An Excerpt from ‘The Class of 1969"‘

Max felt a tension in their relationship. They had had little time together since they got married, mainly because of a demanding senior year at UCLA and a lack of free time during the summer. Maybe Jan resented being pressured to take a temporary job. It was hard to get her to say what was on her mind, but they had plenty of years to get to know each other. She was the reason Max wasn’t heading for law school with an English degree. In interviews he couldn’t admit that being beguiled by his wife was his motivation for applying to med school.

“This ever-so-brief honeymoon was worth waiting for,” he said over dinner liqueurs in a booth at the lush restaurant. “We needed to recharge our batteries.”

“One weekend?” she said with a laugh. “We need a lot more than that.”

“The next four years will afford us lots of shared time - with our noses in books.”

“I wonder what lies ahead.” Her classic profile was silhouetted in front of an oval mirror. “Daddy says the freshman year is the hardest year of your life.”

“I’m ready to buckle down; confident. We did well in undergrad.”

“Being a champion salesman won’t be worth anything next year.”

“Two heads are better than one - what could they throw at us that we haven’t already handled?”

“Brutal competition. What if it’s a repeat of premed with all the dirty tricks?”

The Class of 1969: A Medical Novel by Henry Rex Greene

“Why cheat in medical school? What’s the point - to get into med school? We’re there. You worry too much. You’re smarter than anyone I know and got As on tests you thought you’d flunked.”

“I’m serious; what if medical school is worse?”

“The point is to be totally honest with ourselves. Know what you know; know what you don’t know.”

She looked puzzled. “Do you want to tell me something? What’s bothering you?”