Chapter 4

Two Weeks Later

I looked up at Hamish on the platform. “Okay, you ready?”

Hamish nodded excitedly. “I think so. Holden and I talked about it awhile after you showed us yesterday.” Automatically he reached out to touch his brother’s hand. Holden and I had demonstrated the pair-hanging technique yesterday. Hamish had looked on in absorbed concentration, and asked a lot of questions. “And I think I can handle the weight. I did all those exercises, hanging with the extra weights, like the Dean talked about in that letter he sent.” He blushed. “I’m sorry, I think of it as him sending it, but Holden tells me you wrote it.”

I nodded and laughed suddenly. “I assume the Dean found a way to word it so it didn’t imply you were admitted already.”

Hamish laughed. “Well, as far as the wording, yeah. I didn’t know how else to take it, though. I knew it had to be connected with Holden being here, and something he wanted me to get ready for. Especially the hanging with the extra weights. Holden never got anything telling him to do that while he was waiting.”

I smiled. “I figured you wouldn’t be fooled, but the Dean was just covering himself. He didn’t want to get some sort of general early admission policy started.”

Both boys were naked, of course. That gave me another way of telling them apart, besides the newly-arrived glittery monograms attached to their collars. Both had identical reddish-orange pubic hair, but Hamish’s was denser. There hadn’t been time for electrolysis of the extra hair yet. Aside from that, Hamish’s exercise program over the past year had kept his body looking essentially identical to Holden’s. I kept watching for subtle differences in habitual gestures or expressions that would help me distinguish them. There was still a touch of the familiar-friend-and-occasional-lover look on Holden’s face when he looked at me that was absent from Hamish’s, but that difference would fade away soon.

Each dropped a noose over the other’s head, adjusted it and tightened it, and waited for me to tie their hands behind them. They kissed each other — their faces were already only inches apart — but postponed any further intimacies to concentrate on the business at hand. It was obvious that Hamish took hanging as seriously as Holden, and Holden set a standard that was hard to match.

I nodded. “Okay, Hamish, I just want you to get a feeling for the breathing itself. Like I said yesterday, Holden and I have worked out some moves, part of a routine, but we were just showing you the basics to start with. We can work on some choreography in a few days, once you’ve got breathing mastered.” I gestured downward. “Hamish, move both of your feet just a few inches left. You’ll be able to put your right leg between Holden’s with less fumbling from there. While the platform is sinking, think where your knees are in relation to his.”