“GOOD NIGHT, MR. ROMANO.”
As Danny undressed, he wondered to himself, Now, where can I get a tape recorder? And maybe I aught to get a gun, too… just in case.
CHAPTER NINE
When Danny got to his first class the next morning, he thought he was in the wrong room.
It didn’t look like a classroom. There were nine other boys already there, sitting around in chairs that were scattered across the floor. A man of about thirty or so was sitting among them, and they were talking back and forth.
“Come on in and take a seat,” the teacher said. “My name is Cochran. Be with you in a minute.”
Mr. Cochran looked trim and wiry. His hair was clipped very short, like a military crewcut. His back was rifle-straight. He looked to Danny more like a Marine in civilian clothes than a teacher.
Danny picked a seat toward the back of the room. On one side of him the wall was lined with windows. On the other was a row of bookshelves, like a library. There was a big TV screen at the front of the room.
Turning around in his chair, Danny saw that the back of the room was filled with a row of little booths. They looked about the size of telephone booths. Maybe a bit bigger. They were dark inside.
“Hello. You’re Daniel Romano?” Mr. Cochran pulled up one of the empty chairs and sat next to Danny. The other boys were reading or writing, or pulling books from the shelves.
“This is a reading class,” Cochran explained. “Different boys are working on different books. I’d like you to start out today on this one.”
For the first time, Danny saw that the teacher had a book in his hands. The title was Friends in the City.
Danny took the book and thumbed through it. It was filled with pictures of smiling people—grocers, cops, firemen, housewives—living in a clean, bright city.
“You got to be kidding!” He handed the book back to Mr. Cochran.
The teacher grinned. “I know. It’s kid stuff. If you think it’s too easy for you we can go on to something better. But first you’ll have to take a test to see if you’re ready for harder work.”
He walked Danny back to one of the booths. Opening the door, Mr. Cochran stepped inside and flicked on the lights. Danny saw that the booth had a little desk in it, and the desk was covered with dials and push-buttons. Just above the desk, on the wall of the booth, was a small TV screen.
Mr. Cochran fiddled with the dials and buttons for a few moments, then stepped outside and said to Danny, “Okay, it’s all yours. Just sit right down and have fun. SPECS is going to give you a reading test.”
With a shrug, Danny went into the booth and sat down. Mr. Cochran shut the door. The window on it was made of darkened glass, so that Danny could hardly see the classroom outside. The booth felt soundproofed, too. It had that quiet, cushion-like feeling to it.
The TV screen lit up. “GOOD MORNING.” said SPECS’ voice.
“Hi. You know who this is?”
“DANIEL FRANCIS ROMANO.”
“Right again.” Cripes, thought Danny, ain’t he ever wrong? Then he got a sudden idea. “Hey SPECS, where can I get a tape recorder?”
“TAPE RECORDERS ARE USED IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSES.”
“Can you take ’em back lo your room? Are they small enough to carry?”
“YES TO BOTH QUESTIONS. AND NOW, ARE YOU READY TO RECEIVE STANDARD READING TEST NUMBER ONE?”
Smiling to himself, Danny said, “Sure, go ahead.” By the time the test was over, Danny was no longer smiling. He was sweating. SPECS flashed words on the TV screen. Danny had to decide if they were spelled right. He pushed one button if he thought the spelling was right, another button if he thought it was wrong.
After what seemed like an hour of spelling questions, SPECS began putting whole sentences on the screen. Danny had to tell him what was wrong, if anything, with each sentence.
Finally, SPECS put a little story on the screen. Then it disappeared and some questions about the story came on. Danny had to answer the questions.