The story of Jake Miller
The Saguaro University Arizona Chronicles
Book 1
Copyright © 2025 by Julien Gregg
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact the author by email. The link is below.
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
One
I woke up with pain everywhere. My head, back, arms, and legs were on fire. I screamed and suddenly two nurses and a doctor were in the room with me. They were saying something to me but I couldn’t hear them over my screams. I was injected with something and then I was gone.
When I came to again I wasn’t in pain. I was sore but not in agony. I tried to figure out what had put me in the hospital. Had there been an accident? I didn’t have a car so I wasn’t worried that I had crashed. However I could have been a passenger in a car that crashed. The only person I ever went anywhere with was Bobby. He was my big in the frat.
I was going to be a big next year myself. I hoped that Bobby was all right. A nurse came in to check on me. She was an older woman with blonde hair in pony tail. She said, “How’s your pain?”
“I’m sore but not in pain. What happened to me?” I asked.
“You don’t remember?” she asked, looking shocked. I shook my head. “do you know your name?”
“My name is Jake Miller,” I said. “I’m nineteen years old. I’m studying computer programming at Link University. I am an Alpha Beta Omega brother. I’m originally from Quincy, Illinois.”
She smiled and said, “Very good.”
“I can’t remember what happened to me,” I said.
“I’ll get the doctor,” she said and left he room.
I sighed and lay my head back against the bed and thought about what could have happened. I tried hard to remember. I just couldn’t. I knew that Spring Break was just around the corner and I had scrimped and saved to buy a ticket and pay my share of a hotel in Florida. I had the money in my account to pay for both. We would leave Friday after classes and fly out that night. I had been looking forward to the trip. It seemed I’d miss it now.
The doctor, a fifty-something year old man with salt and pepper hair and dark eyes came in. He looked in my eyes with a light and then asked, “And how is the pain?”
“I’m only sore now,” I said.
He nodded and said, “Mrs. Peters tells me you don’t remember what happened. I’m sorry to tell you that the plane you were on crashed. You have no broken bones just a lot of bruises. You were found in your seat with luggage all over you.”
“There were ten of us on the flight,” I said. “All of us were from Alpha Beta Omega at Link University.”
“I’m sorry to tell you that you and three others are all that survived the crash,” he said, looking at me with compassion in his dark eyes.
I stared at him in shock. “Four people out of sixty survived?”
What about Bobby, Jason, Adam, and Rex? Those were the guys that I hung out with. Rex was on the baseball team with me. Suddenly I remembered. I said, “My ticket was upgraded to first class, Bobby’s too. We were sitting together.”
“I’m afraid that you are the only one from first class that survived,” he said, giving me a sympathetic look.
As it turned out none of the frat brothers on that plane survived but me. I cried. How was I to go back to that house when more than half of the brothers were dead? Fifty-six people died when Flight 187 went down.
My uncle showed up. He’d flown in from St. Louis. We were in Dove Port, Mississippi. I was released from the hospital and Jacks flew with me back to Fayette Point, Illinois. He went with me to the frat house where I got all of my clothes and stuff packed up. We shipped it to Quincy. Then we flew to St. Louis, Missouri and drove back to Quincy from there.
My parents had died when I was fourteen. Since then I’d lived with my uncle. I wasn’t sure I’d ever go back to the university. Jacks said he understood. I just wasn’t sure about anything at that point. All I knew was that almost everyone I knew from the university was dead. I had a baseball scholarship to Link University but I wasn’t sure I’d go back.
“I can’t believe you got
on a plane twice,” Jacks said.
I didn’t reply. It hadn’t been easy. I’d had a blast in Florida with my frat brothers. We were on our way back when the plane crashed. Getting on a plane after that was the hardest thing I’d ever done but I did it.
Braunstein Airlines had declared engine failure had caused the crash. Jacks called a lawyer. He had an investigator look into it and in the end he’d found that the airline had cut corners, failed to do safety checks, and had seven crashes in twenty years. He sued them for fifty million dollars.
The suit lasted for ten days. The judge awarded the four survivors forty million. To the families of the dead he awarded ten million each. They appealed the judgment and lost. I received a check for thirty million from the lawyer six days before Christmas.
“Well now, millionaire what are you going to do?” Jacks asked.
“I’m going back to school,” I said, smiling.
“You heading back the Fayette Point?” he asked.
“No, there’s no way I can ever go back there, Jacks. I’d just be reminded of my dead frat brothers,” I said.
“Well where will you go?” he asked.
“You know how I hate winter,” I said with another smile.
“You headed off to the desert?” he laughed.
“Yes,” I said.
“It’ll be harder for you to come back for breaks,” he said.
“I have thirty million dollars,” I countered with a laugh. “I can come back for every break.”
“You sure you want to fly?”
he asked seriously.
“I have to fly,” I said. “Jacks statistically it’s the safest way to travel.”
“I’m glad you still know that,” he said softly.
Jacks, short from Jackson was five feet, ten inches tall with dark hair like mine but his had gray in it. His eyes were gray where mine were brown but he was a good looking older man. Of course he was all I had.
“Of course I still know that,” I said with a smirk. “My bell was rung not destroyed.”
“I’m glad that bell was just rung and not destroyed,” he said, giving me a look. “You’re all the family I have left, Jake. When that plane went down I was terrified for you.”
“You know I feel the same way,” I said. “I wish you’d let me give you half of that money.”
“I don’t want a cent of that money, Jake,” he said. “I’m just glad you got thirty million instead of me getting ten million because you died.”
When he said things like this it made me feel funny in my stomach. We were the last of the Miller boys. My parents had died in a car accident. My father was Jacks’s only brother. Jacks had married not long after my parents were married but his marriage didn’t last long. She was a woman on a mission to live life and her way of living was not Jacks’s way. Their parents were gone and so were my mother’s. So he was all I had. I was all he had. We were a team.
He walked away from me after that. He wasn’t all that good with his emotions. I went to my room with my phone and my computer. I called Saguaro University’s Arizona campus and asked to talk to the dean of admissions. His name was Frank Angelo and he told me that their acceptance of my application was still in play. He asked if I had gone to Link. I explained that I had and then told him about the plane crash and the fact that I couldn’t mentally go back there.
He gave me information on the coming semester and told me that my scholarship would transfer, but I told him I didn’t want to play baseball. I told him I’d pay my tuition up front. He was happy to allow me to. He said he’d send me information on the school and what to do in January and I thanked him for it.
I’d kept up on coding. I’d been doing that on and off since I got back from Mississippi. I had created a game with a little guy that ran through the forest trying to find his campsite. It had bears, wolves, and various other living things that crossed his path and he had to either fight them or outsmart them. Jacks loved the game and I kept making levels. He played it on his computer that I’d bought him for Christmas.
I repacked my clothes and stuff to take with me. I’d bought a truck and would drive to Osage, Arizona from Quincy. The trip would take me about twenty-three hours. I’d stop when I had to but I wanted to drive most of it straight through. Jacks wasn’t happy about it especially when I was driving on snow and ice. I told him I’d be fine.
I set off on Monday, January eleventh at six in the morning. There was snow on the ground but most of the roads were cleared already. I headed out and got gas and drinks for the drive, putting them with the sandwiches that Jacks had made for me in the cooler I’d bought the day before. Then I was off.
I turned on my CD player in the truck and just drove. I hit more weather as I went and then finally the weather was great. I pulled into Arizona a little past five AM on January twelfth. I found the campus and drove straight to the registration office. I had an appointment there at ten o’clock. I just had to sit there for five hours. I ate the rest of the breakfast I’d stopped for while I waited. My stuff was under a tarp in the back of the truck. I hoped it was all still dry and still there. Nothing had fallen off that I knew of so it should all be there.
By nine-fifty I was bored out of my mind. I got out of the truck and stretched then I went into the sandstone building and told the older dark haired woman behind the counter my name and who I had the appointment with.
I met Charles Brinkman and he got me all set up. He talked about housing and I told him that I already had an appointment with Adam St. George. He said that covered that. He gave me my course schedule, welcome packet, and map of the campus.
I left his office and headed over to Aboo. It was on Fraternity Row here in Osage. The house was three stories tall and looked to be constructed of sandstone with four columns that held up a lip of the flat roof. The sign for the frat was on the edge of that lip as well as on a sing post in the front yard.
I went in the front doors and found Adam St. George waiting for me. He was a red head with green eyes and a body full of tight muscles. He’d told me on the phone that he was a swimmer and he looked it.
“Welcome to the Alpha Beta chapter of Alpha Beta Omega,” he said, extending his hand. I shook it.
“Thank you for seeing me,” I said.
“Come on into the living room where we can sit and chat,” said Adam as he led me into the living room. He sat in one of the two tan suede recliners and motioned for me to sit on the couch. “Now we don’t usually take people in the Winter Semester until after the trials are over. You are a special case. I’m sorry for your loss, by the way.”
“Thank you,” I said. “After the plane crash I just couldn’t return to Link.”
“I completely understand,” said Adam. “I have a room for you. You aren’t a pledge and have already been through the trials. So all I had to do was juggle a few people and find you a room. You can move in and you’ll be the full brother here that you were at the Beta Omicron chapter of the house.”
“Thank you, Adam,” I said.
“Now, do you still play baseball?” Adam asked.
“No,” I said. “I gave it up after the crash. I have pain in my legs more often than not so I decided to let it go.”
“Okay,” he said. “Most of the guys here in the frat play a sport, but because of the crash and your injuries I’m going to wave that stipulation. Did you want to see the room?”
“Yes, please,” I said and got up to follow him back to the hall and up the stairs to the second floor.
“You will share this room with Todd Albright when he arrives,” said Adam. “He’s a sophomore like you so you two should be all right.”
The room was large with two double beds in it. One was facing the door and the other was facing the windows in the room. Todd hadn’t arrived yet so the room was empty. Adam told me that Todd used the bed that faced the windows so the other was all mine. There were two dressers in the room, nightstands beside the beds, an empty entertainment center that looked like it had come from the eighties with a beanbag couch in front of it.
“This looks fine,” I said. “If I could get some help dragging my stuff up here I’d appreciate it.”
“Of course,” Adam said and we went downstairs and out to the truck.
Adam told me that they parked behind the house because they were not visitors of the frat. I told him I didn’t know if I was a visitor or not when I pulled up. That made Adam laugh. We grabbed boxes and bags and headed back into the house. We were confronted by a blonde haired guy with blue eyes wearing board shorts and a t-shirt with a dolphin on the front. He wore sandals on his feet.
“Who’s this?” he asked Adam.
“John Portman, this is Jake Miller,” Adam said. “He’s moving in with Todd and has transferred from the Beta Omicron chapter of the house.”
“Welcome to the Alpha Omega chapter of the frat,” John said. “You guys want some help?”
“That would be awesome,” said Adam. “The truck is parked in front of the house.”
“Dude, we park behind the house,” John said.
“I’ve already told him that, John,” Adam said. “Just grab a box and bag or a couple of boxes. We’ll get the desk and the computer when we come back down.”
“Sure thing,” he said and bounded out the door.
The three of us moved all of my stuff up to my new room. I wondered when Todd would show up. I wasn’t freaking out about anything but I was a little nervous about meeting my new room mate.
I moved my truck behind the frat and was given a fraternity sticker to put in his window so no one gave me a ticket for parking there or towed me away for it. Then I spent some time in my room putting my stuff away. I hung my shirts and dress pants in the closet on my side of the room. I put my books and trophies on the shelves above my bed. Then I put my desk together and put the computer together. I plugged into the router and the wall but I had to call and have my internet hooked up. I could use the frat’s internet but I wanted my own.
When that was all done I broke down my boxes and carried them to the dumpster behind the frat. Then I went back inside and sat in the living room. I wasn’t alone for long. John and another blonde haired boy with brown eyes came into the living room and turned on the television.
“Blake Hunter, this here is
Jake Miller,” John said. “He transferred from the Beta Omicron
chapter of the house.”
“Nice to meet you, Jake,” he said. “Baseball or football?”
“I was baseball but after the plane crash I let it go,” I said.
“Oh man, you were one of the survivors of Flight 187?” Blake asked with wide eyes.
“Yes,” I said. “I lost ten frat brothers in that crash. That was over half the house. I just couldn’t go back there after that.”
“Dude, I understand,” said Blake. “I wouldn’t have either. Welcome to the Alpha Beta chapter of the house. Man, you’re gonna love it here. This place is awesome.”
“Let me guess, Sophomore?” I asked.
“How could you tell?” Blake asked.
“Your excitement,” I said. “I’m a repeating Sophomore so I know that excitement.”
“Dude wow,” he said. “You’re repeating your Sophomore year?”
“Finishing it,” I said. “The crash happened during Spring Break.”
“Damn,” Blake said. “Who’d you get for a room mate?”
“Todd Albright,” I said.
“He’s a good guy,” Blake said. “Plays baseball.”
“Cool,” I said. “We’ll have that to talk about.”
“What was your position?” Blake asked.
“Short stop,” I replied.
“Me too,” he said with a grin. “Good thing you let it go or you’d probably take my spot.”
“We could have traded off,” I said.
“Coach says when he finds a good short stop I’m in the outfield,” Blake said.
“That’s just because you party too hard and don’t do your exercises,” John said. “We keep telling him to lay off the sauce and exercise.”
“I hear you,” I said, smiling. “We had a few like that in Fayette Point.”
“Yeah what’d you do with them?” asked John.
“We put through them through the wringer,” I said. “We ran them till they puked and one of us made sure they did the exercising.”
“Sounds rough,” John said, eyeing Blake.
“Then we followed them around at parties and took drinks away and handed them coffee or soft drinks with no kick,” I said.
“Damn,” Blake said, looking at John. “This dude is intense.”
“Sounds like you guys had the right idea,” said John and he leered at Blake.
“Just don’t push too hard or they’ll quit,” I said. “You have to know what the line is. Talk to your coach. I’m sure he’d be happy to have you guys wanting to step up and help the team.”
“Man you got a great idea,” John said. “Come on, Blake. We’re going to Coach.”
“Oh man,” Blake said but he got up and followed John out of the living room.
I went back up to my room and found the box on my bed. I smiled at this because I knew what it was. Yes it was the welcome box. It was just like the one I’d gotten at the other house when I’d first joined the fraternity. There was a catalog with all things for the fraternity from clothing to can koozies and two fifty percent off coupons. I pulled the book out of the box with the hat and bumper sticker. I ordered two of everything and in all three colors for the shirts and hats. I put the check in the envelope and filled it out. I’d take it to mail it the next day.
Just then the door opened and a six foot tall muscle bound guy walked in with a television box and two bags. He looked at me and got a confused look on his tanned face. He looked around the room and then back at me again.
“Who’re you?” he asked.
“I’m Jake Miller,” I said. “You must be Todd Albright.”
“That’s me,” he said. “What are you doing in my room?”
“It’s my room, too now,” I said. “I moved in today.”
“Ah,” he said. “I knew I’d get a room mate eventually. You a freshman?”
“Sophomore,” I said. “Well I’m finishing my sophomore year. I’ve been off school for a while since the plane crash.”
“Flight 187?” he asked as he put his television box and bags down.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Sorry man,” he said. “You lost like half your house.”
“Yeah,” I said again.
“So you came to Saguaro?” he asked. I nodded. “Cool. You and me will get along pretty good I guess. I play video games.”
“I code them,” I said with a smile.
“Cool,” he said. “Other than that I play baseball. I see your baseball trophies you play still?”
“Nope,” I said. “Pain in the legs.”
“That really sucks,” he said. “I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t pay.”
“I’m spending a lot more time coding,” I said.
“Right,” he said. “I gotta get the rest of the stuff out of my Jeep. Wanna help?”
“Sure,” I said.
I followed him down and through the kitchen to the side door. We went out back to his Jeep. There were six more boxes and two bags. I carried three boxes and he carried the other three. We both had a bag handle around our arm. We went back up to the room.
“Thanks, man,” he said. “We got it all.”
“No problem,” I said with a smile. “We gotta help each other.”
“Where are you from, Dude?” he asked.
“I’m from Illinois,” I said. “Town called Quincy on the Mississippi River.”
“Oh I’ve heard of that river. It flows all over the place,” he said.
“Something like that,” I said. “I’m a computer programming major and I want to write video games for a living.”
“Plus you got all that money,” he said.
“Yes,” I said though I didn’t want to talk money. “I don’t talk about the money.”
“Sorry, Dude,” he said as he started to unpack his boxes and bags. “The TV is for both of us I guess. I have controllers for the video games you play as well as write?”
“Sure,” I said. “I have to test my games.”
“Right,” he said. “But do you play video games written by somebody else?”
“Of course I do,” I laughed. “How do you think I got interested in writing them?”
“Well okay then,” he said. “What I’m getting at is that we can share.”
“Thanks,” I said. Most of my games were on the computer but I wasn’t a stranger to a console. I just hadn’t brought it with me.
When he was all unpacked we played a game on his console. It was fun. You had to fly these aircraft and get through a bunch of obstacles that popped up at the last second. I did fairly well with it. He had to reset and start again a few times.
“You’re good,” he said.
“I have this game at home,” I said.
“Why didn’t you bring your system?” he asked.
“I did,” I said. I pointed
at my computer.
“Well I won’t mess with that,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said as I continued to play.
“Man you’re getting further than I ever did,” he said.
“I beat this game a few weeks ago,” I admitted. Then I beat it again while he watched.
“Damn,” he said. “I gotta practice.”
“Yeah, it gets easier the more you play it,” I said. “On my down time I had a lot of time to play games.”
“I’ll bet,” he said. “Don’t you miss baseball?”
“Oh I’m going to miss it but I can’t play with the pain in my legs,” I said. There was no pain in my legs. I just really didn’t want to play the game anymore. I had trouble explaining it so I just blamed the nonexistent pain in my legs.
“Gotta be something they can do for that,” he said.
“Maybe,” I said. I said maybe because I might change my mind one day.
“Well I’ll lay off,” he said. “Let me play this solo for a bit.”
“Sure thing,” I said. “I’m gonna go grab a bite.”
“Later, Dude,” he said.
“Later,” I said.
I went to my truck and headed for the Taco Shack I’d seen on my way to campus. I got three deluxe tacos and a soft drink. I sat in the dining room to eat my tacos. I thought about all that had happened. I was a college student at Link University closer to my home than now. But then I went to Florida and the plane crashed on the way back. I lost ten of my frat brothers, my best friends. I gave up baseball and my scholarship and moved here after the payout from the lawsuit. Now I was sitting in a Taco Shack in Osage, Arizona and going to Saguaro University. I was now a member of the Alpha Beta chapter of Alpha Beta Omega.
I had to decide if I wanted to move back to Quincy or stay in the west. I wanted to be a video game designer and that meant staying out west. Hell I’d probably have to move even further west. I didn’t know what I was doing at that moment.
I threw my trash away and refilled my soda. Then I drove back to the frat house and went up to my room. Todd was there and I left him alone. I sat and fired up my computer and worked on my game. He came over and stood behind me for a moment then he asked me what I was doing.
“I’m writing code for a game that I’ve been working on,” I said. “It’s a jungle game where you have to find your campsite but beasts of the jungle keep trying to prevent you from moving on. You have to either go around them, fight, or outsmart them. Some have gems and some don’t. If you fight them and get a gem it refills your health.”
“Wow,” he said. “That sounds like a fun game.”
“I’m only working on the computer version of it right now,” I said. “I’ll covert it to console CD when it’s finished.”
“I can’t wait to play it,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said. Then I went back to coding.
I was coding mountain lions at the moment. I needed to either take a graphics class or find someone who could do graphics really well. So far the beasts of the jungle were very one dimensional. I wanted this to be a well rounded game with killer graphics. I didn’t know if I’d learn what I needed to work on the graphics myself or not.
When I got the mountain lion coded I turned off the computer and went with Todd downstairs for burgers that were now being grilled outside. There were more brothers in the house now but not all of them had come to school yet. I met several of them as we walked around the backyard. Some were also computer programming majors but I met one that had majored in computer graphics.
His name was Neal Porter. I talked to him about the game that I’ve been coding. He was really interested in making graphics for the game. We talked and ate burgers and then went up to my room so he could go through what was finished of the game. He told me that the graphics were generic but he could make them perfect. He said that he had to get some things to work on it properly but asked me when I wanted it done.
“You can work on it at your leisure,” I said. “This is my final project. It’s for class and maybe for selling.”
“Oh man,” he said. “Jake, I’m so glad that you came here because I was looking for a good coder that would work with me. I want to do graphics for games and I wanted to work with a good game coder.”
“Well then welcome aboard,” I said with a smile. I shook his hand. “Any money made by the game will be divided between us unless I get more people to work with it will be fifty fifty.”
“That’s great but you should wait to see what graphics I can make for the game,” he said. “I’ll work on the mountain lion tonight when I get my computer set up. I just got moved back in and then there were burgers so I took a break. I’ll put it together and download some things that I need to use to make graphics for it.”
“Good,” I said. “When you’re done with it just show me. I think this is going to be a good idea that we work together. You can use the game graphics as your final if you need to.”
“Oh man,” Neal said with wide-eyed excitement. “That would be great!”
“I know, right?” I said with another smile.
“I’ll go put my stuff together and download the files I need,” he said before he bumped my fist and then he left my room.
I went back to coding and found some things to work on. Time passed quickly because Todd came in and stripped naked and went to bed. I turned the computer off, went into the bathroom, used the toilet, brushed my teeth and my hands, and then I went into the bedroom and stripped naked and went to bed myself.
The next thing I knew was that Todd snored like a sailor. I put my pillow over my head but could still hear him. Then I decided to just try to sleep without thinking about it but it never happened. So I got up, threw on a pair of shorts, and coded for a while. He woke up and went to the bathroom. He didn’t say a word to me so I didn’t say anything either. I just went on coding.
I pulled out the book for programming classes and began to code the first assignment in the syllabus. I got that done and went to the second assignment and coded it too. Then it was morning and Todd got up and went into the bathroom and showered. He came out and got dressed. He left the room for baseball practice and I went to sleep. I slept until he came in about three hours later. He woke me up and asked why I was asleep. I told him about his snoring and how I couldn’t sleep while he was snoring.
His face turned red but he turned and went through the drawer of his nightstand and came back with a plastic box. I looked it over and saw that it was wax earplugs. He just turned and headed out to get food with a couple of other brothers.
I didn’t mean to make him feel embarrassed. He’d asked and I wasn’t completely awake so I told him exactly why I was asleep. I got up and put my shorts on before I went into the bathroom, used the toilet, and then stepped into the shower. I had a robe hanging of the back of the bathroom door so I didn’t need to get dressed when I got out.
I put the robe on after I dried with my own towel and then went into the bedroom to find something to wear. It was hot outside so I put on another pair of shorts, sans underwear, and a t-shirt that reflected light. I put my Quincy Blue Devils cap on and went down the stairs to find out what was going on.
Neal was in the kitchen with a bowl of cereal. He told me he’d just woke up because he spent the whole night making graphics for the mountain lion. I smiled at him and told him I was up more than half the night because Todd snored so loud. He smiled at that.
“We all know how Todd can snore,” he said. “We all went and got those wax earplugs. Last year I was in the next room. This year I moved to the third floor. So I might have some of those earplugs.”
“He gave me a box of those,” I said. “He got all red in the face like he was embarrassed but I didn’t mean to make him that way.”
“It’s embarrassing for him but he knows the score,” he said. “You told him about it and he gave you earplugs to deal with it so I’m sure he’s fine with it now.”
“I hope they work,” I said.
“They do,” he said. “Promise.”
“So when do I get to see the graphics?” I asked, changing the subject.
“When I’m done with the mountain lion and it moves right I’ll show you,” he said. “I need a sample of your coding for it so I can get it to do what it needs to do in your game.”
“Stop by my room and I’ll make you a disc with all of the coding,” I said. “I was up working on it until he showered and left for baseball practice. Then I slept.”
“Cool,” he said. He rinsed his bowl and put it in the dishwasher. There was a sign about that on the cabinet above the dishwasher. I laughed out loud at that. He looked behind him and smiled.
“Some have problems cleaning up after themselves?” I asked.
“A few of them but we got them sorted when we started depositing their trash and dishes in their beds,” he said.
“Harsh,” I said with a smile.
“It got the job done,” he said, smiling back.
I went up to my room and made him the CD and he took it with a big thank you and went up to his room. I went back downstairs and made myself a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. I made sure to clean up my mess when I was done and put the knife in the dishwasher that was pretty full. I located a soap tab and put it in the little compartment and then turned the dishwasher on to a full cycle.
I sat in the living room while the dishwasher was going to watch a martial arts movie that was on cable. I had already called for internet and they told me that I had to talk to Adam as they had a deal with the house. Adam came in and saw me and smiled. I thought that was kismet.
“Adam I’m supposed to talk to you about the internet,” I said.
“It’s already on in your room,” he said. “Todd needed it for his game console. Just plug into the router.”
“I did that but I wasn’t sure it had any juice so I thought I’d talk to you,” I said.
“It’s included in the rent and dues,” he said. “Thank you for paying them so quickly by the way. I won’t have to post a warning on your door. Todd’s father is alum so he paid his the day he arrived.”
“I didn’t want to wait,” I said. “What about groceries for the frat?”
“We have a Frat Mother that does that,” he said. “Her name is Rose and she’ll be here later today to work in the kitchen. Someone has started the dishwasher so she’ll be happy about that.”
“I started it,” I said. “It was full when I put my utensil in it so I located a tab and ran a full cycle.”
“Good man,” he said. “But anyway we pitch in and put money into an account that she uses to buy food. If you want something special write it on the chalkboard on the kitchen wall beside the fridge.”
“Cool, thanks,” I said. “Does Rose live here?”
“She does but today she is grocery shopping,” he said. “We take care of food and liquor for parties but she does the grocery shopping for the fraternity.”
“Thanks Adam,” I said as we heard the back door open and someone call out for help with the groceries.
I got up and followed Adam out the back door and found an older woman with graying dark hair who was handing bags out of the back of her SUV to two of the brothers. I joined the line and she handed me four bags. I took them to the kitchen and put them on the island in there next to where the others were putting theirs. She got it all in the house and then began to put it away. She looked at me for a moment.
“I know you from the news,” she said. “You’re Jake Miller, one of the survivors of Flight 187. I’m Rose Kendall and I’m the house mother. You seem like a nice enough fella but I’ll expect you to grab one of the rules sheets and sign it before you hand it to me.”
I grabbed one out of the folder taped to her door and read them over. Then I signed it and handed it to her. She smiled and took it from me. Then she went into her room to file it. I just went in the living room. I sat down and watched the news with the other brothers. There was nothing on it that meant anything to me but I watched it just the same.
She put dinner on the table at six and we all went to sit around the table and eat. We were on our best behavior and I wondered how this chapter of Aboo threw parties. My old chapter had no Fraternity Mother so I never worried about it. This one had one and I thought it might be a university rule so I just decided I would respect her and try to stay on her good side.
I hung out in the setting sun with John and Evan, throwing a baseball back and forth between the three of us. We chatted about things they were into and what it was like to live under a Fraternity Mother. Yes they had parties and no she didn’t attend them. They had a birthday party every year for her and that was the only party she attended. She cooked and kept the kitchen clean. The brothers cleaned up the rest of the house and she inspected it. That included their rooms. She wouldn’t suffer a slob in the house. She also wouldn’t suffer back talk.
I filed that information away in my head. I was pretty much a neat freak anyway so I didn’t have anything to worry about when she inspected. I just hoped I was awake and dressed when she came in to inspect the room. I decided I’d play that one by ear. We continued to throw the ball back and forth between the three of us until the sun went down. Then we went in and found snacks on the counter.
I grabbed a bowl of fruit and went to the living room to watch television. When the program was over and my bowl was empty I put the bowl in the dishwasher and then went up to my room. Todd was there playing his game console. I joined him and we had a good evening. Then he apologized for the snoring and told me that I wasn’t the first to complain about it. I told him that the wax earplugs would probably work and he said they would. That was all we said about that.
That night I got to try them out. They did work and I got a good night’s sleep. When I woke up he next morning he was already out of the room. I got up, showered, shaved, and dressed for the day.
Then I checked my email and answered the email from Jacks and told him I hard arrived and was doing fine. I told him about the Fraternity Mother and all of her rules. Then I told him that classes hadn’t started yet but would in a few days. I sent that one and then saw that there were two from professors.
One was my Computer Programming II Professor telling me that my first assignment was due before the first class. I replied and attached the assigned code and then checked the one from my Physics Professor. He said he hoped we’d all had a good break and that he expected us to read the first chapter in the textbook before the first class.
I read the first chapter and even answered the questions at the end. I put them in my Physics folder. Then I went down to breakfast. She’d put bowls of oatmeal on the island and a few bowls of cereal. She also had a bagel station on the counter. That’s where I went. I built a bagel sandwich with egg, cheese, and bacon. Then I grabbed a juice out of a bucket of ice and went to the dining room.
After breakfast Neal invited me to his room to see the mountain lion as it would appear in my game. He’d also created the background for the entire game though he was updating it for each level. I was thrilled with what I saw and told him so. He said he’d start making the graphics for the rest of the game’s beasts and the environments. I left him to it and went downstairs to my own room to play a game on my computer.
Later for lunch I went to the Taco Shack and had a time of it. Neal and John went with me. We talked baseball and graphics. I was really starting to like John and Neal was already hit with me. He could make awesome graphics.
Todd, John, Blake, and a few others had baseball practice and I really wanted to be among them but consoled myself by hanging out with Neal. He didn’t play a sport. He played chess. I liked that about him. I could play the game but I wasn’t all that good at it.
For dinner, Rose made Sloppy Joes and served the with chips and homemade chocolate chip cookies. We each got three of those. When dinner was over I helped clear the table, rinse dishes, and load the dishwasher. She gave me a smile for that and told me she usually did that. I told her that I couldn’t help myself. I told her that I had lived with my uncle since I was fourteen and we cleaned up after ourselves all of the time.
“He told me the day I moved in that he wasn’t my maid,” I said with a smile. “Then he told me I wasn’t his either.”
She laughed and said, “Boy you were brought up right.”
“He’d love to hear you say that,” I told her.
“Tell me,” she said. “Why did you live with your uncle from fourteen?”
“My parents were killed in a car accident, and Jacks was the only family I had,” I said.
“Poor thing,” she said. “To have lost your parents so young. You and your uncle being all the family you each had. Was he married at the time?”
“No ma’am,” I said. “He got married right after my parents were married but his marriage didn’t last. He married a free spirit kind of woman.”
“Oh honey,” she said, touching my arm. “I know all about those.”
“Yeah,” I said. “But we made it all right alone.”
“I’m sure you did,” she said, smiling. “You’ve been a big help around here. Adam told me that you turned on the dishwasher yesterday because you said it was full.”
“It was,” I said. “I just hunted up a soap disc and started a full cycle.”
“And I thank you for that,” she said. “See? A help. Rub off on your frat brothers. Please.”
“I’ll try, Rose,” I said.
She went back to cleaning the kitchen and I went to the living room to watch television with some of my brothers. John, Blake, and Todd came back and then I was upstairs playing a video game tournament with all of them. Neal even got in on it. We played a fighting game and the winner of each round took on the next person until there was one winner. That didn’t happen until after eleven and by then I was so tired that I was about to fall asleep on them. I’m happy to say that I placed second.
The next day was the fourteenth. Classes would begin in five days. I was hard pressed to find things to do for those five days. I mean I could have gone to baseball practice but it was in the gym so I didn’t want to sit in there with all of the noise and not be a part of it. I could hang out with Neal but he was making graphics for my game and I didn’t want to disturb him. I just hung out in my room and played games on my computer.
John, Blake, and Todd returned and I played video games with them. This time Neal did not join us. He’d told me he was having trouble with the guy in the coding. I told him we’d get someone to do all of the moves that I’d coded into the game and film them against a green screen so we could see it on the computer and he could make the graphics off of that. We’d get the film school to do it for us.
That’s just what we did. We talked Blake into doing the moves. I demonstrated and choreographed the fight scenes and he copied me. When he had them down they filmed it. Neal and I saw him as the guy in the game on the computer and were happy with the result. The film student gave us a copy of the film file and Neal was off again.
When classes did begin I had a full day of classes. I started my day with Physics. Then I was in a College Trigonometry class followed by Psychology. I had a break after that and then I’d usually go to baseball practice but I wasn’t playing this year so I went back to the frat and did all of my course work and then played games on my computer until dinner.
All of the brothers were in
the house now. There were so many of them that I was having trouble
remembering their names. They took care of that when they made the
look books and we all had to be pictured. I took one and studied it
like I was in the trials again. That helped. I got to know who
everyone was and could name them on sight. I didn’t really know
much about most of them though. They all knew all about me though. My
story was out there for anyone to find on the internet or on cable
news shows when they talked about the families of the deceased.
Then the trials were happening and I made sure I had nothing to do with it other than to read an essay and give points for it. Then I had to wear a “Who Am I?” shirt like the others. That was the extent of my involvement with the pledges. I wasn’t even one of the brothers that sent them on shopping trips.
I did attend all of the parties for them. I even attended the alumni party and got to know a few of the alumni. One was a programmer for Microsoft. I got his card and he told me to call him and we’d chat. I was happy for that. There were two congressmen and a senator there along with businessmen and one judge. I was duly impressed but they weren’t there to talk to me. They were scoring the pledges on their conversations. I kept myself away from all of them other than to say a few hellos and nice to meet yous.
When the party was over Evan Blakely sought me out and reminded me to call him. I promised to call in the coming days and then bid him goodnight. I went up to my room and went to bed after the party. The pledges had clean up duty.
The next day I was in classes all day but I did manage to call Evan before dinner. He invited me to the house he was staying in right there in Osage. He gave me the address and I told him I’d see him in a few minutes. It was right off campus.
Evan Blakely was six feet tall with dark hair and gray eyes. He was physically fit and filled out a pair of jeans really well. He answered the door of the two-story white brick house with the pale roof and a very well cared for lawn of green grass and bushes in jeans and a t-shirt. His feet were bare.
“Jake,” he said with a smile. “Come on in.”
I followed him into the house that was nothing like I had imagined. The whole place was white walls with natural wood grain hardwood floors and moldings. I followed him into a living room that had of all things a fireplace, two recliners that were at each end of a sofa. All of this was white. There was a white rug on the floor.
“Should I take off my shoes?” I asked, indicating the white floor.
“No,” he laughed. “A company sends maids out to clean the place every day. Don’t worry about it. I’m house sitting here while I’m in Osage.”
“Where do you live normally?” I asked.
“Los Angeles,” he said. “I come to Osage about four times a year.”
“You go to the alum party twice?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “I didn’t see you at the first.”
“I wasn’t here for the first one,” I said. “This is my first semester at Saguaro.”
“Oh?” he said. “I didn’t think you were a freshman. I wasn’t given a score card on you.”
“No, I’m a sophomore,” I said. “I attended Link University in Iowa. I was a member of Aboo there too. But a bunch of us from the frat went to Florida for spring break. Our plane crashed on the way back to Iowa. They all died.”
“Flight 187,” he said. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you,” I said. “After that I couldn’t go back to school there or be in that house without remembering all of them.”
“Of course,” he said.
“So I came to Saguaro and to the house here in town,” I said. “I had to start my sophomore year over again but that was fine with me. It gave me a way to take more classes.”
“And you’re a programming major?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I want to write video games.”
“Outstanding,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to do when I was in college but Microsoft picked me up and now I do something completely different.”
“Yes,” I said. “What’s it like working for Microsoft?”
“Hectic,” he said. “There’s always a push for the next big thing.”
“I can imagine,” I said. “I still just want to be a video game coder.”
“Well I’d like to help you along in that field,” he said. “It is my hope that you and I become good friends. I know people in video game design and coding. I’ll put in a good word for you.”
“Thank you,” I said excited now. Not only was he one of the most attractive men that I’d ever met he wanted to help me with my career.
“What do you do for fun?” he asked.
“Well until the crash I was a baseball player,” I said. “I was on a baseball scholarship to Link. But after the crash I let that go. I suddenly had the money to pay my tuition without baseball and most of my frat was on the team with me so it was another thing I couldn’t go back to. I like to play video games, design them, and test them. I’m always interested in what’s going on in the tech world around me, and I take my holidays with my uncle in Quincy, Illinois.”
“Quincy!” he said with a big smile. “I was born there.”
“Really?” I asked. “So was I.”
“Well we have that in common,” he said. “So were you a Blue Devil?”
“I certainly was,” I laughed. “Captain of the baseball team and made it to state. We didn’t win the game but we played hard.”
“That’s amazing,” he said. “So you have two more years of college. What are your plans for afterward? More schooling, or do you want to enter the workforce?”
“I want to work and go to school,” I said. “I’ll have a bachelors degree when I graduate from Saguaro. I’ll go to work in coding and go back for my masters degree.”
“Awesome,” he said. “Might I suggest that you come to Los Angeles when you graduate? I can put you up while you get your feet under you. I’ll put in a good word for you at a few companies and make sure that you’re hired by at least one of them that will allow you to go back for your masters.”
“I had thought I’d probably have to go to Los Angeles to get a good coding job,” I said. “Thank you for offering to host me. You don’t even know me.”
“No but I plan to know you by the time that happens,” he said with a smile. “That’s very forward of me but when I know something I know it.”
“Well then you’ve got yourself a friend,” I said. We bumped fists. “So you’re house sitting for a friend?”
“Yes,” he said. “He’s a Saguaro graduate and an Aboo alum. His name is Peter Faulk. He works for an engineering firm and he’s away on business right now. He’ll be back in a month.”
“Well then we have a month to hang out and get to know each other before you head back to LA,” I said.
“Sounds like a plan,” he said. “Dinner’s ready so if you want to follow me into the dining room I’ll serve.”
“All right,” I said.
I followed him to the dining room where he served tacos of all things. These were different than those I got at the Taco Shack. These were made with chicken and pork. They were really good but spicy. He even gave me white wine with dinner. I’d had white wine before at home but not since I’d come to Saguaro.
“What do you think of the tacos?” he asked after a minute.
“They’re really good,” I said. “Just the right amount of spice and they go really good with the white wine. I hadn’t thought of serving any kind of wine with tacos.”
“No usually they’re served with tequila but you’re young yet,” he laughed. “I’m glad you like them. They’re the signature dish of a pet project of mine in Los Angeles.”
“You opened a taco shop?” I asked.
“No it’s a restaurant that has three different entrees that we serve every night,” he said. “Chicken and Pork Tacos is one. I’ll have you over and let you taste entree number two another time.”
“These are great,” I said and meant it. “Did you open the restaurant alone or with a partner?”
“A partner,” he said with a smile. “A chef named Aubrey Jenkins.”
“Wasn’t he the winner of that show on the Food Network a while back?” I asked, thinking I knew who Aubrey Jenkins was.
“That’s the one,” he said. “You saw the show?”
“I had a lot of down time after the crash,” I said.
“Sounds about right,” he laughed. “Well anyway, Aubrey was my room mate at Aboo. We’ve been best friends ever since. He is a culinary genius.”
“I can’t wait to try the second entree,” I said.
“Next week,” he said with a smile.
“I’ll be here,” I said, smiling back.
“You’re a lot easier to talk to than I’d thought at the party,” he said. “There you seemed to be a bit reserved.”
“You were there for the pledges,” I said. “I didn’t want to take their thunder.”
“You didn’t,” he said. “Now I’m going to say something that might scare you away from me forever.”
“I doubt you could scare me,” I said, wondering what he had to say.
“I find you extremely attractive,” he said.
“You didn’t scare me,” I laughed. “In fact I think you’re one of the most attractive men I’ve ever met.”
“Well that’s out of the way,” he said, smiling through a sigh. “I was afraid you’d run for your truck and hightail it outa here.”
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