The Graduate by Charles Webb Read Free Book Online Page B

her.”
    “No.”
    Mr. Braddock looked down at the rug. “Then you—then you spent the night with a whore.”
    “There were a few whores included in the tour, yes.”
    “More than one?”

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    “It grows on you.”
    “How many then.”
    “I don’t remember,” Benjamin said, putting his hands up over his eyes.
    “There was one in a hotel. There was one at her house. There was one in the back of a bar.”
    “Is this true, Ben?”
    “One in a field.”
    “A field?”
    “A cow pasture, Dad. It was about three in the morning and there was ice in the grass and cows walking around us.”
    “Ben, this doesn’t sound too good.”
    “It wasn’t.”
    “I think you’d better go down and have yourself looked at.”
    “Dad, I’m tired.”
    “Is she the one who took your watch?”
    “No. The one in the hotel took it.”
    “Ben,” Mr. Braddock said, shaking his head, “I don’t know quite what to say. Where did you find these girls.”
    “Bars.”
    “They came right up to you?”
    “Please let me sleep.”
    “I suppose you did quite a bit of drinking on the trip,” Mr. Braddock said.
    Benjamin nodded.
    “You did.”
    “Well it’s not too likely I’d spend the night with a stinking whore in a field full of frozen manure if I was stone cold sober, now is it.”
    “Good God, Benjamin.”
    Mrs. Braddock returned to the room with a glass of milk and a plate with a sandwich on it. She set them down on the table in front of Benjamin.

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    “Now,” she said. “Let’s hear all about the trip.”
    Benjamin shook his head and reached for the sandwich.
    “What did you do,” his mother said.
    “Not much.”
    “Well, can’t you tell me about i?”
    “Mother, I saw some pretty scenery and had a nice time and came home.”
    “And you’re sure you’re all right.”
    “Yes.”
    “Because you look awfully tired.”
    “Go on to bed,” Mr. Braddock said. “I want to talk to Ben a few minutes.”
    Mrs. Braddock waited a moment, then walked out of the room.
    “Ben, how do you feel about things now,” his father said.
    “What things.”
    “I mean are you—do you feel a little more ready to settle down and take life easy now?”
    He nodded.
    “You do.”
    “Yes.”
    “Well what are your plans. Do you think you’ll go back to graduate school this fall?”
    “No.”
    Mr. Braddock frowned. “Why not,” he said.
    “Dad, we’ve been through this.”
    “You still—you still feel the same way about teaching.”
    “That’s right,” Benjamin said. He reached for his milk.
    “Well, do you have any plans?”
    “I do.”

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    “Can you tell me what they are?”
    “I plan to take it easy,” Benjamin said. “I plan to relax and take it easy.”
    “Good,” his father said. “I’m glad to hear you say that. You plan to put in a little loafing time around home.”
    “That’s exactly right.”
    “Sure,” his father said. “Rest up. Call up some girl who’d like to see you.”
    “I plan to.”
    “Good,” Mr. Braddock said. He sat in the chair across from him while Benjamin finished eating the sandwich and drank the glass of milk.
    Several times he glanced up at Benjamin, then back down at the floor.
    “Ben?” he said finally.
    “What.”
    “You sound—you sound kind of disillusioned about things.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Are you disillusioned? Or are you just tired.”
    Benjamin stood up and wiped off his mouth with the back of his hand. “I don’t know what I am, Dad, and I don’t particularly care,” he said. “Excuse me.” He walked out of the room and up the stairs and went to bed.
    Two days after he got home from the trip Benjamin decided to begin his affair with Mrs. Robinson. He ate dinner with his parents inthe evening, then went up to his room to take a shower and shave. When he had shined his best pair of shoes and dressed in a suit and tie he returned down-stairs and told his parents he was going to a concert in Los Angeles.