Through the Hidden Door by Rosemary Wells

Author:Rosemary Wells
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781453265949
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 2012-10-12T16:02:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“IS THIS AN UNTAPPED line?”

“Dad, I’m calling from Mr. Finney’s house. Of course it’s untapped!”

“That tinhorn Silks isn’t listening in?”

“No, Dad.”

“Well, I’m flying into Boston day after tomorrow. Get your things together. There’s a train from Greenfield at eleven in the morning. I’ll meet it at North Station.”

“Dad,” I said, voice cracking, “I’m not ... I’m not leaving Winchester.”

“Barney, don’t even open your mouth to me about—”

“I’m going to stay on. I will not leave.”

“Yes, you will, Barney. Oh, yes, you will. I say you’ll leave, and you have no choice. If you think for one minute—”

“Dad,” I interrupted. I knew exactly where my father was sitting. On the kitchen counter, boots dangling against the lower cupboard where we kept rice and cereal. I could see the veins sticking out in his neck and pumping away in his temples. I could hear his face get hot and red. “Dad, listen—”

“You listen, Barney. You listen up and listen hard. I have paid good money, over ten thousand bucks a year, to be exact, to give you a decent education. There is no way you can come back here to Lantry and go to high school twenty miles away in Red Arrow. Even if you did, I have to travel all year long. Where are you going to live? With your Uncle Edward? Huh? You want to live with Uncle Edward and worry about his hernia all night long for him? Number three. Your former friend Rudy and his gang are going to take care of you but good. I will not let you spend one more day on a campus with five weasel-brained lumpkins who want to break your neck. Silks said he would not be responsible for any accidents.

“That brings me to Martin Silks. He is the lowest, most disgusting worm I’ve ever run into. But he’s offered us an out. He says he’ll give you a twenty-four-carat-gold ticket into any school in the country if you’ll leave now. You’re going to St. Andrews, Barney. You have been entered and accepted. Are you listening to me?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“Do you know what St. Andrew’s is?”

“A big deal preppy school in Rhode Island,” I answered.

“Yes, Barney. One of the best schools in the United States. You can finish out eighth grade there and continue in their upper school if you want. Or you can transfer to Hotchkiss from St. Andrew’s in September. You will under no circumstances come back here or stay on at Winchester. The decision has been made, Barney.”

“Dad, I won’t go.”

“You do not have that option, son.”

“Dad, it’s my life. And I won’t go.”

“Barney, why are you acting like a moron? A flea-brain?”

“If you’ll listen, I’ll tell you, Dad.”

“I will listen to nothing, son, because I am thirty years older than you are. You are going to listen to me. You are going to meet me at North Station in Boston in forty-eight hours. I am taking you to Rhode Island myself.”

“I won’t show up, Dad.”

“Then I will come to Winchester.

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