Jason and his Grandmother, parts 3108 - 3111

 3108. We had been told, for years as an absolute fact that if we misbehaved after being yelled at, the principal would be called in.  Further disturbance would involve the police, and then “Reform School.”

 3109. What Reform School consisted of, and where it was, no one had any idea.  Reform School was never described to us, its location was unknown.  No details about it existed even in our imaginations.  So, when the principal was not called, it was as if the doors of a prison were discovered to be unlocked. 

 3110. Now, when I  look back on it from a broader perspective, I  would have to say that Jason gave us our first glimpse of the terrible real world, where there were not any real rules that you could obey and so depend on, a world where anything might happen to anyone.

3111. At this point the Professor interrupted his story with this apology and explanation. “The story I am attempting to tell you took place when I was thirteen,” he said, “and I am wondering as I speak if the story is what I remember, or what I understand of what happened looking back on it now as an old man.”