The Summer Job - 1. Prologue

The Summer Job

The summer he turned sixteen and moved into the new house, Phillip Wright got a summer job at the YMCA. He was assigned to sweep, mop and do a lot of the work that would otherwise tie up the staff during their busiest season. Phillip was unaware that his father had pulled strings to get him the job.

Phil Senior was an associate in a big firm involved in a huge international case that had been going on for years and showed no sign of a fast resolution. He spent much more time traveling that at home. He wanted Phillip occupied so he could not be crushed under the weight of eight hundred pound gorilla that had rampaged into their lives.

Phillip’s mind shut down when he thought about his Mom. Her death was still an open wound. His mother Anne, best friend Javier and Javier’s Mom Angelica were going shopping one sunny March day and were all killed. It was only chance that he wasn’t in the car too. Any other Saturday and he would have been. The tragedy had been the driving force behind their move. He and his Dad needed a new start out from under the choking pall of their grief and loss.

Phillip was an independent and responsible kid. He oversaw the move, got the new house unpacked and moved in. His job was to stay there, take care of the house and yard. His Uncle Bob lived twenty minutes away and, just a call away if he needed him.

Mr. Campbell, the Director of the Y, was skeptical about any hire the good old boy network suggested to him. His experience with such arrangements had not been good. In Phillip’s case, his skepticism didn’t last the first morning. Campbell was delighted to see that Phillip wasn’t just a good worker, he was a great worker. He picked up things fast and never made the same mistake twice. Moreover, he attacked the work that had piled up since the superintendent had retired.

Phillip was rewarded with a big set of keys and the run of the place his first week on the job. He actually accomplished more work simply because he was more physically able than the full-time superintendent who had retired the year before.

Phillip was a tall, wiry good-looking boy with dark hair and ice blue eyes. His striking appearance and frenetic work ethic made him popular with the staff and the adult regulars who used the gym. Kids liked him and he liked the kids. He had always secretly wanted a little brother and, he treated them like he now had a couple of hundred.

Every morning a bus rolled in carrying a load of fifty or sixty boys to participate in the summer day camp program. They ranged in age from third grade through middle school. They were treated to, or had inflicted upon them, a variety of sports, recreation, arts and crafts and educational activities. They played all manner of sports and went on field trips for the mere price of forty dollars a week. It gave parents an excellent alternative to leaving them home unsupervised during the summer.

The summer day campers weren’t the only people who used the Y. Regular members of all ages came in during the day and at night. Bored kids as old as college age from the surrounding suburbs came to play and have fun. Phillip quickly learned that this was an excellent opportunity to get to know people in his new town.

The local Middle School swimming team met twice a week bringing a bunch of nearly naked middle school boys running around in Speedo having fun all afternoon and, were to Phillip, a guilty pleasure to look at. More than once an inconvenient boner forced him scurry off to do something important elsewhere. He quickly started wearing a jock out of necessity.