Chapter Twelve Summary

Sam Wakefield, the very same Sam Wakefield who once recruited Eugene into joining the military, later recruits Eugene to teach at Tarkington College, where Wakefield is acting dean. Wakefield and his wife wind up becoming estranged, and Eugene confidentially tells the reader she and he will become lovers as a result. Eugene explains that he has not slept with so many women as to be an expert, but enough so that he feels confident of his abilities. He explains how he constantly plays a student computer game in the commons area called G.R.I.O.T. Basically a future predictor based on mathematical concepts, G.R.I.O.T. analyses the personal data Eugene feeds it and predicts that Eugene will wind up homeless, drunken and without hope. He speculates how his life and the life of Marilyn Shaw, a...