Stephen King/Apt Pupil

Novella by Stephen King, originally published in Different Seasons (1982).

Wikipedia contains spoilers

Format of the story

Apt Pupil consists of 30 chapters, many (but far from all) of which are headed by a month. The story takes place over a period of about four year (från mid-1974 to mid-1978) with most of the action taking place during the first year and the last months. It is told in the third person.

The Story

Todd Bowden is thirteen and a smart kid with good grades. He and a friend rummage around in the friend's garage looking for comics. Instead Todd finds old war magazines with stories from the concentration camps and it fascinated by them. He begins to read everything he can get his hands on about the war and the camps.

One day he sees an old man on the bus that he recognizes. He goes to his house and rings the bell. The sign on the door says "Arthur Denker", but when the door opens Todd calls him "Kurt Dussander". He has recognized him as the commendant of the nazi concentration camp at Patin. At first the old man denies everything, of course, repeating that his name is Denker. As Todd gives him more and more details, however, he finally admits to being Kurt Dussander.

He finds out that Todd isn't out to expose him (although he threatens to do this if Dussander doesn't do what he wants) and he's not interested in money (his family is pretty well-off). What he wants is to hear "all the gooshy stuff" about the camps. Dussander is reluctant, but finally caves in to Todd's threats of exposure.

In the first escalation of the story, Todd brings Dussander a present. It turns out to be an SS uniform. He forces Dussander to put it on and then begin to march around on command.

As Todd spends lots of time with Dussander, his performance at school is beginning to slip. To his parents he says that he helps the old man to read books that he can't see to read himself. He also begins to have nightmares about the camps and his grades slip further. After the first time, he begins to modify his report cards before giving them to his parents to hide the decline.

Finally, it goes so far that he's in danger of flunking several courses. Since he has changed previous cards, his parents have no idea of what's happening (although they are getting a little bit concerned about the amount of time he spends with Mr. Denker, and also that he's thinning a bit and having dreams). Todd once again changes his report card. He then brings in Dussander to speak to his guidance councellor. He goes there pretending to be Todd's grandfather, and presents a story about Todd being upset about his parenst who are on the verge of a divorce. This is a total lie, but the councellor agrees to let Todd get one more chance before contacting his parents.

By now Dussander tells Todd that he is as deeply entrenched in problems as he is. Todd knows that Dussander is a wanted war criminal. Dussander on the other hand knows that Todd has been fiddling with his reports cards and knowingly socialized with a war criminal for several months without telling anybody. Sure, the punishment would be worse for Dussander, but on the other hand he's an old man. Todd has his entire life ahead of him.

Film

Apt Pupil has been filmed as Apt Pupil (1998), directed by [Bryan Singer]?.