Class Trip (2 page)

Tears were
running down my face and I could see others crying as well as Larissa
who had folded her arms over her desk. She was crying into her arms
and lifting her bottom so it wasn't really touching her seat.

“You,” the
teacher barked at Josephine in the front roll.

She pointed to
herself in disbelief.

“Yes you. Come
here and hold her down.”

Josephine stood
on shaking legs and did as she was told.

The teacher
practically threw Hannah over the desk. “Hold her hands. If you let
go you will be next.”

“Hannah, please
settle down,” she begged. She grabbed for her wrists and held her
tight.

Hannah still
wouldn't settle down. “Knock it off, Hannah. You already got
Larissa in trouble. Just get it over with.” Josephine was mad at
her. She didn't want to get a caning she felt she didn't deserve from
this monster of a teacher who hadn't even taken the time to introduce
himself.

He lifted up her
skirt and she was still thrashing around and screaming. Why didn't
another teacher peek in to see what was going on? Things like this
should be covered under some child protection law. Did they have that
in a country where woman weren't even allowed to vote until 1971?

He finally laid
down the cane on the windowsill. Did he realize that she was too
traumatized to whip her? No, he was pulling down her underwear. Was
he allowed to do that? I looked around at the other girls and none
seemed shocked. More were crying.

He retrieved his
cane and whipped it through the air a couple of times before he went
at her. She screamed until the twelfth one. She just bawled after
that. He hit her twenty-five times in less than a minute. It went so
fast that my eyes couldn't even follow along. Her backside seemed to
be magically turning red with lines that faded into red as more lines
took their place.

Josephine looked
at him wondering if he was finished.

“Take her to
the infirmary and then return quickly,” he barked at Josephine who
was helping her stand up again.

Hannah was
reaching back and trying to pull up her underwear but she was in too
much pain to bend the right way. She finally had it in her hands and
she carefully pulled them up over her sore bottom. She whimpered as
they slipped back into place.

“Hannah,” he
called out before she left the room, “Because of your disobedience
we will be seeing each other again this evening before you go to bed.
I will be in your room at eight o'clock sharp and I expect all of you
roommates to be present too.” He looked over the class as he said
that.

I was one of the
girls that shared a room with her. We were four to a room. Fresh
tears replaced the others that had slowly been residing.

“We will
continue reading now.” He looked at me and I took the book in my
hands as they shook. I read aloud as my voice cracked several times
and I sobbed. He moved so he was standing next to my desk. He looked
down at me like I was trying to provoke him.

“Do you speak
French?” he asked.

“A little,” I
answered. I knew what he was getting at. He wanted to know if I was
from the French speaking part of Switzerland.

He nodded to
himself and moved on to the next girl. I was guessing he figured that
I was now from the Italian part of Switzerland.

We managed to get
through the whole class without any more problems.

He stood behind
his desk and looked over us while we all sat straight and looked back
at him. His eyes seemed to rest on each of us for a moment before he
looked at the next girl. He told us that we would have a test
tomorrow on this chapter. He expected good marks from all of us.

He looked at me
and I nodded back at him, deciding that I would memorize the chapter
all evening.

“By the way my
name is Mr. Glossner. You will need to know my name when you gossip
about me to the other girls.” He dismissed us then and we all
hurried out.

A few girls
warned the girls that were entering his class. They looked shocked
and quietly went in. He probably wouldn't like it if he were kept
waiting.

I was feeling a
little dizzy. I had him again later in English. That was a class
where I had helped the teacher. I had been teaching it since the
teacher was sick. What if he didn't like the way I had done things? I
decided to just sit down and not say anything, like I was any other
student.

Normally, I stood
by the board and wrote down anything the teacher told me to. I handed
out papers and played assistant for him. I wasn't about to go
anywhere near his desk.

I only had to put
up with him for one week and then our class was taking a week trip to
Eastern Europe. We were going to celebrate that we were graduating
and it would give us a last chance to see each other before we went
our separate ways.

The last two
weeks of school weren't to be taken seriously, the others had told
me. Bet no one told him that.

I would stay on
my toes until I was out of here.

Hannah wasn't at
lunch. Everyone was asking Josephine what had happened when they were
at the nurse's office. She told us that the nurse hadn't been too
surprised. She had asked Hannah if she had resisted and Hannah
admitted that she had. The nurse acted like she had deserved it.

Everyone was
scared now.

I ate my lunch
quickly and then went to my English class. He was already at the
board writing down a lesson that I had taught while the other teacher
was gone.

I sat down in my
spot again. Other girls were coming in. Hannah was among them. She
started to cry when she saw him again. All the girls sat down. When
everyone was in he went to close the door. I moved to stand up and
everyone else copied me.

“Good
afternoon, Mr. Glossner.”

His eyes were on
me, smiling again.

The rest of the
class repeated what I had said. He gave a nod and we all sat down. He
taught the lesson and then he asked questions. Everyone was getting
everything right, even Hannah who answered his question through her
tears.

He was pleased.
He wanted us to read out of our books. We were reading and learning
about Macbeth.

He called on me
to read. He moved right in front of my desk again. “Stand up, so
everyone can hear you,” he said in English.

I stood and read
as nice as I could in my nervousness. Herr Glossner looked almost
disappointed that I had done so well.

He had the next
girl stand and read. He corrected her a lot. She too was crying by
the time she was finished. He corrected every mistake that she had
made.

He dismissed us
after the hour was over and again we pushed to get out of the door,
away from him.

At supper Hannah
couldn't stop crying. We heard that he had caned two other girls.
Those girls were younger and would have to have him as a teacher
again next year.

Milena was
holding the student handbook under the table and reading about what
he was allowed to do this evening when he came to our room. He wasn't
allowed to cane her again. But he could bear her and spank her with
his hand, a ruler, a paddle or a belt.

Hannah couldn't
eat or stop crying. She wanted to quit school and just runaway.

I told her she
should call her parents. Maybe they could help.

She told us that
her parents wouldn't listen to her side of it. Her father was really
strict. He would make her take what the teacher felt she was due.

We all walked
back to our room slowly. She really did look like she wanted to run.
She went to the bathroom again and again. I was lying on my bed
reading and rereading my history chapter. I was scared what he would
say if I wrote something wrong. I wrote in baby sentences because my
German wasn't that great.

At eight on the
dot there was a knock on the door. We had all changed into pajamas
before he had come because it had said that Hannah had to in the
student's handbook. Hannah backed into the corner and she was crying
again.

No one went to
open the door and he knocked again, only this time it was louder and
madder.

I looked at the
others. No one was going to answer it. I bit the bullet and stepped
forward and opened the door.

Sure enough, it
was him. “Good evening, sir.”

He actually
smiled at me. “Good evening. I am here to see Hannah.” He said
that like he was a gentleman caller.

I opened the door
wider and went back to my bed. The idea of having to see her get it
again was making me start to cry.

Herr Glossner
came in and closed the door. He spotted Hannah in the corner and
sighed. He looked at me and asked which was her bed. I just pointed.

All of us were
just watching him, leery about what he would do to her.

He sat down on
her bed and looked over at her. “Hannah, come here. Don't make it
worse for yourself. I'm sure you are eager to prove that you learned
that lesson this morning.”

“No, please
don't.” Her hands were covering her bottom, which was pressed into
the corner.

He sighed again.
“I'll be really fair. I'll count to ten but if you aren't here by
then I will get you and it will be even worse. If you resist again
then I will come every night this week.” He took a deep breath.
“One, two, three, four, five.”

She had yet to
move. She was shaking her head no again.

“Six, seven,
eight, nine,” he looked over at her again. He sighed like he was
really surprised and disappointed with her, “Ten.”

He got up and
went over to her corner and pulled her out by her wrists. She didn't
fight him tooth and nail this time. She walked along with him as he
pulled, but she was still saying
no
and crying.

He sat down on
her bed again and pulled her over his lap. He pulled down her pajama
bottoms. “Now I don't want to see a hand back here. If I do I will
start over and you are already very sore. Trust me you don't want
that.”

I couldn't
believe that something like this was legal.

Hannah's bottom
was still a dark bruised red and she cried out at the first smack. I
cried right along. I was even crying so I could be heard. I could
hear my roommates crying too.

Milena was turned
away so she wasn't looking. She had her hands over her face and cried
into them.

My other
roommate, Jessica, just stared with her mouth open like she couldn't
believe what she was seeing. She didn't have History with us and the
sight of Hannah's bottom surprised her. We had told her it was really
bad, but seeing was believing.

Hannah was
screaming again as he spanked on. I felt like I was going to be sick.
She was already so hurt and to hurt her again was just cruel.

Her hands moved
back and covered her bottom. She screamed
no
at the top of her
lungs.

“You know what
this means, don't you?”

“No,” I stood
up. “No one has to know. I won't tell anybody. Just please stop
right now. She is already so hurt.”

The others joined
me in my begging.

He turned to look
at us.

“The only thing
I'm hearing is that you also want a spanking. Sit down and be quiet
or you are next,” he scolded me.

I sat down, but I
hated myself for it. He started the spanking again. Hannah was a mess
of tears. If anything he spanked her harder than before.

In the meantime I
hated this school, and I had loved my year here up until now.

We all watched as
he went at her backside like he hated her. She just bawled. He had
already won and he wouldn't stop. He was beating someone who was
already down. It was a really low thing to do.

He pulled her
pajama bottoms up and set her on her feet he had to steady her or she
would have fallen. “I'll be back tomorrow night. I expect you to
come to me when I call you the first time and I expect you to keep
your hands away. If you can't then I will use the paddle on you. Have
I made myself clear?”

Hannah looked in
his eyes and just cried. We could all see that she understood him all
too well.

He was still
holding onto her and he gave her a shake, “Do you understand?”

She nodded as she
bawled.

“Good, I'm glad
to hear that.” He let go of her and looked at the rest of us. “Good
evening, ladies.” He let himself out.

Once he was gone
we rushed to Hannah and helped her lay down in bed. She just cried
and screamed every once in a while. It took her forever to finally
fall asleep. She was in so much pain. I felt so sorry for her. This
was just too much compared to what she had done.

I lay awake in
bed a long time. We had to see him again first thing in the morning.
Hannah hadn't had a chance to really study for the test, what with
all the worrying that she had been doing.

It was after
midnight when I fell asleep.

Hannah was pale
and looked very sick. The whole school was looking at her. My
roommates and I got asked what had happened when he came back last
night. All I said was that it was just awful and cruel.

We were all in
the classroom when he came in. We stood and said good morning. He
seemed to be in a good mood because he smiled at us and wished us a
good morning too. He started handing out the tests. I looked at it
and it was mostly essay. This was something I was usually good at but
in a different language it was really difficult.

I sighed and
everyone looked at me, even he did.

We quietly worked
and I was among the last to turn in my paper. Herr Glossner gave me a
very strict look as I did. He took it and pulled it to him. He
started correcting mine right away.

I went back to my
desk and started biting my lips. I watched him get out a red pen and
go to work on it. He was using it a lot. My jaw dropped as I watched
him.