The Melancholy Strumpet Master by Zeb Beck

Author:Zeb Beck [Beck, Zeb]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-18T22:00:00+00:00

27

Gil sat at his desk in the empty classroom eating a mixed-green salad, his stomach still too queasy for anything heavier. In case of another emergency, the door remained open for easy escape. The expected fallout from parent-teacher conferences hadn’t materialized. He couldn’t grasp why, having gone out of his way to insult over a dozen parents. Maybe the administration was still consulting with the union or working out the transfer to teacher jail. Every organization had its way of confounding the simplest process. He recalled to what lengths the police had gone to bury the stolen-Gemini report.

One of the resident students shuffled himself into the classroom. He was eating a burrito.

“Crowell, you got a minute?”

“How’d you get here?” Gil asked.

“The door is open.”

“Yeah, I can see the door is open. I’m the one who opened it. Aren’t you supposed to be in the cafeteria or something?”

“I told one of the guards I needed to talk to you. He’s waiting in the hall.”

Gil took another bite of salad. “All right, what is it?”

“I don’t know how to say this except to just come right out and say it.”

“That usually works.”

The student pulled a chair over to Gil’s desk and sat down. “I’ve got girl problems.”

“What are you talking about? You’re in jail.”

The student looked up at the ceiling, shook his head. He appeared to be holding back tears. “Yeah, and this girl’s probationary. I don’t feel like I measure up, know what I mean, to her standards.”

“What standards?” Gil asked. “She’s a juvenile delinquent.”

“I don’t know, but my lawyer tells me I’m stuck here for the next two months. I just feel like such a loser, know what I mean?”

Gil looked the kid over. Had a fast track to teacher jail suddenly opened before his eyes? Sometimes the universe worked that way. There were a number of things he could say to completely blow the kid’s mind, send him racing off to the administration with a vengeance. No, it would never work out. In his vulnerable state, the student obviously trusted him. Anything Gil said, however perverse, would be taken in earnest. He decided to play it straight.

“Most guys feel like losers at some point in life, kid. It’s actually pretty normal. It means you know you’re better than your current situation, that’s all. You messed up, so what? What did you do, rob someone? Steal a car?”

“Shot my stepfather.”

“Well, that’s a little different.”

“No, he’s all right. It was a shot gun and the pellets just sprayed –”

“Yeah, I get it. But you learned your lesson, right? I mean, you know you can’t go around shooting people and get anywhere with this girl, correct?”

“It won’t happen again.”

“What’s up with the girl?”

“It’s Angela Ochoa.”

“You like her, huh?”

“Yeah, and I can’t do anything about it. That’s the thing. They have all the hard cases separated from the probes, know what I mean? I can’t talk to her, can’t go anywhere near her. She’ll probably finish her probation without even knowing I exist.”

Gil inspected a salad dressing stain on his shirt, set the empty bowl aside.

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