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hope.”
    “No.”
    “Then what.”
    “I’m hitchhiking.”
    “What?”
    “Mother, you haven’t been on the road much, have you.”
    Mrs. Braddock began shaking her head.
    “Don’t get excited, Mother. I’ll be all right.”
    “You mean you’re just going to pack your bag and go?”
    “I’m not taking any luggage.”
    “What?”
    “I’m not taking what I have on.”
    “Are you serious?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well how much money are you taking.”
    “Ten dollars.”
    “Oh,” she said. “Then you won’t be gone more than a day or two.”
    Benjamin raised a section of grapefruit to his mouth.
    “How long will you be gone,” his mother said.
    “I don’t know.”
    “More than a day or two?”
    “Yes.”
    “But not more than a week.”
    “Look,” Benjamin said. “Maybe five years, maybe ten. I don’t know.”
    “What?”
    Mr. Braddock came into the kitchen carrying the morning newspaper.
    “You’re up early,” he said.
    “Ben, tell your father. Because I know he won’t let you do it.”

    The Graduate
    44
    “What’s up,” Mr. Braddock said, sitting down at the table.
    “I’m going on a trip.”
    “He’s not taking the sports car. He’s not taking any clothes.
    He has ten dollars in his pocket and he’s—”
    “Excuse me,” Benjamin said. He reached for a bowl of sugar in the center of the table.
    “What’s all this about?” Mr. Braddock said.
    “I’m leaving after breakfast on a trip,” Benjamin said, sprinkiling sugar on his grapefruit. “I have no idea where I’m going.
    Maybe just around the country or the continent. Maybe if I can get papers I’ll work around the world. So that’s that.”
    “Well what’s the point of it.”
    “The point is I’m getting the hell out of here.”
    Mr. Braddock frowned at him. “This doesn’t sound too well thought out,” he said.
    Benjamin raised a sugared section of grapefruit to his mouth.
    “You just plan to work around? Bum around?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Meet all kinds of interesting people I suppose.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Well Ben,” his father said. “I don’t see anything wrong with taking a little trip. But this is the wrong way to go about it.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Listen,” his father said. “How’s this for an idea.”
    “I don’t like it.”
    “How’s this for an idea, Ben. Spend the summer picking out a graduate school in the East, then throw your things in the car and take a week or two driving back.”
    “No.”
    “What’s wrong with that.”

    The Graduate
    45
    “Because I’m finished with schools, Dad.” A section of grapefruit fell off his spoon and onto the table. “I never want to see another school again. I never want to see another educated person again in my life.”
    “Come on, Ben.”
    “Come on!” Benjamin said, standing up. “Now I have wasted twenty-one years of my life. As of yesterday. And that is a hell of a lot to waste.”
    “Sit down.”
    “Dad,” Benjamin said, “for twenty-one years I have been shuffling back and forth between classrooms and libraries. Now you tell me what the hell it’s got me.”
    “A damn fine education.”
    “Are you kidding me?”
    “No.”
    “You call me educated?”
    “I do.”
    “Well I don’t,” Benjamin said, sitting down again. “Because if that’s what it means to be educated then the hell with it.”
    “Ben?” his mother said. “What are you talking about.”
    “I am trying to tell you,” Benjamin said, “I’m trying to tell you that I am through with all this.”
    “All what.”
    “All this!” he said, holding his arms out beside him. “I don’t know what it is but I’m sick of it. I want something else.”
    “What do you want.”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Well look, Ben.”
    “Do you know what I want,” Benjamin said, tapping his finger against the table.
    “What.”
    “Simple people. I want simple honest people that can’t even read or write their own name. I want to spend the rest