Kenneth Hutchinson walked out of his room and headed for the great outdoors. The past week at the Academy had been grueling, and he was ready for some relaxation. It was Friday afternoon, and classes would not resume until Monday morning. He planned to spend the weekend communing with nature and catching up on some much needed rest.
He walked out of the front doors and automatically headed for the park nearby. He’d only been at the Academy for a week, but he had found the park on his first day and spent as much time there as possible. Watching the birds and squirrels playing in the trees always gave him a lift. He knew the other cadets saw him as being stuck up and snobbish, but he really didn’t care. It was easier that way - no one to ridicule him or hurt him with their snide remarks. He had had plenty of that from his own family, and he sure didn’t need it from a bunch of strangers. Keeping people at arm’s length was his specialty. Sure, it got lonely at times, but to him, having friends and caring about people wasn’t worth the risk.
As he made his way down the jogging path, his mind drifted again to two days ago in the gym. He had made eye contact with a dark-haired man. Period. No big deal.
At first he had felt as if he were naked in front of the stranger, as if the man could see all his hidden secrets. Strangely enough, Kenneth had to admit he had not felt threatened by this. In fact, he almost welcomed the scrutiny, and for one split second he actually thought he was going to run over to the man and unburden himself of all of the pain and humiliation he had nurtured for so long. But something in those eyes had stopped him. And, if he was honest with himself, he had to admit that what he had seen in those eyes had touched him deeply in a place he thought he had buried a long time ago.
Suddenly, he had seen all of the grief and anguish the dark-haired man was holding inside, and the intensity of it took his breath away. As the full force of the man’s pain had hit him, a group of cadets had come between them, severing the contact and breaking the spell. When they had finally moved out of the way, the man was gone, swallowed up in the crowd.
Kenneth had left the gym that day determined to find out more about the stranger. He had discovered that the man’s name was David Michael Starsky, and that he was from New York. They were the same age and from what he had heard through the rumor mill, the two men were as opposite as night and day. There was no reason for him to pursue his inquiries any further. He was convinced that the ‘connection’ he had felt in the gym was just the product of his overactive imagination.