Chapter 3
The summer had agreed with Harold Stone. His forehead was smooth and the lines in his face had disappeared. His carriage was more erect, and his eyes shone with the brightness of purpose. For the first time in years he had become active with a design. Instead of just drifting from term to term and job to job, Harold now had a responsibility. Heavenly Hills was his, a place he could sprout roots and call his own, and Harold was determined to make a success of it.
He spent the balance of June working closely with Cary Waller, analyzing the entire operation of the girls' boarding school and evaluating the personnel carefully. Mrs. Waller agreed to take on two additional classes, and Harold assigned himself the task of teaching a majority of the history and literature classes. That allowed Harold to eliminate two members of the teaching staff, which would go a long way toward improving the profit situation of Heavenly Hills.
Even that had not been possible without a dramatic and somewhat hilarious incident. The day after the girls had left for summer vacation, Harold and Mrs. Waller had a clash. Harold knew it was inevitable, and he decided to bring it out into the open as quickly as possible. He hardly knew Cary Waller, but what he did know he didn't like. Personality aside, Harold had a suspicion that she was valuable in running the school. Yet with Harold assuming the helm, he wanted it on his own terms.
The incident took place almost accidentally. Harold had planned to talk to her the next day, but circumstances made their talk unnecessary. Feeling sexually abandoned after Mary left, Harold was walking down the hall when he saw Mrs. Waller bending over a low shelf of books near the reading room. Her straight, muscular legs were spread provocatively, and her ample buttocks strained against her dress. He walked up quietly behind her and reached down to run his hand up her leg like he had done so many times with young Mary. At the touch of his hand, Cary Waller turned around and slapped Harold's face so hard it turned bright red and stung for fifteen minutes afterward.
"Don't ever touch me again, you horny swine!" she said in a voice that literally dripped authority and menace.
"Mrs. Waller," Harold began in an angry voice. He wanted to tell the bitch to pack up right then and leave, but he fought for control of his temper. "Mrs. Waller, I assure you it was a friendly gesture...."
"Reserve your friendly gestures for young tramps like Mary," Mrs. Waller interrupted.
"Mary!" Harold said, unable to believe she actually knew what he and Mary had been doing over the past few months.
"Yes, Mary. I know all about it, Mr. Stone. And if the girl is willing, I see no objection. Some young girls have no sense or taste at all. That's no concern of mine. But you keep your hands off me!"
She knew, and she didn't object! Amazing! Maybe there was hope after all.
"Cary, I was just hinting to you that the two of us might have some wonderful times together. It was a compliment. Perhaps poorly executed, but a compliment nonetheless. I think we could improve on the relationship you had with my aunt...."
"Never!" Mrs. Waller's voice rose a full octave when Harold mentioned his aunt. "And if you know about my relationship with your aunt, you must know that you can't give me what she did. I'll never touch another man as long as I live!"
Harold had to bite his tongue hard to keep from roaring with laughter. A Lesbian! And probably a bull dyke at that! And his aunt a femme! What you never guessed about people, even those close to you!
"But, Cary, I have an educated tongue, probably even better than my aunt's," Harold said, amused at seeing the old gal blush a bright red. "You might find I could give you even more fun than my aunt."
"And expect something in return I would never give. No thank you, Mr. Stone, no thank you."
Harold stared at her for a moment in silence. She held his eyes without flinching. "All right, Mrs. Waller, I'll certainly respect your wishes," he said slowly. "And as long as we understand each other, I'm sure we'll be able to work together beautifully. Perhaps we can even share some of the more promising young girls here next term."
"The girls!" Cary Waller never blinked as she stared at him, but a flush flooded her cheeks.
"Of course. Their nubile little bodies are ripe, so clean and innocent. And they learn quickly, so very quickly. By working together, I'm sure we can help each other. I'll pass along hints about some delicious little ripe bodies anxious to learn the secrets of love, and you do the same for me."
"I ... I never ... Why, I mean...." Mrs. Waller stuttered.
"Never mind, Mrs. Waller. Just think about it, and how nice it would be to have a warm eager body to share some of your secret moments, and I'm sure you'll see the wisdom of what I say. After all, we're not corrupting the girls. If we don't teach them, they'll learn from some nasty, dirty little boy in the back of a car at some drive-in movie. Don't you agree? But just think about it and we'll not mention it again."
From that moment on they devoted themselves to rearranging the administration and policies of Heavenly Hills. Harold had to admit they made a very effective team. Mrs. Waller knew things about the school Harold wouldn't have learned on his own for years. She was not as quick to recognize the weaknesses, but she proved valuable in advising Harold on some of his proposed new policies.
The first thing they did was place ads in several journals for new teachers. Harold wanted a younger staff to improve the scholastic image of the school. As the replies poured in, he and Cary studied them carefully. They immediately eliminated a number on salary requests, and finally decided on a young married couple, Ralph and Melody Martin. Couples often had a difficult time finding teaching assignments together, and therefore would accept smaller salaries. Mrs. Waller was hesitant about the Martins' experience in the grade and high school levels, but Harold argued that they could learn quickly, and by offering them room and board at Heavenly Hills they could be hired for what he would have to normally pay one teacher. Melody could take all of the science courses, which meant they might be able to eliminate one more member of the staff.
Harold was pleased when he received a letter from Ralph Martin accepting the positions for both of them. It would be tricky and marginal, but Harold decided to try to get along with two additional teachers, and settled on two young socialites who had just received their teaching certificates. Their inexperience worried him a little, but this was offset by the fact that the girls were prominent in their respective societies and could bring new students from above average income families with them.
That was part of a campaign Harold devoted a good part of the summer to. Sixteen girls had graduated this year, and an additional twelve had requested their records, indicating they were enrolling in another school. New registrations were slow, but Mrs. Waller assured Harold there was nothing unusual in this. She pointed to the fact that traditionally, registrations came in the week before school opened. Harold, however, was determined to fill the roll as quickly as possible. He also noted that over the past six years registrations at Heavenly Hills had been steadily declining, and he was anxious to reverse that trend. If he didn't, the school would soon become a losing proposition.
He contacted a publicity man he had attended college with, and together the two of them studied the Heavenly Hills situation hour after hour. Harold wanted to make the school a social institution to attract children from wealthy families, but his friend pointed out that the physical facilities simply wouldn't stand up to this. Harold reluctantly agreed, and they arrived at the same conclusion his aunt had some years before, that Heavenly Hills had to appeal to the middle-class family. And to have a middle-class family spend money for a boarding school, there had to be a valid reason.
Broken homes, of course, was the answer. Either broken homes or homes with problem children. This was precisely the area from which Heavenly Hills had been drawing its students. Harold's friend claimed that this was either by accident or word of mouth, that the school had never advertised to this particular area. And after spending countless night hours writing carefully worded ads, they came up with a campaign they were proud of. Harold's degree in sociology was used-a little exaggerated-in the ads designed to attract families with problem girls, and they coined the motto, "Heavenly Hills, a home with security," which was used throughout the advertising program.
Harold gambled half of his aunt's insurance money on a heavy magazine exposure of the campaign, and sat back with his fingers crossed. In his new brochure, he increased the tuition one hundred dollars a year. Mrs. Waller fought that, and Harold finally relented by agreeing that old students could enroll at the old tuition.
The results were so gratifying Harold went out and bought a bottle of champagne and he and Mrs. Waller celebrated by tying one on. They had so many applications they would never be able to accept all of the girls. Mrs. Waller said that it would be the first time in the history of Heavenly Hills that they would be able to pick and choose their candidates. They immediately set about weeding out some of the undesirable girls from the current student body, notifying the parents that due to a number of changes they would be unable to accept their children for the coming term.
Ralph and Melody Martin arrived the agreed two weeks before term. At first they found the school depressing. The old, just adequate buildings seemed so dull after their relaxing summer on the warm sands of Daytona Beach, Florida. Both of them were a golden bronze color after sailing, surfing, swimming and fishing for almost nine weeks, and they looked forward to their new positions.
"Really, Ralph," Melody said on their third day at Heavenly Hills, "these gray walls depress the hell out of me. Do you think Mr. Stone would let us paint our apartment?"
"He's been so busy I haven't had time to talk to him much," Ralph replied, "but he seems like a reasonable man. Why don't you ask him?"
"You don't think he'll feel we're pushy or demanding?"
"I don't think so. Besides, we can buy the paint ourselves. These quarters won't take more than a gallon and a half, I'd say."
"Can we afford it?"
"Of course we can afford it. Living on the beach all summer, we spent hardly anything. And while we won't retire on the salaries here at Heavenly Hills, we have our room and board free. What the hell, Melody, we agreed this is just an island in the sea to let us get our bearings before we start fighting the surf again. We're not going to spend our lives here."
"Then maybe we shouldn't spend the money on our apartment."
"Look, we've signed on for a full term. So we'll be here come hell or high water until next summer. Why live in something that depresses you? Get Mr. Stone aside and ask him. I'll buy the paint."
"Why don't you ask him?"
"He's got me working with Mrs. Waller on the new texts. The shipment came in yesterday, and I understand we're missing half of what they ordered. I have to go downtown and take an inventory, then get the distributor on the wire and see that we receive the rest before term starts. He also asked me to purchase supplies and set up a small store for the students, to save having them ask permission to go to town all the time."
"Ralph," Melody said, putting her armful of books on the mantel and walking over to sit in the one comfortable chair in their tiny living room, "how much trouble do you think these girls will be? I mean, their advertising seems to appeal to families with problem children."
"I've been wondering the same thing," Ralph replied, lighting a cigarette and sitting on the edge of the table. "Mrs. Waller told me they've had very little trouble over the years, but she admits that they're attracting more of the problem kids this year. I thought I'd buy a book on child psychology with disturbed children today and bone up. Anyway, honey, it will be a challenge. Something new for us."
"You can say that again! Get two of those books. I have a feeling we'll need them."
"Sorry you came?"
"No, not at all. We had to change, Ralph, you know that. And I'm looking forward to all of this. Maybe I'm scared, I don't know. Perhaps it's that I worry about us trying to find ourselves in the middle of a bunch of emotionally disturbed children."
"It could be the best thing for us. We spent the summer doing absolutely nothing, and we came no closer to understanding ourselves or deciding what we really wanted."
"I think we lost ourselves in too much introspective thinking. Got too close to the forest to see the trees."
"Exactly! And work may be the answer. If we get busy enough, maybe we'll forget about our own problems and through our work see everything much more clearly."
"I hope you're right. At least I know we'll be busy! Have you seen the registration book?"
"Yep, Mrs. Waller showed it to me with pride yesterday. They're so full Mr. Stone's building bunk beds."
"But is he going to hire more staff?"
"I doubt it," Ralph replied, standing and crushing his cigarette out in the lid from the coffee can they used for an ash tray. "Mrs. Waller said he's trying to make the school show a profit for once, and I suspect he'll try to get by with the minimum staff as long as he can."
The days passed quickly as they all worked to organize the school for the fall term. Melody painted their apartment in shades of pastel blue and yellow, while Ralph helped organize the school library and inventory the new school store. At Melody's suggestion, Harold Stone hired a painting crew to repaint the classrooms, and he had Melody choose pleasing pastel colors. The two young teachers arrived and immediately pitched in with the general sprucing up of Heavenly Hills. The problem of textbooks became critical, and Ralph had to fly to New York. His instructions were to bring the texts back and pay air freight on the shipment. He was also given permission to change texts, if he found it necessary because of supply. This was something Harold's aunt had always handled, and Harold simply started too late, but he placed full confidence in Ralph Martin.
Just before he left for New York, Ralph and Melody had one of the worst fights of their marriage. As with most domestic squabbles, their argument started over nothing and built to something just short of physical violence. In fact, had Ralph not left on the afternoon flight, there well might have been physical violence. Both of their nerves were on edge, and they threw at each other an accumulation of years of frustration.
The fight began in the school library and ended in their apartment, and was overheard from beginning to end by Mrs. Waller. Cary had accidentally come upon them just after they exchanged the first few angry words, and she carefully retired from sight but remained in hearing distance-even to following them to their apartment and listening at the door. Without a moment's hesitation, Mrs. Waller immediately reported the fight to Harold Stone. She capsulized what she had overheard, justifying her position by claiming that as the Martins' employer, he had the right to know everything that might affect their performance.
Harold thanked Cary, pleased at the way their relationship was developing, and told her he would handle it and warn the Martins that he expected a great deal of them at Heavenly Hills.
As soon as Mrs. Waller left his study, Harold Stone sat at his desk and carefully considered the value of this intelligence. What he hadn't told Mrs. Waller was that he felt a tremendous attraction to Melody. Ever since their first day at the school, Harold had watched Melody with lust growing in his mind and body. She was ravishingly beautiful to Harold. He loved her long blonde hair, her high, pointed tits, those gorgeous, rounded legs, her provocative ass, and most of all her lovely face. Several times he had caught guarded glimpses of Melody's thighs as she bent over, and he had to remain seated to conceal his hard-on.
Just what did this argument between the Martins mean to him? Could he cash in on it? Cary said Melody was furious when Ralph called her a frigid woman. Would she perhaps be anxious to prove herself with someone else? Of course, he was a good deal older than she, he told himself. But what about young Mary? It would have to be handled carefully. The Martins were perfect for the staff, and he couldn't afford to lose them now. But how much did they need the job? They had to need the position to accept the low salaries he was offering.
Harold smiled to himself as he rose from his desk and stood before the mirror to adjust his tie. He had the perfect plan, and there was no better moment to strike than when she was still mad at her husband.
Taking care that Mrs. Waller and the new teachers did not see where he was going, Harold Stone went quietly to the Martin apartment on the second floor.