A Most Unusual Passage
Copyright© 2026 by J&J
Chapter 5
I’ve never been a particularly good sleeper: just never quite got the hang of it. Daddy says I’m afraid I’ll miss something. And Daddy knows me better than anyone. But tonight was different, Tonight I knew exactly what was bothering me: that visit from Everett Miller.
At first, I thought it was just my distaste for his weasely character, along with my disgust at how incredibly inept and insensitive he was in handling the dismissal of a long-time employee. But as I lay staring at that old cracked plaster ceiling, I became certain of one thing. No one was that clumsy. What was being done to oust Mr. Martel was being done deliberately. It felt a lot like political back-stabbing to me.
Was Martel so powerful and dangerous that he could only be eliminated by a complete coup de main? Was there some bad blood between them or a score that was being settled? Or was this just how these cowboys behaved, God forbid.
No, I was pretty sure I was caught in the middle of someone else’s fight, and I didn’t appreciate it one little bit. All I was going to get out of it was someone else’s enemies. The one thing I had learned about being a principal was I didn’t need help with enemies; I’d get my own easily enough. Discipline a student, and the child might forgive me, but the parents seldom did, especially when they were the real culprits. Reprimand a teacher, and you usually alienated their whole little clique. Even something as innocent as judging a beauty pageant was an opportunity to make one girl and her mother very happy and all the rest very bitter.
No, damn it. I was starting clean at a brand new school, and I didn’t need anybody screwing it up and making me a bunch of enemies I didn’t even know. Now I wasn’t just upset; I was mad, and sleep was out of the question.
Fortunately, whatever else this old house lacked, it did have a great old claw foot bath tub and a decent water heater. I started a bath running and went down to the kitchen to fix a mug of Sleepy Time tea. I wanted to at least calm down enough to think clearly. A long soak in a nice jasmine bath tea did wonders for my disposition. Oh, I was still plenty angry, only now, I was determined not to play helpless victim. If they had put me at the table, then I wanted to play my hand. And that meant finding out what was really going on; from a more reliable source than Mr. Everett Miller.
Dawn was starting to color the sky, and I realized I needed to move; with the two-hour time difference, I’d have to hurry if I wanted to catch Daddy before his first class at the Citadel. My father has always been my closest friend and advisor, and I never felt like I needed his advice more than at this moment. My phone wasn’t hooked up yet, but I remembered a pay phone in an inconspicuous spot beside a small general store not far away.
“Collect call from Elizabeth Manigault; will you accept charges?”
“Yes operator.”
Click – “Hello, Daddy, sorry about the collect call. I should have my phone in a day or so.”
“Hi, Kitten, you can call any way you like. So how’s Colorado?”
“I may sue John Denver for fraud, but that’s not why I called.”
“Something wrong, Kitten?”
‘Yeah, Daddy, I think there is, but I’m not sure what.”
‘Well, let’s start with what you do know.”
“I met this one man, Everett Miller. from the school board.”
“Tell me about him.’
“Well, let’s see, he’s the one that I corresponded with; he came to see if I was settled; the one who tells...”
“Not what he does, Kitten; tell me what he’s like.”
I hesitated a moment. “Dad, you remember you warned me to watch out for the type of man that pisses on your leg and calls it rain.”
“Yes.”
“When Everett was here, I felt my shoes getting wet, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky,”
“You didn’t believe what he said?”
“Daddy, he was so nervous and guilty-looking; I didn’t believe what he said, before he even said it.”
“And what did he say?”
“That’s what really shocked me. It turns out that not only had the current principal not been told anything about me or even that a replacement had been hired...”
“You gotta be kidding.”
“Wait, Daddy, it gets even better! I managed to drag out of him an admission that the poor man didn’t even know that he was going to be forced to retire.”
There was a long silence on the phone. “Daddy, you still there?”
“Yes, Kitten, I’m here; just stunned. I can’t believe they got you all the way out there before they even told the principal you’ll be replacing.”
“You’re stunned; imagine how I feel!”
“I can’t; that’s a terrible position to be in. Do you have any idea what’s going on?’
“Not a clue; that’s why I called you. Maybe the board’s afraid of him, and they just want to hit with a quick coup.”
“I don’t know, Kitten; school boards are not usually afraid of principals, since they can hire and fire them at will.”
“Just for spite?”
“Maybe, but it doesn’t feel quite right. If it was for spite, I think they would have found some pretext to force him out under embarrassing circumstances. There doesn’t seem to be any real attempt to humiliate him, just the suddenness.”
“Why the secrecy; why the surprise?”
“Well, Kitten, here’s my guess. Obviously they wanted to do this as a coup, in order to keep someone from being able to act against them. It wouldn’t be the principal; he can’t stop them. So who do school boards fear?”
“Reporters sometimes and public opinion ... that’s it! Martel is probably very popular in this town after 25 years. Hell, most of the town probably went to school under him. They had to act fast, so that there wasn’t a chance for a public backlash.”
“Yep, or at least a backlash that could stop the change. There will probably still be a backlash of some sort, but not necessarily directed at the school board.”
“Huh?”