The White King (9 page)

Anyway, I stepped up on the trash can and stretched out my arms above my head with my fingers all spread out, just the way we were supposed to, because Sir Uclid always said that pillar saints had to hold their hands like that so birds could make a nest in their hands if they wanted. As I did this I noticed that Iza was looking at me because the trash can happened to be right there in front of the model students' bench, and meanwhile Sir Uclid leaned against the lectern on his desk and went on explaining when triangles are called similar, and that similarity is not the same as uniformity, and I tried counting, I even managed to double four thousand ninety-six, but the whole time I was looking at Iza, she had on thick brown tights and black shoes fastened with straps, and as I watched her I felt myself getting all warm, and my back started to itch and my school shirt was squeezing my neck even though my red cravat definitely wasn't pulled too tight. I tried multiplying thirty-two thousand seven hundred sixty-eight by two, but then I noticed what nice handwriting Iza had, how neat and orderly her letters were, and how she was sitting there all alone on the model students' bench, and then I saw that she'd filled up the page, and when she turned it I noticed that the next page didn't yet have a margin line, only all
those little squares on account of its being graph paper, so she pulled out her ruler and put it on the page, just the way you're supposed to, four squares from the edge, and before drawing the line she looked right up at me and gave a smile, which ruined my counting. I didn't know two hundred sixty-two thousand what, and I felt myself blushing, and as Iza then drew the margin line, the ruler slipped to the side, and the tip of her pencil went right off the page, and then I noticed that she was blushing too, and she lowered her head, and as I stood there on the trash can with my arms held up high, all of a sudden I thought that maybe I was in love, and then I almost fell off the trash can, and I quickly went back to sixty-five thousand five hundred thirty-six and tried starting from there again, but by now my arms were hurting, it was getting hard to hold them up, and I didn't know how much time there was left in class. I tried not looking at Iza but at the others instead, so in the meantime I could think of the multiplying, but somehow my eyes went right back to Iza, and I wanted to know if I was really in love because never before had I really been in love, not even once, and Iza then stretched one of her legs, and I noticed that her blue school skirt had slipped a bit to the side, and one of Iza's knees showed through, along with just a sliver of her thigh, and then I thought again of what Feri told me about pussies, how he saw a black woman naked one time and her pussy hair was pure white, like when someone's gone all gray, but it's not like I believed him, so anyway, Iza then looked at me again, but this time she wasn't smiling, she simply looked up, that's all, and that made me all ashamed about the things I'd been thinking, and I tried counting instead, but by then my arms and my shoulders were really beginning to hurt, and I got hungry and thought of my midmorning snack, an apricot jam sandwich, but Sir Uclid just kept explaining away about triangles, and again I messed up the multiplying, the last number I remembered for
sure was one hundred thirty thousand seventy-two, I really wished I could let my arms down already, and I saw that the guys were fidgeting a lot, which meant the class bell would ring in no time. I knew I didn't have to keep it up for long, and so I'd stick it out, I would, just like the great Communist hero Filimon Sirbu, who kept pulling that siren through the whole strike, and at the end, when the imperialists' volley cut him down, with the last of his strength he tied himself to the siren using his handkerchief, so that even with his lifeless body he would inspire his beloved comrades to strike, but unfortunately I didn't have a handkerchief with me, and it's not like I would have had anything to tie my wrists to anyway, and so I just kept holding my arms high and I tried counting, but it was no use at all anymore, and then all at once Sir Uclid looked at me and said, "The bell will ring any second now, so it's time to see what product divine inspiration has given our house saint, I can see that the storks haven't built any nests in his hands, but that doesn't mean miracles didn't happen in his head," and he told me to wipe that asinine look off my face because he'd kick the trash can right out from under me, instead I should be a good boy and say the number I'd reached, but by then my arms were hurting so bad that I couldn't even remember the end of sixty-five thousand whatever, and so I didn't say a thing, but then from the corner of my eye I noticed that Iza was looking at me again. She was silently whispering something, and I even managed to read the words on her lips, one billion seventy-three million seven hundred forty-one thousand eight hundred twenty-four, but her whispering it to me that way made me blush so hard that I couldn't say it, even though I really had read the whole thing on Iza's lips. I only stood there on the upside-down trash can with my hands held high and didn't say a thing, the skin on my face felt really hot all over, and then Sir Uclid said this would do, he'd given me a chance, but if it wasn't going to happen, well then, it wouldn't, and as he said that he smiled and suddenly kicked the trash can out from under me, and then the class bell rang.

I took a pretty hard fall, back and to the side, mainly I hit my butt and my elbow, and my school clothes got messy from the trash, and from down there on the floor even the ringing of the bell sounded a lot louder. Sir Uclid looked at me again and said what a good little weekly monitor boy I was, and right before sticking the roll book under his arm and leaving the classroom he told me to get ready to be called up front for an oral quiz during the next class, but I didn't care anymore about that because Iza was looking at me again, and I saw she was smiling.

It being the main recess, everyone left class pretty fast, Feri came over and said that if I wanted, he'd stay in and we could play the coin-toss game, but I said I didn't have any money on me, and he said that's no problem, I could sell him my snack for one twenty-five and then we could play with that money, but I said I wouldn't give it to him, I was hungry, and so he left too, and then only two of us stayed there in the classroom, Iza and I.

Iza opened the windows while I put the trash can back where it belonged, my pants were still covered with pencil shavings so I tried dusting them off, but then Iza came over and told me to be careful, that I had a lot left even on my back and that I should turn around, and then she began dusting my back, and when she did that I could tell I was turning red again, so I told her it was fine already and I stepped aside, but even through my school jacket I could still feel how warm her hand had been, and I thought to myself that it didn't do any good being in love because I wouldn't dare touch her hand, and then I said to her, "Thanks for whispering me the answer," but she looked at me like she didn't know what I was talking about and said she hadn't whispered a thing, she never did that, but I said I'd seen it, I'd seen her whisper to me "One billion seventy-three million seven hundred forty-one thousand eight hundred twenty-four," but Iza just shook her head again and said it wasn't true, and I said it was, and she said again that it wasn't, and then she turned and went over to the coat rack to get the broom and the dustpan, and as she turned I noticed that one of her ears was all red, and I said, "Let's not clean up yet, let's eat first instead," to which Iza said she wasn't hungry but I should go ahead and eat if I wanted, and so I went to my seat and got out my apricot jam sandwich and unwrapped the napkin around it, but before taking the first bite it occurred to me that I'd never seen Iza snacking at all, and then I thought that her stepfather must be starving her, and I looked at my sandwich, it was pretty big, I could give half of it to her. Meanwhile Iza had begun sweeping up the trash scattered in front of the blackboard, so I stood up and went over to the platform, and I wanted to ask her if she liked apricot jam sandwiches.

As Iza crouched to sweep the trash into the dustpan, her skirt slipped all the way up to her knee, and for a split second I thought I even saw her panties, and my mouth felt all dry, and I thought that maybe I should give her the whole sandwich, and even though I realized right away what a dumb idea that was, I took a step toward Iza all the same, and I even reached out the sandwich toward her, and meanwhile I said, "It's got apricot jam on it," but all Iza said was for me to be careful, one of my feet had just landed in a little heap of trash she'd swept up, but I just kept standing there because I still couldn't decide if I'd really seen Iza's panties or not, and Iza leaned forward, which is how she tried pulling away the little trash heap from in front of my foot before I stepped all over it even more, and she told me again to be careful, and as she reached out with the broom, suddenly I smelled that big-girl smell again, and then I knew I should tell her I like her, and not just that, but that I love her, and again I felt myself blushing, and I didn't say a thing, and then, right when Iza was pulling the broom toward herself, one of her shoes slipped and she almost fell, and as she tried to keep her balance she leaned way back and her knees went up in the air and her skirt slipped up completely, and then I really did see between her legs, and along the inside of one of her thighs there was a run all the way up her tights, and I noticed these long bluish streaks in zigzags on her skin, I saw them clearly, and I even saw her panties through her tights, yes, there was a white trapezoid-shaped spot right between her legs, and then I heard her say to me, "You pig," and I knew she knew what I was looking at, and I also knew it from how she then tried locking her legs, but the motion really did make her lose her balance.

And she fell back and I stepped forward to catch her, but as Iza flung her arms about she knocked the apricot jam sandwich out of my hand and one of her legs kicked me in the ankle, and I could tell I was about to fall right on her, and while keeling over I still saw only her panties before me, and as I then fell on Iza with my arm out in front of me, it was as if my hand took off on its own, and in no time all I could feel were her panties and then her pussy too, I could tell just how soft it was and how hot, and then Iza screamed really, really loud right into my ear, my body filled up with that piercing cry and I smelled that big-girl smell again, it was stronger than ever, and I noticed that my apricot jam sandwich had fallen in two pieces and the jam-spread side was face-down in the dust, but I didn't care because I was still holding Iza's pussy, and I knew I would never, ever let it go.

T
HE CLASS BELL
had rung two whole minutes earlier, but Iron Fist flat out pretended not to notice, he just kept drawing the mountain ranges on the blackboard, which was really obnoxious of him because the two weekly monitors always had to erase the board by the next class if they didn't want the physics teacher to slap them around, and all of us in Iron Fist's class had to stay in the classroom during recess so we could copy the outline of the map after Iron Fist left the room because the textbook still had the mountain ranges with their old names, but we weren't really supposed to say those out loud ever since they were renamed in memory of our homeland's heroes two years earlier on the birthday of Comrade General Secretary. So anyway, we would have told any other teacher that the bell had rung already, but no one dared to say a thing to Iron Fist because no one wanted him to smash their nose in, like he did to Szövérfi when he shot off his mouth while Iron Fist was telling us about tectonic plates, and when Iron Fist finally put down the chalk and stuck the roll book under his arm, there were only seven minutes left in the break, and when he reached the door he stopped and without even looking back he said, "Djata is coming with me."

That made me really scared, never before had he called me by my nickname, so I knew he'd somehow figured out that two weeks earlier it was me who'd filched the valve from his motorcycle's front wheel, which I did because I was still really angry with him on account of his dropping me from the Homeland Defense team when it became official that Father had been taken away. So I was now really scared, and I looked at Feri, who'd helped me steal the valve, and Feri turned so pale I thought he'd faint right away, and I too felt my face go cold, and when I stood up I was afraid I wouldn't be able to let go of the edge of the bench, that's how terrified I was, but then somehow I must have let it go after all, because I saw my boots taking steps across the wood floor and then the concrete hallway, and I saw that one of my laces was half undone, and finally the knots tied at the frayed ends kept winding up under my foot, but I didn't feel it, it was almost like I couldn't even feel my feet.

Iron Fist wasn't in a hurry, he was taking relaxed, easy steps, and when he passed by the stairs leading to the faculty room without going up, I knew right away that we were going to the science supply room and I could feel my heart in my throat, and if he'd asked me something then, for sure I wouldn't have been able to say a thing, so I tried taking deep breaths to calm down, and when we reached the supply room I was hardly trembling anymore, my mouth was still pretty dry but I was able to swallow again, but when Iron Fist then opened the door and waved a hand for me to go in ahead of him, I got scared all over again because I knew that that's when he starts pounding away at you, by punching you from behind, right in the kidneys. Szabi pissed blood for four days after Iron Fist took him in there, so when I stepped in the door I was waiting for the blow, and I was thinking that if I lunged forward at the very moment he hit me, then maybe I'd lessen its force, and if I pretended it really hurt, then maybe I'd pull through with just a couple of kicks on top of that, but then nothing did happen after all. I stepped right over the threshold and didn't stop, I just went ahead straight toward the window, and I was already in the middle of the science supply room, and his not hitting me scared me even more because I didn't know what would happen. And then Iron Fist finally spoke, he told me not to be frightened, he wasn't going to knock out my kidneys, and he was talking funny, and when I looked at him I saw why, there was a cigarette in the corner of his mouth and he was just putting his lighter away, and then he looked me in the eye and blew that smelly smoke on me, but I wasn't about to start coughing if I could help it, and he said he wouldn't give me a beating even though I deserved it, and he waved a hand toward one of the chairs and told me to go sit down.