Paying for College - The Novel

by Kenneth Szulczyk

  ***

  Brothers, Drew returned to his hometown, and I had the whole dorm room to myself. Almost all the students went somewhere for Christmas, so this tiny town turned into a ghost town. Everywhere I walked, the dead echoes of my footsteps filled the empty corridors.

  When the December skies dumped a foot of snow on the ground, I returned to the Math-Sciences Building to search for my little furry friends, but they were gone. I would stop by periodically and look for them.

  Early Monday morning, the Financial Aid Office called me. They wanted to see me immediately. Entering the Financial Aid Office, I informed the secretary at the desk that I arrived. I turned to sit down and wait, but the secretary said, “Oh sir. Mr. Krause can speak with you now.”

  “Wow. That’s service.”

  As I entered Mr. Krause’s Office, he jumped up out of his chair, came around the desk, and shook my hand, “Glad you could make it on such a short notice.”

  “No problem, sir.”

  “Please have a seat.”

  Mr. Krause closed his door and sat down behind his desk. He folded his hands together and placed them on the top of his desk and smiled.

  Brothers, I looked around. Did I enter the correct office? Did I walked through a tear in the space-time continuum, and now I am stuck in a new universe where all my enemies are nice, friendly, and smiling?

  I started, “So what do we need to talk about?”

  “The university wants to offer you a full scholarship.”

  My eyes opened wide while my jaw almost hit the ground, “Wow. That’s great.”

  He placed a document in front of me, “All we need is for you to sign this document.”

  I frowned. Then I squinted when I tried to read the microscopic print at the bottom of the document. “I can’t even read this.”

  “Those are the conditions of your scholarship.”

  “Wow, it looks like the university is imposing thousands upon thousands of conditions on me. It’ll take me a while to read this. Can you summarize some of the conditions?”

  “For starters, you will abide by the student code. You will not participate in illegal behavior such as gambling or using illegal drugs. That sort of stuff.”

  “Oh, I get it. I will also not organize a protest against the said university without a proper permit.”

  “Sir, that is not in there.”

  “But I’m sure there is something about a protest in there.”

  “Did I mention you will receive this scholarship for four years?”

  “Really? But I can’t sign it.”

  “The university recognizes your achievements and will reward you.”

  “Can I ask? How many other B average students will receive this scholarship?”

  Mr. Krause looked down.

  “Please thank the university for their more than generous offer. Although I’m may be many things, but the one thing I’m not – I don’t sell out.”

  Mr. Krause looked at me, “You are not a sellout.”

  “Then what’s the condition about student protests.”

  “You must have written consent from the university before staging a protest.”

  “So, this scholarship is a way for the university to shut me up?”

  “No sir.”

  I rose from my chair, “Thank you for your time.”

  “What will you do about next semester’s tuition?”

  “Something I should have done months ago. I’ll get a job. Good day.”

  Brothers, I almost didn’t walk out there without signing that form. Wow. A four year, full scholarship. But come on. Who pays hush money to shut up a broke, average student?

  Then I smiled. The university must be really afraid of me. Besides, brothers, I should have done the right thing since the beginning. I will stay at the university for Christmas break and work all the hours I can. I don’t care if I have to shovel snow, flip burgers, or scrubbed the nasty stains off the toilet seats in the public restrooms. I’ll do what it takes to pay that tuition bill. I will even reduce my course load next semester and continue working part time. Then if I get a little free time, I’ll see my mom and make sure she’s doing well too.

  Brothers, I’m going to try the honest living for a while and see where that takes me.

  Epilogue

  Brothers, would you believe I completed college and became an investment advisor? But of course, life throws a curve ball at everyone from time to time including me. What are the chances that I would end up working for Phaedra’s husband, Steve, and the guy is such a bastard that he would hire me to work for him? I say one-hundred percent. I went to work for Steve’s investment firm located several blocks from the state capital complex.

  I think Steve enjoys himself immensely. He orders me around and hands me the crappiest assignments. I’ve turned into his little puppy on a lease. Then Phaedra stops by the office daily to have lunch with Steve. Although my cubicle is on the far side of the office, she goes out of her way to pass by my desk on her way to Steve’s corner office. Sometimes, we exchange greetings as she passes. Other times, I pretend to be busy at work and pretend not to see her. Oh the pain of la douleur exquise. She always wears tight clothes and wiggles her butt from side to side like a ship bobbing up and down during the torrential swells during a hurricane. But brothers, I will admit, I do sneak a peek at Phaedra sometimes. Sometimes, I miss the warmth of her body when she would lie next to me, and whiff the sweet smell of her body.

  Brothers, would you believe Phaedra even sent me an invitation to her wedding. Did she really believe I would show up? Oh, I almost did turn up and would enjoy seeing a surprised expression on her face, but I didn’t. I guess she wanted to prove that Steve was taking good care of her. Rub it in my face like a shit pie.

  Of course, brothers, I almost quit after the first week working for Steve. I had no idea how shameless, these shenanigans were. Steve and his corrupt bosses committed fraud and theft on a wide scale. Those thousands I stole from breaking into homes during my first semester of college became pennies after witnessing the large-scale stealing going around me.

  I will admit, Steve invented many ways to steal money. At our company, we buy stock at rock bottom prices from disreputable companies that nobody wanted. We plow our customers’ money into those stocks and launch the stock prices into the stratosphere. Then the company sells the customers our cache of stocks for high prices while the company profits immensely. Don’t worry, our clients earn a return too, but they didn’t earn anything what the company earns. That way everyone comes out head, and nobody reports anything to the government.

  Sometimes, we know which parent companies will take over another company, so my bosses secretly buy stock using bank accounts from the Cayman Islands. When the parent company announces the takeover, my bosses cash in on the soaring stock price.

  Some scams only a handful at the company know about it or how it was designed. I heard the company maintains shell companies around the world. The companies buy our bad debts and borrow from foreign banks. Then our company lets the firms bankrupt while my bosses steal everything they can from these companies.

  Of course, at the end of the month, my corrupt bosses pay themselves a bonus by skimming money off everyone’s account and transferring it to their accounts overseas. One person’s job is to search the daily obituaries and search for our deceased clients. Then their accounts are mysteriously closed while the funds disappeared to overseas bank accounts.

  Brothers, enough is enough.

  Although I just sell stock and excused myself from this illicit behavior, I accidentally found a back door into their computer systems. Seriously Steve, why would you use Phaedra’s name and birth year as a master password?

  I documented the systematic corruption and explained every instance of fraud with immense detail. Then I made three copies and filled three boxes. I went beyond giving the government a treasure map where x marks the spot. I literally stuck a shovel in the ground above the treasure
and told the government agents where to start digging. I mailed one box to the Securities and Exchange Commission, another to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and finally, the third to the Internal Revenue Service.

  So, brothers, I still come to work early every day, just waiting and waiting and waiting. One day, those government agents will smash through the front doors, and I’ll see the firm’s downfall and the look on Steve’s face.

  Finally, that day came. A swarm of agents wearing blue jackets with SEC printed on the back in large white letters burst through the front doors one morning. The number of SEC agents outnumber the number of firm’s employees.

  One agent entered my cubicle and snapped. “Back away from your computer. Don’t touch anything.”

  I rose from my chair and stood in the far corner as the agent disconnected the computer. Then he rifled through my desk drawers and stacked all the documents onto the computer and walked away.

  After half an hour, the SEC gutted our whole office. All computers and servers were gone. All filing cabinets and desks were empty.

  I stood up and peered over the cubicle wall and saw Steve in his office screaming at several agents.

  Steve turned completely red and clenched his teeth as he left his office. As he passed by, he stared at each one of us one at a time. Then he screamed, “Get back to work,” and he stomped out of the office.

  But brothers, we had no work. A large mass of people gathered around the coffee machine in the break area. I grabbed my coffee mug and joined them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t penetrate the dense crowd to get another cup of coffee.

  Mike, a new co-worker, brushed my arm with his hand. I turned to look at him.

  “What are we going to do?” he asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders, “What can we do?”

  “I mean what’ll happen to our jobs.”

  “Well, I think the SEC will shut us down, so we won’t have a job by the end of the week.”

  “But I need this job.”

  “I need this job too, but this raid was serious. I think the firm will shut down, so we’ll just have to find new jobs.”

  Another person tapped me on the shoulder.

  I turned to look and was surprised to see Phaedra, “Hi Phaedra.”

  “Hi, Jax. What’s going on?”

  “You didn’t talk to Steve?”

  “I couldn’t find him.”

  “You should ask him.”

  Phaedra placed her hand on top of mine, “Please Jax. What’s going on?”

  “I’m sorry to tell you, but the SEC raided the office. They took everything.”

  “That’s bad. Isn’t it?”

  I just stared at her.

  Phaedra looked at her watch and then gazed at me, “Jax, do you have time for a coffee?”

  “I think I have some time. Let’s go.”

  We didn’t say anything as we walked outside and walked to a little coffee shop around the corner.

  We ordered some coffees and sat outside to enjoy the spring sun.

  Phaedra asked, “Jax, please be honest with me. Do you think Steve will go to prison?’

  “Phaedra, I don’t know. I don’t know the extent of his crimes.” But of course I knew the extent of Steve’s crimes. Damn, I sent three large boxed stuffed with incriminating evidence to three government agencies.

  “But you think it’s serious?”

  “Yeah, it’s real serious. The government agents stripped the whole office of documents and computers. So someone will serve time in prison.”

  Phaedra looked down at the table.

  “Did Steve ever tell you some of the stuff that he did at the company?”

  Phaedra shook her head back and forth while tears gushed from her eyes.

  “Didn’t you ever ask where the money came from?”

  She shook her head no again.

  Then she looked at me, “What will I do?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean what will you do?”

  “That’s easy.” I took a sip of my coffee, “I’ll find another job somewhere else.”

  “Aren’t you afraid to be sent to prison?”

  “No. A person has to do something wrong to do time.”

  “Where will you work?”

  “I had offers. I’m thinking about giving back to the community and work for a nonprofit. I think I want to help people and help counsel the poor.”

  “But you won’t make any money.”

  “I don’t care about the money anymore. Money corrupts the hearts of men. You wouldn’t believe just by working at the firm, tamed puppies are transformed ravenous, selfish wolves within months.”

  “Is it really that bad?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you stay pure?”

  “That’s the secret of money. If you don’t want it, it can’t corrupt you.”

  She reached across the table and held my hands, “I wish I could be strong like you.”

  “I’m not strong. After my first semester in college, I decided to do the right thing. And you know what? I’d never regretted it. I went along the straight path and never looked back.”

  “I’ve always done the right thing too. I’ll finish law school next year.”

  “That’s great. So you haven’t gotten into trouble?”

  Phaedra shook her head no.

  Brothers, would you believe, I always carried one money strap with the Bursar’s Office stamped in red ink in my wallet. I dreamed of the day that I would confront Phaedra about it, and it looks like the day had finally come. I pulled the money strap out of my wallet and placed it in the middle of the table.

  Phaedra looked at it, “What’s that?”

  “You don’t know.”

  After a minute, Phaedra jerked back as her eyes opened wide.

  I said, “I guess you remember now.”

  “It was a long time ago. How long have you known about it?”

  “Since the beginning.”

  “You’re not going to hold it against me, will you?”

  “No, of course, not. If I had a problem with it, I could’ve turned over the evidence to the police.

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “So, did you really attend my protest?”

  “Jax, of course, I was there.”

  “Huh, but Steve and his buddies were a little busy during that time?”

  Phaedra shrugged her shoulders.

  “That’s what I thought.”

  We sat for a while and sipped our coffees. Brothers, I’ve gotta admit, it almost felt like old times again, when Phaedra was my girl. Oh la, the retrouvailles. I felt alive brimming with energy when she was near me. If someone touched me now, I would give them one hell of an electric shock, worse than an electric chair.

  Phaedra smiled and broke the silence, “Are you doing anything this weekend?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I thought we could go out for dinner and just hang out, like old times.”

  “Dinner? What about Steve?”

  “I think Steve will be too busy to join this weekend.”

  “I guess you’re right. He’ll probably be busy for the next ten years.”

  Phaedra frowned a little. Then she pulled out a pen and wrote her number on a napkin. She placed her coffee cup on the napkin’s edge, so a breeze wouldn’t blow it away.

  She rose, leaned over, and kissed me on the cheek, “I must go Jax. Please call me, okay?”

  I caressed her hand for a second, “Okay.”

  She walked away.

  I looked at my watch. I should return to work, but I didn’t think my boss would scream at me for returning late. Besides, my boss has more pressing legal issues at the moment, so he probably wouldn’t mind if I slept in tomorrow too.

  I glanced over at the next table and spotted a discarded graphic novel with a familiar name, Drew. I retrieved the novel, leaned back in my chair, and leafed through it.

  I started chuckling when I n
oticed one of the evil characters – Jacks, who was a master cat burglar and thief. The villain even used a magical key that would allow him to break into any building or safe. Drew even captured my facial expressions accurately in his fictional character. At least he finally made it and become a successful artist. Perhaps, I should write him and ask for autographed copies.

  I pulled out my black skeleton key and stared at it for a minute. Of course, I only use this key for good intentions now. Then I stared at Phaedra’s number as it flapped in the breeze.

  I rose from the table and walked away. Lost the cavoli riscaldati!

  The End