Going All the Way by Dan Wakefield

Author:Dan Wakefield
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504026208
Publisher: Open Road Media

4

Sonny was relieved to know that Gunner was still his friend, but he realized there wouldn’t be as much chance to hang around with him now, what with the sexy Jewish girl providing him with afternoons of art and evenings of lustful abandon. Or so at least Sonny imagined Gunner’s schedule—a full life if there ever was one. Sonny determined once again to fill the long, hot days of his own existence with something more than whipped-cream desserts and television, swore he would try to “pull himself together,” as his father put it. The summer was melting away like the unfinished ice cream Sonny left on his plate at breakfast, running out in a soupy mess.

To help himself get in a better mood, Sonny went out and bought a record of Victory at Sea. It was written by the great Richard Rodgers to go with a TV documentary about the glorious Battle of the Pacific in World War II, and when Sonny saw a rerun of the program he found himself closing his eyes and just listening to the music. It gave him gooseflesh and made him feel like a different kind of person. He played the record in his room on the portable Victrola he got for high-school graduation, and felt transformed. The music stirred him, made him aspire to finer things; as he lost himself in it, let it take him, he seemed to feel his mind and soul expand, as if they were getting oxygen. He imagined himself in a spotless white suit, doing noble and dangerous things, at considerable sacrifice to himself. Immersed in that music, he was cleansed of all desire for pussy, and he felt if he could just keep the music playing in his head he would never again be plagued by dirty thoughts. He would never even have to jack off anymore if he could just keep the lofty spirit of the music in him. Da-da, da-da dumm-dumm; da-da, da da dum-dum.… The sun on the water. Salt spray of the sea. Clean winds, whipping banners of Right and Justice. Men standing tall; chest out, shoulders back, stomach in. A sense of pride and honor. The best in man. A man who lived with that melody, who moved with that rhythm, would never be caught eating late-morning breakfasts of fudge ripple ice cream; such a man would never loll around the house all day, letting his life slip by, rotting his teeth with Pepsi-Cola.

After Sonny brought the record home and played it alone in his room, twice over, he did five push-ups and ten sit-ups. Even that much had him sweating and breathing hard, and he took a long shower, making it as cold as he could stand it at the end, gritting his teeth and feeling frozen but proud.

He put on clean, fresh clothes and sat down at his desk with a pencil and a piece of lined notebook paper. At the top he printed “Things To Do.” The lettering looked rather faint, and Sonny went downstairs and sharpened the pencil with a paring knife.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.