His first week at Dualtone, Sonny worked on the large speaker line in tandem with Bodie, learning the simple process of assembling a stereo loudspeaker, or as Bill put it, stuffing junk in a box. Bodie was a philosophy student at Harvard, spending the summer making some spending money, as Bodie put it. Sonny was quiet, taking everything in, trying to remember just what junk went exactly where, as he would later put it.
After the third day of Sonny’s essential silence, Bodie asked him point blank, “Why do you think you’re so shy?” Sonny was a little taken aback by the direct nature of Bodie’s question, but attempted an answer nevertheless: “I don’t know. I guess I’m just not sure how to talk to others.” They were slowly walking down the speaker line, Sonny attaching woofers and tweeters to crossover wires and Bodie screwing the drivers onto the speaker box. “Now that’s a beginning,” Bodie chuckled.
"I don’t know what you mean,” Sonny replied, wishing the conversation would just end. “Exactly,” Bodie responded. Sonny didn’t continue, hoping that would be that. “OK, it’s like this,” Bodie continued. “There’s nothing to know about how to talk to others. Just talk to them as if you’re talking to yourself.” They finished the first line and crossed over to start the second.
“Well, I wouldn't know about that,” Sonny answered, hoping that would put an end to this. “You’re doing it already,” Bodie laughed loudly as he left the line at the sound of the bell. Bill walked by just then and spoke to nobody in general. “Harvard foolhardy hippy! You think he could finish screwing down these damned drivers before taking off. And there’s no use calling him back. To be honest with you,” Bill said looking over at Simon finishing up things on the small speaker line, “I don’t think Bodie’s quite all there either.” But Sonny said nothing in reply.
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