Welcome to Antioch College
Other Books by Mitch Goth
The Brigio Series
Parabellum
Parabellum: Part II
Matanzas
Sins of My Brother
The Man from Montenegro
The Protectorate Chronicles
Unlikely Angels
Stand-alone novels
The Longest Night Ever Lived
The Sinking of The Pattison Glory
Delicate Rain
Shattered Glass
Welcome to Antioch College
Book One of The Antioch Adventures
By:
Mitch Goth
Welcome to Antioch College
Copyright: 2014 Mitch Goth
No portion of this book may be reproduced or reprinted in any medium, or by electronic, mechanical or any other means without the express written consent of the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references or uses to real world events, people, products or places are used in a fictitious manner. Other characters, events, or places are products of imagination and any resemblance to actual people, places or happenings is purely coincidental.
Cover Design by Katie Olson
Authors Note:
Although Antioch College is a real higher learning institution, this book is a work of fiction. Even though I made an attempt to make this fictionalized version of Antioch College come close to the real version of the school, I took several liberties and artistic license with some aspects of Antioch's true operation. If you'd like to know more factual information about the college, please contact them directly, don't take it from me.
1
The warm Ohio air smelled of fresh rain and blooming flowers, as it did most every spring time. The wind lingered listlessly through the budding trees, creating a subtle orchestra of nature. The grass hadn't been green in months, but now it was coming in fuller and brighter than ever. It was the kind of early spring day that bred the hope for summer, the kind of day that kids would actually poke themselves outside for.
This sense of glorious spring was not lost anywhere, not even on the desolate campus of Antioch College. The college had closed several years prior to this spring season, but even without the groundskeepers around the grasses of the main lawn grew rich and full. This lawn had become the place for people to come on days like this one and soak it all in. They could enjoy nature, get away from it all, and stare up at the cloud-marbled sky for hours. And most everyone did on this day, everyone except Wes Harding and his entourage of contractors.
Wes was the new head of a powerful project: the project of reopening the college and returning it to the prestigious Liberal Arts institution it once was. With all his knowledge and all his influence, Wes saw this job as a cake walk. Nothing more than an easy position he could coast through over the next several years. He did see it like that, until this warm spring day.
The main building on this campus was a massive, castle-like structure. Four stories of pure red brick and mortar. From the outside, the building was a gorgeous testament to the former school's architectural prowess. The bricks stood the test of time, the tall spires loomed just as tall as they did when they were first erected over one hundred and sixty years before this day. But, none of this could be spoken for the interior, where Wes and the gaggle of contractors were strolling about.
Wes made sure to have every window in the building opened before he arrived, and still the whole structure smelled of must and unhealthy age. The halls were disheveled, with books and papers strewn about, and even the occasional desk simply left out to rust in the middle of the corridor. Every hallway was like this, dusted, cluttered, in unbelievable disrepair. In addition, the whole interior architecture in no way matched the exterior. It seemed like the innards of this building were haphazardly constructed in the mid-fifties and had not been updated even slightly since.
As the group walked, Wes could hear small mutterings from the contractors. He could tell this building intimidated them, strung their nerves up high. It wasn't the most important building when it came to the terms of reopening the school, but it was the campus focal point. Without this main building, there simply would be no Antioch College. Sooner or later, renovation would need to occur, and so they all surveyed the damages, the costs, everything that needed to be communicated to the benefactors before the project could begin.
They'd already gone through all the necessary halls. Dormitories, the library, an administration building, classrooms, everything that was labeled as an absolute necessity. This building was simply seen as the biggest expense, and its cost needed to be estimated.
Wes didn't listen to very much of the contractors conversations. It didn't concern him, nor did it really concern them at this point. To Wes, the project of this building was still far off in the distance, nothing to sweat over now. But still the contractors went on talking. They worried over the labor, the time, and mostly, the costs.
There were several benefactors towards this project. Benefactors that had made a lot of money to throw around in their time. These benefactors found that they would benefit greatly from the reopening of Antioch. Whether it was through good will with the public, who simply adored the school, and still did now; or if it was through the production of new, college educated workers, Wes wasn't quite sure how they were to gain anything from the revival. But, the weight of the benefactors' pocket books was the most important thing to the contractors, and so it was always on the top of their minds and the tips of their tongues.
It wasn't until the group reached the auditorium that Wes finally decided to begin listening to what his followers for this expedition had to say. He figured it wouldn't be anything that he hadn't already thought about. As he saw it, a decade spent in the ivy leagues should have given him all the insight he needed in order to know everything of importance about this project already. But still, he tuned in as the head contractor spoke up.
"You know," the contractor's words echoed heavily in the huge, dark expanse of the auditorium, "I don't know how you plan to helm something like this. It's not just a wash and rinse here, Wes. Not this building, not the dorms, not anything."
"Antioch's been locked up for years, what did you expect, the Titanic?" Wes replied, working his way through the rows of dust caked, rusty theater seats, attempting to make it to the stage.
"Before or after it sank?" the contractor responded crossly, watching Wes climb up onto the stage and look around.
"Don't you think if I'm going to run this place I should know everything about it?"
"Do you know everything about it?"
"I know enough," Wes scanned the dark, shadowy expanse of the auditorium.
"So you're aware that the first kids you admit to this place won't be paying a dime of tuition, right?" the head contractor questioned.
"Not just the first kids, the second, third, and fourth classes too. Don't play me for dumb, you'll lose," Wes grinned at the man below him.
"I hope you realize just how much work this is all going to take. It'll be two more years before we can get it back up and running again."
"Six months," Wes immediately corrected. This sparked a flurry of new mutterings among the contractors.
"Are you crazy?" the head contractor moaned. "We can't possibly do that."
"I'm not asking for the Taj Mahal of colleges here, guys. All I want is a school that's up to code and can legally house students. Once we get that, then we make it a palace."
"Just getting all the necessary buildings up to code will take a lot of time and man power. If you wanted a new class this fall-"
"I do," Wes interrupted momentarily.
"We would need to start real soon," the contracto
r went on, "not to mention cutting a few corners here and there to make the dead line."
"Well then," Wes stepped down from the stage to speak directly at the group of contractors, "let's begin."
2
Six months later, the leaves had gone through their cycle of green and were beginning their shift into the auburn hues of autumn. The warm air was starting to wane off to chills, and the sun was giving way to more clouds. But, just as the warmth of summer was beginning to slip away, something new came in.
For the first year of the reopened Antioch College, Wes and the admissions office accepted sixty students, all of whom were arriving on this overcast fall day. It wasn't much traffic, not even for a school this small, but it was more than it'd ever seen since closure. In addition to students and families moving in and wandering about campus, locals from the surrounding town of Yellow Springs came to witness the resurrection of their dearly kept Liberal Arts institution.
While others moved all around him, one new student stood still in the north parking lot of his new college. A bemused and interested look drawn on his face, this young man simply looked up at his new dorm building, his new home. His heart raced as he looked at this tall brick structure. Darkened windows, simplistic design, aged exterior. This building looked like it hadn't been lived in in years. But this student already knew that.
He'd read all about this