Killer Diller by Edgerton Clyde

Author:Edgerton, Clyde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 1991-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

“And Colonel Trent, if you will, you can sit right here,” says Ned Sears to Phoebe’s father. He looks like Alexander Haig, thinks Ned. “Wesley, you and Phoebe sit right down there. Or, Phoebe, maybe you want to sit by your daddy, too.”

“This is okay, right here.”

“No, he hasn’t seen you in some time. Here . . . I’m sure you all have plenty to talk about.”

Ted Sears comes into the dining room from the restroom, where he’s given himself a thrice-over in the full-length mirror he recently had maintenance install in there.

A camera flashes—Greg Stephenson, in charge of Ballard’s PVA (Photo, Video, Audio) University History Program, is covering the new academic dean’s first school function: the Project Promise banquet.

Stan Laurence, the new assistant treasurer, and his wife, Darleen, are standing back.

“Stan, you and Darleen come sit over here,” says Ned. “There you go. Darleen, that’s a beautiful dress. You certainly don’t look like you’ve been taking care of four children all day.”

“Thank you.”

When they are seated, Darken whispers to Stan, “Isn’t that the boy from the halfway house—the one who was in the newspaper?”

“Where?”

“Beside that big redheaded girl.”

“Oh, yeah. Without a tie. Benfield. Wesley Benfield.”

“He doesn’t look like he’d get along too well with the girl’s father.”

“No shit. You can say that again.”

Wesley looks around at the heavy, leather-covered chairs back against the wall in this room, which he figures must be right under the cafeteria. It’s a room he didn’t even know about before tonight. To his right is Vernon, then Holister. To his left is Phoebe, then Phoebe’s father. This is a big deal. Phoebe finally phoned him and said yes to his invitation. Even said she would drive. His song worked, and the note. She loved it. She called him up and told him so, and he was so happy he hopped all the way down the stairs from the hall phone beside his room, through the TV room in front of Linda and Carla, out the front door and around the yard. And to top off all this good luck, somebody has said the band is going on a little tour.

Darleen asks Stan, “What’s this room for anyway?”

“It’s where they bring the trustees and other people they want to get money from. They call it the University President’s Eastern LinkComm Dining Room or something like that. Eastern LinkComm furnished it.”

“Looks like they’d take donors to a shabby room, so they’d see the school needs money.”

“Apparently it doesn’t work that way.” Stan decides not to go into the kind of thinking he’s hearing in this administration: people give money where money is, withhold money from where it’s not. Which seems to explain all sorts of things—like the president’s salary versus faculty salaries.

Vernon punches Wesley on his shoulder. “Will we be doing this every week?”

“I don’t think so. This is the kick-off dinner. The only one. How come? Don’t you like it?”

“I don’t know why we’re doing it.”

“For the Project Promise thing. The start-up.”

“But I mean, ain’t nobody going to learn nothing here.

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