Wave of Terror by Theodore Odrach

Author:Theodore Odrach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2007-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

Early the next morning before classes started, Kulik summoned the Suchoks to his office with the intention of somehow resolving, at least in part, the situation concerning their son. He expected the family to knock on his door sometime around seven, but to his great surprise, the door banged open and Ohrimko came flying across the room. His face was red and bruised and he was crying and whimpering. His father came after him waving his fists, followed by his wife.

“Get on your hands and knees and kiss the headmaster’s feet!” Suchok grabbed hold of his son’s collar and kicked him from behind. “Beg him for mercy! This will be the end of your disobedience once and for all. You’ve been a troublemaker long enough!”

Tears streamed down the boy’s cheeks as he threw himself on the headmaster, grabbing at his ankles. He whimpered louder; his words were barely audible.

Kulik looked on with shock and outrage. “Stop this exhibition at once!” he yelled. Seizing Ohrimko’s arm and pulling him up, he sat him on a chair next to his desk and handed him a handkerchief. He tried to calm him down. “Hush, quiet! I don’t want to hear any more of those noises from you.” Then glancing sharply at Ohrimko’s father, “I intend to put an end to this entire matter right now, but calmly and rationally, and in a civilized manner.”

Suchok’s face, as bullish as his son’s, crimsoned. “I’m trying to straighten my boy out once and for all. He’s always up to no good. Why did you call us here this morning? What did he do now? If there’s one thing he responds to, it’s a good thrashing. Maybe if you did the same he’d be better behaved in school.”

Kulik gave Suchok an icy glare. “I don’t want to see this sort of display in my office again. Brutality only gives rise to more brutality, and it solves nothing. Ohrimko has done nothing wrong, that’s not why I called you to my office today. Now, please, have a seat.”

Turning back to Ohrimko with a reassuring smile, he walked over to the filing cabinet, pulled open the top drawer and took out a large cardboard box. He handed it to the boy. “Here, son, this is for you.”

The boy sat frozen, his eyes fixed on the box, not knowing what to do with it. He thought maybe his punishment was inside—a rod or a leather strap. He was trembling all over.

When the headmaster lifted the lid, Ohrimko’s eyes lit up in astonishment and disbelief. Inside there were all kinds of things he had never seen before. It was all too good to be true, he couldn’t believe his eyes! First he pulled out a bright red box engine with six driving wheels, then a car, then another and another, then a handful of rails, some curved, some straight, all with small teeth at the ends.

“See these teeth at the end of the rails?” Kulik said. “When you attach them to each other, you can form a track.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.