Chapter 13

Danny was once again set loose upon the world with camera in hand. Mrs. Herd, having decided that he did indeed have an artist’s eye, had changed his assignment. She wanted him to take art from art for art’s sake, to art as a means of selling an idea. This time he was to take photographs that could be used in a collage for a deodorant advertisement. He figured this was going to be a pretty easy assignment.

Steve walked up to Danny and greeted him, “I see you’re out with the camera again.”

“That’s right. I’m taking pictures for a deodorant ad.”

“Taking pictures of a bunch of guys working up a good sweat?”

“Yeah. And pictures of cheerleaders, too.”

“Why cheerleaders?”

“I figure both guys and gals work up a sweat. The guys are running all over the field. The cheerleaders are practicing cheers. At the end of practice, they get together for a quick little romantic kiss before heading off to the showers. That’s when you want the anti-stink stuff to work really well.”

“Sounds like a nice concept,” Steve said.

“I figure this assignment is a piece of cake,” Danny said.

“I agree,” Steve said. He looked over at the near end of the field and said, “Here comes Coach. I better get to practice.”

For the next hour, Danny stood out there snapping pictures of the football players and cheerleaders. He noticed that a few of the cheerleaders were looking in his direction with frowns on their faces. Val wasn’t frowning, but she didn’t look happy at seeing him out there with the camera aimed in her direction.

After his college classes that night, Danny spent a couple of hours putting together the advertisement for the deodorant. He was pretty pleased with the result. Not knowing which cheerleader was dating any of the football players, he had taken a lot of pictures of everyone on the field and all of the cheerleaders. He had cropped around all of the dirty looks sent his way.

He didn’t know it, but he was lucky that one of the cheerleaders was actually dating one of the football players. It was a relatively new relationship which meant that it still had all of the passion, tentativeness, and wonder; without the shyness and uncertainty of a new romance, or the casualness of a well established relationship. It gave the images a certain depth and life that would have been missing, otherwise.

He had a nice collection of pictures with the couple practicing their individual activities, moving close together at the end of practice, and a kiss before splitting apart to the locker rooms to change clothes. The hardest part was arranging the pictures so that it gave equal emphasis to the sweaty nature of their exercises and the passion of their meeting at the end of practice. The hardest part was trying to come up with some sort of caption that tied the collage with the deodorant. After struggling with it, he gave up and headed to bed.

Danny was strolling up the walkway into school, when Steve cut across the lawn to join him. Steve didn’t look very happy.

“What’s up?” Danny asked.

“Some of the guys are upset about you taking pictures yesterday,” Steve said. “I told them that it was an art assignment, but they didn’t believe me.”

“Let me guess, they don’t appreciate the creepy guy taking pictures of the cheerleaders,” Danny said.

“That’s right.”

“I did notice that I was getting a lot of dirty looks from the cheerleaders. I guess they mentioned it to some of the football players.”

“They mentioned it to all of the football players.”

“That could be a problem. I’m not done with the project.”

“What’s the problem?”

“I can’t come up with an advertising slogan,” Danny answered.

“What’s that got to do with soothing some ruffled feathers?”

“If it was done, I could give them a copy of it,” Danny said.

“I don’t know if that would help.”

Danny asked, “What do you think of this, ‘After a hard workout, make sure it is love in the air. Use Deodorant X.’?”

Steve grimaced upon hearing the slogan and replied, “That’s bad.”

“I know. I can’t come up with anything better,” Danny said.

“I can’t help you with that. Isn’t there some quote that you could use?”

“In all of my reading of quotes, I don’t remember anything dealing with deodorant.”

Steve laughed and said, “That’s understandable. Deodorant is not a common topic.”

“How about, ‘Don’t let a hard workout stand in the way of love. Use Deodorant X’?”

“That’s better,” Steve said. “It’s still not great.”

“I know.”

“By the way. Who is number 31?”

“Chuck Benton.”

“Where would he be about now?”

“I think he has Mrs. Elrich for homeroom so he should be on his way there.”

“Mrs. Elrich? That’s a problem. She doesn’t like me,” Danny said.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to defuse the situation by asking Chuck for some advice,” Danny said.

“Lots of luck. He’s pretty angry at you.”

Danny stood in front of the door to Mrs. Elrich’s class waiting for the bell to ring. Mrs. Elrich, never a great fan of his, kept glaring in his direction. He did his best to ignore her.

The bell rang and students boiled out of the classroom, rushing off to get to their next class. Among those students was Chuck Benton. He had noticed Danny hanging around the door. More than a little angry at Danny, he didn’t bother to push or shove, but went straight for a knockout punch. He leaned back and swung his arm in a haymaker intended to put Danny out forever. Danny stepped back. The punch did some major damage to the air, but nothing to Danny. It did put Chuck off balance.

Danny tapped Chuck on the suprascapular nerve. The big guy sank to his knees in slow motion, staying there for a few seconds while the world spun around him. His entire mind started shutting down. He blinked for several seconds trying to get his bearings. He shook his head trying to clear it. It didn’t clear. Slowly, he stood up straight while rubbing his arm which hung limply by his side. The pain in his arm was intense. He kept feeling like he was about to lose his balance.

Danny grabbed his other arm at a pressure point and said, “I don’t know what it is with me and football players; but this nonsense of introducing yourself by trying to hit me, has got to come to an end.”

Chuck blinked his eyes. His right arm was hanging limply and he couldn’t extract his left arm from Danny’s grip. If he wasn’t hurting so much, he’d be worried.

“Let’s go to the library. Mrs. Holmsteader will write a note excusing you from class.”

Chuck was afraid to move, thinking that his legs were about to give out on him. He let Danny steer him to the library.

Danny said, “You know, you could have just said that you were angry at me. Then I could have explained why I was out there taking pictures of your girlfriend ... what’s her name, anyway?”

Chuck mumbled, “Susan.”

“Then I could have told you why I needed to talk to you. Instead, you come out swinging. I hate to say this, but that’s not very friendly.”

Chuck would have liked to use his right hand to throttle Danny, but it still wasn’t responding to commands. He had never had anything hurt so bad. He was reminded that Steve had said that Danny wasn’t a pushover. Steve was right.

“By the way you shouldn’t telegraph your first punch that way. It’s much better to go for a quick shot to the nose, and then follow that up with the hay-maker.”

“Shot to the nose,” Chuck said finding it hard to believe that he was getting fight advice from this scrawny rooster.

Still guiding Chuck through the halls, Danny said, “I’m sure that you’re upset that I was taking pictures of your girlfriend Susan. I wasn’t just taking her picture, I was taking yours, too. Don’t read anything kinky into that. It’s an art assignment.”

“Art?” Chuck muttered thinking all of this pain was because art.

“Yes. I’m supposed to come up with a collage for selling deodorant. I came up with the bright idea of taking pictures of a football player/cheerleader romance and trying to sell the deodorant as a way of keeping the relationship fresh.”

“Deodorant?”

“Yes. So I thought I show you the collage that I made and see what you thought of a couple of slogans that I came up with. I’m not too happy with them. Steve suggested that I get a little input from you and your girlfriend ... Susan ... wasn’t it?”

Chuck said, “My arm feels like it is on fire. What did you do to me?”

“I hit a nerve. The first time I got hit there I thought I was going die. It really hurts.”

“Yes, it does.”

“It does tend to end hostilities,” Danny said. “Here’s the library.”

Danny maneuvered Chuck into a chair. Mrs. Holmsteader looked over at Danny. It was one of those looks demanding an explanation.

“Chuck is helping me with a homework project.”

“Why does Chuck look like someone just hit him on the suprascapular nerve?”

“You’ve seen that look before?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“Now what happened?”

“He took a shot at me and missed. He kind of twisted so that his back was kind of towards me, and I patted him where the trapezius muscle joins the neck.”

“Is that true, Chuck?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t condone fighting.”

“It was just a simple misunderstanding. He missed me so I’m not going to make a big deal out of it. Personally, I don’t think he wants to talk about the little pat I gave him on the shoulder area either,” Danny said.

“He’s definitely right. I don’t want to talk about this at all,” Chuck said.

“I’m sure you’re right,” she said. “You’ve put me in a difficult ethical dilemma. I did not witness you fighting, but you confessed to it.”

Danny said, “Harvey Mackay said, ‘Ethical decisions ensure that everyone’s best interests are protected. When in doubt, don’t.’ Whose interests are served by making a big deal out of this?”

“There’s a larger context. Albert Schweitzer said, ‘A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives. ‘ You did injury.”

“Jerry Pournelle said, ‘In any ethical situation, the thing you want least to do is probably the right action.’”

“You’re arguing against yourself,” Mrs. Holmsteader said.

“You’ve convinced me. As Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.’ We must pursue this matter.”

Knowing that he could get suspended from the football game that week, Chuck said, “I started it. He ended it. Let’s drop it.”

Mrs. Holmsteader said “I am reminded of something that Potter Stewart said.”