryce complained.
Curtis and Damon laughed as they all entered the assembly room for their meeting.
For about a half hour, the meeting went more or less as expected. The opening rituals, with roll call of officers, reading of the minutes of the last meeting in May, the treasurer’s report, and the like, were followed by discussions of the upcoming fraternal semester, with plans, some definite, some tentative, laid out by Vice-President Bob Balducci and Pledge Master Phil Cecil and discussed at length. Throughout this time, Bryce noted that Curtis was looking concerned and distracted. It was not that he could not preside at a meeting, as he did fine most of the time, although on one occasion he was distracted to the point of failing to respond when a brother made a motion. Even though he had put on a good front before the meeting, clearly something was bothering him.
After dealing with the Welcome Back party and rush week, and finding nothing more on the agenda, Curtis finally revealed what was on his mind.
“Brothers, late this afternoon I was summoned to the office of Dr. Burnett, the Vice-President for Student Affairs. A situation has arisen which calls for action on our part. It seems that the University has decided that, inasmuch as Bick Lomax and Mack Campbell are free on appeal, they have not been found guilty of a serious offense, and have therefore been readmitted to the University.”
That immediately resulted in an eruption of comments and complaints. After all, these two, with their third partner, Ken Carlyle, had been found guilty, even if they were appealing that decision. Damon was certain they were the persons who had assaulted him last fall. There were a couple of cynical comments about the power of money. Both men came from well-to-do families. Bob Balducci, currently Vice-President, obtained the floor after some serious use of the gavel by Curtis to restore order.
“Brothers, as you know, I served as treasurer of the house for two years. I have some ability to handle financial information. In addition, I am a pre-Law major, so I have paid attention to some of the ins and outs of this case which might have escaped the notice of others. I am not one to welcome controversy, but there is a bit of information I picked up which you just might want to consider. First of all, in a purely technical sense, as those two have continued to maintain their innocence, and as their legal counsel thinks there are grounds for an appeal, perhaps they can be still considered innocent until proven guilty.”
That was greeted with a round of hoots and boos.
Regaining the floor, Bob continued, “I’m not saying I believe them. I did say ‘in a purely technical sense.’ After knowing those two for entirely too long, and knowing Damon for the past year, there is no doubt in my mind which to believe. But there is another aspect to this which I know about and which all of you ought to know about as well. As some of you know, I work in the Bursar’s office. I see some things which are not made public. Over the past two weeks, since we began gearing up for the fall term, there have been two very substantial donations to the University’s development fund. It will come as little surprise to most of you that the donors were the fathers of Bick and Mack.”
“Oh, geez! Don’t tell me. Our Administration is going to prostitute itself again to brown nose the folks with the big bucks,” Matt Bostick moaned.
“President Rodes has all the morality of a mercenary soldier when it comes to money,” Beau Lyle commented.
“Guys, there’s more,” Curtis announced. When he had everyone’s attention, he continued. “As I said, I was called into the VPSA’s office late this afternoon. It was not just to give me the news about Mack and Bick being readmitted. Hold your breath, or maybe your noses. They want us to reinstate them in the fraternity.”
That resulted in major turmoil. There was shouting and cursing for a good ten minutes before Curtis could restore order. Some of the suggestions made about the VPSA were anatomically impossible. “I take it that is a ‘no,’” Curtis concluded with a grin.
Keith Hamilton gained the floor. He turned to the fraternity advisor, Dr. Dickinson, who up to this point had sat quietly to one side, as he usually did. “Dr. Dickinson, as advisor, can you advise us on our rights as far as accepting or rejecting the reinstatement of these two former brothers.”
Dr. Dickinson cleared his throat. He had been following the discussion with considerable interest. He rose to his feet and addressed the assembly. “To the best of my knowledge, there is no specific University policy or guideline to cover this case. As I recall, when Mr. Campbell and Mr. Lomax were expelled from the fraternity last fall, all the proper guidelines were followed. It seems to me, therefore, that you have the same rights in this instance as when you vote on accepting someone as a pledge for the first time, or later when you vote on accepting that pledge as a new brother.”
“That’s what I thought.” Keith said. “What do you expect the reaction of the Administration to be if we vote not to accept these two back?”
“As I am sure you already know, the higher Administration will not be pleased,” Dr. Dickinson replied, “but I do not anticipate any direct action against the fraternity.”
“Direct action?” DuBois Kennedy asked.
“You may encounter some difficulty, such as delays in paperwork and reluctance to approve requests. That is the usual response of thwarted bureaucracy,” Dr. Dickinson said with some feeling.
“Okay, brothers, I am satisfied that this is the right thing to do,” Keith stated. “Therefore, I move that we deny any and all requests for reinstatement of Bickford Lomax and McKinnon Campbell.”
“I second that,” Phil Cecil immediately shouted.
There was little more discussion. Dr. Dickinson did, however, ask for the floor. “I admire you lads for your concern for justice, but I caution you. Be very careful to follow every rule and guideline. The Administration will attempt to find cause to reverse your decision if you thwart them on this. For this reason, I recommend that you draw up a resolution and present it to the meeting next week, when a larger number of the brothers are present.”
“That’s good advice,” Keith said. “As the maker of the motion, I accept as a friendly amendment that, if passed, President Manning will appoint a committee to draft a statement, which will then be presented to the brothers for a final decision next week.”
“And as seconder I accept that,” Phil chimed in.
With that, the motion was put to the vote, and passed unanimously.
Curtis looked pleased, and also relieved. He would not have to face the ire of the VPSA alone. After announcing the results of the vote, he announced, “I am appointing the following brothers to draft the statement we just voted on: Bob Balducci, Keith Hamilton, DuBois Kennedy, Phil Cecil, and Bryce Winslow. If there are no further matters of business to be brought before the fraternity,” he paused here, but hearing none he continued, “I declare this meeting adjourned.”
As they gathered up their things preparatory to leaving the room, Curtis sought out Damon. “I considered putting you on that committee, but, remembering Dr. Dickinson’s advice, I decided they might use that as a reason to reject the resolution, since you are kind of a concerned party.”
“Not ‘kind of.’ I am in the midst of it,” Damon declared. “After all, I’m the guy Bick tried to rape, and the guy both of them beat up, along with that shithead Carlyle. What’s happened to him, anyway?”
“Nothing was said about him when I was in the VPSA’s office this afternoon,” Curtis replied. “I don’t know his current legal standing.”
“Well, I am just so very grateful you guys are standing by me. Joining SAT is one of the best things I ever did,” Damon emotionally declared. “It is so great having a bunch of guys support you, like you guys are doing for me. I really appreciate it.”
“Damon, we are only doing what we would for any other brother in similar circumstances. You’re our brother, and it’s a simple matter of doing what is right,” Curtis declared.
“Maybe so, but folks do not always do what is right, especially when it comes to someone like me. I had entirely too many experiences of people doing what was expedient, what would not cause them trouble, and leaving me in the lurch, while I was growing up. I won’t ever forget you guys.” Damon was tearing up, and Bryce placed his arm around his shoulders to comfort him.
“I would not count on every fraternity acting as we have, both now and in the past. As I’m sure you are aware, in some instances fraternities are bastions of WASP exclusivity. I put it down to the high academic standards insisted on by SAT that, in general, our brothers make reasonable decisions. I am proud to serve as president of this organization,” Curtis declared.
“We’ll get through this,” Bryce said, as he squeezed his partner’s shoulders.
Curtis smiled. “Let’s go home.”