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											| InFiltration, Part 3 
 by Wrestlr
 
 [M/M, MC, hypno, brief M/F and incest]
 
 [Synopsis: A  wrestler signs up for a course on using
 self-hypnosis to improve his athletic performance.  Surprisingly, things do
 not go as planned.]
 
 Disclaimer: There's sex, sodomy, and maybe a few other minor perversions
 in this.  If you don't like that sort of thing, read something else.
 Everybody in the  is legal age.  Parts of this  may be
 autobiographical, or it might be all fiction---who can say?
 
 Occasionally, I borrow a phrase from a specific person in order to make
 love with him.  In this work, I embrace the "it didn't work"  in
 Section 2 from Northeyes, a talented author in his own right.  He says the
 story is not original to him, that he heard it from others.  I've reworked
 the scene for my purposes, but I first heard it from him.  In this work, I
 also draw on some of the hypnosis methods of the psychologist Milton
 Erickson, which my friend Chad/Epaphus has been kind (and patient) enough
 to explain to me.  Again, I've reworked those methods for my own ends, so
 any faults are mine, not Chad's.  If there's a better teacher in the world,
 I haven't found him.
 
 Copyright - 2001 by Wrestlr.  Permission granted to archive if and only
 if no fee (including any form of "Adult Verification") is charged to read
 the file.  If anyone pays a cent to anyone to read your site, you can't use
 this without the express permission of (and payment to) the author.  This
 paragraph must be included as part of any archive.
 
 Comments to wrestlr@iname.com
 
 Wrestlr's fiction is archived at the following URLs:
 
 * http://members.tripod.com/~Brock_J (MC and general M/M stories, plus
 my home page)
 
 * http://www.asstr.org/~wrestlr (MC and general M/M stories, mirror
 site)
 
 * http://www.asstr.org/~mcstories/Authors/Wrestlr.html (MC stories)
 
 InFiltration, Part 3
 
 27
 
 Daniel and I, we were in the kitchen.  It was my turn to load the
 dishwasher, and that's what I was doing.  He was getting himself a bottle
 of water out of the refrigerator.  All he had on was this pair of  boxer
 shorts, and it was like I couldn't take my eyes off his body.  I'd been
 fighting a hard-on all night, trying to keep him from seeing it.  His cock
 made a nice lump, moving around behind the front of his boxers, and I kept
 wondering what it looked like hard, whether it looked like it did in my
 dream the other night.  But, as I kept reminding myself, that was just a
 dream.
 
 For someone who was never around the apartment very much, he'd sure been
 hanging around the last couple of days.  He was usually over at his
 girlfriend's place most nights, but I think they were having some trouble.
 Ever since Doc started teaching us how to really hypnotize ourselves, it
 was like Daniel and I both spent a lot more time at home, practicing.  I
 know I was.
 
 Daniel patted my shoulder as he slid past my ass toward the kitchen
 door. "Hey," he said, pausing at the doorway.  "We got any more matches?"
 
 "Cigarette lighter," I said.  "On the nightstand by my bed." Neither of
 us smoked, so we both knew what he needed it for--Doc had told us to
 practice self-hypnosis with candles at home.
 
 "Thanks, bro," he said, and disappeared into the hallway beyond.
 
 A little while later, I'm walking down that same hallway on my way to
 the bathroom.  Daniel's door is open just a crack.  His light is off, but
 there's a flickering glow against the far wall.  I put my eyes in the gap
 and see ...  one lit candle on his nightstand, Daniel sitting cross-legged
 on his bed, eyes half-closed and all dreamy, the light glowing across his
 velvet-smooth skin and muscles.
 
 Daniel looked like he was in the early stages of a trance.  His eyelids
 were fluttering, and he was breathing deeply and slowly, almost like he was
 dozing off.  I remembered a couple of things from books that I had read,
 about how to help a subject move from sleep into a trance, and I figured
 they might work.
 
 The secret, according to the books, was to go slowly.  Give the person
 time to get used to your presence.  Find the rapport.  I stood in the
 doorway a while.  Maybe subconsciously, some part of Daniel was probably
 aware of me being there.  I stood there to give him time to get accustomed
 to me.  Several minutes.  Then I eased the door open.  More waiting.  Then
 I was standing by the bed.  Then I started talking to him, using something
 like the inductions Doc used, since I thought they might seem familiar to
 Daniel's subconscious mind.  "That's right," I whispered, soft and slow.
 "Relax ...  Focus ...  No distractions ..."
 
 Then I was sitting on the bed next to him--not too close though.  His
 eyes flickered but he didn't break out of his trance.  I figured he was
 ready.  I kept up my induction, telling him to relax, feel himself going
 back to that familiar hypnotic peace Doc had showed him how to enjoy.  His
 eyelids started drooping down lower.
 
 "That's it," I whispered, moving from an induction to a deepening
 exercise.  "Just like in class.  Relax.  Feel all the tension starting to
 melt away.  Feel it melting and turning to liquid.  Feel it breaking up and
 starting to flow like water." I put my finger on the warm skin of his back,
 between his shoulder blades.  "Feel my finger?  It helps all the tension in
 the muscles around it melt and become liquid.  Feel the tension flowing
 toward my finger.  Feel it clustering around my finger and leaving the
 other muscles limp and relaxed." I felt his muscles tense under my finger,
 so I knew it was working.  I moved my finger over onto his shoulder blade.
 "Feel the tension flowing.  Feel it follow my finger.  When the tension
 moves on, it leaves your muscles feeling so tired, so relaxed."
 
 As I moved my finger across his shoulder blade and up to the cords of
 muscles on the top edge of his shoulder, I could feel the flesh bunch under
 my finger.  I continued, "That's it.  Feel the tension breaking up,
 flowing, following my finger.  Flowing, flowing like water.  Following my
 finger as it moves down your arm"--and I pulled my finger down across his
 bicep--"filling your arm, making it stiffen.  Stiffer than it's ever been
 before.  Stiff and rigid from all that tension.  Too stiff to bend, no
 matter how you try.  So stiff, you can't bend it at all."
 
 I felt Daniel's bare arm stiffen.  It trembled a little as he tried to
 move it, unsuccessfully.  It was working!
 
 "That's okay--you can stop trying to move it now," I said, and his arm
 went still.  I ran my finger back up toward his shoulder.  "All that
 tension is flowing again, following my finger.  Flowing.  Leaving all your
 muscles so limp and loose as it passes, helping the feeling of hypnotic
 peace spread throughout your body." I kept up my quiet speech as I eased my
 fingertip down his wide, rounded pectoral, feeling it flex with tension,
 then slowly go limp as my finger passed on down, down his ribs, onto his
 abs, which tightened until they felt like a washboard under my touch.
 
 I had intended to run my finger down his hip, down his thigh and his
 leg, all the way down to his foot.  There, I was going to have him feel the
 tension drain out through the bottom of his foot, leaving him limp and
 deeply in his trance.  That was what I had intended to do.  But when my
 finger reached the waistband of his boxers, bringing along that stiffness
 down into his hip and groin, something started happening, and I guess I was
 a dumb-ass for not realizing it would happen.  The fabric in the front of
 his boxers started to move.  He was getting hard--all that stiffness was
 making his cock stiffen.
 
 So all of a sudden, I got a new idea.  I put my other hand on his
 shoulder and eased his torso back, until he was lying back on his bed.
 "That's right," I murmured.  "All that tension is filling your cock, making
 it harden.  Making it harder than it's ever been before.  So erect.  So
 hard.  There's only one way to release all this tension when your cock gets
 this hard, isn't there?"
 
 I leaned forward and opened the snaps on the front of his boxers.  I
 peeled back the flaps of flimsy fabric and exposed his swollen cock.  It
 practically shone in the candlelight, with a little pearl of precum
 sparkling at its tip.
 
 I wrapped my hand around it, tested its heft.  It looked exactly like it
 had in my dream: hard, large, dangerous, and inescapably beautiful.  I
 stroked it gently, chanting about how this was the only way to release all
 that tension, how every stroke brought him deeper into that wonderful state
 of hypnotic peace where he could let go and relax completely.
 
 I stroked it slowly, gently.  The shape of it fascinated me.  I bent
 forward, telling myself it was for a better look in the dim light.  His
 cock looked delicious.  I found myself wanting to taste it.  I wanted to
 lick that drop of precum off and lick his cock like a popsicle.
 
 As I was bending even closer, my mouth unconsciously opening, I felt his
 cock jump in my hand.  No time for what I had planned.  "That's it,
 Daniel," I told him.  "Feel yourself getting ready to  and shoot all
 that tension out of your body.  Ready to release it.  Ready to relax and
 sink deeper into hypnotic peace.  Ready?  Release it, Daniel.  Cum!  Shoot
 that load!"
 
 And then Daniel was cumming, rope after rope of  spitting out, then
 arcing down to splatter against his belly.  After five or six initial
 spurts, his  kept coming, flowing out of the red-angry head of his cock
 and flowing hot down my hand like lava.
 
 When he was finished, drained of sperm and stiffness, Daniel looked like
 he was deeply asleep, totally peaceful, totally relaxed now.  I whispered
 to him to concentrate on making the changes he needed to make now that he
 was in a deep, suggestible state.  While he slept, I climbed up on my knees
 beside him on the bed.  I pawed open my jeans.  My cock was just as hard as
 his had been, and I needed release myself--badly, immediately.  I did the
 only thing I knew would help: I jacked off.  In less than ten strokes, I
 was there, cumming, shooting, my jizm jumping out over his chest and abs
 and raining down on him, mingling with his own.
 
 When I sat back, spent, panting, I couldn't stop grinning.  I put my
 cock away and fastened up my jeans again.  Daniel had slept through it all.
 I took a tissue from the box by his bed--then several more.  We'd both shot
 a lot of cum, and it took a lot of tissues to mop it up.  I patched his
 boxers back together over his sagging dick, whispered to him to forget that
 I had been there, and sneaked out, feeling ecstatic and light.
 
 30
 
 I woke up.  Flat on my back.  In bed.  In Daniel's bedroom.  A warm body
 curled up along side of me: Daniel, with one arm thrown proprietarily
 across my chest.  He was still asleep, smiling slightly as he dreamed.
 
 I yawned.  The motion of the sheet against my morning erection told me I
 was naked.  Daniel stirred slightly, pressing his hard-on against my
 hip--okay, so he was naked too.
 
 My whole body had that fucked-out feeling.  You know--the one you get
 after a vigorous night of fucking, when your body still remembers how hard
 you came and is letting you know that it's maybe a little tired out but
 wouldn't mind another orgasm like that last one.  I couldn't remember
 meeting a chick last night or having sex with her, though.  In fact, all I
 remembered was going to class as usual, and Doc talking to us as he began
 his induction.  Then, the next thing I remembered was waking up.
 
 The strange thing was, my butt felt kind of sore.  Plus, I was in bed
 with Daniel.  That made me feel kind of like "Ew, yuck!" inside.  But then,
 I felt my mental filters moving in around my thoughts, numbing the part of
 me that was freaking out.  I felt them calming and protecting me, and I
 knew everything was just fine, just the way it should be.  It seemed kind
 of odd at first for my filters to be kicking in, since I wasn't at practice
 or at a match or in the gym, but the filters took care of that too.
 Everything was perfectly normal.  Daniel was my teammate and my roommate
 and my friend.  Everything was all right.
 
 I slid out from under his arm, slipped out of bed.  Daniel squirmed a
 little but didn't wake up.  That was good, I thought, safely behind my
 filters, after last night.  He needed his rest.  I eased myself out of his
 bedroom and went to take a shower before my morning class.
 
 37
 
 "I want to tell you another story," Doc said to us as he began the
 class. "Marco, this might be especially interesting for you, since you play
 soccer.  A soccer coach at a school where I once taught contacted me about
 a goalie that was not even trying to block shots on the field.  For four or
 five practice games in a row, he was just very sluggish on the field and
 hadn't managed to block even one shot."
 
 I was catching on.  See, Doc was using these  to set up an
 expectation in us that being hypnotized and having these filters was a good
 thing--something that would benefit us and something we'd want.  He was
 using these  to help overcome any subconscious resistance we might
 have.
 
 Doc continued, "I set up an appointment with the player.  Under
 hypnosis, I asked him what was bothering him, and he said that during the
 month before, his  had started a painful divorce.  What bothered him
 most was that his dad had said, 'You and your damned soccer--that's what's
 breaking us up.' So, subconsciously, he decided that if he didn't do well
 on the soccer field, maybe his  wouldn't divorce and might get back
 together.
 
 "Now that the player and I had made this discovery, I talked him through
 some of the best pointers about soccer, how it's a mental game, with
 staggering odds of 9 to 1 against each shot at the goal, and therefore,
 since it is so easy to miss a shot, you need to get over that feeling so
 that you can learn from your mistakes and get immediately better.  My
 explanation of the game was intended to recruit his subconscious mind to
 help aid his thinking process during the game, as he had to decide how to
 block each shot and how to move to make it happen.
 
 "He proved to be an excellent subject, capable of entering a very deep
 and cooperative level of hypnosis.  When I was helping the player create
 his filters, I had him imagine a mental 'garbage can.' I had him return to
 the scene with his  and hold it vividly in his mind.  Then I asked
 him to throw it away, just drop it into the garbage can.  Then I worked
 with him to use his filters to shut that memory out so that it would never
 bother him again.  From the next game on, he blocked nearly every shot the
 opposing teams made, and he blocked well.  At the end of the season, his
 coach called to thank me for my help, though he did not know about the
 hypnosis.  All the coach knew was that somehow with my help this player had
 snapped out of his slump and overcome his problem.
 
 "I continued to work with the soccer player throughout the rest of his
 seasons on the  team, working on his filters and refining them.  We
 worked on both their focus and their duration, and he very quickly
 developed them to a point where he could call them into place at will or
 with just a quick cue from me; and he often kept them in place for several
 days at a time, both on and off the field, as he rehearsed game play
 scenarios in his head.  The results were outstanding.  With this player's
 effort and improved ability, his team made it to the playoffs, where he
 performed very well.  And after the playoff game, he performed even better.
 Yes, even better indeed." Doc smiled, as if remembering something special.
 
 "He's a professional player now," Doc said.  "Turned pro right after
 college.  I hear from him frequently, and he's doing great.  His playing
 skills continue to increase with every game, thanks to his improved
 concentration.  He tells me he can keep his filters in place for days at a
 time.  Sometimes, he tells me, he thinks he wants them to be permanent, so
 they can help him in other areas of his life.  Marco, do you think you'd
 like that?"
 
 Marco turned his head toward Doc, kind of sluggishly.  "Uh ..." he
 began, "...  I guess."
 
 "You guess?  Yes, or no.  Simple as that, Marco."
 
 "Uhm, yes."
 
 "Then ..." Doc clamped his hand firmly down on Marco's forehead.  He
 passed it down over Marco's face.  "...sleep."
 
 Marco's eyes were closed when Doc's hand finished passing over them, and
 his head tipped slowly forward.
 
 "Cameron, what about you?"
 
 Cameron grinned, looking a little groggy already.  "Shit, yeah!"
 
 "Good answer.  Good enthusiasm." Doc passed his face over Cameron's and
 commanded him, "Sleep."
 
 "Daryl, Tony, what about you two?"
 
 Daryl: "Yessir."
 
 Tony: "Okay."
 
 Do reached out and passed a hand over each guy's face at the same time.
 "Sleep," he said.
 
 "Daniel, Luke, what will it be, guys?"
 
 He didn't even wait for us to reply.  He was reaching out, covering our
 faces with his palms, and ordering us, "Sleep," and I couldn't stop my eyes
 from closing.
 
 "That's it," Doc was saying.  "Let it happen at the rate you're most
 comfortable with.  Let your conscious mind slowly engage, becoming more and
 more aware of your surroundings, but keeping your subconscious mind active
 and your filters in place."
 
 I blinked.  We weren't in the classroom anymore.  It was night--we were
 outside under the stars and a cloudless sky.  Walking--we were walking up
 to a large house.  In the dark, I made out the fraternity letters on the
 front, over the door: the same letters that were on Isaac's tattoo.
 
 Doc opened the front door.  "Take it easy.  Step right inside.  Once
 you've grown accustomed to your filters being in place twenty-four hours a
 day, once they've become fully integrated into your psyche and fully a part
 of you, all of this will be much easier."
 
 We filed in.  I don't know about the others, but I felt ...  kind of
 focused and distracted at the same time.  Really focused on what Doc was
 saying, but also really distant from what was going on.  It felt kind of
 like sleepwalking in a way.
 
 There were a few  milling around.  They were all shirtless.  A
 couple had on shorts.  One had on jeans, and one was in his briefs.
 
 "A bare chest is something of the dress code around here, after hours,"
 Doc said as he shut the door behind us.  He swept his hand around as he led
 us deeper into the house.  "See all these men?  They're all members of the
 most exclusive fraternity on campus.  They've all been introduced to the
 benefits of mental filters.  The only real difference between them and you
 is that they've been working with me longer.  Their filters are fully
 integrated into their minds--you might say there's no difference between
 their conscious and unconscious minds now.  That's why they look and act
 more naturally, even though they're in a deeply focused state.  They're no
 longer  who play sports with filters that kick in when they start to
 train or compete.  Whereas you are players using filters, they are athletes
 who are in 'filter mode' constantly, living their sport."
 
 Doc grinned like he knew a secret.  "Now, some of you might be
 remembering that Isaac is a member of this fraternity, and that's true.  I
 confess, part of the reason I was able to hypnotize him so easily in our
 early class demonstrations was because in a lot of ways, Isaac was already
 hypnotized.  His filters keep him extremely focused and also very
 susceptible to my suggestions.  Isn't that right, Isaac?"
 
 Isaac was grinning.  "That's right." He pulled off his tee-shirt and
 tossed it across the back of a couch.
 
 "Follow me, gentlemen." Doc led us down a hall.  The door we were
 passing must have been the bathroom, because this guy came out just as we
 were passing.
 
 "Hey, Doc," the guy said, grinning.
 
 "Good evening, Erik."
 
 Erik must have just taken a shower, because all he has on is this green
 towel wrapped around his waist, and his hair is still damp, a few beads of
 water still dotting one shoulder too.  Some part of me recognized him.
 Erik was on the football team.  Right now, though, I was focused on his
 form.  The towel was riding low on his hips, showing off his long, lean,
 muscular torso.  Not a hair on his chest above the navel.  And it was a
 wide, nicely developed chest, showing the results of his time in the gym,
 on top of his deep-cut abs.  Erik was very cute, with classic looks and an
 easy smile.  Light brown hair, cut very short, and hazel eyes.
 
 Doc said, "Erik, I wonder if you would mind doing me a favor?"
 
 "Sure, Doc.  Whatcha need?"
 
 "Tell me, Erik, how long have we known each other?"
 
 "Uhm ...  three and a half years--ever since I was a freshman."
 
 "And we've been working together with hypnosis for quite a while then,
 wouldn't you say?"
 
 "Yeah."
 
 "Tell me, Erik, are your filters engaged right now?"
 
 "Sure are, Doc."
 
 "Then I wonder if you'd mind helping me with a little demonstration?
 I'd like to demonstrate how mental filters take advantage of the principles
 of psycho-sexual control.  All right?"
 
 "Sure.  Whatcha got in mind?"
 
 "Everything I suggest to you becomes something of a command, doesn't
 it."
 
 "Yeah, I guess so."
 
 "Erik, you're a hot  man.    have needs, don't they?
 Sexual needs, And since I haven't had time yet to lead the frat through our
 nightly exercises, your needs haven't been met yet today, have they?  In
 fact, I'm betting you're probably very horny about now, aren't you?  You're
 probably getting hard right now, aren't you?"
 
 Erik leaned back against the door frame.  "Yeah, I guess I am kind of
 horny." He groped the growing rise in the front of his towel.
 
 "Erik, what I want you to do is easy, and you're going to enjoy it.  I
 want you to jack off for us."
 
 Erik grinned and closed his eyes.  "Mmmm ...  sure thing, Doc." He
 pulled away the towel, revealing an uncut cock that was rapidly growing
 longer and thicker.  Yeah, that was a nice piece of meat.  Long.  Sleek as
 a missile.  Erik started stroking his rod with his left hand, and his right
 sprawled across his chest and tweaked his left nipple.
 
 While Erik stroked, Doc said, "Psycho-sexual control is a very basic
 tactic, and it's also very effective--especially on   around
 college age.  They tend to be hopped up on hormones and very horny all the
 time.  Take control of their ability of find sexual release, and you take
 control of fundamental parts of their psyches.  They learn, sometimes
 subconsciously, to do whatever is required to get off.  That's why there's
 a sexual component to my mental filters.  The link to the sex drive makes
 the filters an incredibly powerful mental force.  Take a fraternity full of
 healthy, horny  athletes, install mental filters that are linked to
 their sexual energies, and you've got a system that becomes stronger and
 more sexually charged every time they kick in."
 
 What Doc was saying about psycho-sexual control, and the kind of control
 he was demonstrating over Erik--that kind of bothered me, and I wasn't sure
 I wanted that.  I signed on for a mental edge in wrestling, not to be
 manipulated like someone's sex toy.  I felt myself starting to try to snap
 out of it, but ...  well, I couldn't.  But the longer I watched, the more I
 fought that feeling.
 
 Erik moaned.  His hand was pumping so fast it was a blur.  "Oh, man," he
 gasped.
 
 "Feel good, Erik?"
 
 "Yeah, man!"
 
 "Hey, Doc," someone else said from behind us.
 
 "Hello, Flash," Doc said, turning to the new guy.  Flash.  Football and
 baseball star.  Black jeans.  Bare chest  with brown hair.  He had a
 big build, with massively muscled arms and pecs.  Blue eyes.  A tattoo of
 an ocean scene with porpoises on his right bicep.  Very good-looking, like
 he just crawled off a clothing advertisement, with a shy, "aw shucks"
 country-boy personality.
 
 "What's going on?" Flash asked.  He peered around us and grinned.  "Oh,
 is he at it again?  Hey, Erik, whatcha doing there, boy?  Jacking off
 again?"
 
 Doc said, "Looks that way.  In fact, I wonder if you're horny too,
 Flash? Aren't you?  Wouldn't you like to help him out?"
 
 Flash smirked broadly and said, "Sure, Doc." He pushed through us.
 
 As Flash started to pass Doc, Doc put his palm on Flash's forehead.
 "Sleep," he ordered as he pulled his hand down Flash's face.  Flash
 stalled, and his head fell forward.  "Strip," Doc said, and Flash pealed
 off his black jeans, then his powder-blue boxers.  Naked, he had an
 impressive body.  His hard-on stuck directly out in front of him.  Seven
 inches long, it looked like, and very thick.  Uncut too.
 
 "Flash, blow him," Doc said, and Flash sank to his knees in front of
 Erik.  Erik turned his heavy-lidded eyes toward Flash; his hand slowed on
 his cock and then pulled back.  As Flash's mouth slid over Erik's cock, Doc
 slid his hand down Erik's face and told him, "Sleep." Erik's head sagged
 forward, eyes closed.
 
 "Take control of the sex drive," Doc said to us as Flash bobbed on
 Erik's erection, "and you take control of the mind." Doc surveyed the scene
 he had created for us.  "Flash," he said, "jack yourself off, please."
 
 Flash moaned, and his hand found his cock and started stroking.
 
 To us again, Doc said, "Any questions?"
 
 We of course weren't really in a questioning mode.
 
 "Didn't think so," Doc said smugly.  "Take control of the sex drive, use
 it to energize the mental filters, and the result is a kind of control too
 enjoyable and seductive to be resisted." He turned to Erik and Flash and
 told them, "Cum now.  Cum, boys." Flash fell back onto his heels, body
 spasming.  His  shot up in long arcs.  Erik trembled, and his load came
 out in easy pulses, dripping into the floor at his feet.
 
 "Erik, Flash, get your things and I'll see you downstairs later with the
 rest of the brothers." Like somnambulists, Erik collected his towel, and
 Flash retrieved his boxers and jeans.  They padded off, not caring that
 they were naked.
 
 "Gentlemen, come along." We followed him.
 
 We ended up back at the main room, where we came in.  "Gentlemen, I
 offer you a choice.  Join the brotherhood and accept my control.  The
 benefits will be better than you imagine.  Prestige here on campus.
 Success on and off the field.  Sex regularly and without complications.
 And after you graduate, fame, fortune, vision, focus.  The future is yours.
 Or, you can back out, go back to your lives the way they were before.  In
 time, without reinforcement, your mental filters will fade.  Maybe you'll
 achieve the same things, but you'll have to work a lot harder for them.
 The choice is simple." He gestured at a nearby table along one wall.  On it
 were six neatly folded jockstraps--white with the fraternity letters across
 the pouch in blue.  "Join.  Or ..." He gestured toward the door.  "The
 decision is yours."
 
 Cameron walked over to the table.  He fingered one of the jockstraps.
 Then he took off his shirt, shoes, pants, and briefs.  He pulled on the
 jock strap.  From somewhere, a small crowd of fraternity brothers was
 gathering around us.  When the elastic waistband of the jock slapped tight
 against Cameron's tight stomach, several of them started whistling and
 yelling and howling.
 
 Then Daniel went up to the table.  And Tony.  And Daryl.  And Marco.
 They stripped down and slipped on the jock straps, and the noise of the
 brothers was now nearly deafening.
 
 I didn't move.  Something wasn't right.  It was hard to push back the
 filters, but I was trying.  Something ...  just felt wrong.
 
 Doc called over the din, "Luke?" I didn't move.  "No?  Well, then,
 awaken." He snapped his fingers and I felt the filter fade.  "Erik, show
 Luke to the door, please." And Erik had me by the arm, hustling me to the
 front door.
 
 To the frat members, Doc was saying, "Brothers, I present your new
 pledge class." And the cheering mass of brothers swarmed in on Daniel and
 the others, hollering, hoisting them into the air, hauling them on a sea of
 shoulders to a door that led downward to the basement.
 
 In seconds, the room emptied of everyone except just Doc, Erik, and me.
 And Erik shut the door in my face.
 
 39
 
 Daniel didn't come home at all that weekend.  Or, more accurately, he
 came home Saturday afternoon while I was out and cleaned out most of his
 clothes and some personal stuff.  Probably he moved into the frat house.
 Somehow, I couldn't make myself tell anybody anything about it.
 
 I kept feeling my filters trying to take hold again.  They had gotten
 pretty strong, I guess, 'cause I was used to just letting them kick in when
 they needed to and do what they wanted to.  Now it was taking pretty much a
 constant struggle to keep them back.  It was like trying to fight off a
 headache or something, and I was afraid to let up for a moment, or sleep,
 or watch TV--hell, I was even afraid to jack off--all because I was afraid
 that, next time, I might not be able to make them let go.
 
 Monday, at wrestling practice, Daryl and Daniel were both there.  They
 had these placid little smiles, like they were slightly amused by something
 only they knew.  I said hey, and they said hey back, but they were both
 pretty aloof.  Was that what the filters looked like from the outside?
 When Daniel and Daryl stripped down, I noticed they were wearing their
 fraternity jocks, and they pulled their singlets on over them.
 
 As for me?  Well, I hadn't slept much that weekend, and my head was
 pretty fried.  I physically couldn't stay awake much longer.  It showed in
 my expression and the bags under my eyes.  It showed in the way I dragged
 myself into my singlet and out onto the mats.  As usual, when I stepped
 onto the mats, I felt my filters try to kick in, and I had to concentrate
 pretty much everything I had on staying awake and awake and pushing them
 back.
 
 I had gone by the frat house yesterday--Sunday afternoon.  That was the
 day after most of Daniel's stuff disappeared.  I didn't know what I was
 supposed to do, or what I could do.  I guess I just wanted to--oh, screw
 it. Who knows what the hell was going through my head at the time?
 
 Anyway, I was hearing sounds of activity around back of the frat house,
 so I headed around back there.  A huge back yard, all surrounded by a
 ten-foot high privacy fence.  I guess someone likes privacy.
 
 I found a small tree and I managed to climb up high enough to see over
 the fence.  Daniel, Daryl, and the others--plus a couple of other  I
 didn't recognize--were out back.  Doing yard work in nothing but those
 jockstraps with the frat letters on them.  You know--racking leaves,
 trimming some bushes, hauling limbs and piling them.  Yard work.  It looked
 pretty much like the standard embarrassing stuff frats make their pledges
 do.
 
 Daniel was cutting back limbs on this bush on the other side of the
 yard. He had his back to me, so there's no way he could have seen me.  One
 of the brothers walked up to him.  Like all the rest of the brothers, this
 one didn't have a  on, but there's nothing too weird about that when
 you're working outside in the yard under the hot sun.  He put his hand on
 Daniel's shoulder blade as he told him something.  A pretty everyday
 gesture, I guess, but there was something ...  I dunno--something kind of
 sensual about it, like they were more than just friends.  Especially when
 he started rubbing his hand across Daniel's shoulder that way.
 Fraternities are supposed to be about brotherhood and stuff, but this
 seemed kind of like a twisted version.  I was thinking I'd never fuck with
 my  like that!
 
 When Daniel turned to say something back to the brother, I saw his
 distracted expression.  Yeah, there was something going on.  I just didn't
 know why, or what to do about it.  All I knew to do was to climb down out
 of that damn tree and sneak off before someone saw me.  I mean, I didn't
 even know who I was supposed to go to for help.  Maybe one of those cult
 deprogrammers?  Well, they don't list in the Yellow Pages around here.  (I
 checked.) And I sure wasn't about to confront Doc directly about it.  I was
 out of my element here, and I knew it.
 
 So, Monday.  Wrestling practice.  Daniel and Daryl are there like
 always. They both smile and nod a greeting but that's about it.  They don't
 avoid me but they keep to themselves; and I don't go up to talk to them
 because I have no clue what to say.  What was I supposed to say?  "Hi, did
 you know Doc has hypnotized you and is making you do things you probably
 wouldn't want to if you ever stopped to think about it?" I mean, give me a
 fucking break, okay?
 
 I guess it's true you can't hypnotize people and make them do things
 that are against their nature.  But maybe you can work them up to it in
 small steps.  Convince them a little at a time.  Almost like seducing them
 into it.  Maybe there was something to that "psycho-sexual control" stuff
 Doc had been talking about.
 
 Coach noticed me dragging my ass all through practice, and he really
 crawled me about it.  Chewed me a whole new asshole about how I needed to
 start taking care of myself and not stay out all night so I looked like
 something the  dragged in.  He even asked me if I was doing drugs!
 Fuck! I told him no, that I'd just been up all weekend cramming for a big
 exam, and not to worry 'cause the exam had been earlier that day, and how I
 was sure gonna get a good night's sleep that night--yes, sir--yes,
 sir--yes, I hear you, sir!
 
 So he made me run extra laps after practice, I guess to make sure the
 message sank in.  Shit, that was the worst part.  Running laps is boring,
 and it's easy to let your mind wander, and I knew if I let my concentration
 slip for a second, I might be a goner.
 
 So I'm really a  puppy when I'm heading back to the gym to shower
 and change back into my street clothes.  There's this door you have to go
 through--you walk past the mats, and through that door to the hall that
 takes you to the locker room--and that's where Daniel and Daryl were
 waiting.
 
 "Hey, Luke, buddy!" Daniel said when he saw me coming, and he's coming
 over all smiles and hand out like he wants to be friendly, Daryl trailing
 right behind him and grinning just as big.
 
 "Dude," Daniel said, sounding all cocky.  There's nothing in his voice
 to show what's going on in his head except a slight slowness where his
 filters were working on him.  "Dude, what' wrong?  You look pretty rough."
 He yanked his hand and popped me one in the chest.  Not enough to hurt, but
 enough to make me take a step back.  "What's the matter Luke?  Haven't you
 been sleeping at night?" And he poked me again, circling me and popping me
 in the chest again.
 
 He wasn't trying to  me.  He was trying to herd me.
 
 My foot hit the edge of the wrestling mats, and I really had to
 concentrate.
 
 "Doesn't he look rough to you, Daryl?  He looks pretty stressed-out to
 me," Daniel said, coming on strong, trying to intimidate me.  "You know,
 when I'm stressed, there's nothing like some exercise to help me get to
 sleep."
 
 "Look, Daniel," I said, "I don't want any trouble." I was trying to look
 around for some help out of the corners of my eyes, without taking my eyes
 off Daniel.  Where the hell was the Coach?
 
 "Who said anything about trouble?  We're buds, Luke.  Tell you
 what--want to go a couple of falls?  I bet some wrestling would help ya
 clear your head.  How about it?"
 
 "I don't think so--"
 
 "Oh, come on--just a couple of rounds.  I promise to go easy on ya."
 
 'No, I--"
 
 "C'mon, Luke.  What's the worst that could happen?  You afraid I might
 be better than you?  C'mon, Luke."
 
 Daryl chimed in with, "Yeah, c'mon, Luke."
 
 Then Daniel's lunging at me, all smooth moves and an easy laugh, and we
 hit the mat, squirming and struggling, wrestling and grappling for position
 and control.  This is all a game to him, but it's more to me.  Like I said
 before, Daniel is physically bigger and weighs more than I, but I'm faster
 and probably have the better technique.  In a fair fight, I hold my own.
 
 This isn't a fair fight.  I could feel my filters trying to kick in,
 trying to guide me and tell me what to do, just like they're supposed to,
 but I'm fighting them off as much as I'm fighting off Daniel.  He's trying
 every trick he can to make me lose my concentration--tickling, pinching,
 poking, all while we're struggling for holds and trying to block or break
 before the other gets an advantage.  Daniel is also nowhere near as
 exhausted as I am.  I'm running on pure adrenaline now.
 
 Daniel's got me on the defensive.  He's gotten behind me--got his legs
 around my waist in a scissors, trying to shut down my lower body.  No
 problem--I can break this--I just have to do it before he attacks my upper
 body, and I figure I've got a couple of seconds.  But I don't.  Daniel
 didn't go after my arms like I was thinking he would.  He wasn't going for
 a pin--he had whole different kind of victory in mind.
 
 He slapped one arm around my skull and forehead, tugging my head up and
 back.  His other arms snaked around my neck and chin, clamping down hard. I
 know this hold, and it's not legal--it's the sleeper hold.  Okay, I
 thought, I can break this.
 
 I'm going for it, and suddenly there were two other hands, grabbing my
 wrists and trapping them.  Fuck--I'd forgotten about Daryl.
 
 Daniel's hot and ragged breath was sliding across my ear.  He murmured,
 "Whassa matter, Luke?  It's just your ol' friends Daryl and Daniel trying
 to help ya get some sleep.  Don't you wanna sleep?"
 
 The sleeper hold works by cutting off the blood to your brain, and it
 doesn't take long at all sometimes.  Especially when you're already
 half-dead.  Okay, I was in trouble and I knew it, and I was tempted to let
 my filters take charge just to see if they could get me out of
 this--figured it might be worth the risk.
 
 Daniel voice in my ear, soft and low like a lover's: "Rockabye, baby ...
 in the treetop ..."
 
 I tried to struggle--I really did--but nothing was working right.  I
 couldn't make my fingers or my legs do what I wanted them to do.
 
 "When the wind blows ...  the cradle will rock ..."
 
 This was like some twisted joke, singing someone a lullaby when they're
 trapped in a sleeper hold.
 
 "When the bough breaks ...  the cradle will fall ..."
 
 I couldn't think straight any more.  Couldn't keep my eyes open.  My
 body--the parts I could still feel--were turning into limp, dead weight.
 
 "And down will come Lukie ..."
 
 The world was going gray as I blacked out, and the last thing I head was
 Daniel whispering, "...  cradle and all ..."
 
 40
 
 I woke up.  Not all the way--I could feel my filters clamped firmly in
 place--but enough that I knew what's going on again.  I had no clue how
 long I'd been out of it.  I had the vague sense that I hadn't really been
 unconscious the whole time.  I seemed to remember vaguely that Doc had me
 in a trance; I remembered his voice hazily.
 
 In my head.  questions like, How long ...--firmly, smoothly, my filters
 shifted it to the background where it was no longer important.  And, Where
 am ...--the question faded.
 
 Right then, I wasn't sure where I was at first.  I was blindfolded.  I
 was naked.  Sitting in a chair, with my hands tied behind it and my ankles
 tied to the legs.  I felt the ropes being released, and then someone pulled
 off the blindfold.  I blinked, looked around.
 
 A basement--probably of the frat house.  There were  to my right,
 guys to my left.  Shirtless--all of them.  Isaac and Erik and Flash and
 some of the other  I recognized from the fraternity.  Doc over there to
 one side.  There was Daniel, with Daryl and Cameron and Marco and Tony, in
 their pledge jockstraps with the fraternity letters on the front.  Daniel
 and the pledges had that faraway look in their eyes--their filters were not
 as integrated into their psyches as the brothers', not as much a natural
 part of them yet.  My filters were letting me know everything I needed to
 know--I was safe in the frat house, among my friends and classmates.
 Everything else was unimportant.
 
 A sea of men.  They parted.  A pathway between the two groups.  A table.
 Something on it.  Something small and white.  My filters let me know
 exactly what to do.
 
 "Do it," the  were chanting.  "Do it.  Do it.  Do it."
 
 I knew exactly what I needed to do.  I stood up.  Being naked didn't
 bother me.  I walked down that little gap between them.  On the table was a
 neatly folded jockstrap.  Basic white.  The fraternity letters emblazoned
 in blue on the pouch.  I reached out and picked it up.
 
 "Do it," the  were chanting as they closed in around me.  "Do it.  Do
 it.  Do it."
 
 I looked around.  Something in me wanted to be part of what they were,
 to have the same success and vouchsafed futures waiting for them.  I knew
 what to do.  The fabric felt good in my hands, like a handful of security
 and trust.  I opened the folded jockstrap out.
 
 "Do it!  Do it!  Do it!" Their chanting was louder, unrelenting as a
 heartbeat.
 
 I bent forward.  First one foot, then the other, and I stood up, pulling
 the jockstrap snugly into place.  And I felt my filters clamp down tighter
 than ever around my consciousness--perfect, seamless, permanent.
 
 The crowd of  and skin swirled around me, cheering and slapping my
 back and butt, welcoming me as their newest pledge.
 
 Postscript
 
 It's been a year and a half since Daniel and I were been initiated into
 the frat, and we've never looked back.  Now we're walking across campus,
 across the quad at noon, with my dad and my younger  Teddy.  Summer
 semester.  Teddy graduated from high school this past May, and he's here
 visiting campus.  He was a track star in high school, and he's got that
 sleek runner's body.  He's got a scholarship waiting if he decides to come
 to  here.  He's got another possible scholarship at another
 university too, and he has to decide which one to take.  That's why he's
 here--to check out the campus.  As for Dad, he's been to campus a few times
 but not recently.  It's an hour's drive to get here--not bad but not
 something that happens a lot.  Plus, he doesn't get out much not that he's
 single again.  He's finally been dating some now, but he says he doesn't
 get out much socially, and I don't think he's gotten laid in a while
 either.
 
 Daniel and I are walking toward the Psych building.  Teddy and Dad are
 following behind us.  Daniel and I are in our usual fraternity
 uniform--snug white tee-shirts with the frat letters across the chest,
 white shorts, sneakers with no socks, to show off our matching fraternity
 tattoos, low on the outside of our right legs, just above the ankle.  Dad
 gave me a lot of shit at first about the tattoo, but I just filtered it
 out. He calmed down after a couple of hours.  I mean, I'm an adult, and a
 frat tattoo is something a lot of  get.  He had to admit I was a lot
 more focused now, a lot more mature.  He said joining the frat was the best
 thing that had happened to me--said it settled me down and made a  out
 of me.  That made me smile, 'cause he had no idea.
 
 My filters have been in place full-time ever since that night, and
 they're only getting stronger, more a part of me, every day.  By now,
 there's pretty much no situation they can't get me through.
 
 Right now, we're taking Dad and Teddy to meet Doc.  Doc's my faculty
 advisor now, and he and Teddy are gonna talk about the school, the track
 program, and maybe joining the frat.
 
 Teddy has just turned 18, and he's the usual bundle of teenage hormones.
 I remember what it was like for me when I was 18; that was before Doc was
 around to make sure I--we--got some action regularly.  It must be hell to
 be that horny and not know where your next release is coming from.
 
 Teddy is trying to act cool about everything--the campus, going off to
 college--but I can tell he's kind of freaked about it.  He keeps trying to
 pretend he's not ogling the sunbathing chicks who are ogling Daniel and me.
 Daniel and I, we're not paying any attention to them, really--they're
 mostly getting filtered out.
 
 Some sunbathing chick calls my name and waves.  She takes a moment to
 register on me, and then the memory comes.  She's this  Doc had me
 dating last semester.  Her  runs a major investment company, and one
 of my frat brothers who was graduating needed to get a job there.  Doc had
 me sleeping with her so her  would hire him--part of Doc's program to
 get us promoted into positions of leadership once we graduate.  Then, a
 couple of weeks after my frat  got hired, Doc told me to dump her,
 and I did.  She wasn't much good in bed anyway.  But now she's waving and
 yelling my name, and I wave back because you never know when you might need
 her connections or something.  I can tell Teddy is pretty impressed that
 all the hot chicks seem to know me.  This chick waves me over but I pretend
 not to notice, and Daniel and me, we just keep walking.
 
 We're cruising forward along the sidewalk, like sharks, thrusting with a
 cool, leisurely muscularity through a school of fish that parts
 respectfully around us.  The world is ours, and we will conquer it.  Yeah,
 we're well-known on campus--we're some of the best-looking  on campus,
 and everyone knows us as star athletes and the leaders of the primo frat.
 We rule this campus.  We owe it all to Doc.
 
 So we lead the way to Doc's office, and Daniel knocks on the door.  Doc
 calls out for us to come in, and we do.
 
 "Hello, gentlemen," he says, getting up and coming around his desk.
 "You must be Luke's father," and he offers his hand.
 
 "Hi.  Call me Matt," my dad says, and they shake hands.
 
 "Your Luke here is a great guy.  You must be very proud of him," Doc
 says, as he shakes Dad's hand, keeping up the eye contact.  "And you," he
 says, turning to Teddy, "must be the little  I've heard so much
 about?"
 
 "Hey," Teddy says, noncommittally as they shake hands.
 
 "You don't look so little to me," Doc says, looking him right in the
 eye. "In fact, you look like a very handsome   to me." Doc turns
 and heads back to his seat behind his desk.  "Matt, Teddy, why don't you
 sit down?  Daniel, Luke, would you mind waiting out in the hall.  I'd like
 to talk to Matt and Teddy privately for a few minutes."
 
 So Daniel and I look at each other and grin, and we go out to wait in
 the hallway, closing the door behind us.  Waiting is easy--we just stand
 there, hands clasped behind our backs, and we know we're supposed to go
 deeply into our heads, focusing and letting our filters close down tighter
 over our heads.  For the next while, we're lost in our training scenarios,
 the ones Doc has us run through every day.  It's a lot like self-hypnosis,
 and it makes waiting easy 'cause we don't notice the passage of time.
 
 Doc snaps his fingers, and I blink.  "Gentlemen," he says to us, "you
 can come in now.  They're ready for you." Daniel and I exchange grins, and
 we follow Doc back into his office.
 
 Dad and Teddy are still sitting in their chairs.  Their heads are
 slumped forward a little, like they've dozed off.  They each have one hand
 hovering in the air, indicating their trances, and the other hand hanging
 limply at their sides.
 
 Doc says, "Luke, why don't you take care of Teddy.  Daniel, would you
 take care of Matt, please?" And we know exactly what to do.  It's
 crystal-clear.
 
 My little  Teddy is slouched down in his chair, legs stretched
 forward.  I'm suddenly struck by what a hot-looking guy he is.  Looks a lot
 like me.  I kneel between his spread knees.  He's wearing a fashionable
 tee-shirt and baggy shorts.  There's an erection lolling inside those
 shorts.  I open them.  I'm pulling down the front of his white boxer-briefs
 when, over my shoulder, Doc whispers, "Our little Teddy tells me he's a
 virgin.  Why don't you make his first time special."
 
 I grin, and slide down the front my brother's underwear to expose his
 half-hard cherry cock.  Looks like "our little Teddy" isn't so little after
 all.  Takes after his brother.  I glance over at my Dad, where Daniel is
 bobbing mouth-first on his cock.  Hmm, looks like big dicks run in the
 family.
 
 There was a time when this might have been a definite gross-out to me, a
 real turn-off.  But since initiation it's been like second nature.  Doc has
 really opened my eyes to a lot of things.
 
 Right now, I'm opening my mouth.  I'm pulling Teddy's dickhead into my
 mouth.  Running my tongue all around the head of his massive cock, tasting
 a little precum, slurping it up.  I glanced up at Teddy's face.  It was
 bowed down, and his eyes were closed, like he was deeply asleep.  Yeah, Doc
 sure knows what he's doing, and he can be very persuasive.
 
 I'm turning back to what I'm doing, and I'm running my lips further and
 further down his shaft.  Teddy moans in his sleep, but he doesn't wake
 up--he can't break out of his trance, or maybe he just doesn't want to.
 
 His cock is long and seems endless.  It keeps growing and getting longer
 and even harder.  Teddy starts thrusting his hips faintly in his sleep,
 instinctively trying to fuck my mouth.  His body slumps back in the chair
 even further, if that's possible, as he falls deeper into that hypnotic
 peace that I know will soon be like second nature to him too.
 
 My mouth is going to take my brother's cherry and make him a man.  My
 mouth makes love to Teddy's cock for what seems like forever, sliding
 slowly up, then down on his meat.  Having his cock gliding in out of my
 mouth makes me feel really good, so very hot, and my cock is hard as a
 brick in my shorts.  I'm probably leaking precum too.  Doc didn't say
 anything about me taking my rod out, so I don't.  Anyway, I know I'll be
 getting a little something later tonight when we get back to the frat
 house--Doc always has us take good care of each other.
 
 I'm working my finger up underneath his balls.  I can't get to his ass
 very well, what with his shorts and boxer-briefs interfering, but I manage
 to rub my fingertip back and forth over his virgin asshole.  Teddy is
 getting ready to shoot.  I'm feeling his nuts  up and his cock
 throbbing harder and harder.  The muscles in his groin are flexing as his
 orgasm starts rippling along every nerve.  I'm slobbering all over his huge
 dick, ready to take all that he has to give.  I can't wait!
 
 Teddy moans again, still locked in his daze.  At that moment, he begins
 to shoot his load into my mouth.  I'm feeling his virgin cock spitting his
 spunk against the roof of my mouth and the back of my throat.  I'm
 swallowing, milking his cock, taking all the  he can send me.
 
 I'm  on his cock while he blows his load down my throat.  It's
 the most wonderful feeling in the world.  Doc has made sure of that, and I
 feel so grateful to him.  He's helped me help Ted feel great too, helped me
 make a  out of him.  Ted's body gives a final involuntary shudder as he
 fires his last wad of cum.  I'm swallowing that too and licking his
 cockhead and shaft to make sure I've gotten it all.
 
 Doc tells me what a good job I've done, and I feel like I'm glowing with
 pleasure.  I tuck Ted's softening cock away in his boxer-briefs and fasten
 his shorts again.  Ted has slept right through his first sex and the loss
 of his virginity.  Oh, well--I know there'll be more.
 
 I sit back on my haunches to watch Daniel finishing up with my father.
 Daniel has unbuttoned the bottom half of Dad's shirt, and he's rubbing one
 hand over the light hair on Dad's tight stomach.  Dad still keeps himself
 fit and very trim--no middle aged spread.  Dad's in his mid-forties, and
 he's a really good-looking guy--movie-star handsome--and he still looks
 like he's in his mid-30s.  Right now, I'm seeing him, and his body, in a
 whole new light.  Right now, he's slouched in the chair and getting a great
 blowjob--Daniel has blown me more time than I can count, and I know he's
 the best.  The best Dad's gotten in a long time, that's for sure, and maybe
 even the best ever.
 
 Dad's cock is long and sleek.  Daniel is nursing it slowly, gently,
 teasing it with little flicks of his tongue against the underside of the
 cock head every now and then, the way that always drives me wild, as his
 fingers tease through the hair around Dad's navel, and then Daniel's easing
 his mouth over the whole shaft and humming softly as he slides his head up
 and down on it.
 
 Dad's orgasm comes like an explosion.  No warning.  Daniel is licking
 around the cock head, and suddenly Dad's dick is spewing his juice in
 Daniel's face like a teenager, so fast and furious Daniel barely has time
 to get his mouth over the head and start swallowing.  When Dad has blown
 the last of his load, Daniel sits back and lets Dad's still-erect cock slip
 from his lips.  Daniel puts Dad's slacks back in order.
 
 "That's a terrific job, guys," Doc says.  "Why don't you go back out in
 the hall and wait, while I finish up with Matt and Ted." So Daniel and I
 climb to our feet, and we go wait in the hall.
 
 I don't know how much time passes--like I said, we never notice it when
 we're focusing on our mental scenarios.  The door to Doc's office opens,
 and we start snapping out of it.  Dad and Ted walk out.  They turn and
 shake Doc's hand.
 
 "Thanks for taking the time to talk to us," Dad says.  "I know you've
 given Ted a lot to think about."
 
 "Yeah," Ted says dreamily, like he's only half-awake.  He's grinning as
 he shakes Doc's hand and looking at him like Doc is his new best friend.
 
 "No problem," Doc says.  "Ted is a bright  man.  I know he'll make
 the right about which  he's going to choose ...  and about the
 fraternity.  Won't you, Ted?"
 
 "Yeah!" Ted says, grinning enthusiastically.
 
 Doc said, "If you'll excuse me, I have some other matters I need to
 attend to.  I'm sure I'll see the four of you back at the frat house
 tonight." And Dad and Ted say their goodbyes to Doc and we head back
 outside, into the afternoon sun, lower now by several hours.
 
 As we walk back to the frat house, Ted announces he has made up his
 mind. He's going to take the track scholarship and enroll in this college.
 He's going to pledge our frat too.  That's good news, though not
 unexpected.
 
 Dad says, "You know, that Doc is a really inspirational kind of guy.  I
 really like his style.  In fact, I might start making the drive over here
 to visit you  more often.  Maybe I'll even take some night classes,
 like Doc suggested." He jostled Ted's shoulders.  "Think they'll have a
 place for me to stay at the frat house a couple of nights a week?  Think
 you can stand seeing the   around the place once in a while?"
 
 Ted says, "Yeah ...  definitely."
 
 Daniel and I look at each other, and we smile.
 
 
 
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