Edenville Owls

Chapter 3

Billy and I didn’t do our math homework. So we had to stay after school and do it and hand it in to the office before we could leave. I was finished with mine, but Billy was still working on his and I was looking out the second-floor window waiting for him. I saw Miss Delaney come out of the side door and walk across the school yard. A tall man came around the corner of the school and walked up to her. They stopped and faced each other. He had on a trench coat and a dark snap-brimmed hat, like businessmen wore.

My God, did she have a boyfriend? I never thought about teachers having boyfriends. I mean, Miss Delaney was good-looking and all, but... it was embarrassing to think about.

I watched them talk. He was nodding his head and she was shaking hers. He put his hand on her shoulder. She pushed it away. He put his hand on her shoulder again. He must have had a hard hold on her the second time. She tried to twist away and couldn’t. He leaned in toward her and she slapped him and he took hold of both her shoulders.

I pushed open the window.

“Hey,” I yelled, “let her alone.”

“What?” Billy said.

He jumped up and ran to the window.

The tall man let go of Miss Delaney and turned and stared up at us. Miss Delaney went back inside the school and shut the door. I couldn’t see the guy very well because his hat was down over his eyes. And I was pretty sure he couldn’t really see us from that angle. He looked down at the door where Miss Delaney had gone in, and back at the open window, and then he turned fast and went around the corner of the school.

“Holy hell,” Billy said.

We ran from the study hall and down the second-floor corridor toward the auditorium, where we could look out the window in front. We almost ran into Miss McCallum, the math teacher.

“Just what do you boys think you’re doing?” she said.

“We thought we saw something going on out front,” I said. “We wanted to double-check.”

“You can turn right around and go back to the classroom and finish your homework, or you’ll be double-checking in the principal’s office,” Miss McCallum said.

Billy looked scared. I didn’t think I should tell Old Lady McCallum anything. I wasn’t sure why exactly, but I knew Miss Delaney wouldn’t want me to.

“March,” Miss McCallum said.

We went back to the classroom, and Old Lady McCallum sat at the front and watched us while Billy finished his math homework. I had to pretend I was doing my homework, or she’d have made me leave. And I didn’t want to hang outside in the cold waiting for Billy. You weren’t allowed to wait around inside the school without supervision. So I sat in the big silence and pretended to be calculating stuff while Billy struggled through the rest of his assignment.

“When you leave here,” Miss McCallum said, “I want you to go straight down the stairs and out of the building. And no running in the corridors.”

Billy said, “Yes, ma’am.”

I nodded. We went out of the classroom and down the front stairs and out the front door. There was some wind. The flag was snapping on the flagpole in front of the school. On the other side of the wide front lawn, there was a robin’ s-egg blue Plymouth Coupe parked on the street. As we walked past it, Miss Delaney got out. She had on a plaid topcoat and a black beret.

“Bobby,” she said to me, “could I talk to you and Billy for a moment?”