Thursday night we also presented the results of our scavenger hunt. Not everything was found, but a surprising amount was. One of the deans was a brother from the chapter at Union College and donated a few mustache hairs. A cop in Green Island was a brother and was married to a stripper. It seemed that for the last few days brothers had been dropping hints on where to find things, if we were just smart enough to listen.
We were then given a few more hours of sleep and sent off to campus in the morning, with instructions to return that night, Friday night, at 7:00 PM, wearing our suits. By now totally confused and mystified, and totally exhausted, we went off to classes.
We were back at Kegs that night, and from the outside, the house looked dark and sinister. No lights could be seen through the windows. The Hell Master, Hank Barlow, greeted us at the back door. “From now until you leave, there is to be utter silence. Nothing can be said, and utter obedience is expected. As I call out your names, you will enter and stand in line. Obey and be silent.”
Everybody looked at each other, with the one single thought — ‘What the fuck is going on?!’
“Bruno Cowling!” intoned Bill. Bruno looked at the rest of us, shrugged in confusion, and went inside. Bill looked down at a slip of paper, and said, “Barry Lewis!” Barry followed Bruno inside. All of us were announced, in no order we could figure out. I was two from the last, and only followed by Tony Defrancisco and Andy Kowalchuk. I found the others all standing silently in the back hallway.
It was obvious why the place looked sinister. Black curtains had been hung over every first floor window, and over every archway between rooms on the first floor. It was actually kind of creepy. I could smell something cooking in the kitchen, but that was curtained off also. Hank followed Andy inside and went to the front of the line. “Follow and obey in silence.” He moved slowly down the hallway, and after a second of confusion, Bruno moved along after him. Our little line moved through the dining room, down the front hall, and into the formal room.
It got stranger. Inside the formal room, the folding dining room tables had been set up end to end and covered with black tablecloths. The only light in the room was from the candles burning on every table. On one side of the string of tables were our big brothers, and I noticed how, as we streamed in and down the length of the tables, each pledge’s big brother was already in position opposite him. The upper classmen were all dressed in suits themselves, and were standing in place, with chairs behind them. We had chairs behind us. Hank sat at the end of the table, and I saw Thad, the Chancellor, following behind, and he took a seat at the other end of the table.
Defrancisco, the big lummox, promptly moved to sit down, but I noticed nobody else was moving, and Tony’s big brother was giving him a dirty look. I nudged him with my elbow and he stopped, looking at me in confusion. On the tables before us were silverware place settings and an empty wine glass. Thad picked up his knife and tapped his wine glass, causing it to ring, and suddenly all the big brothers moved to sit down, and indicated we should also. We were still silent as we sat in our assigned seating.
Everybody was looking curiously at the place settings. The fork was in its normal position on the left, but there was a steak knife on the right, and it was upside down, facing outwards and pointed at you. Everybody put their hands in their laps except Defrancisco, who picked up his knife. Marty looked at me and rolled his eyes, and I had to nudge Tony again. It looked like I was the idiot’s keeper.
Next, Hank rapped his wine glass, and fifteen other brothers marched out from the hallway, all wearing dark pants and white shirts and looking like extras in a Mafia movie. Each of them had a bottle of champagne, and after lining up behind us, all bent forward at once and filled our glasses. Defrancisco moved to grab his but I nudged him and he backed away. Glasses were then filled across the table. We continued to sit there, and the waiters retreated, but then returned with a spoon in each hand. One spoon held a strawberry, and this was ceremoniously dropped in the big brother’s glasses. The second spoon held a frozen pea, which was dropped in our glasses. The waiters retired, and after Thad tapped his glass, the big brothers picked up their glasses and motioned for us to do the same. Tony drank his right down, even though everyone else waited for Thad and Hank to drink. I looked at Marty and Jack Jones, Tony’s big brother and shrugged. The moron just couldn’t take a hint.
Hank rapped his glass, and the waiters returned carrying our plates, each of which had a steak, mashed potatoes, and peas. Then Thad rapped his glass and the waiters were back with another pea on a spoon, which was dropped in the pledges’ wine glasses. After they retired we were allowed to start eating. This time I was able to catch Tony before he started eating, and got him to wait. The steak wasn’t the greatest, but I’ve had worse, and we were all hungry. Likewise, the champagne was Andre’s, about the cheapest carbonated swill available, but after you get enough in you, it started to taste pretty good. Every few minutes either Thad or Hank would tap his glass and we would sit upright and put our utensils down, and more champagne would be poured and another pea would be dropped in our glasses.
Dinner ended with another rap of the glass, and this time all the big brothers stood up, and then they motioned for us to stand. Hank walked out of the formal room and motioned for us to follow, so Bruno tagged behind him and the rest of us got in line, with Andy bringing up the rear. Behind us our big brothers also marched along. We went down the stairs to the basement. The basement was dark except for candles lighting a black draped table along one side of the room, with five seats behind it. We pledges were lined up along the left side, and our big brothers faced us from the right side. Around us in a circle stood all the other brothers. Thad moved to the center of the table.
“Pledges, I call on you now to swear allegiance to Kappa Gamma Sigma, and to the ideals we hold dear…” He was reading a small book by holding it to the side and trying to get the candlelight to shine on it. We were being inducted! Nobody had ever given us any warning. At this point it started getting even weirder. A low murmuring chant began from the brothers, and Thad began enumerating a list of oaths we were to take. Suffice it to say that the Mafia’s code of omerta had nothing on us! I have to tell you, those clowns a hundred years ago at Amherst really had a lot of free time on their hands! According to what I ended up swearing, even thinking about revealing our dread secrets was enough to call down lightning! Then, in the same order we had marched in, we were called forward and had to sign our names into a ledger book with a quill pen. Tony spilled the ink on the table.
It was almost 11:00 when Thad finished, “The ordeal is finished. The induction is made. The vigil begins. I call on all new brethren to retire for the evening, to contemplate in silence that which they have sworn, and to thereby signify their allegiance and obedience.” There were a few more flowery sentences, but the gist was that we were to remain silent until dawn, and then to return at the same time the next night, at 7:00. We were then marched to the back door and sent off into the night.
Before we had even made it to the sidewalk Defrancisco opened his fat mouth and asked, “So what do we do now?” There were a number of muttered curses in response, and everybody made ‘zip it’ motions across their lips to shut the idiot up. We marched back to the dorms. Back in 206 I found Frank also wearing a suit and looking serious, and he was silent, too. All of the frats must have this sort of ceremony tonight. We both went to bed and slept very late.
When I woke up Frank was already sitting up in bed. He looked over at me and asked, “Initiation?”