“I stumbled on that blasted rug!” exclaimed the mayor. “I didn’t mean to hit her!”
The blond woman examining Addie’s head, asked, “Are you all right?”
“Yes. I think so. I just banged my head ...”
The woman stood up. “Aren’t you going to arrest this man? What kind of a policeman are you? You saw him strike her!”
Addie was hurriedly gathering her books and shaking her head to clear it. Her nose stung where the mayor’s fist had connected with it. She felt to see if it was bleeding. It wasn’t.
“Lady, you are interfering here. Just who are you?” Chief Bugg was demanding, as Addie was backing through the open door. The last she heard before the big door shut was the woman declaring, “I’m Dr. Ellen Morris.” She ran back toward the kitchen and out to the Lincoln.
As she drove past the front porch of the building, she could hear the knocker being dropped forcefully, repeatedly. She rushed on. She had promised her mother she would go to school today, and to school she was going. Would they follow her? She wondered. And would chief Bugg turn on his siren? She was going to drive as fast as she could, but stay within the speed limit. He wasn’t going to have the satisfaction of giving her a speeding ticket.
She had never been late before, but she knew the rules. She had to check in at the office first. There was no secretary in the outer office, so she took a seat in a chair against the wall of the principles’ office. She was tired from all the rushing and lack of restful sleep, and very much upset over the morning’s happenings. And she was wondering why Chief Bugg, and that mayor hadn’t come after her. She leaned her head against the wall to rest a few moments until someone came to the secretary’s desk. Suddenly, she realized that she was hearing the principal talking on the phone as clearly as if she had been in his office.
“But, Crumbly,” he was saying, “I can’t expel her just because she missed yesterday and is late today.”
He’s talking to the mayor about me, she thought. Expel me!
“All right, Crumbly. I’ll see what can be done. I’ll let you know.”
Addie straightened up in her chair as Edith Mayfield, a senior, came through the door.
“Hi, Addie. I’m secretary today. You need to see him?”
“Yes. I’m late,” she answered angrily.
The girl knocked on the principle’s door. Immediately, there came a, ‘come in’.
“Addie Martin to see you, Sir. She was late.”
“Send her in,” he said.
Addie got up and walked through the door with knots in her stomach and a foreboding feeling.
“Shut the door,” he said, his head down, looking at a list on his desk. “Do you have an excuse from home for your absence yesterday and your tardiness today?”
“Uh, no, sir. I don’t.” She had forgotten that part of the rule.
Finally looking up at her, he asked, “Why?”
“I had forgotten that you had to have one. I’ve never been late before and it’s been so long since I missed a day, I just forgot. And, I, uh, don’t live at home anymore.”
“Oh, and where do you live? Have you filed a change of address with the office?”
“Well, no, Sir. When school was out for spring break, I still lived at home. This is my first day back. I’ll fill one out. I, uh, I live at Stonegate for the time being.”
“Stonegate, huh? You working there? What do you do?”
“Well, uh, yesterday, I was a waitress.”
“Now, Addie, I’m glad you have a job, but you know you can’t stay out of school to work at a job. You’re not a senior, so your school hours cannot be adjusted to accommodate a work schedule.” He hesitated for a long minute, and Addie waited. “So you stayed out of school yesterday to work at your job. You don’t have an excuse from a parent, and you’re late today with no excuse. I’m afraid I’m going to have to expel you for, uh, two days.” He was looking down at his desk again.
She knew what he had been working up to, and he couldn’t even look at her when he said it. He knew it was unfair, she thought, and it made her furious. “No!” she said, trying to control her anger. “You’re not expelling me, Mayor Crumbley is. He runs you like he runs this town. I want to tell you something, Mr. Fields,” now he was looking at her in surprise. “Anyone sitting in that chair out there can put their head to the wall and hear everything that’s being said in this office.”
The principal’s face reddened. “Consider yourself expelled for the rest of this week, and see me before you report to class on Monday!”
“Forget it! I won’t be back on Monday!” And she left his office, slamming the door behind her.
Almost immediately, he was yanking the door open. “Now, see here, Addie Martin. You can’t ...”
But Addie was out the hall door and slamming it. She almost ran down the hall toward her locker as the second period bell rang. She was working on her combination lock when Donnie rushed up to her.
“I was sure that was your red head almost running down the hall.”
“Yeah. I just got expelled.”
“Expelled! Why?”
Deena had joined them. “We saw cars coming up the drive this morning, so we didn’t wait. That was terrible about Cooter, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Wylene said as she joined them. “Sure hope he makes it.”
“Cooter? What about Cooter?” Addie asked, looking at the three of them, and handing Donnie her combination lock.
“You haven’t heard? He was badly burned in the slum fire this morning. They flew him to Nashville,” Donnie explained.
“I heard it doesn’t look good for him,” Wylene said.
“And Fields just expelled Addie!” Donnie announced.
“I’ll tell you about it this afternoon,” Addie said in answer to the shocked look on the two girl’s faces. ‘You’ll be late for class,” she reminded them. “I’m sorry about Cooter. We’ll have to pray for him.”
“You’re cleaning out your locker?” Deena asked.
“Yeah. I told him I wasn’t coming back.”
Miss Judy was helping William prepare lunch in the summer kitchen, as Addie came through the outside door. William was saying, “I just don’t see how I can. This job takes all my time.” Then he turned to Addie, her arms loaded down with the contents of her school locker. Her anger had had time to cool down, and the seriousness of what she had done was beginning to dawn on her. What would she tell her mother? And what would she do? She couldn’t quit school!
“What are you doing here?” William asked. “Why aren’t you in school?”
“I got expelled,” she answered flatly. “So I quit.”
“Oh, no! Not another one!” Miss Judy exclaimed. “It looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me here. You want to tell us about it while we prepare lunch?”
She didn’t really. She wanted to find out about the slum fire and Cooter, but she put her books and things down in a chair, and told them about her morning so far as she helped by scraping carrots.
When she finished, Miss Judy was furious. “Fields should be dismissed if he hasn’t anymore backbone than that. But don’t worry about your schooling. I’ll take care of that. And I know Elsie Swinger, Chief Bugg’s secretary. We’ve been friends since grade school. She’ll tell me about the fire. The very idea of Bugg thinking you had anything to do with that fire,” she said as she headed for the phone on Mattie’s desk.
“Looks like you’ll be joining me at the round table,” William said. “And when you finish with the carrots, here are the potatoes.”
“What round table?”
“Jo Ann Simmons plans to use the breakfast room as her meeting room for her employees, and Miss Judy plans to use it to finish my education. I have the rest of this year and the next, but she says with her private teaching, I’ll be through with school at the end of this year. Of course that means I do school all summer too. No summer vacation.”
“Oh, I’m so glad for you, William. I didn
’t want you to quit.”
“And what about you? You just quit.”
“He made me so angry I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t deserve to be expelled.”
“So you quit out of anger, and I quit out of fear.”
“Wonder if she’ll teach me too. Otherwise, I don’t know what I’ll do. Mama will be awfully upset with me when I have to tell her.”
“If she can teach one, she can teach two. I think that’s what she meant when she said her work was cut out for her here.”
“That sure would give me more time for everything else I’ve gotten myself involved in. I’ve been wondering how I was going to find time for everything. And unlike Donnie, I have to spend a lot of time studying. But he only needs two more credits. Hey! Do you think she’d help him get his two credits? I sure do need as much of his time as he can give me.”
“Well, just ask Miss Judy.”
“Ask me what?”
“Did you find out about Cooter?”
“Addie, dear, I found out a lot more than that. For one thing, you’re no longer a suspect in the slum fire.”
“Thank the Lord for that. But what happened?”
“What I’m going to tell you, Elsie told me only because Chief Bugg questioned you at the mayor’s insistence. And I’m relating it to you to settle your mind about the matter. You two will not mention this to anyone else. Promise?”
When they both promised, Miss Judy said, “There was a man driving into town who happened to be a Federal Marshall. Elsie didn’t know why he has come to Riverbend, but just as he approached the slum area, there was an explosion. They believe that Cooter had just poured out a gallon of gasoline and struck a match to it. The shack he was in burst into flames, and so did Cooter. He came running out all on fire. The Marshall grabbed a blanket out of his car and ran after Cooter, who was running down the middle of the street toward the Square, yelling, “REX! REX!” Allen Morley had run out of the back of the hotel and was running toward Cooter. He collapsed just as the Marshall and Allen reached him. They put out the fire, but Cooter was still mumbling. “Rex! Rex! Rex! You didn’t say it would hurt.” The Marshall called 911. Elsie didn’t know too much about Cooter’s condition. But the Marshall later checked into the hotel. And Morley and the Marshall were in Elsie’s office waiting for Chief Bugg when he returned from Stonegate. Right now, the chief is out looking for Rex Sommers. Now, Addie, what was it you wanted to ask me?”
“Poor Cooter, I hope he lives.”
“Addie?”
“Well, Miss Judy,” she said reluctantly, “William says you’re going to help him finish high school by teaching him here. So I was wondering ...”
“If I’d take you on also?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I have to do something with my days. I can’t play the organ all day. And you won’t let me pay for my room and board, so I have to repay you somehow.”
“Oh, Miss Judy, that would be wonderful, but you’ll be paid for teaching us.”
“We’re not even going to discuss that. But Miss Judy’s school for dropouts will be very strict. You both may wish you’d stayed in the public school.”
“And you know, Miss Judy, my mama has always wanted to finish her high school education ... “
“Good. I’ll take her too.”
“And Donnie Whitefield only needs two more credits. Could he get them with you?”
“Yes. Now do you have any others?” she asked impatiently.
Was she being sarcastic? Did it matter? She did have one more. “Yes, ma’am. Deena Castle has to work and go to school too. You remember her. She works here now. But it would be so much easier for her if she could go to school here too. It would give her more hours to work.”
“You’ll be going to school year round. Do you realize that?”
“Yes, ma’am. William told me. But I think we’d all be willing to if we would be finishing school a lot earlier.”
“All right, Addie, but no more. We’ll all get together just as soon as possible so I can get all the information from each of you, that I need to get started on it.”
“Oh, thank you, Miss Judy,” Addie said as she hugged the woman, who was rinsing green beans. “Now I won’t have to tell mama that I got expelled.”
“I owe you a few thanks too, remember?” Miss Judy said.
As Addie left the kitchen, she heard a commotion in the dining room. She went to investigate. Tobias and big Bud were helping the Fed X driver load some of the paintings into his truck parked at the side door. Tobias reminded the driver to stop for the rest of them the next day as they closed the dining room door.
“Morning, Addie,” big Bud said. “I came early to do some measurements, and Tobias needed some help.”
“Thanks, Bud. I didn’t see your truck. Has Donnie told you about the open house for Sunday?”
“It’s parked on the other side of the building. Donnie told me, and I promised him I’d see what we could do to help you get ready for it.”
“I would appreciate your help, and you’ll be paid for it. I want the house and grounds to look their very best.”
Addie had so much to do she didn’t know where to start first, but one thing she could do was clean out linens from the unoccupied bedrooms and baths. She would wait until her mother could come to clean out Miss Willy’s closet. She had picked up some of Miss Mattie’s saved cardboard boxes from the pantry. She took the elevator to the bedrooms. The first one she entered was one that she wanted her mother to have the furniture and furnishings. That included the linens also. It was the queen size cherry bedroom. It had been used by Ryker. She began by checking all the drawers.
She opened a small drawer in the top of the chest-on-chest, and a young man looked up at her from a wallet size photo lying in the empty drawer. Addie gasped. It looked like a younger Ryker. She picked it up to see writing in the bottom right corner. ‘Love, Bo’ it said. She would rather not be reminded of that man in any way. She still had troubled dreams about him, but apparently, Ryker had had a son. He didn’t seem like a man who would have a son. Still, this had to be Ryker’s son. She wondered if Miss Mattie knew he’d had a son? She put the photo in her pocket. She’d give the photo to Miss Mattie.
She filled two large cartons, closed the flaps on top and marked them to be stored with the cherry bedroom suite. Then she carried her other two cartons into the Walnut bedroom with the odd size bed. Her mother really liked this one, she thought as she filled the two cartons and marked them for storage.
Miss Mattie had no more boxes, but she recalled Miss Mattie telling her to check the pockets of Miss Willy’s gowns for pads of new money. Her search revealed three gowns with money in the pockets, and one was hundred dollar bills – twenty of them. Another pad was of twenties, and one of fives. She was glad she had looked. This money would be used to get Stonegate ready for the open house. While she was there, she thought, she’d take the pieces of jewelry off the gowns and any that might be on the coats.
It all looked so beautiful. Were the stones real? She had no way of determining if they were or not. They were mounted in gold. She added her collection in the carved wooden jewelry box on the dresser, then took it to her dressing room. Grandpa could be the keeper. She had to go to the bank to deposit the money from the sale as soon as lunch was over. Where was grandpa? She wondered. She would summon him after lunch, before she went to the bank.
Miss Judy was coming into the kitchen from the back door as Addie entered. William and Mrs. Castle were serving lunch. She greeted Mrs. Castle and noted that the woman looked so much better. She could hear Miss Mattie busy in the breakfast room. She had been on her way to the newspaper office when Addie came in from school. She would have to explain to her why she was at home.
“I went to see Fields,” Miss Judy said to her. “At first, he wanted to give me a hard way to go. He’d be losing four students, and, Addie, he blames you. Then I pointed out to him that he had expelled you, on orders from the mayor, and
without justifiable reason. And I asked him if he wanted it made public? He changed his mind real quick and decided to be most helpful.”
The phone rang. Addie went to the kitchen desk to answer it. “Addie,” Sully Morgan said with surprise. “Isn’t this a school day?”
“Yes, Sir, but I’m not attending public school any longer. Miss Judy Arnold, who used to be one of my teachers, is now living at Stonegate. And she is going to have a private school here, and I’ll be one of her students.”
“Anything else new?” he asked, amused.
Addie giggled. “No, Sir. Not right now.”
“Well, I have something new,” he said proudly. “Do you want to sell the old hotel?” he asked and waited.
“Well, I don’t know. Do I?”
“I think it would be a good idea, especially to the person who is interested in buying it.”
“Who wants to buy it?” Surely, not that Sommers man and the mayor. She’d not sell anything to them.
“I had asked Steve Burnett, a retired architect, to go over it to see if it should be torn down or just remodeled. He has just gotten back to me. He said, that although the hotel is in pretty bad shape, it is structurally sound. He’s interested in buying it, enlarging it, and generally overhauling it in the style as it was originally built at the turn of the century. He said his wife is going to leave him if he doesn’t find something to do with his time.” Sully laughed. “She can’t go his retirement. And, Addie, he’s offered what I think is a pretty fair price. Do you want to think about it?”
“Mr. Sully, if you think I should sell it, and that the price is a fair one, then I’ll sell it.” I just hope grandpa approves, she thought. It would be one more problem off her shoulders.
When she reached the breakfast room again , the two women were waiting for her. “Sit, and enjoy your lunch,” Miss Mattie said. “You’ve had a rough morning.”
“Miss Judy told you about me being expelled from school?”
“Yes, Dear. Now let’s give thanks.” But while food was being passed, she added, “After you left for school this morning, someone kept pounding the front door knocker. By the time I got here, Chief Bugg and the mayor were getting into the police car, but there was a young woman at the door. She wanted to see a Miss Addie Martin. I told her I thought you had just left for school. She was surprised that Addie Martin was ‘that child’. She left her card and asked that you call her as soon as you came in.”
The Daughters of Julian Dane Page 67