Sorry for the delay in posting. Have been moving for the past three days into a four bedroom house we have been waiting to get into for the past six months.

CHAPTER TEN

Huggy smiled as the tall blond slid onto a stool at the end of the bar and ordered a beer. Hutch had become a regular at the bar in the past two weeks since meeting Starsky. The brunet still didn't seem quite sure what to make of his friend but seemed willing to tolerate his company for now. Huggy knew that Starsky could use all the friends he could get right now in light of his past. He still refused to talk about his captivity in Viet Nam but Huggy knew that he had nightmares about it at night. He'd heard him scream out in his sleep a few times when he was closing up the bar. Once, he had opened the door to check on him and found the brunet huddled in the corner of the room in the darkness, whimpering and terrified. Huggy had coaxed him back into bed and the next morning, Starsky seemed back to normal. Since then, the thin black man had kept a close eye on his friend, especially at night.

"Hey, Hug…" Hutch said "Have you seen Starsky around?"

"Not tonight. I think he had a date with a pretty little thing he met the other day." Huggy told the big blond with a grin.

"Damn, I was hoping I could win back some of the money I lost the other night playing pool."

"I guess I should have warned you about playing pool with Starsky." Huggy said with a chuckle. "He cut his teeth on a pool cue. He's a regular hustler when he wants to be."

"You've known him a long time, huh?"

"Since high school."

"I thought he was from New York."

"He is originally but his mom sent him out here to live with his aunt and uncle when he was thirteen. He went back home for a while but decided to come back here."

"He's not the easiest guy in the world to get to know. Has he always been like that?"

"More or less."

"He has a lot of secrets, doesn't he?"

"He has a few. Doesn't everybody?"

"And you're not going to tell me what they are, are you?"

"They're not my secrets to tell." Huggy said pointedly.

"He was in Viet Nam, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, for way too long." Huggy said without divulging too much information. He knew that the blond's interest was genuine but there were some things that Starsky had the right to decide if he shared or not with his new friend.

"How long?"

"I think you'd better ask Starsky about that."

"Come on, Hug…what are you trying so hard not to tell me?" Hutch said insistently. A sudden look of insight flared in those ice blue eyes. In a subdued voice, he said, "He was a POW, wasn't he?"

"Yeah," Huggy admitted with a heavy sigh. "For five years…but don't let him know that I told you. He doesn't talk about it."

"Maybe he should."

"And maybe I should win the lottery and retire to Miami." Huggy countered "Look, I know Starsky better than you do. He ain't gonna tell nobody nothing unless he wants to. So, don't try to push him into opening up to you cause it ain't about to happen."

"Look, I may not have been over there myself but I know enough about it to know that it was no picnic. Lots of guys came home from over there really fucked up…and they weren't guests of the Vietnamese government for five years."

"All I'm saying is to give him some space. Don't push him. He's just starting to trust you and believe me that's not easy for him to do these days." Huggy advised

"I just want to be his friend. It sounds like he could really use one right now."

"You're right, he could. One that isn't going to judge him because of his past."

"I'd never judge him, Hug."

"I believe you, Blondie. I don't think you would." Huggy swiped a bar rag across the counter beside Hutch and then strolled away to tend to his other customers. Hutch sat there, nursing his beer, deep in thought. The tiny piece of information about his new friend's past that Huggy had revealed helped him to understand the walls that the brunet constantly threw up to keep anyone from getting too close.

Hutch tossed some bills on the bar to pay for his drink and left the bar. He climbed into his latest clunker, one in a long line of old cars that he had owned since leaving Minnesota. Having grown up in an affluent family, once he was out on his own, he had turned his back on the material possessions that his parents had held so dear. His refusal to embrace the lifestyle that he was entitled too was a constant source of irritation between him and his girlfriend, Vanessa.

He had been surprised when the materialist Vanessa had agreed to move into the tiny off campus apartment that Hutch rented over a Laundromat not far from the college. It didn't take him long to discover that if he wouldn't give her the money to buy the things she wanted, she'd just call her parents to get it. The majority of their fights since moving in together had been over money and Vanessa's extravagant spending. She also resented his budding friendship with Starsky. She hadn't even met the short-tempered brunet and already she'd made it quite clear that she didn't like him. In her eyes, anyone with Starsky's working class background wasn't worth bothering with. It was just one area of many that the couple disagreed on. Hutch tried to see the best in people and put himself in their shoes, while Vanessa totally ignored anyone that she considered her social inferior.

Vanessa was in the bathtub, soaking in bubbles, when Hutch arrived home. She was a beautiful woman with long chestnut colored hair and almond shaped eyes. Her slender body had already graced the cover of one high fashion magazine and she had dreams of furthering her modeling career.

"Where have you been?" she demanded "Slumming again with your new friend?"

"No, he had a date." Hutch told her, leaning down to give her a tender kiss on her offered cheek.

"No doubt a waitress from that bar he likes to hang out in." Vanessa said haughtily.

"I really wish you wouldn't talk about him like that." Hutch scolded her mildly. "You don't even know anything about him."

"And I have no desire to, darling. He's just not our kind."

"And what exactly is our kind, Van?" Hutch asked with heavy sarcasm coloring his voice.

"Not your new friend…that's for sure." Van snorted, stepping out of the tub and reaching for the terrycloth robe hanging on a hook beside the tub. "Really, darling…if you're going to be a doctor someday, you need to use a little bit of judgment when it comes to choosing your friends."

"Van, we're already discussed this. I'm thinking about changing my major. I'm not sure that I'm cut out to be a doctor."

"That's ridiculous." Van said "If it were up to you, you'd end up becoming a social worker or something equally mundane."

"There's nothing wrong with that." Hutch argued "At least then I'd be able to help people who really needed my help."

"You can do that as a doctor."

"It's not the same. There are people out there who can't even afford to go to a doctor, so they get inadequate medical care or none at all."

"So? Then they should get a decent job where they can get medical insurance." Van argued. "But, first most of them would have to get their high school diploma."

Hutch threw up his hands and walked out of the room. There was no hope of getting through to Vanessa about the plight of the poor and the homeless. She would never see any other side of that issue except her own. In her mind, it would always be their fault and their shortcomings that put them in their current situation.