Chapter 14: Premonitions and Plans

When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I felt a bit off-kilter; usually I feel rested and alert. Now I felt somewhat disturbed. I had dreamed during the night; usually I don’t remember my dreams but now I began to recall, not the actual dream, but impressions of what the dream was about. In it, it seemed that shadowy figures were moving around a web, like a spider web, and one of the figures resembled Abover. It was a hulking shape, had a swollen face, and one arm was hanging limply. The whole image had a sense of threat and danger. It seemed my subconscious was trying to send me a message. I sat on my bed for a few minutes to collect my thoughts and then went to my computer to send an email. I saw a message from Dan, but that would have to wait.

I sent an email to Bob, briefly telling him of my concerns about Abover. He hadn’t behaved like an educator with kids; he behaved like a thug. It was how he spoke to me in his office, how he had dragged Denise around on Monday morning, how he smirked at the kids’ discomfort, and what I had heard yesterday about how he’d treated the Program kids. Something didn’t seem right—perhaps that was what my subconscious was telling me. So I asked Bob to try to investigate Boris Abover, get a background check done, and see if anything turned up.

Then I made an extract of the files I had created that were based on Sarah’s notes: a list of Program rules violations by teachers and a separate list of the names of the teachers who were said to have been involved. I printed that off. Then I showered, dressed, had breakfast, and left to pick up Denise.

When she got into the car, I turned to her and grinned. “Good morning; you look like you’re ready for another exciting day,” I joked.

“Yeah. You think maybe today will be a normal one for a change?”

“Sorry. Not a chance. Today, instead of me getting called to the office, I’m gonna go to the office first and ask for a meeting with Fletcher.”

“Oh my, what now? Something from our work session yesterday?”

“Yeah. Actually I thought of something this morning that Fletcher needs to know about.”

“Wel-l-l-l ... ok, I guess. Be careful—try not to take over the school now, you hear?” she kidded, uh, was she kidding with me?

As soon as we entered the school building, I saw Fletcher talking to a teacher just off the lobby, He saw me and motioned me over.

“Kevin, Denise, just wanted to let you know that the board approved basically everything we spoke about on Monday.”

“Thanks, sir, good to hear.” I saw Denise smile broadly. “Sir, another thing has come up that’s closely related and may help you in doing the rules clarifications you mentioned that would be handed out on Thursday.” He got a guarded expression. “No, this isn’t about making any policy changes at all; but it may be a matter that will help the Program to be better accepted by the students. Can I see you in your office, please?”

“Hmmm,” he said, “this is the first time I’ve heard of a student calling the principal for a meeting. Usually we do it the other way around.” Denise giggled and squeezed my hand. “Ok, why not? Just another part of this week’s disaster. Denise, you’re in Kevin’s home room?”

“I am, sir.”

“Good. Please tell your teacher where Kevin is, ok? Thanks. Ok, son, let’s go talk.”

After we were seated in Fletcher’s office, he looked at me hard. “Now you’re not going to be asking for more concessions, right?”

“No. But you need to know this. You know that my learning about the existence of this whole Program thing was kind of a shock to me. I had no inkling that anything like this existed. So yesterday I was asking other students what their feelings were about it and I learned, as you probably know, that they are apprehensive, no, scared, of being selected. They told me it wasn’t because of the mandatory nudity; it was because of how they were treated.”

“Wait, Kevin...”

“No, please, let me continue. In my talking with them, I could see that if the Program is run according to the rules in that booklet, the kids will accept it better. What you need to know is that during last term, the rules weren’t followed. Did you know that, sir?”

“What do you mean? Of course they were followed. Mr Abover saw to that. He met with the teachers and gave them detailed instructions about the rules and what they were to do. He had the teachers send any student who had a question about the rules to him so he could explain the rules, and he also decided any disputes and challenges. He gave me a report twice each week about the Program.”

“Then you’ll be surprised to learn that he must have had his own set of rules.” I pulled my printout out of my backpack. “This is a list of things kids saw last term. Some of these incidents were reported to me by Program participants and some by bystanders. They all have a common theme. You notice that when anyone objected, they were summarily punished. You’ll also notice that certain teachers appear to have been working from a different set of rules, like that one report about mandatory relief...”

“Relief isn’t mandatory,” he interjected.

“In at least that instance, it was. What about that one about a teacher selecting the person to give the participant relief?”

“That’s not in the rules either,” he said.

“Where do you think the teachers got the idea that they could substitute one set of rules,” I pointed to the sheet I gave him, “for another?” I held up a Program booklet. “The kids told me that Abover gave the teachers a list of rules to follow. The teachers I listed on that sheet were the specific ones who I was told about who violated the official Program rules. I think you should see if you can find anything written, maybe a list of alternate rules. Maybe Mr Abover has a list in his office. Is he back to work yet?”