by Robin Lyons
Nothing could have prepared Mac for the auditory assault brought on by hundreds of kids confined to one area.
Teddy Ross stopped Mac as he left the cafeteria. “Mr. Mac, what types of markets do dogs avoid?” His face looked serious as he peered over the top of his glasses.
“I’m not sure Teddy. What types of markets do dogs avoid?”
“Flea markets! Hahahaha.” He chuckled and then laughed so hard he bent over slapping his leg. It took him a minute to pull himself together. “Get it? Flea markets.”
“I got it. That’s funny Teddy. You’re quite the jokester.” He couldn’t help but smile because of his vivacious personality and a mass of brown curls that went every which way. Teddy also differed from his mother. His eyeglasses seemed to spend more time on the tip of his nose than on the bridge. Parts of his shirt hung out of his shorts, and he had a big Band-Aid on one knee.
“What’d you do to your knee?” Mac pointed.
Teddy looked down at his leg. “Oh, that. I rode my bike too fast downhill. My bike got the high-speed wobbles. When I tried to round a curve I crashed into a bush. It’s nothing.” He shrugged.
By early afternoon, the noise level had given Mac a headache. He was more than ready for the day to end. Roni stood next to him in front of the calm school while they waited for the dismissal bell to sound.
“Is it true you were in Special Ops in the Air Force?” Roni said.
“I was.”
“The single teachers are already talking about how handsome you are, wait until they hear that.”
Across the street in the visitor parking lot, fathers waiting for their kids exchanged head nods with Mac. Mothers smiled. Mrs. Ross slammed the door of her Jaguar and marched toward them. The perfume assault arrived before she did.
“Did you speak to my daughter today?” she said with the same hint of booze on her breath. Sweat beads formed on her nose.
“Your daughter spoke to me.”
“I told you not to talk to her.”
“She approached me.”
The bell rang, and kids exploded through the main door.
Other parents observed the confrontation unfold as they hustled their kids past Mrs. Ross and Mac. Roni stood her ground next to Mac in a show of solidarity.
Mrs. Ross jabbed her index claw toward Mac’s chest. “I’m serious when I say you aren’t to converse with my daughter. You’re the adult.”
“Mrs. Ross, have I offended you? You seem angry with me.”
She poked her finger at him again. “Stay away from my daughter. I mean it.”
“Look, Mrs. Ross. We’re going to have to figure out a way to get along. I was...”
Savannah bounced out of the building toward her mother. “Hi, baby. How was your first day?” She knelt down and hugged her daughter.
Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Ross.
Mac stayed at the front of the school waiting for stragglers to leave. He received a text from his sister.
Maggie: How was your first day?
Mac: Remember the woman at the board meeting? With the protest sign?
Maggie: Yes.
Mac: She forbade me from speaking to her daughter.
Maggie: Because?
Mac: Unhappy they hired me. She accused me of posing as a reporter at the meeting in June.
Maggie: She’s nuts. Hang in there gotta go girls first day too.
Unknown Threat - Chapter 4
School had been in session for one week. Every morning Mac heard fifteen-second snippets of conversations about homework, or lunch or going to practice or piano lessons after school. Most parents said ‘I love you’ as their offspring hustled away from them. A few moms’ planted a kiss, their sentiment filled with sweetness.
There was a handful of parents who appeared loveless, at least in public, anyway. Then there were a few parents who seemed downright mean to their kids. Kevin Jackson’s father, the parent who’d asked the school board members at the June board meeting, which moron thought they needed a guard with a loaded gun, was one of those parents.
Mr. Jackson stopped his fancy red sports car at the curb. Kevin flung open the passenger door and hit the sidewalk running. Mr. Jackson slammed the transmission into park and thrust himself out of the driver’s seat with the speed of a tiger. Not a single strand of his perfect hair style fell out of place. He yelled to his son, “Kevin, come back here!” He smoothed the seatbelt creases from his suit jacket. Kevin had almost made it to the school entrance when he turned and walked back to where his father’s car sat idling at the curb.
Mac took in a slow, deep breath and watched the parent-kid interaction before glancing at his wrist watch. Time was ticking, and the disturbance was holding up the drop-off routine.
Roni leaned toward Mac. “He’s such a jerk. He does this almost every day. What’s his problem?” she whispered, as she bobbed her head toward the Jacksons. “And Kevin creeps me out.”
In Mac’s peripheral vision he saw someone headed his way, he knew by the fragrance in the air Mrs. Ross was about to stage another attack. She shooed Teddy and Savannah toward the school entrance.
“Well, Mr. School Marshal, start marshaling and make Mr. Jackson stop bullying his son. Why do the rest of us have to hear their family squabbles every morning?”
Mr. Jackson appeared to have overhead Mrs. Ross and changed his focus from Kevin to her. “Anna Beth, our ‘family squabbles’ are none of your business. Shut the fuck up.”
Mrs. Ross gasp and put her hand to her chest as if she were to have said, ‘Who, me?’ His brashness stunned her. She turned and retreated to the safety of her car.
Mr. Jackson returned his attention back to his son.
There was a tug on Mac’s pant leg. “Mr. Mac?”
Without looking, he knew by the distinctive sing-song style with just enough nasal whine that it was Jillian, his little first-grade gal pal.
“Good morning, Miss Jillian. How are you this morning?” he replied without shifting his gaze.
She tugged on his pant leg again and dismissed his inquiry. “Did that big boy do something bad?” she asked.
“I don’t think so, Jillian. Go on inside before the bell rings.”
She held her ground, her concern evident by her stubbornness. Mac looked down into her golden brown eyes and turned her shoulders in the direction of the school entrance.
“Please go inside before the bell rings.”
Jillian turned back toward Mac and the scene the Jacksons’ were making.
Roni placed her gentle hands on Jillian’s shoulders and turned her toward the school entrance. “Go inside Jillian,” Roni said.
Jillian did as Roni told her to do. When she crossed the threshold of the school, the first bell sounded signaling school would begin in five minutes.
Kevin’s father clenched his jaw. His face reddened. He wasn’t much taller than Kevin. An inch, maybe.
Kevin stood an arm’s length from his father.
Mr. Jackson took hold of his son by the lapels of his shirt and yanked him close.
“I hate that he yells at...” Roni started to say.
“Hey,” Mac pushed off from the brick wall and yelled at Mr. Jackson in an authoritative voice that made stragglers stop and look.
Mr. Jackson looked at Mac. Kevin looked also.
At this exact moment all around the world, parents were abusing their kids. At this time and place, it wasn’t happening on Mac’s watch.
Mr. Jackson pushed Kevin away like he’d launched a boat from a dock. Kevin’s slight body stumbled head first, but his over-sized feet caught up with him after a step or two. He hurried toward the school.
While pretending not to look at the Jacksons, parents scurried along the sidewalk with their kids in tow. Kids gawked at the Jacksons. Parents turned their sons and daughters away from the confrontation and told them to hurry along.
The chatter from kid to parent and vice versa had gone quiet.
As Mac walked to the fancy red sports car, h
e said, “You don’t need to get physical with your boy. You’re upsetting the other kids. It’s time to move on.”
Mr. Jackson walked toward Mac.
“Mind your own fucking business,” Mr. Jackson said.
“Move your car. You’re holding up the other parents.”
“I’ll move my fucking car when I’m ready to move it.” He stood like a statue.
“Your son has gone inside. You have no further business here. It’s time to leave,” Mac said, as he turned around to walk away.
“You’ve made a big mistake,” Mr. Jackson said.
The next thing Mac heard was the slam of his car door. Then his car sped away from the curb and almost hit a parent and kid in the crosswalk.
“Wow, Mac, that was excellent and long overdue,” said Roni. “I’ve never seen anyone stand up to that jerk.”
“Talking like a dick is one thing when he got physical with Kevin, he crossed a line,” Mac said.
Across the street, in the visitor parking lot, fathers who’d been standing guard gave Mac an approving nod before they drove out of the lot.
As Roni walked inside the school, Chuck Andrews walked out. Chuck taught physical education and coached most of the sports offered at Blackstone. He didn’t look like a hardcore athlete. He looked more like a teacher who fell into a cushy gig. Everyone called him Coach. So far, he’d been welcoming and cordial.
Mac had spent a good amount of time perusing through the Blackstone Academy archives, yearbooks, and remembrances. Years ago, Coach fit the profile of an athletic coach. Stress and time had not served him well.
“Mac. Mac. Mac. What’s this I hear about Mr. Jackson giving you a hard time?” Coach said.
“It’s all good for now. What can you tell me about Kevin and his father?”
Coach and Mac talked for a few more minutes. Mac wanted to learn more about Kevin.
Coach and Mac walked into the school together. Coach asked Mac if he played golf. He needed a fourth for a round at the Country Club after school.
Mac accepted Coach’s invitation. When they were inside, Coach went toward the gymnasium and Mac to his office. While he watched the security feeds fade in and out showing the many views of the campus, he texted Maggie.
Mac: WTF! The crazy woman came at me again this morning demanding I break up a father-son conflict. The father went off on the crazy woman who ran to her car like a scalded dog.
Maggie: Sounds like she now sees that the school needed a marshal after all.
Mac: I think that revelation may have fallen short with her.
Maggie: LOL. Come for dinner tonight.
Mac: Can’t. Playing golf with one of the teachers. Tomorrow?
Maggie: Golfing with a teacher? Ooh la la. Tomorrow is good. See you then.
UNKNOWN THREAT Available now at Amazon
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MAC: A PREQUEL NOVELLA
This fast-paced story steps back in time to reveal the agonizingly troubled youth of ‘Mac’ MacKenna
before he joined the U.S. Air Force Special Operations and
before he became the School Marshal at Blackstone Academy.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
For many years, I knew I wanted to write fiction. After a colleague, elementary school principal, a man I considered a friend, was gunned down in his office, I knew the type of stories I wanted to write. The truly horrific event changed many lives, mine included.
The School Marshal Series is my way of raising awareness about crimes occurring at schools and therapeutic in that it allows me to have a sentry-type person watch over the school in the stories. A practice I wish all schools, big and small, would see as invaluable.
I’ve had the pleasure to work with many outstanding teachers and school staff. And I’ve met many awesome parents, and watched amazing children grow and succeed. Nothing I write is in any way meant to cast doubt that public schools provide a quality education. I write about the 1% of students, parents, and/or staff who have ill intent.
If you felt some things in Unknown Alliance were left dangling, you’d be right. In life, stories conclude when the time is right. The same is true with the characters and events in my novels. I keep copious notes on sub-plots and characters to be sure and tie up loose ends in future books. I promise.
Thank you for reading Unknown Alliance.
-Robin
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robin Lyons lives in Northern California with her husband and family.
With close to thirty years working in public education, the tragic loss of a beloved colleague to workplace violence inspired her to write the School Marshal series.
Connect with Robin on her website or through social media, she responds as fast as possible to posts, tweets, messages, or email.
Website: www.RobinLyons.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robinlyons.author
Twitter: https://twitter.com/2RobinLyons