Welcome to the Monkey House - Kurt Vonnegut [102]
"We passed Tom Hilyer and his boy on the way," said Doctor Remenzel. "They’ll be along in a minute."
"Good, good," said Doctor Warren absently. He fidgeted, looked again in the direction in which Eli had disappeared.
"Tom’s boy will be going to Whitehill in the fall?" said Doctor Remenzel.
"H’m?" said Doctor Warren. "Oh—yes, yes. Yes, he will. "
"Is he a scholarship boy, like his father?" said Sylvia.
"That’s not a polite question," said Doctor Remenzel severely.
"I beg your pardon," said Sylvia.
"No, no—that’s a perfectly proper question these days," said Doctor Warren. "We don’t keep that sort of information very secret any more. We’re proud of our scholarship boys, and they have every reason to be proud of themselves. Tom’s boy got the highest score anyone’s ever got on the entrance examinations. We feel privileged to have him."
"We never did find out Eli’s score," said Doctor Remenzel. He said it with good-humored resignation, without expectation that Eli had done especially well.
"A good strong medium, I imagine," said Sylvia. She said this on the basis of Eli’s grades in primary school, which had ranged from medium to terrible.
The headmaster looked surprised. "I didn’t tell you his scores?" he said.
"We haven’t seen you since he took the examinations," said Doctor Remenzel.
"The letter I wrote you—" said Doctor Warren.
"What letter?" said Doctor Remenzel. "Did we get a letter?"
"A letter from me," said Doctor Warren, with growing incredulity. "The hardest letter I ever had to write."
Sylvia shook her head. "We never got any letter from you."
Doctor Warren sat back, looking very ill. "I mailed it myself," he said. "It was definitely mailed—two weeks ago."
Doctor Remenzel shrugged. "The U.S. mails don’t lose much," he said, "but I guess that now and then something gets misplaced."
Doctor Warren cradled his head in his hands. "Oh, dear—oh, my, oh, Lord," he said. "I was surprised to see Eli here. I wondered that he would want to come along with you."
"He didn’t come along just to see the scenery," said Doctor Remenzel. "He came to enroll."
"I want to know what was in the letter," said Sylvia.
Doctor Warren raised his head, folded his hands. "What the letter said, was this, and no other words could be more difficult for me to say: ’On the basis of his work in primary school and his scores on the entrance examinations, I must tell you that you son and my good friend Eli cannot possibly do the work required of boys at Whitehill.’ " Doctor Warren’s voice steadied, and so did his gaze. " ’To admit Eli to Whitehill, to expect him to do Whitehill work,’ " he said, " ’would be both unrealistic and cruel.’ "
Thirty African boys, escorted by several faculty members, State Department men, and diplomats from their own countries, filed into the dining room.
And Tom Hilyer and his boy, having no idea that something had just gone awfully wrong for the Remenzels, came in, too, and said hello to the Remenzels and Doctor Warren gaily, as though life couldn’t possibly be better.
"I’ll talk to you more about this later, if you like," Doctor Warren said to the Remenzels, rising. "I have to go now, but later on—" He left quickly.
"My mind’s a blank," said Sylvia. "My mind’s a perfect blank."
Tom Hilyer and his boy sat down. Hilyer looked at the menu before him, clapped his hands and said, "What’s good? I’m hungry." And then he said, "Say—where’s your boy?"
"He stepped out for a moment," said Doctor Remenzel evenly.
"We’ve got to find him," said Sylvia to her husband.
"In time, in due time," said Doctor Remenzel.
"That letter," said Sylvia; "Eli knew about it. He found it and tore it up. Of course he did!" She started to cry, thinking of the hideous trap that Eli had caught himself in.
"I’m not interested right now in what Eli’s done," said Doctor Remenzel. "Right now I’m a lot more interested in what some other people are going to do."
"What do you mean?" said Sylvia.
Doctor Remenzel stood impressively, angry and determined. "I mean," he said, "I’m going to see how quickly people