Modern Screen (Jan-Dec 1960)

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mmm Troy, the top athlete of the school, always outdoing him. One day as the cadets were sitting around the high jumping pit, looking at all the earthworms crawling around in it, one of the boys got an idea. Why not take a handful of these worms and put them on Gato's pillow? Everyone thought it was a hilarious joke, but who would do it? Troy volunteered. He picked up a handful of the earthworms and carried them to Gato's pillow. Three minutes later the dormitory door flew open, and Gato rushed out and across the parade grounds straight to the commandant's office. The commandant had a hard time containing himself, but had no choice but to promise the boy proper disciplinary action. During the final inspection of the day, Gato was permitted to step forward and ask his officer — Troy — for permission to speak up. "As all of you know, someone put worms on my pillow," he shouted. "If whoever did it is not too much of a coward, I want him to admit it now." Troy took a step forward. Before he knew what had happened, Gato had hit him like a freight train. It took half a dozen men to pull them apart again, bloody and exhausted from the brief but violent encounter. The commandant promptly told them that if they wanted to fight, they should do it with gloves on, in the gym. They agreed. In spite of the gloves' cushioning effect, the result was probably the longest and most brutal fight in the history of the military academy, with Troy getting the better of Gato but, as he admits, not much better. Yet when it was over, Gato's anger was satisfied. He was willing to shake hands, and eventually he and Troy became the best of friends. Troy learned a very fundamental lesson that day. If anything has to be done, good or bad, it should be done promptly and openly, and not held back. If he hadn't stepped forward that day, Gato's suspicion might have grown to where they could never have made up. By the time he came to Hollywood, Troy felt he had outgrown any tendency to be hurt. He soon found out differently. What's more, when a crisis arose, he continued to resort to his fists to settle it. Shortly after he arrived in California, he took a group of friends to Gogi's, a coffee shop on the Sunset Strip. In contrast to a lot of other customers, Troy was extremely well dressed. Furthermore, he still had enough money left to pay the bill for the five of them — which caused a disgruntled beatnik at one of the tables to make a crack about the big, tall. New York show-off who was all dressed up like a Christmas tree. Troy turned for an appropriate reply. Before he got very far, the beatnik stormed toward him. Troy was tall and strong enough to have held the man at bay. But his temper blew up and with four well-laid punches, he was laid out flat. Five minutes later he found himself in a police car, bound for headquarters. Only an influential friend's influence managed to cover up the incident. Yet behind this aggressiveness, there is another side to Troy, equally, if not more powerful — a sensitive, understanding maturity far beyond his years. And contradictory as it may sound, his early environment was responsible for this, too. Particularly the death of his father. Till Troy was twelve years old, he could never remember a single day that his father was sick. In fact, he was probably the healthiest, most athletic type of man he ever knew. The first indication that something was wrong occurred the after noon they playfully wrestled on the front lawn. To the surprise of both of them, Troy managed rather easily to pin his father on his back. For days after, the older man began to feel weaker and weaker, till he went to the Columbia Medical Center in New York City, for a complete check-up. Nothing could be found wrong at the time. As the weeks went by, he grew weaker, without any apparent reason. A painful ripple developed in his muscles, which made it continually harder for him to move, till he finally decided to go to Johns Hopkins' Hospital, near Baltimore, Maryland, for another check-up. This time the doctors quickly discovered the trouble — hopeless, acute sclerosis, which would paralyze him progressively until it would finally draw life out of him completely. Only they didn't tell him, because obviously he didn't want to be told. And so they described it as a disease with similar symptoms, and hopes of complete recovery. But someone had to be told the truth, and that's how it came about that Mrs. Johnson and Troy were to share the awful burden till his death. For two years Troy lived with the knowledge that his father would die without anyone being able to do anything about it. "At first I couldn't believe it myself," Troy remembers. "To make it worse I was plagued by a feeling of guilt whenever I visited him. I did things which weren't right, yet mother never told him. On the contrary, she assured him how wonderfully behaved I was, which made me feel all the worse. Oh how I wished the things she told him about me were true — yet it seemed the more glowing terms she used, the stronger my reaction to do the opposite — the worse I felt about it. It was an uncontrollable, vicious circle." Every time Troy visited his father at the hospital, the old man was a little bit more paralyzed, to where finally he could only make known what he wanted with the help of a chart on the wall. Only six people — Troy included — would be able to point to one of the drawings, and according to the way Merle Johnson blinked his eye, knew what he wanted, whether it was to eat, to rest, to get a bath, whatever it was. In spite of everyone's attempts to keep the truth from him, Merle Johnson finally realized he was dying. But then he had but one day of life left in him. Troy found this out when he visited his father that afternoon. Merle Johnson somehow managed to tell him to take his gold watch from the night-stand. "It was his most cherished possession," Troy recalls with sadness in his voice. "When he gave it to me, I knew he'd lost hope. . . ." Troy was sitting in an ice cream parlor with two friends the next day when the maid ran in breathlessly. "Come home right away!" she shrieked. Troy looked at her with quiet composure, "Dad?" She broke into tears. He knew the answer. The other fellows were surprised that Troy didn't seem shocked, or hurt. Quietly and dutifully he went home and then helped his mother make the necessary ar 1000 Now! Life Insurance Birth to Age 80 First 30 Days ONLY 25* Per Policy CASH FOR YOUR FINAL EXPENSES. AVOID BEING A BURDEN TO YOUR FAMILY NO AGENT WILL CALL Introductory Offer. Answer these 9 questions on a plain piece of paper and mail -with only 25e for 30 days' protection. Regular rate shown on policy. Amounts usually issued without doctor examination. 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