Chapter 8

DENNIS SENT TEXT MESSAGES to his mother and Natalie to let them know they had company for dinner. He immediately got confirmation that there was plenty. It was still a little awkward to show up with Ardith, especially since Sheriff Moran was there for dinner, too. That was expected three or four times a week now, including regular attendance at Sunday dinner.

“Hello, Coach,” Dot said. “Welcome to our little home.”

“Please. We’re away from school, so call me Ardith. I’m happy to visit a small home with big hearts.”

“That’s eloquently spoken, and much the way I feel. Call me Tom. I’m off-duty,” the sheriff said.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you in a non-official setting,” Ardith said.

Natalie had enough of the formalities and stepped up to Ardith to hug her. “I’m so glad Dennis invited you to join everyone. I made my special lasagna for dinner tonight.”

“It’s nice that you and the girls are still making dinner for the Enders family,” Ardith said. “Hello, Peg. Do you remember me? I’m Ardith.”

“Ave Maria, gratia plena,” Peg responded. Ardith had helped her with Latin pronunciation when she sang that song nearly a year before.

“Ave, ave Dominus, tecum Benedicta tu in mulieribus,” Ardith responded. Peg hugged her.

“Are you going to be a sister?” Peg asked.

“Oh, no. I’m just a teacher,” Ardith said, assuming Peg meant a Catholic sister.

“That’s okay. If you are Dennis’s girlfriend, then you can be a sister.”

“Oh,” Ardith squeaked. She looked frantically at Dennis and Natalie.

“Peg, you know Ardith is our coach,” Dennis said. “Swish!”

“Oh, yeah! When’s basketball?”

“We start practice this week,” Natalie said. “Why don’t we gather around and have dinner?”

They got seated and Dot turned to Tom.

“Blessing, Tom?” she said. They all bowed their heads.

“Blessed be the hands that prepared this food and the company in which we eat it. Amen.”

Ardith and Natalie sat on either side of Dennis on one side of the table with Peg and Tom on either side of Dot on the other side of the table. Dennis liked the arrangement because it meant his mom and Tom could sit next to each other instead of at opposite ends of the table. Once lasagna and garlic bread and salad were in front of them, the conversation quickly relaxed. When dinner was over and dishes were cleaned up, Dennis read to Peg and she skipped off to bed.

“Let me take you home, Ardith,” Dennis said. “It’s getting awfully cold out.”

“I have to leave and get ready for work,” Tom said before Ardith could respond. “I’ll be happy to drop you off.”

“Oh. Yes, if it’s no trouble,” Ardith said. “That’s great.”

She looked over at Dennis and Natalie and smiled. Natalie immediately rushed to give her a hug.

“I hope you’ll get together with us often,” Natalie whispered. “We really like you.”

“I really like you, too. But we have to stay proper for now,” Ardith whispered back.

Dennis stepped right up to hug Ardith, too.

“It’s better that Tom take me home,” Ardith whispered. “You understand?”

“Oh, yeah. No problem. I’ll see you first thing in the morning,” he responded.

“How far has it gone?” Dot demanded of Dennis and Natalie as soon as Tom and Ardith left.

“Mom! Nothing has gone anywhere!” Dennis exclaimed.

“Nothing physical, perhaps, but I can see the same look in your eyes that the two of you have when talking about Lana,” Dot said. “I just want to make sure you know how bad it could be for her if she did anything improper with a student.”

“Honest, Ms. Dottie, we’re good friends. But first and foremost, she’s our teacher and our coach. Basically, that’s more important than anything else could be,” Natalie said. Dot sighed.

“I just worry. I let so much pass me by a year ago, I don’t want to miss anything now. I want to be a good mother.”

“Mom, we all like Ardith a lot. The only real friends she has in the area are the other coaches and us. One day, when we’re out of school, we could let that change, but not until then. Not at all,” Dennis said.

“You’ll both be eighteen in a few months. But even then, things could be bad for her if you got together. I know she is a good person and wouldn’t abuse you, but the state and the school board would see it differently. Natalie, even your mother would have to vote to discipline her—possibly even to press charges. Please, please be careful.”

“We promise. We won’t do anything before graduation.”

“I love you five so much, I would hate to see your hearts broken.”

“Us five?” Dennis said. “Um...”

“Debbie, Daniella, and Roberta have left your crew, as you call yourselves. It doesn’t take a brilliant person to see that Leanne and Rosie are pulling away. I talked to Renda Long the other day and I know Diane is going away to college. She thinks Judith is pulling away from the crew. And Tori—I’m afraid I don’t think much of her chances of staying with the crew for long. That leaves you two, Brenda, Amy, and Lana. Five. I’m not going to renumber you all. I think I can remember names now.”

“I’m worried about Lana and Amy,” Dennis said. “They’re a year behind us and it will be hard to stay involved while mixing college and high school schedules. It’s been really hard on Brenda and she’s living with Amy.”

“Those girls might surprise you. Assuming you want them, they’ll move heaven and earth to be with you.”

“Want them? Hell, yes! I’m just trying to figure out logistics that make it so we don’t have to be separated. And you know, Mom, I’m only even applying to colleges that are close enough I can get home regularly. I can’t just pack up and leave you and Peg behind.”

“Well, don’t limit your options too much. There’s nothing saying we have to be left behind. But Peg is becoming more resilient and confident every day since she started singing. We’ll survive.”

“How far has it gone?” Tom asked Ardith as they drove away from the Enders’ house. It was almost a duplicate of Dot’s question to the teens. Ardith sighed heavily.

“All the way in my fantasies. Can you arrest me for that? Nothing more has happened,” Ardith said.

“No handcuffs tonight,” Tom said. “Dot and I are concerned for you as much as for the kids. Getting involved could be very bad for you.”

“Age is one of the things that is between us,” Ardith said. “And student-teacher relation is the other. If it weren’t for those two things, I would be one of the crew.”

“It’s obvious they feel the same way. But Iowa law is clear. Any contact between you and one of your students or players seen as intending to arouse or satisfy sexual desire is an aggravated misdemeanor and is punishable by loss of job and up to two years imprisonment—even if the student is over eighteen. Don’t go there, Ardith. I intend to warn the kids as well. As long as you have a teacher- or coach-to-student relationship, you’re liable. You should really consider both your future and the future of the relationship you foresee,” Tom said.

“You quoted that like you just researched it,” Ardith said.

“I did. Dot asked me to help her understand the law. Before you go off on her, understand that she was not thinking of you at the time. I’m not sure how, but during our investigation of the brawl last spring, the incidents of abuse of Dennis when he was a freshman and only fifteen years old arose. The school decided the coach was cognizant of the abuse and fired him.”

“I was aware of that. Did you know Dennis was raped by the entire team? I don’t have that on direct evidence, but rather on the information passed on by his girlfriends. The boy who accused him after the school shooting was one of the abusers,” Ardith said.

“One of the main boys involved in the brawl was also one of the abusers. That is why he was charged and the school suspended him from fall sports and permanently from basketball. When we asked why he didn’t inform his coach about the threat from the other school, he laughed at us and said ‘Coaches don’t do anything but protect each other. They didn’t care that Coach Rogers was using players for sex. They just got him out of the school and off to a different one.’ That matter is under investigation because the kind of assault that was reported to us would put Rogers in prison for five to twenty-five years,” Tom said.

“My God!”

“The point is that this is serious and people on the school board and the faculty and law enforcement are all on edge over it. Do not get in the middle of it. I’d almost tell you to run before it goes that far. I know you are courageous in defending your students, but I’ll tell you to consider it anyway.”

“Ardith, are you okay?” Dennis said into his cell phone. Natalie huddled against him.

“Yes, Dennis. I’m fine. Quaking in my boots, but fine.”

“After Ms. Dottie talked to us, we were so afraid for you.”

“The sheriff put the fear of God into me, but he was kind about it. But we must keep our distance. I had no idea how obvious we were. There are other factors at work that we didn’t know about. Everyone will be under scrutiny,” Ardith said. “Dennis, that means you need to curtail all trips into the locker room. I’m sorry, but there’s no other way to keep this straight. And that goes for the new boy, Noah, too. We need to either get him a female assistant and get Jill a male assistant, or they need to switch teams.”