Fall (2 page)

“And the fact?” said Ant.

“The fact is,” said Chuck, “that I did
not
get any action.”

“The sad truth,” said Ant.

“It is the sad truth, Antony, and the sadder truth is that you have barf on your sneakers, and sadder . . . the saddest truth of all is that Mr. Hurlius here got action and we came back with nothing.”

“Sad,” said Ant.

“So,” said Chuck. “Wake the fuck up, Julius, and tell us.”

“Cheeses, Choolius, tell us all about it.”

“Please get out,” said Julius. He rolled over to make it clear. “Please, get out of my room,” he said, and buried his face again.

“Your room?” said Chuck. He leaned on the top bunk, looking at Julius on the bottom. He tapped on the empty top mattress.

“Your room?” said Ant, who looked toward the sink in the corner of the room.

“Come on, Jules. Wake up. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Wake up. It’s two o’clock. It’s sunny. It’s laundry day. Three hours before Chapel. One load of whites. One load of darks. Two smokes. And Chapel is upon us.”

“Come on,” said Ant.

“Come on,” said Chuck.

“Come on,” said Ant.

“Come on,” said Chuck.

“Come on,” said Ant.

“Oh for fucks,” said Julius and he rolled out of bed, landing on the floor face upward. He lifted up his shirt, exposing his nipples, looked at Chuck and Ant, and said: “Suck ’em.”

Chuck opened the door to the closet and grabbed Julius’s laundry-filled pillowcase from the closet floor.

“His nipples are brown,” said Ant of the nipples of Julius.

“Yum,” said Chuck.

“It’s a tan,” said Julius.

Chuck threw the pillowcase at Julius. “The man with the tan,” said Chuck. “Now,” he said. “Tell us. Tell us how this man with the weird brown nipples gets so fuckin’ lucky.”

They walked toward the door, one, two, three, and each raised his eyebrows at the sink in the corner.

I was standing by the sink and continued to brush my teeth.

St. Ebury sat on a hill in the richest part of town, Sutton, where all the ambassadors lived. St. Ebury turned 121 that year, making it one of the oldest schools in Canada. There were 114 boarders between grades nine and twelve. Only thirty of them were girls.

Usually seniors could choose their roommates. Julius had too many friends. He had so many friends that they all assumed he was spoken for. They all paired up and Julius was left alone. He didn’t get the roommate he wanted.

I had been at St. Ebury since grade eight. Julius arrived from the States in grade eleven. I was friends with no one.

Seniors had only one roommate. When people arrived in grades nine to eleven they got stuck with two or three other roommates in big rooms with two sinks, two bunks, and two closets.

Seniors lived in the rooms along the front of the school, looking over the main entrance and the avenue to the Head Master’s house. The rooms were narrow, a bunk and a sink along one wall, and two desks with shelves along the other.

The Head Boy lived alone, and there was one other single room for one other senior. Everyone thought Julius would be Head Boy, but the story was that his father intervened and said it wouldn’t look right.

Then, once everyone realized he hadn’t found a roommate, it was assumed that Julius would get the other single room. Being alone was a privilege. It was quiet. You could have loud dreams or dreams where you would cry and nobody would know.

They gave the room to Chris, whose real name was Tim. Chris had acne all over his face and body. One day in grade nine a boarder made him smell a dirty gym shoe. He put Chris in a headlock, held the shoe over his nose and mouth, and the struggle tore some of the acne scabs off his face so it looked like he was crying blood.

The grade nines and tens were mostly on the floor above. One of the House Masters had an apartment up there, and two Prefects shared a big room at the other end of that hall.

Julius should have been a Prefect as well, but he decided that the extra duties would get in the way of things. The Prefects helped with monitoring prep at night and making sure lights were out at bedtime. They were supposed to keep everyone in line, especially the juniors, and every night between prep and bed one of the Prefects would hold detention in room 21—an hour for anyone who had misbehaved on the Flats.

Julius’s and my room was right above the main entrance to the school. The entrance had a porch with large latticed beams that seemed designed for climbing. Most nights Julius would climb out the window to have a smoke in the park across the street from the school. Often enough he would only get as far as above the porch— stopping halfway across the beams, just outside the window, perched up high with his cigarette tip glowing and fading. Sometimes someone else would be out there with him. Our door would burst open at midnight and Chuck or Ant or both would kick the lower bunk, say “Smoke!” and they would slide the window up and go out.

“Let’s go to the park,” Julius might say, and “Fuck that” might be Chuck’s response. So they would perch out there just beyond the window and share a cigarette’s length of talk.

Chuck: “I hope we can still play rugby at McGill.”

Ant: “I’ll be too busy fucking.”

Chuck: “Your aunt is going to McGill?”

Ant: “Funny.”

Julius: “I like the smell of the leaves.”

They had to leave the window open a crack so they could undo the latch to get back in. They would sit out there sometimes when
it was cold saying jesus jesus jesus while the wind blew into the room. Later in the year Julius went away at night and never knew that the papers on his desk turned blue when the moon shone in.

The daily routine did not change much from year to year. The only thing that changed was curfew. Grades nine and ten had to be in their rooms at 9:30 with Lights Out at 10:00. Elevens had Lights Out at 10:45, and seniors had to have lights off at 11:30. But things were more flexible the older you got, and everything depended on who was on duty.

When I arrived at St. Ebury everyone said:

“Her father’s an Italian count.”

“Fuck off.”

“They wear gloves when they eat dinner.”

“Her real name is Fallon.”

“Fallon Fitzgerald DeStaad.”

“DeStindt.”

“She’s cold.”

“She’s funny.”

“She’s a bitch.”

“She’s not a real blonde.”

“She’s smart.”

“She’s the smartest in the school.”

“Her father’s high tech.”

“Rich.”

“Filthrich.”

“Started IncoTel.”

“
Is
IncoTel.”

“
Was
IncoTel, he ditched and made a stinkload.”

“King’s ransom.”

“Mother took it all.”

“They’re divorced.”

“I’ve seen them together.”

“They’re always in the paper.”

“I’ve never seen them.”

“Lives in the High Tech Hills.”

“No one knows why she’s a boarder.”

“Scholarship.”

“She’s the smartest in the school.”

“She only looks Italian.”

“Born in the High Tech Hills.”

“Her hair is chestnut, pure chestnut, and natural and I think it’s beautiful.”

“I want her to be my friend.”

“She is my friend.”

“She’s everyone’s friend.”

“I love her.”

I remember first seeing her in the downstairs common room floating across the school’s eye.

One face could be my guide and salvation. It could be my comfort and the goal of superstition. It seems incredible that I can no longer picture her.

When I achieved a perfect mark on an essay, it presaged Fall’s eventual love for me. When I scored a shot from the line in basketball, which I rarely did, it was because I would kiss Fall that week, that term, that year.

Whenever she was near, I knew it. At assemblies, I always knew where she was sitting, almost without looking. If she was in a crowd at the end of a hallway, out of sight, I sensed that she was there, and I would come close, pass by.

I didn’t need her to notice me right away. I knew that she would come to know me deeply. I felt like an explorer sailing past an uncharted piece of perfection. I knew where it was, I would land there one day and my race would grow.

And when Julius arrived and everyone, including Fall, was drawn to him, I somehow wasn’t upset. I felt it was part of a plan. I saw them together in the halls and I liked his face, thought she deserved a guy like that for a while.

Certainly, I never wanted to hurt her.

Boarders had to arrive the Sunday night before term started. Parents drove up throughout that Sunday, dropping off sons, daughters, suitcases. From the rooms along the front of the school you could watch it all happening.

The younger boarders usually came up to the Flats with wet noses from saying goodbye—the new ones especially. They wore clothes that they would probably never wear again—sweaters from home, jeans with holes, things that they either wouldn’t be allowed to wear on the Flats or would learn to dislike once they saw what the experienced boarders wore.

If a room had two new boarders they would be friends right away. “Should we wear anything in the shower tomorrow, like a bathing suit?” was usually the first question. One would have more answers than the other.

“There’s no prep tonight because it’s the first night, but tomorrow it’ll be at seven-thirty.”

“What’s prep?”

“Study.”

“What do we wear to prep?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m thinking of showering early, just to beat the rush. Maybe I’ll shower at night.”

“I’m not sure we can do that.”

They would unpack neatly, and would usually be careful about sharing space. “Do you want this drawer?”

“No, you take it.”

“I’ve already got four.”

“So do I. You take it.”

“Sure?”

It was the last polite night of the year.

For the boarders who already knew each other it was all routine, and part of the routine was making sure the new kids knew they were more experienced. Chuck and Ant were lifers—they’d been there since grade five—and they sat around on those first Sunday nights like nothing was happening. New kids would bump into
each other, be aware of everyone, look nervous or over-friendly; some of them would ask Chuck or Ant for directions. “Umm, L Wing?” Chuck or Ant would raise a lazy arm and point, or Chuck or Ant would look at the kid’s chin or ear, never in the eyes, and say, “You’re there.”

If they were curious, parents would come up to the Flats and look at where they were leaving their children. They always smiled and said, “Great, isn’t this great,” and whispered advice like “You should take the desk near the window.” But it was usually just kids coming up on their own, dragging bits of their home with them— posters, stereos, favourite lamps.

The quiet, shy ones would be quiet and shy, announcing themselves more obviously than the ones who tried to make friends. They were doomed. Most of the bullying started in the lower grades.

There was a kid named Edward in grade nine that year who was six-foot-five and skinny. He hunched his shoulders and leaned forward like he was afraid of being so tall. His dad came up to the Flats with him that Sunday and between them they carried a gigantic metal chest that attracted everyone’s attention. The only difference between Edward and his dad was that his dad was smiling. They both ducked when they went through Edward’s new doorway. His new roommates were there, staring, and other people were curious about his chest.

Edward’s dad kept smiling and said, “I don’t know what you’ve got in that chest, but I hope she’s alive,” and he blew a laugh out his nose with a rope of clear snot which made him stop laughing abruptly. He looked around embarrassed and said, “This is Edward.”

Edward’s dad was serving in The Hague, and Edward had spent the summer in Holland. He was another diplomat’s kid who would be at St. Ebury as long as his parents were overseas.

Both of his new roommates had arrived and unpacked and were quiet while Edward’s dad was still around.

“Let’s say one last goodbye to your mum,” said the dad.

While Edward followed his dad downstairs his two new roommates moved toward that huge metal chest and started playing with the lock. A few other new grade nines went in and they all started pulling on the lid and kicking the chest, gently at first.

When Edward came back up they moved away from the chest.

“You can’t keep that there. It’s too big. You’ll get in trouble.”

“You’ll get in trouble, Edward.”

“What’s in it? You should just empty it.”

Edward had his pants pulled up high.

Edward’s shirt was tucked deep into his pants.

Edward banged the toe of his big shoe on the corner of the bed when he moved toward the chest.

When he spoke and said, “There’s stuff in it, there’s nothing,” his voice was a shaky version of his dad’s.

When he opened his chest weeks later it was full of ugly treasure.

There was a dinner that Sunday for those who wanted it, and nobody wanted it. Kids like Edward would pull out a book and lie on their bed. The quiet ones with pimples read science fiction or something about wizards.

That Sunday somehow always passed quickly, even though everyone was nervous about the first day of school or about their new home.

Julius arrived late that night and said hi kind of nicely to me. It was dark and almost quiet. Someone upstairs was bouncing a basketball along the hallway and then there was a rush of footsteps and an
oww
and then quiet.

“I didn’t know who I was going to room with,” Julius said. He had two big duffel bags, which he threw into the closet. He unzipped one of them, took out his toothbrush and a pack of cigarettes, and put both of them in his pocket. “It’s a nice night,” he said, and walked out again, closing the door quietly.

Everyone had to be awake by 7:15 every morning, and the Prefects started banging on doors at 6:45.

There was one bathroom on every wing. Some had more showers than others but most of them had three in an open row. There would usually be about ten people waiting in each bathroom for one of the showers to be free. Most wore towels while they waited. Some wore slippers. A Chinese kid named Patrick Chu wore slippers, a shower cap, and plastic gloves, and looked so weird that no one bothered to make fun of him. There were benches and radiators across from the showers which you could sit on while you waited, if you were early enough. In the winter the radiators were the best place to be.