Raphael laughed. The young man from the east was outrageous. There was still something slightly out of tune though. Raphael was quite sure that he reminded Flood of someone else. Flood had seemed about to mention it a couple of times, but had apparently decided against it. All right, he decided. If you think we can get away with it, well try it.
Good enough. Well drop the Rafe and Jake bit so we dont sound like a hillbilly band, and well use Damon and Raphaelunless youd like to change your name to Pythias?
No, I dont think so. It sounds a little urinary.
Flood laughed. It does at that, doesnt it? Have you got any more bags? Or do you travel light?
Ive got a whole backseat full.
Lets go get them then. Get you settled in.
They clattered downstairs, brought up the rest of Raphaels luggage, and then went to the commons for dinner.
Damon Flood talked almost continuously through the meal, his rich voice compelling, almost hypnotic. He saw nearly everything, and his sardonic wit made it all wryly humorous.
And this, he said, almost with a sneer as they walked back in the luminous twilight toward their dormitory, is the most intelligent group of undergraduates in the country? He quoted from a recent magazine article about the college. It looks more like a hippie conventionor a soirée in a hobo jungle.
Appearances can be deceiving.
Indeed they can, Raphael, Angel of LightFlood laughedbut appearance is the shadow at least of reality, dont you think?
Raphael shrugged. Were more casual out here on the coast.
Granted, but wouldnt you say that the fact that a young lady doesnt wear shoes to dinner says a great deal about her character?
Wheres your home? Raphael asked as they started up the stairs.
Grosse Pointe, Flood said dryly, the flower on the weed of Detroit.
What are you doing way out here? Raphael opened the door to their room.
Seeking my fortune, Flood said, flinging himself down on his bed. Then he laughed. Actually, Im putting as much distance as possible between my father and me. The old bastard cant stand the sight of me. The rest of the family wanted me to go to Princeton, but I preferred to avoid the continuous surveillance of all those cousins. A very large family, the Floods, and I have the distinction of being its major preoccupation. All those dumpy female cousins literally slather at the idea of being able to report my indiscretions back to old J.D. himself.
Raphael began to unpack.
J.D.s the family patriarch, Flood went on. The whole damned bunch genuflects in his direction five times a dayexcept me, of course. I suppose Ive never really forgiven him for tacking that Junior on me, so I set out to be as unlike him as I could. He looks on that as a personal insult, so we dont really get along. He started shipping me off to boarding schools as soon as I lost my baby teeth, though, so we only irritate each other on holidays. I tried a couple years at Pitt, but all that rah-rah bullshit got on my nerves. So I thought Id saddle up old Paint and strike out for the wide wide westWhat do you say to another drink? He sprang up immediately and began mixing another batch of martinis.
Their conversation became general after that, and they both grew slightly drunk before they went to bed.
After Flood had turned out the light, he continued to talk, a steady flow of random, drowsy commentary on the days events. In time the pauses between his observations became longer as he hovered on the verge of sleep. Finally he turned over in bed. Good night, Gabriel, he murmured.
Wrong archangel, Raphael corrected. Gabriels the other onethe trumpet player.
Did I call you Gabriel? Floods voice had a strange, alert tension in it. Stupid mistake. I must have had one martini too many.
Its no big thing. Good night, Damon. Once again, however, something in the very back of his mind seemed to be trying to warn Raphael. Floods inadvertent use of the name Gabriel seemed not to be just a slip of the tongue. There was a significance to it somehowobscure, but important.
In the darkness, waiting for sleep and listening to Floods regular breathing from the other bed, Raphael considered his roommate. He had never before met anyone with that moneyed, eastern prep-school background, and so he had no real basis for judgment. The young men he had met before had all come from backgrounds similar to his own, and the open, easy camaraderie of the playing field and the locker room had not prepared him for the complexity of someone like Flood. On the whole, though, he found his roommate intriguing, and the surface sophistication of their first evening exhilirating. Perhaps in time Flood would relax, and theyd really get to know each other, but it was still much too early to know for sure.
iii
Raphaels next few weeks were a revelation to him. Always before he had been at best a casual scholar. His mind was quick and retentive, and neither high school nor the community college he had attended had challenged him significantly. He had come to believe that, even as on the football field, what others found difficult would be easy for him. His performance in the classroom, like his performance on the field, had been more a reflection of natural talent than of hard work; everything had been very easy for Raphael. At Reed, however, it was not so. He quickly discovered that a cursory glance at assigned reading did not prepare him adequately for the often brutally cerebral exchanges of the classroom. Unlike his previous classmates, these students were not content merely to paraphrase the text or the remarks of the instructor, but rather applied to the material at hand techniques of reason and analysis Raphael had never encountered before. Amazingly, more often than not, the results of these reasonings were a direct challenge to the authority of the text or of the instructor. And, even more amazingly, these challenges were not viewed as the disruptions of troublemakers, but were actually encouraged. Disturbed and even embarrassed by his newfound inadequacy, Raphael began to apply himself to his studies.
Youre turning into a grind, Flood said one evening. Raphael pulled his eyes from the page he was reading. Hmmm?
You study too much. I never see you without your face in some damned book.
Thats why were here, isnt it?
Not hardly. Flood threw one leg over the arm of his chair. A gentleman does not get straight As. Its unseemly. Havent you ever heard the old formula? Three Cs and a D and keep your name out of the newspapers?
No. I hadnt heard that one. Raphaels mind was yearning back toward the book. Besides, how would you know here? They wont let us see our grades. That was one of the peculiarities of what was called the Reed experience.
Barbarous, Flood snorted. How the hell can we be expected to maintain a proper balance if they dont let us see our grades? Do you realize that a man could screw up? Stumble into so many high grades that his reputations ruined for life?
I wouldnt worry too much about that, Damon. I dont think youre in any danger.
Dont get shitty. Flood got up quickly. Lets go out and get drunksee if we can get arrested or something.