Chapter 43

I woke up feeling really tired and stiff. I was worried that I might be coming down with something, but I felt better once I got moving. I did my typical chores with Willie and the rest of my morning routine, before boarding the bus.

“Congrats man!” said Tim as he patted me on my shoulder as I took my seat.

“Damn, Tommy! Undefeated in the regular season. That’s impressive, bro,” smiled Dave.

“I hear you guys won last night too, Dave,” I smiled.

Myers Chevrolet was the only business based in Walnut Grove that sponsored a Babe Ruth League team in our league. The Cheetahs were the two seed in the other division finishing with a 6-4 record. Their out of division losses came to us and the Wolves. Their only divisional losses came from two game series splits with Tim’s Elks (my former team) and against the division winning Dalton Ford Eagles (who finished with a 7-3 record).

“Yeah. We beat up on the Pirates. You better watch out for Caleb Danvers. He’s only two homers behind you.”

“Hey, my stats aren’t that important to me,” I said, somewhat honestly. The truth was that my statistics were less important than my team’s success, but I had pride like anybody else. I currently led the league in both homers (with eight) and runs-batted-in (seventeen). Due to the style of play that the Wolves threw at us, I failed to get anything to hit. This allowed Caleb Danvers to pull within two homers of my total. Okay, to be totally honest about it, I wanted to hit the most homers in the league (and the most RBIs too), but I wouldn’t hurt my team trying to make that happen. My teammate Billy was just three behind me and I’d rather have him beat me than Caleb Danvers.

At any rate Dave and Tim weren’t convinced and razzed me for my ‘false modesty’ the rest of the way to school.

After a typically boring homeroom, I pulled into English and took my seat next to Karl. As Karl didn’t know anything about sports (other than his girlfriend playing them), I knew I was safe from any of the razzing I got on the bus. As always, my spirits picked up when I saw J Squared enter the room together. They took their normal seats and waved at me across the room.

There were at least a couple people absent from class when the bell rang, but the most conspicuous was our teacher Mrs. Douglas. Sarah Douglas and I had actually become friends as we had bonded over the unfair treatment of us by the school administration (most notably, Principal Martin and ex-Vice Principal, Mr. Thomas). Mrs. Douglas’s absence really concerned me, as she practically never had an unplanned for absence from class.

A few moments into my ruminating, a woman who looked to be about forty walked into class.

“Hello, Class. I’m subbing for Mrs. Douglas today,” she started as she walked to the blackboard. “My name is Mrs. Ransom,” she said as she picked up a piece of chalk and wrote her name on the blackboard.

The next forty plus minutes were among the most excruciatingly boring time of my life. Mrs. Ransom droned on and on, regularly repeating herself in the most monotonous, unmodulated tone of voice I had ever heard. She made no effort to listen to students when we explained that we had already covered Catcher in the Rye with Mrs. Douglas (as we had moved on to poetry), yet she insisted in providing a “review” as she seemed certain that we would be quizzed on the novel soon. Then she proceeded to read certain portions and commented on them in a meandering style. At any rate, it really made me appreciated Mrs. Douglas’ precision and interesting style of relating to the class. I would have to call Sarah when I got home to see if she was okay.

The rest of the day went as would be expected. After school, I took Janie and Jen’s bus to their home and then walked over to the Parts Store.

Monique and Phyllis brought me up to speed on our project. We were still at least couple of months from implementing ‘Phase One’ of the automation project at the Parts Store. Monique had finished adding all of the required fields for each record and the test database had been built. At this point, Aunt Sylvia, Rita and Susan Lassiter (the high school senior part-timer, who we would hire as a full-time employee when she had graduated), had started training on the software. Susan was one of two new inventory specialists to be hired to replace Monique and Phyllis. Rita was consulting with Monique to find someone with some ‘data entry’ experience to fill the other position.

The week prior to implementation, Monique told me that we would run the software in parallel with the manual inventory system. Then we would compare the results. If they were within an acceptable margin of error, we would then implement the system in production and would concentrate on the billing module (running that in parallel with the manual billing process). If that worked, we would then concentrate on setting up the same system at the garage and body shop (after testing, then loading their data).

After that, I took a seat in the waiting room and worked on my Algebra I homework. Mr. Harris told me I only had five more assignments and two tests for Pre-Algebra and five more after this one for Algebra I, then I would be only have to take the final exams to be done with both classes. With less than seven weeks left in the term, I could then concentrate on Mr. Crane’s advanced history material (as I had started later on the freshman history material than I had on the material for English and Math).

At about four-thirty, I was surprised to see my Dad walk into the store. Dad usually didn’t get home from ‘Steel City’ until at least five-thirty (sometimes later if there was bad traffic). I gathered my books and put them in my knapsack and we walked to his Audi, got in and started towards home.

When I asked him about why he was so early he just smiled at me and shook his head. “It seems that one of my new clients needed me.”

Then I made a logical guess. “Mrs. Douglas?”

“Got it in one, Son.”

“She wasn’t in school today.”

Dad looked at me for a moment and then returned his attention to the road and sighed. “She told me that I could tell you everything that is going on, but I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

An automatic pout must have formed on my face and my dad cut me off, before I could make my displeasure known. “Tommy, you must promise me not do ANYTHING to jeopardize my client’s case.”

“I wouldn’t...” I started before getting cut off again.

“You wouldn’t walk into the principal’s office and yell at the principal?”

“Of course not!” I complained, but then quietly reflexively mumble, “but wish I could.”

Dad must have heard me. “As obnoxious as your principal is, it is not entirely his fault, though his actions somewhat precipitated this matter.”

I sighed. Dad was right about my knee-jerk reaction to pin all of Sarah’s troubles on Principal Martin, but knew there were a lot of others who had made my English teacher’s life a living hell.

Once I promised to be good, dad explained what had happened.

“When Mrs. Douglas got to school, she was immediately summoned to the office, where she was met by the superintendent, Dr. Lester and Principal Martin. They gave her a formal written warning concerning fraternization with fellow teachers, administrators, staff or students.”

“Students?!” I exclaimed.

Dad nodded grimly. “Yes, Tommy. The letter states that Mrs. Douglas has acted with ‘familiarity’ with at least one administrator and a student. The letter further stated that she was off tenure track, pending an investigation. It further stated that she would be closely monitored in her classroom and on school grounds until the investigation was over.”

“That’s ridiculous, Dad! Especially the part about ‘familiarity’. What does that even mean?”

“Based upon the context, it suggests that she acted inappropriately with at least two people. It did not specify the name of the administrator or student, but my guess is that they are referring to former Vice-Principal Joseph Thomas and you.”

For a second, the color must have drained out of my face, but almost immediately must have refilled, because I was hot with rage.

“Those bastards!” I yelled.

I felt my father’s hand on my shoulder. “Easy, Tommy. I know that nothing untoward happened between you and Sarah Douglas, or with her and Joe Thomas for that matter.”

“What can we do?” I asked, feeling utterly helpless.

“I plan to continue to pressure the superintendent and the school board. Sarah has already filed a complaint with the teachers’ union. Eventually, the school will have to produce some kind of evidence to dismiss Sarah, but I doubt it will come to that. I plan to file suit at the court in Greensburg, regardless of how this turns out. Sarah and I agree that her situation is untenable regardless of what the investigation shows,” Dad paused, before turning to me. “Tommy, I know you are very fond of Mrs. Douglas, but you must be sure to treat her in a completely neutral manner in class. They are looking for any excuse to terminate her and any show of affection you might give her could jeopardize her case.”

I nodded. “I understand, Dad.”

The rest of the trip was mostly small-talk. We talked a little bit about the Pirates and the Phillies. Neither team was doing all that great so far (if anything the Phillies were playing a little bit better), still we were worried about the possibility of a looming strike. Several publications had published articles that the owners were upset about the lack of compensation for Free Agents, while the players saw compensation as a ploy by the owners to discourage free agency. My dad said he could see both sides of the issue. The Oakland A’s owner, Charlie Finley, had his great teams of the mid-seventies raided by other teams in Free Agency (most notably losing slugger, Reggie Jackson and pitching ace, Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter to the New York Yankees). Because of these changes, the Yankees and their owner, George Steinbrenner had a great deal of recent success after more than a decade of futility. As he had the biggest piggy-bank of all the owners, he was able to spend freely, while other owners in smaller markets couldn’t pony up for blue chip talent.

I pointed the Pirates had managed to win it all a couple of years ago. He just smiled at me. “The Pirates homegrown talent came together at the right time, Tommy. The Orioles (their opponent that year), had exceptional pitching that helped them win their pennant. Everything aligned just right for them to win. The Yanks started slowly and losing Thurman Munson (the great Yankees catcher who died flying a private plane in August that year), they never really had the team chemistry that the Orioles had.”

“And the Orioles didn’t have the team chemistry of the Buckos that year,” I smirked.

Dad laughed. “We won’t talk about last year, right?”

Dad had me there. The Phillies had won the World Series last year, while the Pirates suffered the post-World Series Championship hangovers (that a lot of great teams suffer following the year they had won), so I had to shut up about that. It didn’t stop me from pouting, while my dad grinned the rest of the way home.

When we got home, I noticed that Willie had beaten me to the chores. After dinner and after I had been assured by Dad that Sarah was okay, I finished my homework, got ready for bed and fell fast asleep. Tomorrow was our final baseball practice before the playoff’s started on Saturday and I was looking forward to what Coach Daniels had in mind for our team.

The morning rooster waits for no farm boy. Today was Thursday, May 7^th. It was an extraordinarily cold morning dipping down to just above freezing. I quickly ran back into the house and got a warmer coat. I saw Willie poorly dressed for the weather, while trying to gather eggs. I grabbed the basket and sent him back inside for his winter coat.

After getting cold hands as we milked the cows, Willie and I ran inside to clean up and then get a hot breakfast. We were lucky to get the added treat of a mug of hot cocoa (Grandma loves us!). Then I grabbed my knapsack and ran to the bus stop.

“I hear a teacher’s in BIG trouble,” mouthed off Jacob Turner as I sat behind Tim and across the aisle from David.

Man, was Jake annoying! I decided to just ignore him and see what happened.

“Jake said some teacher is going to get fired,” said David.

I laughed. “And you believe him?”

“Not really,” he replied.

“Hey!” complained Jake.

“You’re just spewing rumors like usual,” responded Tim Walton, sagely.

“Yeah, Tim. How are you guys looking for the playoffs,” I said, as the conversation was steered to a topic that both Tim and David were happy to talk about. David’s Cheetahs were among the favorites in their division and they would be playing Tim’s team (and my old team) the Elks in the first round of the playoffs. A little friendly trash talk ensued.