besides, for some reason I donât think itâs right to go to a barber right now or even to go outside,â âIâll shave you, or one of your brothers,â and he said âRight now Iâm feeling a little disturbed so Iâd trust someone elseâs hand even less than my own, even with an electric razor in it. It might give me a shock or explode. But donât worry. Iâm not planning to grow a beard and as long as I donât slash my clothes and throw things, everyone should be able to respect me for the time being.â
He got his draft notice and went to the army center for the physical. He passed all the physical tests, though he tried his best not to, and then intentionally answered the psychological test wrong in several places and was sent in to see the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist said âYou checked here you have nightmares, then crossed it off and checked you donâtâwhich is it, and if you do have them, how bad are they?â âI do have them, but didnât want to give you any excuse for keeping me out the army, but itâs okay, because they come and go, nothing serious, and one of these days, not that Iâm claiming I know when, I know theyâll all be gone and Iâll sleep completely peacefully again,â âDo you have many male friends?â and he said âSome, but not for very long any more, and certainly not as many as when I was youngerâthree, four years ago, but okay, people change, I do, you do, we all have to, right? We go through certain things, not that what I went through was so badâin fact it wasnât when you compare yourself to the rest of the world. Itâs just that my friends got to be different than me, in interests and things, so they didnât understand me anymore or didnât try to and I just didnât like what they were doing with their lives and told them so, thatâs all. I speak my mind, sometimes without anyone asking and when I know what I say might hurt, but so do a lot of people, so is that so bad?â âWhat about womenâdo you go out with them much?â and he said âVery much, or at least I want to, and I used to go out much more tooâin high school and when I was a dancer. But itâs either theyâre not attracted to me as they used to be or I just donât find that many to my liking in many waysâintellectually, spiritually, and that theyâre always pampering themselves so much, which I used to appreciate when I was in the ballet, more really for professional reasons, but now find it a little too self-centered and stupid. I do have one good woman friend though, but just to talk to,â âWhat do you talk about with her?â and he said âThings we donât likeâour problems, but not mental ones. Just what we think about various people and daily life. And she in a way is like me, which is probably why we get along so well and can speak so freely to one another. She also had plenty of girl friends and went out a lot with men and now she doesnât and for many of the same reasons as me. Anyway, itâs easier to talk to her than to anyone else, including, right now, my family,â âBut you get along with your familyâyou checked a yes for that here,â and he said âOh yes, weâre a very close bunch and always have been, just at the moment everyoneâs gone off some place and my sister, whoâs really too immature for me to speak to deeply, well we donât get along that well.â âWhy do you want to be in the army?â and he said âBecause of everything I talked about so farâwhy else? To make new friends and maybe to get away from college and home for a while and because if Iâm not let inânot that you saw me volunteering, you knowâmy brothers will think somethingâs wrong with me, since the two oldest served honorably and my father was in World War