Sons of Fortune Read online

  “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

  “Well, I’m not,” said Michael, “and I spend every day of my life trying to eliminate risks like that.” Nat listened intently as his mother and father continued their debate, never once raising their voices or losing their tempers.

  “I’d rather my son graduate as an egalitarian than a patrician,” Susan retorted with passion.

  “Why should they be incompatible?” asked Michael.

  Nat disappeared back into his room without waiting to hear his mother’s reply. She had taught him to immediately look up any word that he’d never heard before; after all, it was a Connecticut man who had compiled the greatest lexicography in the world. Having checked all three words in his Webster’s dictionary, Nat decided that his mother was more egalitarian than his father, but that neither of them was a patrician. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to be a patrician.

  When Nat had finished the chapter, he emerged from his room for a second time. The atmosphere seemed to be more settled, so he decided to go downstairs and join his parents.

  “Perhaps we should let Nat decide,” said his mother.

  “I already have,” said Nat, as he took a seat between them. “After all, you’ve always taught me to listen to both sides of any argument before coming to a conclusion.”

  Both parents were speechless as Nat nonchalantly unfolded the evening paper, suddenly aware that he must have overheard their conversation.

  “And what decision have you come to?” his mother asked quietly.

  “I would like to go to Taft rather than Jefferson High,” Nat replied without hesitation.

  “And may we know what helped you come to that conclusion?” asked his father.

  Nat, aware that he had a spellbound audience, didn’t hurry his reply. “Moby-Dick,” he finally announced, before turning to the sports page.

  He waited to see which of his parents would be the first to repeat his words.

  “Moby-Dick?” they pronounced together.

  “Yes,” he replied, “after all, the good folks of Connecticut considered the great whale to be the patrician of the sea.”

  5

  “Every inch a Hotchkiss man,” Miss Nichol said as she checked Andrew’s appearance in the hall mirror. White shirt, blue blazer with tan corduroy trousers. Miss Nichol straightened the boy’s blue and white striped tie, removing a speck of dust from his shirt. “Every inch,” she repeated. I’m only five foot three, Andrew wanted to say as his father joined them in the hall. Andrew checked his watch, a present from his maternal grandfather—a man who still sacked people for being late.

  “I’ve put your suitcases in the car,” his father said, touching his son on the shoulder. Andrew turned cold when he heard his father’s words. The casual remark only reminded him that he really was leaving home. “It’s less than three months until Thanksgiving,” his father added. Three months is a quarter of a year—a not insignificant percentage of your life when you’re only fourteen years old, Andrew wanted to remind him.

  Andrew strode out of the front door and onto the gravel courtyard, determined not to look back at the house he loved, and would not see again for a quarter of a year. When he reached the car, he held the back door open for his mother. He then shook hands with Miss Nichol as if she were an old friend, and said that he looked forward to seeing her at Thanksgiving. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought she had been crying. He looked away and waved to the housekeeper and cook, before he jumped into the car.

  As they drove through the streets of Farmington, Andrew stared at the familiar buildings he had considered until that moment to be the center of the whole world.

  “Now make sure you write home every week,” his mother was saying. He ignored the redundant comment, not least because Miss Nichol had issued the same instruction at least twice a day for the past month.

  “And if you need any extra cash, don’t hesitate to give me a call,” his father added.

  Someone else who hadn’t read the rule-book. Andrew didn’t remind his father that boys in their first year at Hotchkiss were only allowed ten dollars a term. It was spelled out on page seven, and had been underlined in red by Miss Nichol.

  No one spoke again during the short journey to the station, each anxious in his own particular fashion. His father brought the car to a halt next to the station and jumped out. Andrew remained seated, reluctant to leave the safety of the car, until his mother opened the door on his side. Andrew quickly joined her, determined not to let anyone know how nervous he was. She tried to take his hand, but he quickly ran to the back of the car to help his father with the cases.

  A blue cap arrived by their side pushing a trolley. Once the cases were loaded, he led them onto the station platform and came to a halt at car eight. As the porter lifted the cases onto the train, Andrew turned to say goodbye to his father. He had insisted that only one parent accompany him on the train journey to Lakeville, and as his father was a Taft man, his mother seemed the obvious choice. He was already regretting his decision.

  “Have a good journey,” his father said, shaking his son’s outstretched hand. What silly things parents say at stations, Andrew thought; surely it was more important that he worked hard when he got there. “And don’t forget to write.”

  Andrew boarded the train with his mother and as the engine pulled out of the station he didn’t once look back at his father, hoping it would make him appear more grown up.

  “Would you like some breakfast?” his mother asked as the porter placed his cases on the overhead rack.

  “Yes, please,” replied Andrew, cheering up for the first time that morning.

  Another uniformed man showed them to a table in the dining car. Andrew studied the menu and wondered if his mother would allow him to have the full breakfast.

  “Have anything you like,” she said, as if reading his thoughts.

  Andrew smiled when the waiter reappeared. “Double hash browns, two eggs, sunny side up, bacon and tomatoes.” He only left out the mushrooms because he didn’t want the waiter to think that his mother never fed him.

  “And you, ma’am?” inquired the waiter, turning his attention to the other side of the table.

  “Just coffee and toast, thank you.”

  “The boy’s first day?” asked the waiter.

  Mrs. Davenport smiled and nodded.

  How does he know? wondered Andrew.

  Andrew munched nervously through his breakfast, not sure if he would be fed again that day. There had been no mention of meals in the handbook, and Grandpa had told him that when he was at Hotchkiss, they were only fed once a day. His mother kept telling him to put his knife and fork down while he was eating. “Knives and forks are not airplanes and shouldn’t remain in midair longer than is necessary,” she reminded him. He had no way of knowing that she was almost as nervous as he was.

  Whenever another boy, dressed in the same smart uniform, passed by their table, Andrew looked out of the window, hoping they wouldn’t notice him, because none of their uniforms were as new as his. His mother was on her third cup of coffee when the train pulled into the station.

  “We’ve arrived,” she announced, unnecessarily.

  Andrew sat staring at the sign for Lakeville as several boys leaped off the train, greeting each other with “Hi there, how was your vacation? And good to see you again,” followed by much shaking of hands. He finally glanced across at his mother, and wished she would disappear in a cloud of smoke. Mothers were just another announcement that it was his first day.

  Two tall boys dressed in double-breasted blue blazers and gray slacks began shepherding the new boys onto a waiting bus. Andrew prayed that parents were banned from the bus, otherwise everyone would realize he was a new boy.

  “Name?” said one of the young men in a blue blazer as Andrew stepped off the train.

  “Davenport, sir,” said Andrew, staring up at him. Would he ever be that tall?

  The young man smiled, almost a grin. “You don’