Free The Red Road by Stephen Sweeney Page B

anything else in English for a while. Handjob had
a fit that we weren’t watching something in another language. ‘It’s
world cinema,’ I said, ‘which means we can also get stuff
made in England . And it was Halloween, too.’ He said it
didn’t actually count. Best not to risk it again. I
don’t want the club to be shut down.”
    “So, what are we watching?” I
asked.
    “ Spoorloos ,” Marvin
said. There was a twinkle in his eye.
    It was quite possibly one of the most harrowing films I had ever watched, much worse than Hellraiser .
That the lead character was buried alive at the conclusion by the killer, suffering the same fate
as his former girlfriend, was certainly not the happiest of endings.
    “Enjoy that, Joe?” Marvin asked, once the credits had
started rolling.
    “Yeah, thanks, Marv,” I said. “That was precisely not the kind of film I wanted to watch
tonight.” Marv and Rory only laughed. I wondered if they had chosen it on purpose.
It was a pretty good film, I admitted, just not the sort I would have picked
to show at this moment in time.
    “What did you think of the film?”
Marvin asked of the first and second years.
I forgot their names. They were both in Enfield
House, though. I could tell by the colour of their ties.
    “It was good,” they nodded,
though they didn’t add anything else. I got the impression that
they came to the club both to watch the film, enjoy a few snacks, and
listen to us talk about things going on in the school.
    “Hey, did you hear about Will
Preston?” Rory said, moving to the video to start rewinding the
tape.
    “No,” I said, detecting
immediately from the tone that this was a piece of derogatory gossip.
    “He’s gone to Cambridge
University and joined the gay society.”
    “No way!” I said. “Seriously?”
    “Yep.” Rory grinned. “Within
the first couple of days, apparently. A lot of people do that because
it’s a new place and a new start and very few people know them.”
    “Yeah, but what’s-his-name’s
gone there, too.” I clicked my fingers as I tried to remember his
name, failed, and gave up. “The head of Enfield House. They know
each other.”
    “Sure, but university’s not like
here – there are thousands of people there. If they’re not in the
same college and not doing the same classes, then they might bump
into each other randomly, but no one would ever know.”
    “Well, we found out,” I said,
looking at what remained of the tube of Pringles. A few at the
bottom, mostly broken. “So, it’s not entirely secretive.”
    Rory then began laughing. “Marvin’s
not saying anything, because Preston was his dorm prefect when he was
a first year.”
    I chuckled and looked at Marvin, who
just waved away the attention. “Whatever,” he said, crunching on
a mint. “I don’t care either way.”
    “Has anyone ever told anyone
they’re gay while they’ve still been here?” the second year boy
then asked.
    “Don’t be stupid, Turner,”
Rory said. “You’d get the shit kicked out of you.”
    “I don’t think so,” Marvin
frowned. “It wouldn’t be a very bright thing to do, but I
wouldn’t be surprised if someone’s told a teacher sometime. But,
no, I don’t think anyone’s ever said so.”
    “Do you think maybe that’s what
happened to Scott Parker?” Turner asked. “That he found out
someone was gay?”
    “Scott Parker?” Rory and Marvin
looked at one another.
    “The junior school boy,” I said.
“No, I don’t think so. He’d have only been here for, what, four
weeks?”
    “Does anyone know how it happened
yet?” Rory wanted to know, looking to the four of us. We all
shrugged.
    “Who do you think it was?”
Marvin asked. “Someone local?”
    “I bet it was Quasimodo,” Rory
said. “That’s the hunchbacked gardener you sometimes see around
the place, with the monks,” he explained to the first year, who
nodded but said nothing.
    “Rob Walker thought the same
thing,” I said. “I doubt