Was I excited? Was I afraid? Was I curious? Was I about to laugh or about to cry? I had absolutely no idea. The woman eased her backside onto the Head’s desk and sat, legs dangling, grinning at me in amusement. “This is your first time, isn’t it?” She opened a manilla folder she’d brought with her and studied it intently for a few minutes. The silence was deafening. I kept hearing echoes of canes swishing and cracking in my head. Every now and then the woman would cluck her tongue, whether in surprise or disapproval, I couldn’t know. Finally she put down her folder and shook her head at me. “I see that you are a consistently naughty lad, Barkley,” she said, her lips curling downward in a frown.
A Trip to the Head14
