Chapter 1- Part A: Literature: Cub Pilot on the Mississippi

John McIntre. It had been years since Charles Winchester had heard that name. He usually heard that name during the roll, the *mack* said, with special emphasis, as *mick*. John was not the most popular boy at the preparatory academy, and he did not have the prestigious pedigree of the other pupils, but he was smart. He was smart enough to get a scholarship for the school, a difficult feat. John was not rich like the others, made evident by a thick Boston-Irish accent opposed to the lilting Beacon Hill drawl. Most of the boys hated John, jealous of his grades, athletic prowess, and roguish good looks.

John was a rarity, truly. The cretins from his neighborhood did not care about their marks, or have any goals in life. All knew it that John wanted to become a doctor. His science teacher, Mr. Caulfield, had taken a special interest in John achieving his goal, much to the chagrin of Charles.

Charles, although he had a greater academic aptitude than John, had a group of friends that he taunted the new boy in the company of. The gang tormented John with practical jokes, humiliation, and by trading repartee. John's quips were not as structured as Charles' and they usually consisted of attacks of Winchester's mother. Charles pounced on John's lineage and poor grammar. He fancied himself Mark Twain and John the horse-faced river pilot in "Cub Pilot on the Mississippi," except in a more sophisticated setting. When things grew physical, John, however, was more adept. John fought dirty, always going for the kill, many times, three or four of Charles' friends had to pry the ruffian off of him.

Charles found his thoughts constantly being invaded by McIntyre. Winchesters naturally had great control over their thoughts and desires. However, Charles could not stop thinking of the fair-haired boy. He was always imagining what John would do or say in every situation he was in. Charles shook off any feeling of fondness or appreciation toward John, dismissing it as a sour mixture of hate and lust. Charles hated John because he was envious of John; Charles lusted after John because he could not have him.

Charles could have any man he wanted, as he was highly refined in the arts of flattery and seduction. Charles was not bad looking, either. He was a bit plain, but his magnetism and keen intellect overpowered his homely appearance. Charles' strategies for sexual conquest had proven effective and very pleasurable. His lovers were generally friends of his father, some openly homosexual, some not. The beauty of being rich was that nobody cared and any unorthodox behavior was written off as eccentricity. The inner circle of the wealthy had secrets and customs that the common public had no idea of. Mrs. Hatchet, for instance, commented more on the evening gowns of the male partygoers than of the female. It was commonplace in the high society of Boston. When children stumbled upon the unconventional behaviors, such as martinis, sodomy, or naughty lingerie, they were told to go to bed and inevitably forgot the matter entirely. Charles, always being more advanced than his peers, had promptly realized what Mr. Pruett was doing in fish net tights and what Mr. Foxworth was doing to him. Although Charles condemned transvestitism, he thought homosexuality to be a passageway that needed to be looked into.