Dead Poets Society

still a lowly initiate,” he explained.
    The boys looked at
one another in amazement. The last meeting must have been fifteen years ago,”
Keating recalled. He looked around again to make sure no one was observing,
then turned and strode away.
    “I say we go
tonight,” Neil said excitedly when Keating was out of sight. “Everybody in?”
    “Where is this cave
lie’s talking about?” Pitts asked.
    “Beyond the stream.
I think I know where it is,” Neil answered.
    “That’s miles,”
Pitts complained.
    “Sounds boring to
me,” Cameron said.
    “Don’t come, then,”
Charlie shot back.
    “You know how many
demerits we re talking about here?” Cameron asked Charlie.
    “So don’t come!”
Charlie said. “Please!”
    Cameron relented.
“All I’m saying is, we have to be careful. We can’t get caught.”
    “Well, no kidding,
Sherlock,” Charlie retorted sarcastically.
    “Who’s in?” Neil
asked, silencing the argument.
    “I’m in,” Charlie
said first.
    “Me too,” Cameron
added.
    Neil looked at Knox,
Pitts, and Meeks. Pitts hesitated. “Well...”
    “Oh, come on,
Pitts,” Charlie said.
    “His grades are
hurting, Charlie,” Meeks said in Pitts’s defense.
    “Then you can help
him, Meeks,” Neil suggested.
    “What is this, a
midnight study group?” Pitts asked, still unsure.
    “Forget it, Pitts,”
Neil said. “You’re coming. Meeks, are your grades hurting, too?” Everyone
laughed.
    “All right,” Meeks
said. “I’ll try anything once .”
    “Except sex,”
Charlie laughed. “Right, Meeks, old boy?” Meeks blushed as the boys laughed and
horsed around him.
    “I’m in as long as
we’re careful,” Cameron said.
    “Knox?” Charlie
continued.
    “I don’t know,” he
said. “I don’t get it.“
    “Come on,” Charlie
encouraged. “It will help you get Chris.”
    “It will?” Knox
looked mystified. “How do you figure that?”
    “Didn’t you hear
Keating say women swooned!”
    “But why?” Knox
asked, still uncertain.
    The group started to
break up, and Knox followed Charlie toward the dorm.
    “Why do they swoon,
Charlie? Tell me, why do they swoon?” Knox’s question remained unanswered when
off in the distance a bell rang, summoning the boys to dinner.
     
    After dinner, Neil
and Todd went to study hall and sat down at a table together.
    “Listen,” Neil said
to his roommate in a hushed voice. “I’m inviting you to the society meeting.”
Neil had noticed that no one had asked Todd if he was in. “You can’t expect
everybody to think of you all the time. Nobody knows you. And you never talk to
anyone!”
    Thanks,” Todd said,
“but it’s not a question of that.”
    What is it then?”
Neil asked.
    I-—I just don’t want
to come,” he stammered.
    But why?” Neil
asked. “Don’t you understand what Keating is saying? Don’t you want to do
something about it?” Neil quickly turned a page in his book as a study proctor
walked by, eyeing the hoys suspiciously.
    “Yes,” Todd
whispered, after the proctor was out of earshot. “But...”
    “But what, Todd?
Tell me,” Neil begged.
    Todd looked down. “I
don’t want to read.“
    “What?” Neil looked
at him incredulously. “Keating said everybody took turns reading,” Todd said.
“I don’t want to do it.”
    “God, you really
have a problem, don’t you?” Neil shook his head. “How can it hurt you to read?
I mean, isn’t that what this is all about? Expressing yourself?”
    “Neil, I can’t
explain it.” Todd blushed. “I just don’t want to do it.”
    Neil shuffled his
papers angrily as he looked at Todd. Then he thought of something. “What if you
didn’t have to read?” Neil suggested. “What if you just came and listened?”
    “That’s not the way
it works,” Todd pointed out. “If I join, the guys will want me to read.”
    “I know, but what if
they said you didn’t have to?”
    “You mean ask
them ?” Todd’s face reddened. “Neil, it’s embarrassing.”
    “No, it’s not,” Neil
said, jumping up from his seat. “Just wait here.”
    “Neil,” Todd called,
as the proctor turned and gave him a disapproving look.
    Neil was off before
Todd could stop him. He slumped miserably in his seat, then opened his history
book and began to take notes.

Chapter
7

     
     
     
    Neil talked in low
tones to Charlie and Knox in the dorm hall as the evening parade of prebedtime
activity went on around them. Boys moved about the hallway in pajamas, carrying
pillows