My college years in Orlando, Florida, were extremely fruitful...frought with studies and off-campus work. But, they were also years filled with fun...the fun of each of us discovering more things to do in our spare time.
I remember one day very well...because it so happened that this day occurred three days after an assembly at which I received three collegiate awards. I had been unanimously voted as not only being the most handsome young man on the campus at the University of Central Florida (aka UCF) but also having the most perfect body on campus as well as being the most handsome artists's nude model. That weekend, some of my fraternity brothers and I decided we would go out and celebrate.
It was Saturday, June 22, 1991. The temperature outside was a steamy 94 degrees and, as I did when I was a boy in northern New York with my friend Pierre and his brother Jean-Paul, I decided to venture outside dressed in a brown short-sleeved shirt, knee-length denim shorts, white knee socks and sneakers. As a matter of fact, we all wore shorts (of various lengths) and white socks and sneakers...but I was the only one not displaying my thighs or calves.
As we walked down Colonial Drive in two groups of three (I being in the front group), I had no idea that one frat brother...whom I shall refer to as "Tony"...was eying my kneebacks. And, why not? If he was dressed as resplendent as I was (and I was walking behind him), I probably would have done the same.
When it started to rain suddenly, we all took refuge inside a huge drugstore. I started looking at some of the cameras that were being displayed in the camera department while Tony and the others grouped together elsewhere in the store to discuss something. After fifteen mintues, the rain stopped...and the sun came out. We had found, to our dismay, that it was now humid and too unbearable to be outside. So, we hailed down a bus and went back to the UCF campus. From the bus stop, it was only a five minute walk to the frat house.
As we walked down the main hall of the frat house, again in two groups of three, the guys on either side of me grabbed my arms as Tony came up behind me and placed a handkerchief over my nose and mouth. A bitter smell rose from the handkerchief. The more I struggled, the more I breathed in what the handkerchief was doused in. Soon, my arms fell limp and, as my eyes crossed, blackness overcame me.
When I awoke in the frat house lounge, I was face down on a table with my feet tied together and my hands tied securely behind my back. My five frat brothers stood around the table, each one holding what appeared to be ten thin five-inch pins with colored heads. I recognized these pins very well...they were mapping pins.
Tony told me of what he and my other frat brothers intended to do. It appeared that, while I was admiring the cameras, he had purchased some chloroform and a vial of the mapping pins. He had convinced the others to join him in his scheme...to pin my kneebacks!!! When I proceeded to struggle, Tony put his handkerchief down on the table near my nose and poured some more chloroform onto it. The smell was so overpowering that I soon blacked once again.
When I had awoken again, it was dark outside...but the overhead light in the lounge was on. My hands were loose...but my feet were still tied together. As I proceeded to push myself up to my knees, I felt such a shooting pain that I could hardly describe. It felt as if I was being stung by a hundred bees. I fell back down onto my stomach, propped myself up on my elbows and turned to see what was causing the pain.
There, stuck to the heads in each of my kneebacks, were the mapping pins. So, that was what Tony bought the pins for. Well, I couldn't blame him...or my other frat brothers, for that matter. After all, my legs were well-proportioned and deeply tanned during a lifetime of basking in the sun.
I heard the lounge clock toll the hour...one a.m.
I looked around the lounge. I was all alone. My frat brothers, apparently, had left and returned to their respective apartments. It had fallen on me to remove the pins from my own kneebacks. Propped on my left elbow, I reached back and slowly pulled each pin out of my right kneeback. Then, I proceeded to do the same with my left kneeback, propping myself up on my right elbow. When I had finished, I slowly pushed myself up to my knees, reached for my ankles and proceeded to untie my feet.
After I had finished, I fell back onto my stomach, utterly exhausted. I wondered if my frat brothers had been satisfied by what they did. I thought...it must have been my fault because I did have the most beautiful legs on campus (or so all the girls told me). I had to have been a fool even to wear shorts and knee socks when we went walking down the city's main drag. It was what tempted Tony and the others to do this to me.
As the lounge clocked tolled the hour of two a.m., I slid myself off the table and proceeded to leave the lounge, turning off the light as I left. I figured...the next time Tony and I go walking down Colonial Drive, he's going to be walking beside me instead of behind me, ogling at my kneebacks!
And I definitely won't be wearing shorts and knee socks while doing it!!!
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