Marcus Lexington was in his room at the University of St. Thomas. He was busying himself with the chore of unpacking, two weeks before the fall-semester was to begin, and today he was missing his friend, Johnny Holiday.
He
had been hoping that Johnny would return to classes this fall, but when he
checked into the dormitory, he was notified that he would have a new roommate
for the upcoming term.
Johnny
had been his roommate last year, but he also kept an apartment off campus, so
it had been particularly nice for Marcus to have him as a roommate, because it
meant that he nearly always had the entire place to himself…it was a small room
after all, and Marcus liked the privacy, as well as the extra space Johnny’s
absence had afforded him to spread out his studies.
It
was the desire to be alone that had him moving back to campus a week early.
Marcus’s parent’s house was only a couple of miles from
campus, down Summitt Avenue and up on “the hill” near St. Paul’s Cathedral. It overlooked
the State Capital and downtown Pig’s Eye with its port on the Mississippi River.
When Marcus was home, his mother and father were perpetually
after him to be productive; if it was not them, then it was the servants who
never let him be who seemed to never tire of echoing his parent’s sentiments.
Marcus was just finishing arranging his wardrobe in
the small closet the dorm provided him; he was about to unpack his books, thinking
he should be careful to confine them to his half of the room, when he heard voices
outside his door in the Hallway.
It was the boys from the R.O.T.C., returning from
their drills.
Johnny had been in the R.O.T.C. and Marcus wondered
if any of them had heard anything about his return.
Marcus wasn’t the soldierly type...he wasn’t
athletic at all.
His mother said he was too fragile to go out for
sports, and he had always been the subject of ridicule from the boys on the
football team, along with most of the other jocks he had gone to school with all-throughout
his life….at least until last year, when he started college aand met Johnny.
At St. Thomas Marcus was able to make a place for
himself helping the guys who struggled with academics: he tutored, he edited
papers and helped them prepare for tests…if they asked.
More importantly, Johnny looked after him.
Johnny had gotten him a place on the rowing team,
which was probably the greatest single favor any fellow had ever done for Marcus.
He was not as an oarsman; he did not have the
physique for that.
Marcus was small and light which made him ideal as
the coxswain; he called the cadence and steered the boat and he had led the
team to a championship the previous year. It had been the proudest moment of
his life, and now, he was worried about his friend.
Johnny had gotten into some trouble and had been
asked to suspend his studies, but it had been Marcus’s understanding that he would
Johnny would be allowed to return this term
The captain of the R.O.T.C., a fellow named Bivens,
had filed a complaint against Johnny…for insubordination, one of his professor
had filed a similar complaint…for disrespectful behavior.
Marcus figured that Bivens would know if Johnny was
expected back, so he stepped out into the hall to see if he could strike up a
conversation and put the question to one of them guys, if not to Bivens
himself.
When he stepped out of his dorm-room door, he got
the feeling they were actually glad to see him.
It gave Marcus a warm feeling, and he had Johnny to
thank for that.
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