Who Is Winston Conlee
Copyright© 2020 by The Story Teller
Chapter 8
It was noon before Abby heard the good news. She was sitting in the lunch room with the other teachers. The students were playing outside and the sounds of their yells and laughter could be heard through the open window.
“You guys gotta see this,” a teacher exclaimed as she rushed through the door. It was Edna Sorensen who had decided to take a walk downtown during the lunch break. She was waving the River Bend Press in one hand and carrying her lunch bag in the other.
“What’s up?” Asked the school principal Bruce Waken. The big, bearded man reached out to take the newspaper from Edna.
“It’s this story in The Press. I call it the Weekly Rag and only read it when I want to check out a special at Riley’s General Store, but I picked it up today because the whole town is buzzing about a new story in it. I couldn’t believe Horndecker would put something that trashy in his paper. I think the guy’s went off his rocker or something, to print something like this in a family newspaper. There ought to be a law against such garbage.”
“Trouble in Paradise.” The words sprang off the front page and it thrilled Abby to the core, but she was also so anxious to see what Horndecker and Rothenburg had done with it, she was attempted to tear it right out of Waken’s hands. It was terribly agonizing to have to quietly sit back and pretend she didn’t know what was going on. She even managed to be the last in line of teachers to read the paper so that nothing would throw suspicion on her.
When it was finally her turn, Abby’s heart was beating so rapidly she thought it was going to jump right out of her chest cavity. And her hands shook so badly she could hardly hang on to the paper. Although she thought she was giving her secret away, none of the teachers noticed. They were too busy discussing the merits of the story.
Abby took her time reading it. The first time she scanned it quickly to see if Horndecker had printed the entire story without a change. She was relieved to discover he hadn’t changed a word. The second and third times she read it slowly and carefully and relished the pride of having her first real story published. It was sheer agony to have sit still and be quiet while she badly wanted to jump and start screaming it was hers, but somehow or other Abby managed the feat by promising herself the victory celebration would come later with Leon.
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