Free Boarding School by Clint Adams

recently developed an odd affinity for baby bottles. As she explained it to me, the small ones were a convenient way to carry liquids when she traveled because they never leaked. She had many insights like this and I found it fascinating just to listen to her. But eventually, Ellen and I decided that we were restless and the time had come for us to go out and find something else to do.
    We did peer into the black light room and saw that all nine mattresses were in use, but that wasn’t Ellen’s style. So we left the coffee house and walked around behind the Annex so we could stand on the beach and watch the moonlight as it reflected against the lake. Shortly after that, though, Ellen felt chilled, so we decided to climb the steps and return to the upper campus to check out what was going on up there. But we never made it all the way. When we reached the landing, instead of turning right to go up the remainder of the steps, we chose instead to continue straight ahead which took us directly into my dorm.
    After I had hung a neck tie around the door knob on the outside of my door to signal to Matt, in case he came around, that our room was in use, Ellen and I then spent the next few minutes engaged in nervous conversation. Soon, though, we were sitting together on my bed. Ellen was a little more than a year older than I was, and as I look back on our evening together now, I realize that she was the one who was really in charge. And when we finally began to kiss, and I felt her tongue penetrate through my perimeter of teeth and then plunge itself deep into the private region beyond my gums so she could rub and play around in there freely and with impunity, my first thought was What is she doing to me? An instant later, though, I realized that her oral gymnastics were causing me to feel exhilarated. So I immediately reciprocated with an equal amount of enthusiasm.
    This was how Ellen and I then spent the rest of our evening together until the time came for her to rejoin her friends and leave the Academy to return to Boston. I never saw her again, but a few weeks later I received a small package in the mail from her. In it I found a small baby bottle, an elastic bracelet she had made for me from blue beads, and a picture she had drawn for me which she called a dot drawing. The artwork was done in ink and was comprised of a series of dots which together depicted the image of a short man wearing a large hat. My friends at the time told me that the man looked like Arlo Guthrie. I never knew one way or the other. I was just grateful to have received her gifts.
    Years later, I gave the bracelet to my daughter when she was still a little girl, because it was something of mine which she admired. My wife one day threw out the baby bottle because she couldn’t imagine why a grown man would have such a thing sitting on his closet shelf, and the picture I had mounted. It is with me still today and has become one of the items from my youth which I truly treasure.

Chapter Three .

The Day My World Changed
    On the following Monday, a few days later, classes resumed as normal. Throughout the day I felt as if I was on top of my game. I remember receiving an “A” on my English composition that day, and at lunch I actually enjoyed what we had been given to eat. In the afternoon during soccer practice, I felt as if I was finally getting the hang of things. I had figured out the way to adjust my foot and angle my body so I could loft the ball accurately whenever I wanted. I don’t know if my successes on this day had anything to do with the great lift in my spirits I was still feeling after my date with Ellen, but regardless of what the reason was, I had a tremendous day.
    At dinner that night, Matt and I found ourselves assigned to a different table. Frank was now sitting with us and the rest there were upperclassmen whom, as of yet, I really didn’t know all that well. The teacher who was supposed to sit at the head of our table lived off