‘Look at these maggots,’ Snyder said, stalking the line of frightened young midshipmen. ‘Look around you, maggots. By this time next year only two of you will be left.’
He stood in front of Hatcher. ‘You’re the juvenile, huh. How did a delinquent like you get into Annapolis?’
Hatcher stared straight ahead, not knowing what to answer.
Snyder’s face was an inch from Hatcher’s. ‘What’s the matter, maggot, can’t you talk?’ he yelled.
‘Yes, sir!’ the terrified Hatcher answered.
‘Are you a maggot?’
‘Yes, sir!’
‘Are you lower than dog shit?’
‘Yes, sir!’
‘I can’t hear you!’
‘Yes,
‘Awright, clear the hall!’ Snyder yelled. ‘Move it, move it, move it. On the double!’ And he laughed as they all scrambled to their rooms.
A minute later the tall cadet appeared at the door to Hatcher’s room.
‘Everybody clear out but Hatcher,’ he snapped and the room emptied. Hatcher stood as erect as a statue in his new uniform, his chin tucked against his clavicle. Cody stood very near him but did not look t him; he stared out the window at the courtyard as he spoke. ‘My name’s Murphy Cody. You call me
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I hear you’re a Street kid. Is that right, maggot?’
“Well, sir, I . .
‘Yes or no!’
‘Yes, sir!’
‘I hear you were a Golden Gloves champion in Boston. That correct?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Cody looked him over. ‘Middleweight?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘You don’t look like you could break wind, maggot,’ Cody said and walked out of the room.
Thanksgiving, 1963. A cold, harsh-wind day. ‘Hit the wall, maggot,’ Snyder bellowed as Hatcher was leaving the mess hail and the underclassman assumed the position.
A dozen frogs had already fallen before the relentless hazing of Snyder, Cody and other midshipmen. Yet Hatcher felt that in a funny way Cody was watching out for him. Hatcher had surprised them all. While other freshmen broke under the rigorous schedule and hazing, Hatcher seemed to get stronger as the months went by. By winter he knew he would get by that crucial first year if Snyder didn’t force a confrontation.
Snyder had other plans.
‘Hatcher’s mine,’ Snyder bragged openly. ‘I’ll break him. He’ll be gone before Christmas.’
He braced Hatcher constantly, in the lower classman’s shower, in the yard, in the halls, his comments always insulting and humiliating. Eventually it started to get to Hatcher.
Now he was at it again.
‘The academy is for men, maggot,’ Snyder snarled. ‘You’re not a man, you’re what we used to call a J.D. back where I come from. You know what a J.D. is, maggot?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I’m going to make it my business to run you off. You’re history. You don’t deserve to be an officer in this man’s Navy.’
Hatcher didn’t say anything.
‘You want to be an officer, maggot?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Well, that’s a joke. You don’t even have a mother and a father, isn’t that a fact?’
Hatcher didn’t answer. He could feel the blood rising to his face.
‘I asked you a question, maggot.’
Still no answer.
Snyder moved so close his breath was hot against Hatcher’s face.
‘You know what they call someone who doesn’t have a mother and a father, maggot?’
Hatcher stared straight ahead. He fought to keep himself from trembling with rage.
