Chapter 9

It appeared that my mother was trying to take away my morning chores. “I don’t have to work today, so you get Grandma her eggs and leave me to my thoughts,” she laughed while pulling on Amber’s teats.

Amber just mooed her agreement. Who was I to argue?

After cleaning up and eating breakfast with my dad for a change (as he was often out the door and on his way to ‘Steel City’ as early as six), we jumped into the car to beard the prissy lion in his lair. I agreed to let dad do all the talking. For some reason, kids making fun of an adult tends to make them mad.

“What are you doing here!” snarled Mr. Martin.

Dad put his hand on my shoulder to remind me that this child was better seen than heard. “It’s a Tuesday isn’t it?”

“Yes, but...”

“Then, since it’s a Tuesday, Tommy is going to school.”

“But he’s suspended!”

“A suspension that he served yesterday.”

“He’s still suspended pending his expulsion.”

“I’ve checked the School Board policies on both ‘suspension’ and ‘expulsion’ and there is no status for someone being ‘suspended pending expulsion.’ You’re just making that up.”

“I...” stuttered Martin.

“Furthermore, as my son ... or should I say, as my client, is a first time offender, he can only receive one day of suspension for his first offense.”

“He has two offenses.”

“Really?” my dad, arched his eyebrow, a trick he must have learned from Grandpa. I was so telling on him. “What offenses?”

“He attacked two students.”

“Which students?”

“Mary Jane Parker and Tyler Thornbush.”

My dad grinned. I could tell he had an idea.

“Were these children allegedly attacked on school grounds?”

“Tyler Thornbush was.”

“And did you see my son attacking Miss Parker off of school grounds?”

“No, but...”

“Did you see Mr. Thornbush get attacked by my son?”

“No, it was reported...”

“Did you ascertain that these attacks happened by looking at the evidence or are you going strictly on your own belief that these attacks happened?”

Mr. Martin was almost hyperventilating and sweat was pouring off of his body. He didn’t bother responding to my father’s questions. My father, the lawyer was my father the boxer right now. He had been softening up Old Man Martin with a bunch of verbal jabs to the gut and the occasional straight right to the head. These verbal punches were in the form of aggressive body language with rapid and penetrating questions. Now, I saw the gleam in my dad’s eye. He was going for the haymaker. He could tell I knew what was going on because I was grinning at him. He winked at me.

“Then this is easily settled. Just have the students report to the office and we can ask them.”

“This is highly irregular!” complained Principal Martin.

“You mean asking the so-called victims if they’re actually victims and if so, who was the responsible party?”

“It would be unfair to Miss Parker to make her confront her attacker.”

Dad rolled his eyes. “You sir, have a dizzy intellect.”

“Don’t you mean ‘dizzying intellect’?”

“I said what I meant, Principal Martin. Unfortunately, I guess you want to do this the hard way.”

“Hard way?”

Dad pulled out a folder from his brief case. “To begin with, I have three statements from witnesses, including my son’s other guardian who told me that you did not stipulate the length of the suspension or the specific cause for my client’s suspension.”

“I told his mother he was being suspended for attacking two students.”

“But you did not specify the length of the suspension or if each attack was a separate cause for suspension. According to East Chilton School System policy, each act of discipline must be documented in the student’s record. As one of my son’s guardians, I demand to see my son’s student record immediately!”

Mr. Martin was now truly flustered. My father was about to show him to be either a corrupt, lazy, or incompetent administrator. Any way it was sliced, Mr. Martin would be embarrassed. He sputtered and moaned about not having updated the file yet. My attorney had just changed into an irate father and the principal had not been able to weave fast enough to avoid my father’s explosive verbal punch.

Then the first-period bell rang. A few moments later, I grinned as I heard Janie’s voice outside the office. “I heard that Tommy Matthews is in the office.”

“Yes, dear. You should leave now,” said Mrs. Davis’s voice.

“I don’t want to leave. I want to see Tommy!”

I opened the Principal’s Office door and Janie squealed and almost tackled me and kissed my cheek.

Mr. Martin frowned. “Miss Parker, what are you doing here? This is most inappropriate.”

“I don’t know, Martin, she looks pretty traumatized to me,” my dad smirked.

“I’m sorry Tommy, but people have been saying some pretty terrible things about you. I’ve been setting them straight.”

“Janie, honey?”

“Oh! Hi, Mr. Matthews.”

“Hi, Janie. Did Tommy attack you?”

Janie looked angry and then she glared at Mr. Martin. “Tommy did not attack me, Mr. Martin and it was awful of you to treat him the way you did! I’m so mad at this whole school right now I could spit!”

Mr. Martin looked devastated. It was clear that Janie was speaking from the heart and he nodded, as if accepting some culpability without saying anything to admit to it.

My dad, on the other hand, knew exactly where the blame lay. “Martin, I want that suspension stricken and his absence expunged from my son’s records, assuming that you were ever going to get around to updating them.”

“Not so fast, Mr. Matthews. There is still the matter of the Thornbush boy.”

“I’m sure that matter is just as erroneous as this one. You will give me my son’s file right now and I will copy it and keep the copy in my possession. If I find it changed retroactively one iota, I will march into the superintendent’s office and demand your removal as principal, against his own removal that I will demand from the School Board, in lieu of me suing the Township of East Chilton. Either way, I’m contemplating a civil suit against you for willfully slandering and defaming my son. Have I made myself clear?!” spat my dad.

Martin nodded. He metaphorically lay on the canvas of his office licking his wounds, as my victorious father got my file from a shocked Mrs. Davis. She then had to write two late passes for me and Janie. We then really blew her mind as we walked hand-in-hand to period one.

On our way to class, we saw Mrs. Hicks heading back to the library. She scowled at me until she saw who was holding my hand. “You should know all the facts before jumping to conclusions,” I scowled back.

Janie scowled at her too, as we continued to walk to English.

“Well, it’s nice to have you both joining us today,” smiled Mrs. Douglas, as she took our hall passes.

The room tittered, as Janie and I picked two open adjacent seats in the back of the room, instead of our customary seats. Jennifer smiled at us from across the room. I really wished that there was one more open seat in the back.

“Surprised at what you’re seeing?” asked Mrs. Douglas of the class.

“Jennifer told me that it was all a lie in homeroom,” stated Angie Bloom.

“Yet you were one of the most strident voices against Tommy, yesterday before class started,” observed our teacher.

“I’m sorry, Tommy,” she said and I believed her sincerity.

“It’s okay Angie. You weren’t the worst I’ve encountered by far.”

“Well, folks, this is not the first time that people have run afoul of lies, rumors, whispering campaigns and propaganda. Tommy, Janie, and Jennifer, in class yesterday, we took a break from Hemingway and we talked about novels, movies, and TV shows, where people were accused of things that they did not do.”

“So you knew Tommy didn’t hurt Janie?” asked Jen.

“I didn’t know anything for sure and that’s the point. Knowing Tommy and his reputation, I didn’t believe that he had attacked Janie, but he easily could have. Without the facts how could I know? How could anybody know? Often people forget that people in this country, are innocent until proven guilty,” she paused before continuing.

“Yesterday, at lunch, I talked to Mr. Crane in the Teacher’s Lounge. Many of you have him for History. We were both amazed and alarmed at how people were so easily manipulated by gossip and hearsay that they were willing to accept Tommy’s guilt without knowing the facts. I believe Mr. Crane plans to talk to you all about civic responsibility and what it means to be a good citizen.”

The whole class groaned. Even me.

“Now back to our regularly scheduled program of Nick Adams in the short story The Last Good Country.”

The day was a lot better than yesterday, but I was still catching flak from people who had not heard or had not believed the news that I hadn’t hurt Janie. I did get shoved by Tim Walton in the lunch line. He accused me of lying and still hurting Janie. I had an interesting defender.

“Fuck off, Walton. You’re the one that’s lying!” yelled Billy. He then turned his attention to anyone who was listening. “My dad is the lawyer that helped Janie and her sister. He knows the truth and said Tommy was a hero!”

That point seemed punctuated by Janie and Jenny sidling up behind me. “Put your tray down, Hero. Mom made an extra sandwich in case you were in school,” grinned Jen.

The cafeteria got really quiet. Nobody would look me in the face, not even the teachers who were on cafeteria duty. I just walked to my old table with my new entourage.

“Here’s the conquering hero,” laughed Axel.

“Deigning to eat with the low and lowly,” smirked Pete.

“Hey, Tommy’s not like that,” complained Karl.

“Yeah, you bozo, Tommy’s not like that,” I smirked as I sat down leaving room for J Squared to sandwich me, which they did.”

“Hey, can anybody join this table?” smiled Johnny.

“Only nice guys and cute girls,” I grinned seeing Eva behind him.

“So, am I a nice guy or a cute girl?” asked Eva, with a pout.

“Both!” I laughed, and she reached out to pet me, but Jennifer swatted her arm away.

“Go pet on Johnny, he can be your pet. Tommy is our pet hero,” said Jen.

Everybody laughed, even Eva.

The rest of the school day went without incident, except for a handshake and a sincere apology from Mr. Seiling at the end of the day.

When I started walking to my bus, I was intercepted by J Squared. “You’re coming back with us,” grinned Janie.

“But I have my game today.”

“We know. But since your mom dropped off your uniform, cleats, and glove at my house, you don’t have much of a choice, do you?” explained Jen.

I sighed. “Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to suffer being with the two prettiest girls in school instead of being able to hang out with my buddy Tim Walton.”

I got matching kisses on each cheek and a giggle from each girl, as we walked to their bus.

After a great early supper, I changed into my uniform, grabbed my glove and Nick took J Squared and I to the park. Emily and Maggie begged off, so Natalie had to stay and watch them. Today’s opponent would be The Rotary Club Flyers (not a name that any true fan of Pittsburgh sports would suggest). They were one of three teams sponsored by service or fraternal organizations (the others being my current team the Lions and my old team, the Elks). There were a total of eight teams in the league split into two divisions of four teams. Players were drawn from East Chilton and neighboring Walnut Grove. Walnut Grove was a small town of only about nine thousand people. All of their younger kids who played at this level went to the town middle school, while the ninth-graders went to a regional high school (or one of the two area Catholic schools).