Edenville Owls

Chapter 31

It had started to snow about an hour after school started. The first snow of the winter. I was sitting in the back of the classroom looking out the window at the snow, which was soft and steady. There had been a lot of times when

I’d said how I’d figure things out later. Now it was later. I needed to figure out why I felt safer with Joanie. I needed to figure out a lot about how Joanie made me feel. I had to figure out what to do about Nick and Joanie. But most of all, I needed to figure out what to do to help Miss Delaney. I was only fourteen, I had time for the other stuff. But there might not be too much time left to figure out Miss Delaney and her problem.

At least I had an idea what her problem was. Maybe I felt safe with Joanie because I knew I could be brave for her. Even brave, I couldn’t go against a grown man. Some of the older guys, war veterans, would probably have been happy to help. But then Tupper would blab, and Miss Delaney would get in trouble. Maybe I felt brave with Joanie because she was brave. Her hair smelled really nice. I had to focus on Miss Delaney. I couldn’t let Joanie keep popping in. I could think about Joanie later, once I’d figured out what to do about Miss Delaney. It was funny, every other girl I thought about sex. I didn’t know a lot about it. And I’d never done it. But I thought about it. Except Joanie. With Joanie, I thought about Joanie. How were we going to get Tupper to leave Miss Delaney alone? I wondered why he changed his name. Did he change it before he got the Medal of Honor? Richard Krauss.

Russell reached over and punched me in the ribs.

“Miss Delaney’s talking to you, Dumbo,” he said.

“Thank you, Russell,” Miss Delaney said.

“I’m sorry, Miss Delaney,” I said. “I didn’t hear you.”

“I said the education is going on up here. There’s nothing to be learned out the window.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“Have you read Gulliver’s Travels, Bobby?”

“I saw the movie,” I said.

Several people in the class snickered. Miss Delaney shook her head.

“The book is better,” she said. “Marilyn, have you finished the assignment?”

“Yes, ma’am...”

I concentrated on the snow again.

Nick and I hadn’t been quite as easy with each other since I started being friendlier with Joanie. He was my friend, but Joanie was too. Even though she was a girl, I liked her better. The snow came straight down, and quiet. It wasn’t a blizzard or anything, just the quiet steady downfall of big white flakes. If I helped Miss Delaney, the reverend would hurt her. If I didn’t help her, the reverend would hurt her.

The thought that Miss Delaney had been married was kind of odd. She had a kid. That meant she’d had sex. That was almost suffocating to think about. I thought about sex a lot when I thought about Miss Delaney. I never thought about sex when I thought about Joanie. I daydreamed about her. I thought about rescuing her from kidnappers or finding her when she got lost in the mountains and killing a grizzly bear to save her. In my daydream I killed it with a knife. She was very grateful.

I looked at Miss Delaney. I looked at the snow outside. My mind kept jumping around. I had to concentrate. Forget about killing grizzly bears with a hunting knife. I had to concentrate on saving Miss Delaney from Oswald Tupper.