The World Made Straight: A Novel by Ron Rash

Author:Ron Rash [Rash, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9780805078664
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Published: 2007-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

EIGHT

That morning when his principal, Dennis Anderson, and the sheriff’s deputy came to the classroom door, Leonard believed something terrible had happened to Emily. He was so exhausted and depressed that his mind could summon forth no other reason. A month had passed since the separation. Each afternoon he drove across town to a run-down apartment complex that rented by the week. His landlord was a laconic Cambodian immigrant who demanded payment in cash, the neighbors grizzled drunks whose lives Leonard suspected were fast-forwards of his own. Sleep came only if he drank enough to spiral into darkness, and he always woke an hour or two before daylight. What dreams he had were garish and violent, more like fevered hallucinations.

When the principal motioned him to come into the hallway, Leonard had been unable to move from behind his desk. An image from the worst of his nightmares—Emily prostrate in a hospital bed, a sinister array of tubes embedded in her flesh—seized his mind with the certainty of prophecy.

Dennis Anderson motioned again, spoke his name aloud as students shifted in their seats and began whispering. Finally the sheriff’s deputy came into the classroom and took him by the arm. As the deputy led him out, Leonard looked at his class and saw curiosity and concern. Except for Robert Tidwell, one of the students he’d given a zero to for cheating. Robert slouched in his seat, legs sprawled before him, smirking.

“They found marijuana in your car,” the principal said.

“So nothing is wrong with Emily?” Leonard asked.

“No,” Anderson replied. “This is about you.”

“I have to handcuff him,” the deputy said.

“I know,” the principal replied, “but let’s wait until we’re outside.”

For a few moments all he felt was relief, even as they walked to the patrol car. The officer recited Leonard’s rights, then removed handcuffs from his belt and motioned for him to hold his hands out. The steel made an audible click as it secured his wrists.

“I’ll let Kera know what’s happened as soon as the class period ends,” Anderson said. “Do you want her to come to the station now?”

“No. Tell her to come after school and not to bring Emily.”

The deputy took his arm and opened the rear door.

“Watch your head,” he said, and guided Leonard into the backseat. Leonard looked up at Anderson.

“Robert Tidwell did this. He’s getting me back for giving him a zero.”

“How can you know that?”

“The way he was acting in class just now.”

“I’ll check into it,” the principal said. “But that’s not much to go on.”

As they pulled out of the lot, Leonard watched Anderson walk rapidly toward the school’s main entrance. He wondered if the principal would confront Tidwell directly or wait until the boy’s father had been informed.

After they searched and fingerprinted him, took his belt, and confiscated the contents of his pockets, the deputy led Leonard to a vacant holding cell, its one piece of furniture a sagging urine-soaked cot. On the wall outside, a clock’s hands moved beneath wire mesh, even time imprisoned here.

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