Horizons of Heroes Read online

  Cameron and Big El drank beer and laughed loudly. Being around his best friend was special. Laughter was everywhere. Cameron’s mind raced back in time to when he was just a little boy and saw all of his dad’s Tuskegee Airmen laughing as they reminisced about the hardships they faced in World War II. Great and honest friends were rare and special. He reminded Big El of the time they went into the bowling alley at Kessler AFB and bowled arguably the best games of their lives to win big bucks from two GI’s who thought they were professional bowlers. They laughed so hard. Big El said, “remember Arthur and the senorita from Acuna who left his reading glasses twisted on his forehead.” More laughter. “And what about beating the unbeaten Italian head quarter’s football team when we brought in a bus load of tourist cheerleaders from Brindisi.

  Rhode Island is an especially beautiful setting in September with its breathtaking scenery, historical landmarks, museums, opulent mansions, and spectacular coastal communities.

  Many of Susan’s and Big El’s close friends and family members were at the rehearsal party. Cam hugged Susan’s family. Big El’s mother, father, two sisters, brother-in-law, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews were eager to meet Cameron. Cameron hugged and shook their hands and told them how lucky he was to be Big El’s best friend. Then the single bridesmaids arrived. First was a buxom blonde from Denmark with beautiful blue eyes. Then a Chinese American with the most exquisitely fine features, and then the red head from Sweden and the gorgeous brunette from Germany. Cameron silently said to himself, I am glad to be single today. So, Big El and Cameron said in unison and laughter, “let’s get this party started.” Food and drinks were abundant as servers brought delicious food and beverages to the guests.

  It was here in a large ballroom that Big El picked up a microphone and addressed his friends and family. After introducing Susan, her parents and his parents, Big El said, “I would now like to introduce to you my best man, Cameron Price.”

  “Cameron and I traveled the world “free and wild.” We learned that the heart of every great friendship is trust. Trust is why we are alive and why we are here today. Besides being an exceedingly smart man and going to law school in a few days, he’s also a fourth degree-black belt. So be forewarned, don’t mess with Cameron. I asked Cameron to dance at our party, not because he’s such a great dancer, because I wanted all of you to see his spirit as it unfolds when he dances. Quite frankly I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Cameron was the only person of color in the room, with the exception of the Chinese American bridesmaid. All eyes that had not been staring at him were now totally focused on him.

  Cameron took the microphone and said with assured confidence, “Big El and I went into the service on the same day and we both got out of the service on the same day. We are best friends as we have been through heaven and hell together. We met many great military men along the way. If ever there was someone whom you knew what they were thinking without ever muttering a word it has been the two of us. We call ourselves “Camel,” short for Cameron and Elston. We hated each other when we first met, but we soon learned that nobody could outwit us and nobody could beat us. We traveled the world, free and wild. Someday, we may be able to tell you what we did. For now, I would just like to say how happy I am to be here and to thank Big El for asking me to be his best man. I am so honored.”

  “Now, I would like to propose a toast to Big El and Susan.” Beautiful crystal champagne glasses clinked throughout the ballroom. “Hear, hear” went the cheers!

  Cameron gave the microphone back to Big El.

  Big El took a shot of Jack Daniels and Cameron took a shot of Johnny Walker Red.

  Music by the Dramatics, Get Up and Get Down, started playing through the loudspeakers. It was Big El and Cameron’s favorite song in San Sabina, Italy to get a good party going.

  With the first musical note, Cameron slid across the floor in his white lace shirt, now mostly unbuttoned exposing his muscular chest and his black bell bottom trousers that had a purple stripe running down each leg. His black patent leather shoes fit perfectly and looked very suave. The crowd smiled and then began to cheer as Cameron began to groove, grind and dance across the floor as the soulful music got funkier. Something happened that no one had ever seen before. Cameron thrust his powerful karate kicks with such intense velocity that yellow fire, then red fire propelled out of his pants legs. The crowd quieted as they had never seen anything like this ever before. The flames grew brighter and brighter. The crowd stood in disbelief. Approximately four to five minutes later, the song came to an end.

  “I told you,” said Big El with a big smile to the crowd. “Cam is super bad.”

  A huge round of applause swept over the crowd as a demonstration of their appreciation.

  Big El walked over to Cam and gave him a hug. He whispered, “How in the hell did you do that?”

  “I sewed metal sockets, attached sliding brackets and wires, so that when I kicked hard the batteries would slide and engage, resulting in colored lights in the base of my bellbottoms pants going off and on.

  “I loved it Cameron!”

  “You’re welcome my buddy!”

  The young ladies were nearly hypnotized with Cameron’s performance. All of Susan’s bridesmaids were gorgeous and single college graduates. Cameron liked every single one of them. Suddenly, a bell rung in Cameron’s head. He had broken the code for a woman to know if she was in real love, or if she was about to go on a play date, lust date, or a fun date. Cameron would describe the broken code shortly.

  Cameron had a wonderful evening at the rehearsal party.

  “Susan, do you have a second?” asked Cameron.

  “I just want you to know how happy I am to be here. I know this wedding is the happiest day in Big El’s life. We traveled the world together for years and I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a man love a woman more than Big El loves you. On a good day, Big El looks like a Roman god and on a bad day he looks like a Roman god. I’ve seen many women fall for his locks of gold and his blue eyes. His love for you only grew stronger. What an honest and loving partner you have Susan.”

  Tears flooded down Susan’s face. “Thank you, Cameron.”

  September 15th, the day of Big El and Susan’s wedding had arrived. After eating a wonderful Finnish breakfast prepared by Granny and Betty, Big El and Cameron discussed the day’s activities. Big El gave Cameron the two karat diamond ring plus the attached gold wedding band to hold until the wedding ceremonies. Big El also mentioned that he had secured the classic 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom. It was a solid black beauty with expensive wood grain paneling and ultra-rich leather seats. “I promised the owner, who is letting us use it for free, that we might tie tin cans to the back of the Rolls but that Burma-Shave and soap would not be used on the car or windows.”

  “No problem, it will be taken care of,” said Cam. What else can I do to help?”

  “I’d like you to say a few words in a toast after the wedding.”

  “Done,” said Cameron. “What else?”

  “After you drop us off at the Hotel, would you mind driving the Rolls back to the owner?”

  Cameron laughed, “what an honor it will be driving my own Rolls.”

  “We plan to stay at the Hotel downtown for two days then back to work.”

  “What? No honeymoon?”

  “It was all I could afford after the ring,” said Big El. “Anyway, we might not see each other for a while, so I just want to thank you so much for coming East and staying with us.”

  “That is what best friends do,” said Cameron.

  “Hey buddy.”

  “Yes,” said Big El.

  “Let’s call Susan in here. I have something for you both.”

  “Susan and Big El, here is my wedding present to you both.” Cameron gave Susan a small wrapped box. She opened it and inside was a certificate that said they were the owners of 1000 shares of Teleprompter stock. What is Teleprompter, they asked. Well, I researched nearly e
very traded stock to see if I could find a sleeper that might present you with the most upside profit. Teleprompter is a company that believes that the future of television is cable TV with direct programming. I am convinced that if you hold these stocks long enough, you may be rich beyond your imagination.”

  “Wow, our first stocks. Thanks Cam!” (It should be noted that after several company buy-outs, Big El and Susan sold their shares in Teleprompter to pay for a washer and dryer and ultimately paid for a six week luxuriously honeymoon package through Europe).

  The highlight of the wedding was Susan, of course, who looked so beautiful. Big El was a happy man. The church hummed with excitement. Larry Senior walked his daughter Susan down the aisle. The bridal party stood next to the preacher and the classic music, ‘Here Comes the Bride’ began. It was a perfect wedding with orchids and white roses. During the wedding ceremony, the preacher asked, “Does anyone have any objection to this wedding or forever hold your peace?”

  Big El turned to the crowd and said sternly with his lip curled up and his hairy eyebrow raising up and down, “there better not be any objection because I brought my trusty gun.” The crowd laughed and the preacher continued. Cameron handed the beautiful diamond ring to Big El. He placed it on Susan’s finger.

  “I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Elston Royal. You may kiss the bride,” said the preacher.

  Susan’s face was beet red and full of happiness with tears in both eyes. “My, that kiss was pretty good, we will have to have more of that later,” she said with a smile.

  Big El had just married the nicest, sweetest, and most beautiful woman in the world.

  Big El and Susan, along with the wedding party, stood in a receiving line. Granny was the first to go through the receiving line and hugged Big El and Susan. When she got to Cameron she gave him a big hug and said, “thanks for being so much fun.”

  Later Susan turned to Cameron and said, “you know Cameron, it’s a good thing I didn’t have more bridesmaids. You might have died from exhaustion.”

  Cameron gave Susan a thank you smile with his head nodding up and down.

  Cameron said to Big El, “When you kissed Susan, buddy, I swear I saw the love in both of your eyes.”

  After the ceremony, 250 guests gathered for a full dinner feast of prime rib, baked potatoes, broccoli, salad, huge Finnish rolls, along with champagne, Jack, Johnny, and other beverages.

  There was a lot of kissing and hugging.

  Cameron gave the toast where he said, “what the world needs now is more love like the love shared by Susan and Big El.”

  The wedding cake was seven tiers tall. After the last bite of cake, Cameron said his goodbyes to the lovely bridesmaids.

  “Call me,” they whispered.

  As soon as Susan had taken her last bite, a Scottish drum beat loudly. “It is time,” said one of the large Scottish men.

  Big El and Susan walked outside of the church to the antique 1927 large black Rolls-Royce.

  Cameron and the other groomsmen had tied approximately 12 feet of tin cans to the back of the Rolls-Royce. With Big El and Susan in the back seat, Cameron slowly drove the car past the wedding guests with the horn honking.

  When they reached the hotel, Susan’s burst out crying and said, “Cameron, thank you so much. I love you. We would like to visit you in Tacoma when the time is right for you, Cam.”

  They all hugged.

  The beautiful wedding seemed like a fleeting dream as Cameron arrived back home to face his first day of law school.

  Chapter 5

  Cameron’s View on How a Woman Knows if it is “Real Love”

  Much has been written on the subject of love. How does one find lasting love? This question has perplexed men and women for years. From Adam and Eve, to Romeo and Juliet, to clinicians, to seminars, to Doctors of Philosophy, to perfumes and wardrobes, men and women often spend a significant amount of money in order to attract a worthy partner. At best, when we talk marriage, only 50 percent of couples stay married. Or put another way, 50% of men and women with all the available background information known to them over the past thirty to forty years make incorrect choices when selecting a mate.

  Cameron, understood how women should find a lasting relationship. Cameron was one of the highest-ranking code breakers during the Vietnam war. He cracked many important military codes and felt he had cracked the code for men to know when they met a woman if it was real love, or if it was a lust date, play date, or fun date. He described this profound knowledge in Gold Key No. 9 during his journey through Italy.

  Suddenly, it came to Cameron even though he was a man, that he had just cracked the code for women to know if a relationship with a man was “real love.”

  Women, many of you know the words to the code already, but insist that it really does not exist.

  By 2050, there will be approximately 4.5 billion women on this planet and there will be approximately 4.5 billion men cohabiting on the planet with them. While it would be a stretch to say that Cameron could identify with pin point accuracy the code of real love for each and every woman. Without any more fanfare, therefore, here is the general broken code book for women on real love:

  Women have wants and must have priorities that can be filled with as few as one or two items to well over hundreds of needs. Finding a man with lots of money may be a desire, but they shouldn’t exclude other desires. For simplicity sake (there is nothing simple about this discussion), let’s assume that a lady has 10 desires, needs, or must haves in a guy. They can be physical attractiveness (eyes, ripped muscles, smile, hair, teeth, tattoos, skin color, height, etc.); personality (funny, smart, educated, charming, dominating, gentlemanly, or can be dominated); financially astute (wealthy, great job, great potential, good provider); well read; religious; have love of family (appreciates parents and siblings); loves children, loves animals: outstanding lover: no drugs and on and on until all the needs are identified.

  A woman should take careful time to analyze what her wants and desires entail. A woman’s failure to do so “will” jeopardize her future happiness and love. Many ladies select a guy because he is handsome or wealthy and skip a few of their key desires, later to find out the hard way that they missed out on real love.

  Now, if a woman meets a person who fills “all” of her desires, she is close to real love, however there is more.

  If a woman is amazingly in touch with her desired list of needs, and Mr. Right comes along, here is what is missing. In most instances, she does not really want love for a night or day, she wants it forever. True love has to not only fill each and every one of her desires, but her desires must be filled each and every day and night. This of course makes it even more complicated for that special guy, where her needs may change over time. A woman needs a man who can adapt to her changes.

  When a woman finds Mr. Right, she should show him she loves him every day and night.

  Many women agree with Cameron about the code. Cameron anticipates a billion-dollar industry on helping ladies identify all their bucket list needs. Some companies have already made progress on this.

  Chapter 6

  Cameron’s Law School Years

  The first year of law school was difficult beyond belief. To help put it in perspective, if you are married or dating someone, by the time you finish law school fifty percent will be divorced or their relationships will have ended. Cameron quickly learned that he was so far behind in his studies. Law school gives each student, no matter how smart and brilliant they may be, more homework than is humanly possible to accomplish. For example, each night you may have to read 200 to 300 pages of intense case law and then write briefs on everything that you have read. Multiply that by four or five classes that you are taking. The amount of required reading, analysing of cases, and required briefings made it a nearly impossible task. The majority of the students formed study groups to help divide all the briefings and alleviate some of the pressures of the daily course work. Arriving a week late to classes,
did not make it any easier on Cameron. He was now too late to join a study group.

  Even Kurt, from his marketing class in undergraduate school, had his own study group. Kurt and Cameron would go on to become very close friends, but not that first quarter. It should be noted that Kurt was selected by his peers as the number one student on rules of evidence and would go on to accept a career position with a county prosecutor’s office.

  Cameron realized he could no longer teach karate lessons to his students and study his law school courses. Sadly, he contacted a nearby large karate dojo where the sensei agreed to accept Cameron’s students at a very modest fee. Cameron depleted his savings by paying the fee for every student for one year.

  He met a fellow black student named Ray, who had not joined a study group because he had to work as a bartender at night to help pay for law school. He had also arrived several days late to law school. Ray had a heart of gold, honest, was super witty, and made other law students laugh, when laughing was a forgotten concept. Study sessions with Ray helped immensely. Ray and Cameron were two of only six black law students.

  NU Law School relied heavily on the Socratic Method of teaching, after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates. It was a form of inquiry and discussion between professors and students, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. Professors at NU taught what Cameron would describe as a mean or no nonsense form of asking questions. Cameron would often tell ‘would be’ law school students to see the movie “Paper Chase” if they were serious about going to law school.

  The first year of law school was painfully difficult. He learned fundamental concepts like:

  •Caveat emptor

  •Post hoc ergo propter hoc

  •Do you know the holding in Hawkins v Magee or are you just sitting in that chair and wasting everyone’s time?

  •Legal Research writing on major cases such as Roe v Wade