Chapter 1 - The Training of a Young Male
"Come in young man" my new landlady greeted me at the door to her house in North London, "let me look at you properly."
I stood awkwardly in her sitting room as she walked around me and then finally sat down, still studying me intently. I had not expected this, but then I had not really known what to expect. The student lodgings bureau had given me the contact and I'd never searched for accommodation before so I accepted this minute examination.
"You seem clean and respectable enough. How old are you young man?" she asked.
"Eighteen." I replied simply.
"Now, if you are to have lodgings here, I should like that we start off on the right foot please. I only like nice polite young men as my lodgers. I am Mrs Jackson and I like my young men to call me by that name. Do you think you can do that?"
"Yes Mrs Jackson."
"Now try answering my question properly and tell me exactly how old you are and how tall you are as well please." she interrogated.
"I'm eighteen and one month Mrs Jackson" I stammered and for good measure as I was so taken aback added her name a second time, "and five foot seven inches tall Mrs Jackson."
"Good lad. Just a man then, good. You may now sit." she gestured me at last with a slight smile for the first time.
And so started my residence with Mrs Jackson, my new landlady as she proceeded to tell me the rules of her house. That I would return from my studies at six each evening and no later and that I would not be late for meals. She showed me to my room which was neat and tidy but told me that I would only be allowed my books and enough clothes to fill the small wardrobe and no other possessions. As I'd been used to a regimented life as a schoolboy and I had very few clothes and no real possessions anyway, I had no idea that these terms were in any way unusual.
"You unpack now, and tidily mind!" she told me, "then as it is nearly meal time, come downstairs as quickly as you can."
"Yes Mrs Jackson." I complied.
The meal was adequate but basic. Mrs Jackson did not eat with me but left me to eat at the kitchen table while she took her meal in her dining room. Afterwards she called me through.
"As you have no studies yet, I can't have you idle. Take my plate please and clear away. Then wash up and put everything away. You can take your time and find out for yourself where everything goes, then when you have done, bring me through a cup of tea here please. Weak and milky with one sugar."
"Yes Mrs Jackson." I nodded.
When I brought her the tea, she was watching TV but she switched it off and gestured to me to put it down beside her armchair. Sipping it, she studied me again as she had on my arrival.
"Young men that stay here have to obey my rules," she explained, "I only take one young male at a time and I am very particular. You seem nicely built, perhaps a bit underdeveloped. What is your weight?"
"I'm about ten stone Mrs Jackson."
"Yes, a little slight, but no bad thing. Shall we work on your development do you think? Would you like that?"
"I suppose Mrs Jackson."
"What do you mean suppose!" she smiled, "you will study to improve your brain, why not exercise to develop your physique?"
"Yes Mrs Jackson."
"Now, that is the nicest thing you can ever say to me. Don't forget that will you. Try it again." she laughed.
"Yes Mrs Jackson." I smiled too.
The next day I went to the University for the first time and although some of my new friends seemed keen to get together and stay on in the student union, I left and returned to Mrs Jackson and this set the pattern for the week with me washing up and preparing her tea. Each evening a little questioning, but now I had studies and so was sent to my room each evening. That is until Friday night when Mrs Jackson told me that there was no need to study as I had the whole weekend in front of me.
"But I have arranged to meet up with some friends tomorrow." I explained.
Mrs Jackson looked darkly at me.
"You have arranged to meet friends, Mrs Jackson!" she snapped at me.
"Sorry Mrs Jackson, I forgot."
"Yes, and you forgot that you should ask me if you want to meet your friends," she said. "you are my responsibility while you live here and you ask my permission."
"I'm sorry Mrs Jackson, I didn't realise."
I still had no idea that this was unusual, that she was just my landlady and I could come and go as I pleased. I was still thinking as if I was living at home.
"Who are these friends? Are there any girls?" she questioned.