Dead Poets Society

began:
     
    Yet but three? Come
one more;
    Two of both kinds
makes up four.
    Here she comes,
curst and sad .—
    Cupid is a knavish
lad,
    Thus to make poor
females mad.”
     
    Puck looked toward
the floor where a mad Hermia, played by Ginny Danburry, crawled onto the stage,
exhausted and wild-eyed.
    The director, a
blond teacher in her forties, stopped Ginny as she started her lines and turned
toward Neil. “Good, Neil,” she complimented. “I really get the feeling your
Puck knows he’s in charge. Remember that he takes great delight in what he’s
doing.”
    Neil nodded and
repeated boldly and impishly: “ ‘Cupid is a knavish lad, thus to make poor
females mad! ”
    “Excellent,” the
director said with a smile. “Continue, Ginny.”
    Ginny crawled back
onto the stage and started her lines:
     
    “Never so weary,
never so in woe,
    Bedabbled with the
dew, and torn with briers,
    I can no further
crawl, no further go... ”
     
    The director
gestured and pointed as the students ran through the scene several times.
    “See you tomorrow,”
Neil called when they’d finally finished rehearsals for the day. He walked to
the bike rack in the twilight, his eyes flashing and his face flushed from the
thrill he got from acting. He rode back through the sleepy Vermont town to
Welton Academy, repeating the lines he had practiced for the past two hours.
    Neil approached the Welton
gates cautiously, making sure no one was around. He pumped up the hill to the
dorm and parked his bike. As he started into the building, he spotted Todd
huddled motionless on the stone wall.
    “Todd?” he called,
walking over to get a better look. Todd sat shivering in the dark without a
coat. “What’s going on?” Neil asked, staring at his roommate. Todd didn’t
answer. “Todd, what’s the matter?” Neil said, sitting next to him on the wall.
“It’s freezing out here!”
    “It’s my birthday,”
Todd said flatly.
    “It is?” Neil said.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Happy birthday! You get anything?”
    Except for his
chattering teeth, Todd sat silent and still. He pointed to a box. Neil opened
it to find the same monogrammed desk set Todd already had in the room.
    “This is your desk
set,” Neil said. “I don’t get it.”
    “They gave me the
exact same thing as last year!” Todd cried. “They didn’t even remember!”
    “Oh,” Neil said in a
hushed tone.
    “Oh,” Todd mocked.
    “Well, maybe they
thought you’d need another one. a new one,” Neil suggested after a long awkward
pause. “Maybe they thought...”
    “Maybe they don’t
think at all unless it’s about my brother!” Todd said angrily. “His birthday is
always a big to-do.” He looked at the desk set and laughed. “The stupid thing
is, I didn’t even like the first one!“
    “Look, Todd, you’re
obviously underestimating the value of this desk set,” Neil said flippantly,
trying to change the mood.
    “What?”
    “I mean,” Neil said
and tried to smile. “This is one special gift! Who would want a football or a
baseball bat or a car when they could get a desk set as wonderful as this one!”
    “Yeah!” Todd
laughed, infected by Neil’s humor. “And just look at this ruler!”
    They laughed as they
both looked at the desk set. By now it was pitch dark and cold. Neil shivered.
    “You know what Dad
called me when I was growing up? ‘Five ninety-eight.’ That’s what all the
chemicals in the human body would be worth if you bottled them raw’ and sold
them. He told me that was all I’d ever be worth unless I worked every day to
improve myself. Five ninety-eight.”
    Neil sighed and
shook his head in disbelief. No wonder Todd is so screwed up, he
thought.
    “When I was little,”
Todd continued, “I thought all parents automatically loved their kids. That’s
what my teachers told me. That’s what I read in the books they gave me. That’s
what I believed. Well, my parents might have loved my brother, but they did not
love me.”
    Todd stood, took a
deep anguished breath, and walked into the dorm. Neil sat motionless on the
freezing stone wall, groping for something to say. “Todd... ” he called lamely,
as he ran in after his roommate.
     
    “Hey,” Cameron
shouted as the boys started into Mr. Keating’s room the next afternoon.
“There’s a note on the board to meet in the courtyard.”
    “I wonder what Mr.
Keating is up to today.” Pitts grinned expectantly.
    The boys raced down
the hall and out the door into the