Posters go up on Dean Twitchell

cantdog

Waybac machine
Joined
Apr 24, 2004
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Connie Seeds consulted the agenda. "Okay— new business: Megan has something for the group. Megan?"

"Thanks. Hi. First of all, I gotta ask that all non-members leave, or really, I guess, just all guys. Tim? Mouse? Just for a while, maybe as much as a half hour. Thanks, guys, really... Fine. Now that it's just the women, I have a story to tell.

"It's about Dean Twitchell. Some of you know I went out with him a couple times, and then I broke it off? Well, here's Dean."

She held up the top poster from a pile of them lying on the table face down. It said
DATE RAPIST — WOMEN TAKE NOTICE and it featured a photo likeness of the
culprit in a frame in the middle.

"Barbara, would you pass a couple of these around? I want everyone to see them. It says D.R.A.G. under the picture, which stands for Date Rapist and like two other words, but he's a drag, all right. He didn't actually rape me the way you're thinking, but it was very scary and I did things I didn't want to do. On account of he forced me."

"You can't put these up! My God!" It was Sylvia Kafka, but her scandalized
sentiments were echoing all around the room.

"Megan!" the voice cut through the feminine talk as the posters and the ideas were circulating. "This is inappropriate!" Mrs. Dubois stood and addressed the group.

"As your advisor, I must stop this right now. Rape is a very serious charge, a felony! This is frivolous and ‘way out of bounds. And this is definitely not the proper forum for this kind of talk, this is Peer Counselors!"

"I know, Mrs. Dubois. Rape charges won't work, and there won't be any, because I went out with him, because I kissed him and let him touch me before he turned mean and forced me, they'd never call it rape in a court. So there's no rape charges, and Dean can go on and slap other people around and make them do things to him!"

"Megan! This whole discussion is out of bounds for this group to discuss. This must stop right here, and I will confiscate these posters right now. Give me that, Sharon."

"You can stop it right here if you want." Megan was controlled. She had a response to this problem planned in advance by Songo. "Madam Chairman, move to adjourn!"

"Second!"

"Any discussion?" said the chair, raising a gavel. "This meeting of Peer Counselors is adjourned." The gavel rapped.

"There! Now it's not a meeting of Peer Counselors.

"You listen to me, Mrs. Dubois, this is not a frivolous thing! I just told the whole school what Dean did to me, and if you think that's a small thing, you don't know much, that's for sure! Frivolous! What a stupid thing to say. Forcing women, being forced is not frivolous! And I am dead serious. You can have the posters, there's plenty more.

"Girls, I came here with this because we're all women, juniors and seniors mostly, and because I'm NOT going to put the posters up." There was a murmur about that, but when she spoke again she got silence.

"I won't put this up, not without at least one other witness. Anybody being frivolous could do this poster thing anytime just to get back at someone. But if I can get one other hand to go up, one other person willing to say he did things to me, too, then we have enough confirmation—"

"Megan, stop this this instant!"

"—to act to prevent more women from being slammed around and made to do
things—"

"Megan, you'll have to leave, and I'm taking you to the office—"

"NO. This is not your meeting, Mrs. Dubois, we adjourned.

"Can I have one more witness? Because he's a snake! He gets away with it all the time, he didn't even hesitate because he knew nobody would ever dare say what they'd been forced to do. He knew nobody would break the silence and he could
date rape girl after girl. One witness is not enough, but if one more woman is willing to break that silence that lets him get away with this— yes."

"He slapped me. He shook me and slapped me really hard, and made me suck—" Nancy was speaking through tears and not very loudly, but the room was listening.

"Please! Nancy!" interjected Mrs. Dubois. "Stop this, girls, right now! This is indecent!"

"Dean's indecent, Mrs. Dubois!" said Megan triumphantly. "He's the one that's indecent, and now we can stop him! You still want to keep those five posters, go right ahead. But the rest of them can go up, we have witnesses and.."

But authority prevailed. The room was cleared. Megan went to the office with Mrs. Dubois. Before she went, three girls walked along with her to tell her things, Gayle Jordan with more about Dean, and two reports of incidents with other boys. Megan thanked them, smiled on them, and told them to see the chair of Peer Counselors.

"There'll be a meeting, Connie has the time."

"Megan, I simply can't believe that a girl like you would ever be involved in
something as inappropriate as this!..."

Megan let her talk. She was unfazed.

While waiting in the office lobby, Mrs. Dubois discovered that the posters under her arm were a matter of lively interest, to the receptionist and staff and to six out of ten passers-by and fellow heel-coolers in the lobby. Megan seemed willing to explain: "Dean slaps girls he's dating and roughs them up until they perform sexual favors for
him, we have three different girls who say so, it's a proven fact," and ready to tell people to take one and post it somewhere, But Mrs. Dubois retained them all. Their content, the idea that Dean was a proven date rapist, was spreading despite that.

Eventually, the principal freed his office of the parents he'd been mollifying and the two of them went in with him and sat down.

"What are those? Can I see one?"

Mrs. Dubois, who had heard those words too much lately, rolled her eyes to heaven and passed them all to him. "Here you go. Megan will tell you all about them, she has for everyone else." She gestured at her prisoner and refused to take them back
from Mr. Dellert.

Megan gave the version she'd given to the curious in the lobby.

"This is pretty raw stuff, Banks, you sure you dare to do this? They can sue for libel and damages, it could be a very costly little gesture. Dean angered you, then?"

"Did you hear anything I just told you? Dean forces girls to do sexual things to him. Three—"

"Tell me about that."

"You don't get the details over who sucked what and who beat who! Three women have told that story in a public meeting—"

"Hardly public," put in Mrs. Dubois, "it was Peer Counselors."

"You're the Peer Counselors advisor?" Mr. Dellert asked. She nodded.

"Three women have told that story, three witnesses who have already come forward. Libel you prove true, or retract and pay damages. This is proven true. Dean will—"

"Proven is a technical term for successfully demonstrated in court, Banks. You're far from that, and it costs money to do it, too. This is a patent smear of Mr. Twitchell."

"Dean will hate it, but his suit will fail. And he will have to find rape victims in some other school in some other town. I don't—"

"Megan, I'm trying to tell you how very unwise this is," gently explained the
principal.

"I don't recall a time in the last year when I've been so interrupted!" Megan was heated, and she looked beautiful doing it, as she always did. "Hardly public! Proven is a technical term! Now you've had your chance to cluck your tongue and disapprove,
but there are at least three girls who didn't get to interrupt their so called date with Mr. Twitchell until he'd shot some sperm into them. Dean and—"

"Megan! Such language!"

"I said I'm not willing to be interrupted."

"I'm sorry, please carry on, Megan."

"That's lack of respect, interrupting. I expected it here. Dean and people like him have learned, somewhere, that if anyone tells what's been done, there is no respect for the courage it took to do it! There is no compassion! There is no support, there's only a trip to the office, a confiscation of the posters, and then someone advises you to take the sperm and shut up, because it is—"

The sudden noises from the
professionals didn't portend interruption after all, Dellert nodded for her to continue.

"Because it is terribly unwise to tell people about the snakes out there, the date rapists, just plain inappropriate, certainly not just for the sake of preventing some other girl in some other party or some other car from suffering! Because there is no respect for these girls or the things they have to deal with.

"I have fifty more of these. I won't be the only one putting them up, Connie already called and there are twenty-five going up all over Bangor right this minute. Once we got the word there were witnesses we acted. You want to keep those?"

"These? I'd like one for a souvenir, but you can have the rest. If I can't prevent them going up, there's no point in keeping them. Here you go."

"I'll take all of ‘em, then. We're not at the point yet where they're souvenirs." The lying official would have to rip one down to show it to them, but he passed his "souvenir" over anyway.

"Thanks. Is there anything you have to say, Mr. Dellert, before I go? Have you thought of a reason more compelling than the prevention of these girls' suffering?

Because if you have a good one, I can be persuaded. My mind, at least, is open, and I won't object to your technical terms or your language."

There was a silence as the two professional molders of the youth eyed one another. They looked to Megan, but the silence continued.

Dellert cleared his throat and spoke. "Well, I'd love to say, give me a day or so to come up with one, but it is too late for that, since, as you tell me, the posters are up and the campaign is already begun.

"I have the duty to the city school system to deny you the walls here or anywhere on school system property anywhere in town. The school cannot become the object of the inevitable lawsuit along with all the other people you have already put at risk, and we will not participate in your campaign or allow those posters here.

"I also believe you ought to apologize to Mrs. Dubois for putting her through this. You sprung it on her and she had to do certain things because of her advisor position, things she didn't set out to do this morning. You needed the women's group, I understand that. But it was not an appropriate Peer Counselors meeting presentation."

"Every girl I know, except Starty Harper, who went out with Dean lately was there, Mrs. Dubois, and I know it was unfair to do to you. I am sorry for that. And there were no guys. It was the best place, but I'm still sorry for what you had to do."

"Accepted, Megan. But you're not going to have an easy time."

"I feel better doing this than I have about most things I do. Okay, that's all I have, are we done?"

"What did it say on the agenda, Mrs. Dubois?"

"Under New Business: presentation of posters by Megan."

Dellert laughed. "So you didn't even look at the posters, because she'd be presenting them in due course."

"That's right."

Dellert chuckled again. "I repeat, the school will not be participating, Banks. Take your next meeting somewhere off school property. Otherwise, no, I don't have anything more, but I may ask to see you about this later, if you don't mind. For an update. I am interested and even concerned, though you might not believe it."

"If your school system is out, you can't expect an inside track on it, Mr. Dellert. If you call me in here to ask about it or discuss it, I'll just advise you to read the papers. If you get concerned enough to get involved, call me. Good night."

And she left, hearing them say good night as she did. Songo had the whole scene taped, as he would have said, she reflected. He said they'd have to adjourn, he said they'd take the posters, he said they'd take her to Dellert, he said they'd deny them
the school walls, he said they'd try to weasel in and regulate it anyway, pleading their concern. It's nice to know where the traps lie before you enter the forest.

Megan was happy and stimulated. Toussaint met her outside the school, asking her how it went. He soon felt the same way. Both were surprised about Mrs. Dubois, though, and Songo would have been, too.

Hearing her name called, Megan turned. Mrs. Dubois asked her to wait, and came up to them. "Toussaint, I hope you'll excuse me," she began, "but I want to talk to Megan a second."

"Of course. Pardon me, Megan." Toussaint withdrew.

"What is it, Mrs. Dubois?"

"Call me Angela, please. I want to help with your date rapists. What's Connie's number? I'd like to make that meeting." Megan told her. "Thanks.

"Me, I know two writers at the News and my cousin is a DJ on WGUY. There are bound to be more of ‘em than just Dean, you know. Those posters cost somebody money, too. I think I can be useful, and I never liked, myself, taking the sperm and shuttin up."
 
I wrote and submitted the date rape scene (the one of Nancy, witnessed by some kids) to Lit. It is not very sexy, of course; it is merely a starting point for the larger story. But if they don't publish it, I won't do the rest of the story here. Not a lot of it makes sense if you don't see that chapter.

You can find the draft of it here .

It's been polished a little in the submitted version. If they do put it up, I'll hook that scene to this and tell the rest. Thanks for reading and commenting. I appreciate it.

cantdog
 
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