Chapter 34

After Lars and Jimmy left, I stayed over for a late lunch and then Natalie ran me home. Her musical taste ran to things like the Beatles, Elvis and the Beach Boys, but she thought we sounded good.

“Yeah, but the question is whether we were good enough,” I opined.

“Well, I’m no expert. I do enjoy music and we’ve always encouraged Jennifer and Margaret to pursue music if they wanted to do so. Margaret took lessons but quit a couple of years ago. Jennifer is much more serious about music. She always wanted to be a concert pianist, but she never really practices enough. When Nick and I threatened to cut her lessons, she freaked out and started practicing more. Still, lately she kind of fell back into her bad habits.”

“Well, I guess that if you want to get good at anything, you need to put in the work,” I agreed. “That is what my Grandpa says, anyway.”

Natalie laughed. “Your grandparents were always the wisest people I’ve ever known.”

“I agree,” I smiled back.

When I got home, I realized that I had about an hour or so before I had to start on evening chores. Willie was helping Grandpa and Uncle Bo out in the fields today, so I volunteered to handle the chores solo. Then I thought of something.

I remembered Mrs. Douglas had asked me to call her this week. She seemed really sad when I saw her on Friday, so I figured I should reach out. I found her number, where I had placed the slip of paper on my bookshelf. I then placed the call.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mrs. Douglas. It’s Tommy.”

“Oh ... Tommy. I...”

“Mrs. Douglas? Are you okay?”

I heard a sigh on the other end of the line. “Not really ... I’m not sure what’s happening. Everything is going wrong.”

“What do you mean, Mrs. Douglas?”

“Tommy? Could you please call me Sarah?”

“Uh ... I ... okay, Sarah,” I said, trying it.

“Thanks. I guess I really need a friend and need to talk to someone.”

“Mrs. Doug ... I mean Sarah, please tell me what’s wrong.”

The next half an hour shocked me beyond belief. My favorite teacher, who I considered one of the best in the whole school (along with Mr. Harris, Mr. Crane and my last year’s science teacher, Mr. Belcher), was being shunned by many of her colleagues over Vice-Principal Thomas’ firing and Mr. Martin’s suspension. There was even a rumor that Mr. Thomas had been fired for having an affair with Sarah, which was the furthest thing from the truth.

“When I first started teaching at the school, he was a bit overly friendly with me and I had to tell him to stop. While he dialed it back, it always seemed in the background with him,” said my teacher.

I could easily see why the guy would be attracted to Sarah Douglas. She was a mixed racial heritage exotic goddess. She had the raven black hair, fine facial features and almond shaped eyes of her Korean mother and the green eye color, creamy skin and the buxom, full figure of her American soldier father’s Irish heritage. Still, she was a married woman and did not deserve the unwanted attention.

“I’m sorry, Sarah. You shouldn’t have had to deal with that.”

“Women all over the world have had to deal with worse from men like Joe Thomas,” she spat.

“It doesn’t make it right,” I argued.

“No it doesn’t,” she agreed. “The whole thing was made worse when that man said some nasty things about me as he left, leading to the rumors about me. The sad thing is that my own husband doesn’t believe me. I caught HIM cheating on me once and I’m sure that there have been other times. He had always been irrationally jealous over me, despite me never giving him any reason to feel that way. Now he’s using Joe Thomas’ lie to try to take the moral high ground back from me.”

“Sarah, may I ask something?”

“Of course, Tommy.”

“If he cheated on you, and he seems so easily convinced that you cheated; why are you still with him, since you don’t have any kids and all?”

I heard her sob. “I guess, I don’t have anybody in my life. My parents are both dead. My mother was a war bride and her family is all still in Korea, but I’ve lived here my entire life. My father’s parents disowned him when they married. To be honest, I guess I’m afraid to be alone.”

My heart was breaking for this amazing teacher and gorgeous woman. My guess was that she was about twice my age and was sure that my feelings were (mostly) platonic. But I simply couldn’t help myself.

“Sarah ... you’re not alone. You have me.”

“Tommy, that’s sweet but...”

“Please hear me out, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied.

“What you’re dealing with at school is character assassination and slanderous. They shouldn’t be able to say these kind of things about you and get away with it.”

“I know, but what can I do?”

“WE ... remember Sarah, you have me.”

I heard another sob. “Oh Tommy ... you don’t know how much that means to me to hear you say that. I feel so alone.”

“What about your husband? Is there any hope?”

“He’s making noises about divorcing me, using my alleged affair with Joe Thomas as grounds for the divorce. He might even get Joe to lie in court.”

I grinned like my father does. I guess it’s a family trait to grin like a shark when I could sink my teeth into a slime ball like Mr. Thomas’ hide.

“If he says he got fired because of you, I will testify as to the real reason he got fired. My father made sure to get my paper that he doctored. Speaking of my father, I think you should talk to him. He may be able to help.”

“Do you think so? As much as I’m worried about a possible divorce, I’m just not sure how I can keep my sanity with all of the dirty looks I get in the staff room.”

“What about Mr. Harris and Mr. Crane?” I asked.

“Rod Harris and Paul Crane are two of the kindest men I know. The problem is that they are both married. While they have been sympathetic towards me, they are as afraid of the school rumor mill as much as I am. It would be so easy for any kindness shown me to be turned into innuendo”

“You’d think that somebody would start a rumor about you and one of them?”

“Yes, I won’t say any names, but there are close to a dozen teachers and staff who love to gossip and they can be positively cruel.”

I thought about all of the rumors a few weeks ago about me hurting Janie and now wondered if they had been fueled by teachers and staff, as much as they were fueled by students. I figured a good starting point for who might have gossiped.

“How about Mrs. Hicks?” I asked, mentioning the librarian who had glared at me on my first day back to school after the Edgar Blanton incident.

Sarah laughed. “That biddy is one of the worst. How did you know?”

“She gave me a nasty look the day I came back from school after what happened to Janie a few weeks ago.”

“Well that figures.”

“I got my revenge the day after when Janie and I held hands as we walked down the hallway. Janie told her off too.”

“Good for the two of you,” she said, before adding, “Tommy?”

“Yes, Sarah?”

“You’ve really grown up over the last few weeks. You are definitely not shy student who walked into my classroom back in September.”

“I’m not sure why that is, Sarah.”

“I think I know.” she replied.

“Really?”

“Yes. Life is full of opportunities. I think you took a chance when you befriended Mary Jane and Jennifer. You proved your mettle and have been rewarded for that.”

“But everything else...”

“Tommy, I don’t know or understand everything that has happened to you since then, but I bet if you think about it, you’ll know.”

Then it hit me. Everything, both good and bad that had happened to me over the past few weeks, directly resulted from me helping Janie. While my mom and East Chilton grandparents were involved with trying to get my dad to reconcile with his parents, it was my own possible legal peril that got my dad to let Granddad into our lives, and that helped to expedite their reconciliation. That also led me into acquiring Edgar Blanton’s companies, which brought Monique and then Willie into my life. Along the way, I became friends with Billy Crenshaw and even Tim Walton.

“I guess you’re right,” I said, marveling at my teacher’s ability to get me to analyze my life based upon helping Janie and Jennifer.

We talked for another few minutes before turning the topic back to her and what my father might be able to accomplish in helping her. She also cautioned me strongly about maintaining propriety for the next couple of months until the end of school.

“The last thing we need is for Connie Hicks and her gossip-mongers to extrapolate any contact between us as inappropriate. So please continue to call me ‘Mrs. Douglas’ on school grounds or in public.”

“I will,” I promised.

“Thank you, Tommy. I feel a lot better now that I know I have options.”

“Of course, Sarah. You’re an amazing teacher and more importantly, a special person. I’m glad that we are friends now.”

I heard a sob. “Oh, Tommy. I can see why your girls love you so much. If only you were fifteen years older.”

I laughed. “I’ll give you two years to find another guy.”

“What do you mean?”

“In less than two years, my parents will get me emancipated. When that happens, I’ll be legally considered an adult. You are an amazing woman, Sarah. Only a fool can’t see that and despite my age, I am not a fool.”

Sarah giggled. “I’m not sure I shouldn’t take you seriously. Even if I did, I don’t know if I could share you with other women.”

“I don’t know if my other women would want to share you with me.”

Sarah laughed really hard. “You are so bad, young man.”

“I got you to laugh and I have to say it is one of the loveliest laughs I’ve ever heard.”

When we disconnected, I could tell that Sarah Douglas would be okay. She just needed a friend and now she had one in me.

I went to my dad and explained Sarah’s problems. He was pretty angry, especially about the allegations from Mr. Thomas.

“Tommy, that’s one of the advantages of knowing about Mr. Thomas and Mr. Martin’s prior misdeeds concerning you. With your permission we can use that information in a lawsuit against the town if Principal Martin or Dr. Lester can’t remedy Mrs. Douglas’ situation. As Vice-Principal Thomas was fired, he likely took responsibility for manipulating your paper, though we really believe that Principal Martin was the responsible party. We can readily paint Joe Thomas’s allegations of an affair as retribution against Sarah Douglas for refusing to turn over your class work over to him, without having any authorization to do so.” Then he laughed.

“What?” I asked.

“By making Vice-Principal Thomas the fall guy they have created a direct line from Joe’s misdeeds over you to a possible conspiracy to discredit Sarah. I can easily paint that picture here.”

“But isn’t that just circumstantial evidence?” I asked.

“No. There are several things in direct fact. Your paper was doctored. That is a fact. It was doctored by either Mr. Martin, or as the school purports, Mr. Thomas. Those alone are the crimes of forgery, destruction of personal property, fraud and slander, as their actions both willingly and willfully defames your character. Yes, the links are circumstantial, but I just need to find one witness who heard Joe Thomas purport the affair and I have grounds for a serious law suit, if Mrs. Douglas wants to pursue one.”

After talking to my father, I was pretty tired so I said good nights to my family and went to bed.

I woke up this morning and despite the earliness of the hour, I was excited. I hadn’t played baseball in more than a week and we were playing my old team, the Elks, late this afternoon. Later, I had decided to see if I could throw the ball around with Lars, just to stretch out my arm.

After Willie and I got done with the chores and breakfast, I caught a ride into town with Grandpa, who was looking for something at hardware store. I went over to The Commercial Parts store. I blanched when I noticed the sign:

Blanton Commercial Auto Parts

I knew I had to talk to Granddad about changing the name. I did not need to have a reminder of that monster every time I walked into the place. Grandpa came in with me to have a quick visit with Aunt Sylvia. I could tell that they were missing each other. When Grandma had been sick, Aunt Sylvia had come over to help take care of Grandma. I found out just recently that she also had helped to take care of Grandpa too (with Grandma’s blessing). When farm conversion/expansion project was complete, my grandparents and Aunt Sylvia would have a suite to themselves, which would give them the kind of privacy that they needed to explore their relationship. I noticed the two of them slip into Aunt Sylvia’s office for a quick smooch or two, before a blushing Grandpa came out of the office with a grin.

“I’ll see you at your game later,” he grinned at me and then left the store as we exchanged goodbyes.

When I walked into Aunt Sylvia’s office, she looked a bit hot and bothered. “Tommy, your grandpa still has it,” she said with a blush.