Prep School Scandal - Prologue Preview

Prep School Scandal, the upcoming sequel to last year's Prep School Blues novel, is still a work in progress. No release date set, but look for it sometime in 2013. While waiting, check out this preview of the prologue chapter, which fills out some of the backstory behind the mysterious Edgar Alexander...

PROLOGUE

  

Edgar Alexander liked to play with dolls.

It all started one snowy winter’s day, a few days after Christmas. Edgar was five and his brother Richard was seven. There had been many presents, each selected by a personal shopper and then professionally wrapped, carefully set under the lofty branches of the tree. But among all the robots and sports equipment and video games meant to placate Edgar and Richard, not a single gift appealed to the children. The first Christmas without their mother was bound to be hard. Once he saw they had no interest in the toys, their father, always the consummate politician, had everything donated to an appropriate charity.

Edgar may not have liked the toys, but he liked to play. He liked music a lot. He would pound away on the grand piano in the music room, even though he did not understand about notes or anything. He liked to run through the hallways of Alexander manor and listen to the creaking of the hardwood floors. He liked to play in the snow with Richard.

Most of all, Edgar liked to play in his mother’s old room. When his father was away, she had never used the master bedroom with its dark paneling and massive four-poster bed. No, when she slept alone, shehad preferred a cozy little bedroom on the other size of the house.

Nothing had changed there since her death. From the looks of the cosmetics and brushes on her vanity, she might have just stepped out for a moment and would soon return. Edgar would snuggle himself into the softness of the comforters on the bed and struggle to keep those faint memories of the nights when his mother had let him and Richard join her there. He would sing fragments of songs she used to sing. But he was so young, the memories faded day by day.

The dollhouse sat in the back of the closet, hidden behind his mother’s dresses. It must have been a hundred years old. He loved it from the moment he found it, even though it took all the strength in

his little body to pull it out of the closet. To his delight, the dollhouse contained little porcelain women wearing old-fashioned gowns. He loved them too. He knew boys were not supposed to play with dolls, but these were not ordinary dolls. They were beautiful, but very sad.

Edgar showed the dolls to Richard, who kept them secret too. They made up a game about ladies who lived a long time ago. Sad ladies, whose mothers had all died. They all lived together in the dollhouse, so as not to be lonely.

Both boys had friends at school, but they made a pact not to share the secret of their dollhouse. Edgar broke the pact first. He was six then. He had a new friend, Petey, who liked stories and music. When Petey came to Alexander Manor for a sleepover, Edgar showed him the dollhouse. They stayed up late, playing with the dolls. Edgar told Petey all about them. Edgar made Petey swear to keep the secret too, but that did not last long. Forgetting his promise to Edgar, Petey talked too loud about the dollhouse. They were on the playground at school. A little girl heard them and started to laugh. Boys were not supposed to play with dolls. She asked Petey if he and Edgar really had a dollhouse. Petey denied it. Of course he did not play with dolls, but Edgar did. Three times the little girl asked, finding it very hard to believe. Three times Petey denied it and accused Edgar. Petey and the little girl laughed at Edgar and after that, Petey never came back to Alexander Manor.

When Edgar got home, he went up to his mother’s old room. He hated the dolls so much. He took each one and smashed their porcelain faces against the floor till every doll lay in shards. Then he turned to the dollhouse. Richard came in as Edgar tore apart the wooden dollhouse piece by piece. He could tell Edgar was crying. He held his little brother in his arms. They made another promise, to only trust each other from then on.

Edgar was seventeen the day he went with his father to identify Richard’s body at the morgue. Looking into Richard’s lifeless, sunken face, all he could think of was the shattered faces of their beautiful, sad dolls.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Look for Prep School Scandal in 2013!

Prep School Blues: a novel now available in paperback and kindle. Buy now through amazon!