Boarding School (28 page)

I was still in no better shape than Matt. So when the blow came, there was little I could do to prevent the impact. “Auh!” And as expected, the force caused me to fly backwards until I landed flat on my back again.

“There… is that better?” The head waiter was now practically screaming at me. “Would you like another one? Huh?”

Once again I felt the bigger kid grab my wrist and pull on the upper half of my still limp body until I was upright again. “Uh!” His slaps were really painful and I wondered how much more of this abuse we were going to have to take as my body crashed back down again onto my mattress.

What happened to us next was just strange. As we continued to lie helpless in our beds, the head waiter then began to yell at us as he kept himself moving back and forth between us so he could slap us at random whenever the urge to hurt us some more moved him to do so. “I can’t believe it, but you boys still don’t seem to get it.”

“Uh!” Matt reacted again to getting slapped.

“Neither of you two have a say anymore in how your lives are gonna be run. We own you now. You two belong to us!”

“Uh!” With still no strength in my body, I felt as if the head waiter’s slap was going to rip my head off of my neck.

“You belong to us like a dog belongs to his owner.” “Uh!” Matt cried out again.

“We own you two and I don’t ever want to hear either of you object to anything we tell you to do ever again! “Uh!”
Damn it, that hurts,
I thought.

The head waiter then stood still for a moment. “Are there any questions?” I could hear Matt whimpering again and I wasn’t too far from tears myself at this point. Neither of us would now dare to say a word to this maniac.

“All right, fine.” The head waiter then seemed pleased that he had been able again to beat us into submission. Then he spoke to the second upperclassman. “Are you ready yet?”

“Yeah, I’ve got the first two lines ready. Who do you want to go first?”

“This one,” the head waiter said as he pointed to me. I guessed he had figured it would be better if Matt were given a few more moments to compose himself. And so, a few minutes later, Matt and I were all fixed up again and well on our way to spending the day high. Once the upperclassmen were satisfied that their job for the morning had been successfully discharged, it was time for a little more talk.

“Ok, listen up, boys. Pretty soon you’ll start feeling better, so I want’a see you both at lunch today. Then at five o’clock this afternoon, I want you both dressed in white shirts, school ties and your school blazers and ready to travel. The van will be waiting for you down in the Annex parking lot and you’ll be off campus then after that until just before lights out when we’ll bring you back.”

“Where are we going?” Matt asked as he continued to sniff the drug up farther into his head.

“We’ll tell ya once you guys are in the van. Ok?” The head waiter then looked at us both to see if we were going to say anything more. But neither of us did. Satisfied then, that he had again gained his supremacy over us, he next spoke to his cohort. “Fine. Let’s get going.”

Matt and I then watched as the two upperclassmen left our room. But before he closed our door behind him, the head waiter stopped so he could say one more thing to us. “Oh, and in case you guys get any funny ideas today about trying to leave or something foolish like that, I want you both to understand that escape attempts will be met with the most dire of punishments to you both. And don’t forget, when the drug runs out, you guys can’t do anything. So the only way you two can stay righteous from now on is to keep doin’ the drug and right here is where you will always find an ample supply to feed your habit. All right?” He then closed our door, and a moment later they were gone from our building.

A minute or so passed, and then I heard Matt sigh. “Well,” he offered. ‘That about wraps it all up for us.”

As ordered, Matt and I presented ourselves to our masters, dressed in our school uniforms, at precisely five o’clock later that afternoon. Just as the head waiter had promised, the van was already waiting for us in the Annex parking lot when we reached the bottom of the steps.

“Let’s go, boys. Hop in,” the leader apparently didn’t want us to waste any time.

Without delay, Matt and I climbed in through the double doors on the side and sat down on the bench immediately behind the two front seats. The hair of the dog had long since done its job on us. The cocaine we had been given in the morning, plus the two extra lines apiece the upperclassmen had made us snort an hour or so earlier, now had us feeling high and horny once again. Just the same, Matt and I were generally pissed off at this bunch. Even though there were still some details about this trip which we were lacking, we now believed that we understood the full purpose for the incredible amount of manipulation we had been put through, and we didn’t like it. Next the leader slid into the seat behind us while the head waiter opened the door on the driver’s side and sat down behind the wheel in front of us. “Here he comes,” he announced.

We then turned our heads in time to see our headmaster emerge from the Annex and begin to walk toward us.

“How come you’re driving?” Matt asked as he looked back at the head waiter.

“Are you kidding?” the upperclassman shot back. “It’s after five already. Do you want
him
driving us?” the bigger kid said referring to our illustrious school head.

A moment later Mr. Stuart reached the van, opened the front door on the passenger side and then hefted his short frame up and into his seat so he could take his place for our journey. Immediately once he was in the vehicle with us, Matt and I could smell the booze on him. Normally we would extend a friendly greeting to the man in a situation like this, but since we now understood that this asshole was really the enemy in scholar’s clothing, we chose instead to stay silent. So when all of the doors had finally been closed, he turned around to face Matt and me. “I decided that since you boys have this all figured out now, I’d come along and make sure you understood completely about what’s going to be expected from you two from now on.”

With some surprise over the man’s newfound insights, both Matt and I then looked over at the head waiter again. When the bigger kid saw us looking at him he must have been able to read our expressions because quickly he smiled. “There was almost always at least one of us listening in the hall outside your door this morning until I came in,” he admitted.

“Here,” the leader then said to us.

From behind, Matt and I were then handed our own thermoses which had already been filled with something.

“Start drinking,” the leader added.

The head waiter then turned himself back around and started up the engine while the headmaster continued to look at us. “Well? Open them up and start drinking, boys,” he ordered as well. Matt and I looked at each other first, and then we did as we were told. We already had a sneaking suspicion about what was inside, and a moment later after we had taken our first sips, our fears were confirmed. Gin and tonics again!

“You boys get started on those and once we’re on the highway, we’ll talk some more,” the headmaster then turned himself around also so he could face forward again. “Let’s go,” he said to the head waiter. And off we went.

By the time we had passed the town of Worcester and were well on our way toward Boston, I was beginning to feel the alcohol as my senses started to dull again. So I figured, before I became too far gone to care, I ‘d better gain whatever information I could. “So where are we going today?” I called out to Mr. Stuart.

The man heard my question and turned around to look at me. “We’re headed to Boston so a man that the Academy does some business with can meet you two.”

“Why do we need to meet this guy?” Matt then joined the conversation. Our headmaster paused for
a
moment to consider my roommate’s question, and then he continued. “Look boys, I know you’re both bright kids, so I’ll just lay it all out for you now, and then we’ll be done with it. All right?” “Ok,” I agreed.
A little honesty would be a nice change,
I thought. “Tuitions just don’t pay like they used to. As I think you know, enrollment this year alone is running at only about half of what our capacity is. So in order to keep the Academy open, our owner decided some time ago that we needed to find a secondary source of income for the school. Otherwise, he would have had to have shut the whole place down.”

“That would’ve been a tragedy,” Matt said sarcastically. Mr. Stuart ignored my friend’s comment and continued. “So eventually we got hooked up with the guy you ‘re going to be seeing this afternoon. He supplies us with all the cocaine we can use, and then the older students in our little group go up to Harvard Square in Boston, or to the bus station in Worcester, or to other places we know in the area to sell the stuff on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. And we even sell a lot to people around Ulster too.”

“Ah huh,” I acknowledged as I took another swig from my thermos. “Well, this man in Boston, also showed us how we could rake in a bunch of money if we turned out a few of our youngest students to service a very special clientele that he has.”

“Turned out?” Matt asked. “You mean sell us?”

Mr. Stuart shifted his gaze to look at my roommate. “Well, sort of. ‘Rent’ would be a better word for it, I think.”

“Rent?” Matt asked back. He already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear the head of our school and our supposed protector actually say it again. “Yes, well, you two boys will begin to perform your special kind of services for this elite group of customers with—let’s say—their very particular tastes, and the money we make from your work plus the cocaine sales, will help to pick up the slack where tuitions leave off, as it were.”

“And do we do all this in our dorm or what?” Matt asked. “Well…” Mr. Stuart continued. “No, we’ll set you up someplace off campus where you two can work without worry of being interrupted.” “Where?” I pressed.

“Well, we have a special arrangement with one of the local lodges in the area. On Wednesdays, you’ll mostly be taking care of our local customers from around Ulster. And also on those days, some people from Worcester may come down every so often to be serviced by you boys as well. But on the weekends you’ll get to go on trips to places like Boston, or New York… and you guys are even going to get to go to Florida. Won’t that be fun?”

Suddenly I got the impression that our headmaster was trying to sell us on all of this. It seemed that the closer we got to Boston, the more nervous he was becoming. “I’ve already been to those places,” I answered blankly.

Ignoring my response, Mr. Stuart then looked at his watch before he turned his head to speak to the head waiter. “I think we’re going to be right on time.” Then he looked back at Matt and me again. “Yes, well… you boys hurry up and finish what’s in those thermoses, now. We’re passing Framingham right now, so we’ll be downtown soon.” It then looked to us as if he had finished saying what he had wanted us to know and was about to turn around and face forward again, when he looked back at us to say one more thing. “By the way, I have a standing rule about all of this which can never be broken.”

Matt and I glanced at each other quickly. We couldn’t imagine what was coming next.

“I will never let either of you boys go it alone. Whenever we send you out to be with customers, you will always go together. That way you two can always look after each other and keep each other safe. Ok? Oh, and I want you both to learn each other’s blood type. Tomorrow morning we’ll get that information for you out of the nurse’s office. And you can expect me to quiz you on it from time to time so be sure you memorize ’em. Ok?” Then for real this time, Mr. Stuart turned himself around so he could gaze out through the windshield for the rest of our trip into Boston.

Neither of us knew what to make of these pronouncements. It seemed as if our headmaster had meant to comfort us in some way, but instead his news just made us feel even less secure than we had before.

“Keep drinking,” the leader urged us from behind.

And so, as the song “Lola” by The Kinks played from the radio in the dashboard, Matt and I drank faster, so we could dull our minds and our muscles as much as possible before we arrived at our destination. Later, when we got into downtown Boston, we turned into a garage beneath some tall building which was located near the Prudential Building which, besides the Callahan Tunnel, was about the only structure in Boston I recognized in those days. When we stopped, we could see that we were parked next to double doors which led to the building’s elevator. Then the engine was turned off and the double doors on the side of the van were thrown open for us. Once Matt and I had stepped out of the van and were standing on the cement, we could both tell that the gin and tonics in our systems were doing their job because we were both now feeling nicely plastered again.

“You two wait here with the van,” Mr. Stuart gave his order to the leader and the head waiter. And then, a moment later Matt and I were in the elevator alone with our headmaster and heading for the penthouse level.

“Now listen,” our headmaster had something he wanted to say to us before the elevator stopped and the doors opened. “From now on you kids are to be seen and not heard. You don’t say
anything ever
to
anyone
unless they speak to you first. And when we get in there, after we’ve said our hello’s, then I want you two to go and sit down quietly on the couch in the living room and wait there until you’re called. You boys are professionals now, so no horse play and no wise cracks. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.” My parents had always raised me to do as I was told, so I accepted what this adult was requiring of me without question. “Yes, sir.” Matt too had been raised properly by his parents. “I mean it,” Mr. Stuart felt the need to press his point with us even farther. “These people will chew you up and spit you out and never think twice about it if you cause them any trouble. So don’t ever forget about what I’ve just said to you. Ok? Remember… do as you’re told. Always! All right?” “Yes, sir,” I answered again. “Yes, sir,” Matt responded too.