The Anything Box

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Bennett looked at Keeley's desk. The whole table was spiderwebbed withlines drawn in a silvery ink that betrayed a sort of bas-relief to hisinquiring fingers. At irregular intervals, blobs of gum or wax or some suchstuff was stuck, mostly at junctions of lines. There were two circles on thedesk, about elbow-sized and spaced about right to accommodate two leaningelbows. Each circle was a network of lines. Bennett traced with his finger twofine coppery wires that were stuck to the side of the desk. Following themdown into the desk drawer, he rummaged through an unsightly mass of papers andfished out two little metallic disks, one on each wire.
"Why those must be what he was looking for when he was so worked up lastweek," said Miss Amberly. "They look a little bit like a couple of bottle capsstuck together, don't they?"
Bennett turned them over in his hands, then he ran his fingers over themarked-up desk, noting that the lines ran together at the edge of the desk andended at the metal table support
Bennett laughed, "Looks like Keeley has been bitten by the radio bug. I'dguess these for earphones." He tossed the disks in his hand. "And all thesemysterious lines are probably his interpretation of a schematic diagram. Isuppose he gets so bored doing nothing that he dreamed this little game up forhimself. Where did he get this ink, though? It's not school ink." He ran hisfingers over the raised lines again.
"I don't know. He brings it to school in a little pill bottle," said MissAmberly. "I tried to confiscate it when he started marking things up again,but he seemed inclined to make an issue of it and it wasn't worth running therisk of another of his wild ones. The janitor says he can't wash the stuff offand the only time I've seen any rub off was when I wiped away the wet markstoday."
Bennett examined the metal disks. "Let's try this out," he said, halfjoking. He slid into the desk and leaned his elbows in the circles. He pressedthe disks to his ears. A look of astonishment flicked across his face.
"Hey! I hear something! Listen!"
He gestured Miss Amberly down to him and pressed the earphones to her ears.She closed her eyes against his nearness and could hear nothing but thetumultuous roar of her heart in her ears. She shook her head.
"I don't hear anything."
"Why sure! Some odd sort of . . ." He listened again. "Well, no. I guessyou're right," he said ruefully.
He put the earphones back in the desk.
"Harmless enough, I suppose. Let him have his radio if it gives him anysatisfaction. He certainly isn't getting any out of his schoolwork. This mightbe a way to reach him though. Next week I’ll check with a friend of mine andsee if I can get any equipment for Keeley. It might be an answer to ourproblem."
But next week Mr. Bennett had no time to do any checking with his friend.The school found itself suddenly in the middle of a virus epidemic.
Monday he stared aghast at the attendance report. Tuesday he started grimlydown his substitute list. Wednesday he reached the bottom of it. Thursday hegroaned and taught a third grade himself. Friday he dragged himself to thephone and told his secretary to carry on as best she could and went shakingback to bed. He was cheered a little by the report that the third gradeteacher had returned, but he had a sick, sunken feeling inside occasioned bythe news that for the first time Miss Amberly was going to be absent.
"But don't worry, Mr. Bennett," the secretary had said, "we have a goodsubstitute. A man substitute. He just got here from back east and he hasn'tfiled his certificate yet, but he came well recommended."
So Mr. Bennett pulled the covers up to his chin and wondered, quiteirrelevantly, if Miss Amberly had a sunken feeling too, because he was absent.
Miss Amberly's seventh grade buzzed and hummed when at eight-thirty Miss
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Amberly was nowhere to be seen. When the nine o'clock bell pulled all thestudents in from the playfield, they tumbled into their seats, eyes wide, asthey surveyed the substitute. Glory May took one look at the broad shouldersand black hair and began to fish the bobby pins out of her curls that weresupposed to stay up until evening so they would be perfect for the datetonight—with a seventeen-year-old high school man. The other girls stared athim covertly from behind books or openly with slack-jawed wonder.
The boys, with practiced eyes, looked him over and decided that even if oldlady Amberly was absent, they had better behave.
And of course, at ten past nine, Keeley sauntered in, carrying hisarithmetic book by one corner, the pages fluttering and fanning as he came.The substitute took little notice of him beyond asking his name and waitingfor him to slump into his desk before going on with the opening exercises.
Keeley arranged himself in his usual pose, the metal disks pressed to hisears, his elbows in the webbed circles. He sat for a minute blank-faced, andthen he began to frown. He pressed his hands tighter to his ears. He tracedthe lengths of the coppery wire with inquiring fingers. He checked the blobsand chunks of stuff stuck on the lines. He reamed his ears out with his little finger and listened again. Finally his squirming and wiggling called forth a"Please settle down, Keeley, you're disturbing the class," from thesubstitute.
"Go soak your head," muttered Keeley, half audibly. He pushed the earphonesback into the drawer and slouched sullenly staring at the ceiling.
By noon, Keeley, the blank-faced, no-doer, had become Keeley, thedisrupting Demon. He pulled hair and tore papers. He swaggered up the aisle tothe pencil sharpener, shoving books off every desk as he went. He shot paperclips with rubber bands and scraped his thumb nail down the blackboard, ahalf-dozen times. By some wild contortion, he got both his feet up on top ofhis desk, and when the impossible happened and he jackknifed under the deskwith his heels caught on the edge, it took the substitute and the two biggestboys to extract him.
By the time he got out of the cafeteria, leaving behind him a trail ofbroken milk bottles, spilled plates and streaked clothes, Miss Ensign wasgasping in the teachers' room, "And last year I prayed he'd wake up and beginto function. Lor-dee! I hope he goes back to sleep again!"
Keeley simmered down a little after lunch until he tried the earphonesagain and then he sat sullenly glowering at his desk, muttering threateningly,a continuous annoying stream of disturbance. Finally the substitute saidplacidly, "Keeley, you're disturbing the class again."
"Aw shaddup! You meathead, you!" said Keeley.
There was a stricken silence in the room as everyone stared aghast atKeeley.
The substitute looked at him dispassionately. "Keeley, come here."
"Come and get me if you think you can!" snarled Keeley.
A horrified gasp swept the room and Angie began to sob in terror.
The substitute spoke again, something nobody caught, but the result wasunmistakable. Keeley jerked as though he had been stabbed and his eyes widenedin blank astonishment. The substitute wet his lips and spoke again, "Comehere, Keeley."