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“He wanted to help me study,” said the boy, struck by the oddness of it. “We went over vocabulary after di
Kate was impressed by Hawthorne’s willingness to devote all his waking hours to school business. Was this the man that George accused of going after his ex-wife? When would he have time? And in her question to herself Kate saw that becoming involved with Hawthorne didn’t strike her as strange or inappropriate, which was followed by the feeling she sometimes got from too much caffeine or when her car swerved suddenly on wet leaves. It almost frightened her.
Tank and another boy were wrestling on the blacktop for the ball. Hawthorne knelt beside them with a hand on each and talking calmly, or at least his face appeared calm. Tank gave the other boy a shove as he stood up, and the ball rolled away. Grabbing it, Hawthorne tossed it to Rudy Schmidt and the game resumed. Several onlookers wandered off and others appeared, but Jessica was still among them, sitting with her arms around her knees and looking toward the mountains. Harriet Be
Kate happened to glance over at Douglas Hall, diagonally across the Common. There, at a second-story window, Fritz Skander stood with his hands in his pockets, watching the game. Kate recalled he had a geometry class that met in the afternoon. Skander had a faintly benign smile but there was a concentration about him, especially in the way he leaned forward as if listening for some delicate noise far in the distance. He was below Kate and to her left. For no reason she could think of, she moved back so he wouldn’t notice her. To Kate, Skander’s actions always seemed as if they were in fact reactions to the people around him, unspontaneous outbursts followed by small jokes and a sort of delayed ebullience. Now, framed by the window, he appeared unusually expectant, almost eager.
Be
Kate noticed that a new person had sat down next to Jessica and was chatting with her. It was the assistant cook. Whatever he said, Jessica began to laugh. It made her look quite pretty. Kate recalled Chip Campbell’s suggestion that Hawthorne was sexually involved with the girl—“doing the dirty with that little ex-stripper.” Seeing Jessica laugh, Kate found it not quite so impossible. Jessica’s roommate had continued to complain about Jessica whenever she and Kate happened to talk—how Jessica ignored her and refused to respond to the name Jessica, saying instead that her name was Misty. In Spanish, though, the girl was turning out to be the best in the class.
Hawthorne was ru
Kate glanced over to where Skander was standing. The afternoon sun reflecting against the windows of Emerson cast back its light to the windows of Douglas Hall, making them shine. Skander was chuckling. At first Kate thought she must be mistaken and she moved to the right, trying to see him more clearly. But he was gri
—
Wednesday evening after di
“Where you going?” asked Larry. His voice was quiet and serious.
“Out for a smoke. Why d’you want to know?”
“You’re up to something. I can tell. What’s going on?” Larry wore his white jacket. His anger made him especially red in the face. He was taller than his cousin and stood calmly while LeBrun always seemed agitated.
“Meaning what?” LeBrun leaned back against the doorjamb. He put a cigarette in his mouth but didn’t light it. The cigarette waggled between his lips when he spoke.
“You called me looking for a job. I didn’t mind helping you, even on short notice. And I didn’t make a fuss when you wanted me to tell everyone that your name was LeBrun. I figured you needed the work and Skander came up with the money. Now I think it’s something else. You didn’t come here just for a job.”
“Then what am I up to, smart guy?”
“Like why’d you put those tacks in the bread?”
LeBrun gri
“You’re the only one who touches it.”
“Somebody could have snuck in.” LeBrun took the unlit cigarette from his mouth and looked at it as if it didn’t taste right. He put it back in his pocket.
“Don’t give me that shit.”
LeBrun’s smile faded. “I put a tack in a chunk of dough and I put in a piece of chocolate. It was an experiment. You don’t hear anyone bitching about the chocolate, do you? They find a tack, they let everybody know. They find some chocolate, they keep it to themselves. What’s that say about human nature? It teaches you something, that’s what I like about it.”