A Tale from the Hills (9 page)

He said, “Thank God.” in a low voice when he saw that his teacher was a woman. He decided that morning that he was not going to like school.

William’s teacher, Mrs. Smith, was middle aged, short, and portly. Her graying hair was pulled tightly into a bun, and she wore a plain, but pleasant looking dress. She smiled at him as he entered the room. His first impression of her made him feel somewhat at ease. His first impression of the Principal convinced him that he wanted to have no more dealings with the man. He thought about the scary old man from his bad dream for the first time in weeks. Mrs. Smith assigned him to a seat, and his first day of school was off to a shaky start.

The work was a lot harder than he expected. The other students were more advanced than he in practically every subject. Even though Mrs. Smith placed him in the lowest level of the classroom, he was going to have to buckle down just to keep up with the class. It seemed like hours before lunch break. When it finally came, William rushed outside to the toilet. The Principal had intimidated him so badly that morning, that he had to pee in the worst possible way, but he was afraid to ask permission to go to the toilet. Besides he was afraid that he would run into old man Rosenbaum in the hallway. It seemed that every student at the school had to go to the toilet at the same time. The outhouse could accommodate three boys at a time, so the wait was not too long.

The students split into groups at lunch, and William like his older brothers years ago, felt out of place. He finally walked over to be with a group of boys that were in his room. They did not seem to mind his intrusion, so he stayed. All of the boys were about his age and he wanted to fit in. He heard the usual talk about hunting and fishing and of course girls. It calmed him to hear that kind of normal boy talk.

The afternoon session was more of the same hard work. William could not imagine having to work that hard, especially on the first day of school. He had a bad feeling about Mountain School and he almost wished that he had stayed home. He decided on the way home that the best part of the school day was going home at the end of it. It was still warm outside and the scenery was beautiful. He threw some stones and made some spears with sticks, and whistled mockingly at the birds. When he arrived at home his daddy thought that he must have had a wonderful day. However, he was in a good mood in spite of the bad day at school.

By the end of the week William had adjusted to going to school. He avoided any contact with the Principal and he palled around the some of the other boys in his room. Everyday he came home from school with stories about what Bobby said or Johnny did or something that they all did together. Tom was glad that his son was making friends.

Atopic came up during lunch break one day that put the boys on an emotional top spin. William had always been naive about girls. He knew that they were different from boys because he and Alice shared the old washtub when they were small. That was about the extent of his knowledge. One of the older boys joined William’s lunch group and the subject of their conversation was the girls in their classroom. The older boy, named Monroe Wilson, told the group that he knew of a girl who would be willing to show them things under her dress for a dime. William was not sure that he was interested but he went along with the rest of his group. In order for the girl to do it, each of the boys would have to give her a dime. That would be fifty cents altogether. Bobby asked Monroe which girl in their classroom that it would be, but Monroe would not say which girl that it was until he was sure that none of them would tell. Ten cents was a lot of money to William, but he had it because his brothers gave him money. None of the other boys had any money, but they might bring some the next day if they decided to go through with the deal.

After school that day the boys stayed in the schoolyard and talked over the proposition from Monroe. They were all at the age to be curious, and curiosity finally got the best of them. They each agreed to bring the money the next day in order to see the naked girl. Each of the boys had trouble going to sleep that night for more than one reason.

The next morning the boys met in front of the school to give Monroe the money, and to work out the final details about where and when the private show would take place. Monroe insisted that it had to be during the school hours and on school property. There was a storage shed just beyond the toilets that would provide privacy, and they agreed to meet there during the lunch break.

It was hard for the boys to concentrate during morning classes. Each of them scouted around the room to try and pick the girl who would be showing them her body. They each had their suspicions and their hopeful candidates, but when it came right down to it, it did not really matter. It could have been Mrs. Smith for all that they cared. The excitement of seeing something ‘dirty’, was more than enough for them.

When the lunch break finally came, the boys grouped together and headed toward the storage shed. By the time they passed the toilets, they were in a dead run. They practically fell into a pile when they reached the door of the shed. They brushed themselves off and looked at each other to determine who would get the honor of opening the door. Bobby took it upon himself to do the honors. The rest of the boys stood there in anticipation of the exotic thrills that lay just beyond the door. Bobby tugged on the homemade handle and all five of the boys stood there face to face with old man Rosenbaum.

“What are you boys doing here?” he demanded.

“Uh. Uh, we heard that there was a huge snake in here and we wanted to see it.” Bobby answered quickly, but not quite fast enough.

“Not so fast Bud.” the Principal stated. “I found a note under my office door that said that some boys were exposing themselves in here. Is that what you were about to do?”

He looked directly at William. He already suspected that William would be showing signs of deviant behavior because of the emotional trauma in his life.

“No sir.” they all answered at once.

“Something is fishy here. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I don’t like it even a little bit. Get out of here and if I see any of you boys here again, your ass will be mine. Do you understand?”

He looked directly at William again.

“Yes sir.” they all answered.

The boys were so ashamed. They also realized that they had been taken by that boy named Monroe Wilson. They had trouble looking at each other for several days after that episode, and they never trusted Monroe Wilson again. All five of the boys, in spite of their best intentions, wouldkeep their innocence a while longer.

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Chapter Four
 

At least two times a day William could not help but to think about little Alice. He could not pass over the footbridge going to and from school without that horrible vision coming into his mind. He knew that he would never be able to use that footbridge. Anyway, there had not been that much of a risk by using the trestle because he was surefooted and fast. When he was smaller the trestle was imposing and intimidating, but not anymore.

There had been a few bad accidents on the trestle since the railroad line was built. A railroad maintenance worker who was hard of hearing had been struck by thetrain not long after the line was finished. And another time a drifter had to jump to avoid being run over, but the fall was just as deadly. The poor man landed on giant boulders near the stream and was killed instantly. There were other reasons for using the footbridge but they did not matter to William. So far during the school term he had crossed the trestle just ahead of the train a couple of times. It was very exciting to him. The rush of adrenaline would last for hours afterwards. He never mentioned to his daddy that he was going across the deadly trestle because he knew that his daddy would not approve.

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William’s twelfth birthday came and went without a lot of fanfare. He got a birthday cake with chocolate icing, and a pocket knife from the general store where Alan worked. He was very happy with his gift. Most people in their community in those days, did not celebrate birthdays and holidays in any kind of extraordinary way. Even the biggest holiday, Christmas, was not commercial back in those days. The reverence and religious significance was recognized, but Santa Claus was not the magical figure that he became later in the century. People were thankful for what they had, but it took much less material goods to satisfy their needs.

Twelve year old boys were proud to carry a pocket knife. It made them feel much more grown up. William could not wait to show his new prize to his friends at school. He did not think that there was anything wrong with having it in his pocket, because he was going to be careful with it. He had seen other boys at school that carried them, so that first morning after his birthday, he took his. Everything would have been fine if he had just kept it in his pocket. But during the lunch break he made the mistake of getting it out of his pocket to show his pals. Ever since the incident at the storage shed he had been careful to avoid Mr. Rosenbaum, but Mr. Rosenbaum had been keeping careful tabs on William without his knowledge. As a matter of fact, he had been watching William almost to the point of being obsessive. William had no idea that the Principal followed him home from school one day. He wanted to see exactly where William lived, and where the accident took place that took his sister’s life. He watched William cross the trestle without looking down toward the footbridge. He was sure that the boy was crazy, and deviant, and a disaster just waiting to happen. A non prejudiced observer would have thought the same thing of Eli Rosenbaum. Anyway, the new knife was a perfect excuse to lower the boom on William Hill.

The instant that William pulled the knife from his pocket, Mr. Rosenbaum was on top of him. He grabbed the knife and twisted William’s arm in the process. William was so startled that he started to cry.

“Where did you get this knife?” shouted Mr. Rosenbaum.

“It was my birthday present.” sobbed poor William.

“What are you doing bringing it to school? Don’t you know that it is against the rules?”

“No.” William said as he continued to cry. He did not even realize that he was crying, nor did he care if his classmates saw his crying.

Mr. Rosenbaum suddenly thought that maybe he had overreacted.

“All right then, you can get it back after school. You had better take it home and never bring it back to school again. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

William no longer respected the man enough to say ‘sir’. He walked away drying his eyes and nose on the sleeve of his shirt. The rage in him was so intense that his face was bright red and burning. He decided that the next time a confrontation took place with old man Rosenbaum, someone was going to get hurt. If he could have gotten hold of his knife just then, he would have stabbed that hateful, vicious man. And he was sure that he would have no remorse about it at all.

William walked back to the classroom alone. His palssaw him in a whole new light after that day. None of the other boys dared to speak to him about that fateful day, ever. They saw his rage and it was intense and unnerving. As he walked into the room his eyes were darting about and flashing brightly. They could see that he was thinking about ways to deal with that asshole named Rosenbaum.

After school that day William went to the Principal’s office to retrieve his knife. Mr. Rosenbaum was hesitant at first, but when he saw that William was about to get upset again, he handed it right over to him. As if to rub salt into the deeply emotional wound, he patted William on the back, then moved his hand down to William’s butt, as the boy was leaving his office. William cringed at the hateful man’s touch, and gave Mr. Rosenbaum a look back that he would likely never forget.

All the way home that afternoon William boiled inside. He was so frustrated and angry that he forgot to think about Alice as he crossed the trestle. He had other things on his mind, and revenge was at the top of the list. He would have his retribution on old man Rosenbaum or he would die trying. He mentioned nothing to his daddy about the events that had taken place at school that day. He felt sick to his stomach every time that he thought about that man touching him. He would never forget the feeling that he had when Rosenbaum grabbed the knife from his hand, and then later touched his body in such an inappropriate way.

That night William dreamed for the first time in weeks. He dreamed about taking his new knife and stabbing old man Rosenbaum over and over with it. By the time that he was finished, Rosenbaum’s face was as white as a ghost, and he looked like he wanted to cry. He even tried to cry but he could not move his mouth because he was dead before he even got the chance. When William awoke the next morning, he could not remember the details about his dream, but for some reason he felt very happy.

William left his knife at home after that stressful day. He did think about taking it to school and keeping it hidden inside his pocket, but he finally decided against the notion.

Old man Rosenbaum would be watching him, and he did not want to give the hateful man any reasons to start trouble again. He was determined to get even with Rosenbaum, but he would have to be patient. He would bide his time until the right moment, and then the son of a bitch would wish that he had never been born. William was sure that with a little time he could come up with a perfect plan of revenge. He just wanted to make sure that Rosenbaum knew that it was he who had the last laugh. He would piss on Rosenbaum’s grave and laugh while he was doing it.

All day at school William was preoccupied with the events of the day before. The teacher noticed that he was not paying attention to her, so she called upon him to answer a question. He had no idea what the answer was or even what the question was, so she scolded him in front of the class. He was completely oblivious to her, but he soon realized that he needed to focus his attention on other things besides the Principal. After all, he had plenty of time to get even with the man who he now hated with a passion.