"Then, quite simply, we all bring one female to our first meeting."

"Well, we're right back at the beginning." Jay said it for them all.

This time Tom smiled, seeming to be getting a little mellow. He finished the beer in his glass, poured the balance of the bottle and announced softly, "I knew you were going to say that, because your brains are in your ass. However, my plan is so simple that even a dumb shit like you can get a girl to bring to the meetings."

With that he drained the glass and returned to the bar with the empty bottle, got another and returned to the booth. Charles asked him to wait a minute while he ran to the bar and bought three draft beers. He was excited by Tom's presentation and sure his idol had a carefully worked-out plan that couldn't fail.

They settled quickly and waited for Tom to reveal his plan. Signs of intoxication were creeping into his speech and manners, but they were accustomed to this. They didn't pronounce him drunk until he passed out. Even then he might wake up in fifteen minutes and be completely coherent again.

The noise in the bar was getting louder, as the Friday-night crowd reached its peak. Mostly men, old-timers from the neighborhood who stopped in nightly on the way home from work for a quick beer. One or two had their wives. The younger men, the ones under thirty, mixed in at the bar, mostly listening. And the smell of smoke and beer mixed in a dark cloud over the room to render a urine-like odor.

"I'll say it nice and slow. No big words to confuse anyone, so listen closely. I said, 'We all bring one female.' Just remember, I didn't specify anything but female…"

They were completely puzzled and he knew it. And he used it to build his ego.

"Look at it this way, gentlemen…" a pause for his ego to watch their intent faces, knowing they hung on every word, "… six guys go to a party and bring six girls. A girl for every guy present, but not necessarily the same girl he brought. As long as we keep in mind that when we get to the party we will not spend the night with the girl we invited… then shit, we can bring anyone. Right?"