Neil glanced at Bill Campbell, but his face gave away nothing. Neil went on, “He is more than a scamp. He terrorizes the classroom.” He gave her a detailed account of all Jesse’s misbehavior. It took five minutes to tell. “And that is only what I have seen. He does these things and gets punished because of it, but the punishment doesn’t seem to change anything.”

“His father could never do anything with him either. He wouldn’t cry, no matter what my husband did.”

For the first time, Bill cut in to ask, “How did your husband punish Jesus?”

She shrugged. “They way everybody does, I guess. He would take away things Jesus liked, and if that didn’t work, he would spank him”

“Was he very strict?” Bill asked.

“Yes. I thought he was too strict, so I can’t understand why Jesus is acting like this now.”

“How long has your husband been dead?”

“Five years next month.” Nothing in her face changed, but you could feel the tension and guess what it cost her to keep her face from changing. She seemed under control, but Neil wondered what price she was paying for that control.

Now that Bill Campbell had taken over the conversation, he drove it remorseless toward his chosen destination. “Mrs. Herrera, would you say that you are as strict as your husband was when he was alive?”

Her lip trembled and her eyes narrowed as if she were summoning up anger to cover her hurt. She shook her head and said, “I can’t lay a hand on him.”

Still remorseless, Bill asked, “Why?”

“Because . . .” She broke down momentarily and fished a tissue out of her purse. “I can’t punish him because all Jesus remembers of his father is how he punished him. I don’t want Jesus to remember me that way. I want him to love me.”

“Are you saying that Jesus doesn’t remember his father with love?”

Mrs. Herrera shook her head mutely.

Bill Campbell leaned back in his chair and said, “Mrs. Herrera, we’ve had this conversation before. Just before Jesus was expelled last year, you said you had managed to start disciplining him, and you promised to get professional help. Have you been going to counseling like you promised?”

She had not, but she had a fistful of excuses. Bill heard her out, then said, “None of that matters. The fact is that Jesus is in the sixth grade now, and he is no better than he was in the fourth. He can’t stay here if he keeps acting like this. We have been patient before, but this year he has to shape up or we will expel him again, and we won’t take so long doing it this time. We can’t have one student disrupting a classroom so that thirty other students can’t learn.”

Bill went to the door and called Jesse in. Neil was suddenly struck by his youth. He thought, “He’s just a baby. How can we hold him accountable for his actions?” Jesse flopped down in a chair by his mother and she brushed his hair back. He pulled his head aside.

Bill sat down again and said, “Jesus, I don’t like seeing you in my office again, especially so early in the year. What’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on.”

“Then why are you here?”

Jesse looked daggers at Neil and said, “‘Cause he hates me.”

Neil started to protest, but Bill went right on. “Does Mr. Ulrich hate you, too?”

Jesse saw the trap, but he went right on to say, “Yes, he hates me.”

“What about Ms. Kelly; and Mrs. Clementi?”

Jesse shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“What about Mrs. Rawlings and Ms. Zavala? And Mr. Wright?”

This time Jesse didn’t reply. more tomorrow

When the bell rang, Neil told Jesse to stay behind.

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”

“You can go to the bathroom later. Right now I want to talk to you.”

“I gotta go now.”

“No. Later. Come here.”

Jesse came up to the front of the room, looking slantways at Neil as if he were not quite bright, and squirming as if he were about to wet his pants.  Neil almost let him go, but he had seen so much that he concluded this was also an act.

“Jesse, what were you doing during reading?”

“Just reading.”

“Not making anybody’s life miserable?”

Jesse was all wide-eyed innocence, hurt that he should be accused. He said, “I never did nothing to nobody.”

Neil enumerated the things he had seen Jesse doing.

“I didn’t do any of that stuff.”

“I saw you, Jesse.”

“You did not. I didn’t do it.”

Neil was shocked. Could the boy believe his own denials, or was this another scam? He looked into Jesse’s eyes and saw eyes that were old and wise and — evil? Can an eleven year old child be evil?

The look in Jesse’s eyes shook Neil to the core.

Still, it had to be dealt with. “Jesse, I saw you do everything I said, and I don’t intend to put up with it.”

Jesse lowered his eyes and said, under his breath, “Didn’t do it!”

“When the other kids come back, you will change places with Scott Anderson.”

“For today?”

“Until I say otherwise.”

“I don’t want to sit up front.”

“I’m afraid you don’t have any choice.”

“It’s not fair. I didn’t do anything.” The look on Jesse’s face was frightening. If the boy believed his own denials, then he had real problems. If he was lying coldly, he had worse problems.

Jesse left for the bathroom muttering under his breath. As soon as he came back, as late as he thought he dared be, Neil made him exchange seats with Scott. 

From the other students’ reactions, Neil realized he had been too slow in seeing this problem. Scott didn’t mind the move. Jesse muttered under his breath that it was unfair, but no one paid any attention to him. The ones in the back row heaved sighs of relief. Lorraine Dixon who sat in the front said, “Don’t you put him next to me!” and Rafael Ayala who would sit behind Jesse said, “I don’t want to be anywhere near him.”

Jesse made a grandstand production of the move, sighing deeply and sending black looks toward Neil. Neil ignored him.

When he was finally seated, and Jesse said, “I hope you’re satisfied!” he had pushed Neil one step too far. Neil leaned over Jesse to make close eye contact and said, “Jesse Herrera,  your behavior last hour was terrible, and this hour hasn’t been any better. I will not tolerate that kind of nonsense in my classroom. The next time you misbehave, you will get a detention.”

“Detentions don’t mean nothing to me. I lived in the detention room last year.”

Neil shook his head. The boy had gone from apparent angel to this in twenty minutes. Now he sat looking forward with a wooden expression on his face and ignored Neil when he told the class to get out their books. Neil decided to end the confrontation by letting Jesse have that bit of rebellion unchallenged. But when he looked at Jesse later, he realized that it really didn’t matter what he did. Jesse had declared himself ready to devote himself to making Neil’s life miserable. more tomorrow

Sean and Duarte were not Neil’s only problems.

Anthony Caraveli had announced himself by testing Neil on the first day of school. He learned at once that Neil had sharply defined and clearly stated limits, and set out to find out how real they were. The first day he was warned. The second day he was warned. The third day found him in detention. The fourth day found him in detention again. After that, he kept his head down around Neil and was content to terrorize Glen Ulrich.

Jesse Herrera was a different and much more difficult case. He was much more intelligent than Anthony. He was probably the most street-wise child at Kiernan, in any grade, and his overriding goal seemed to be to make life hell for everyone around him. This he did with the kind of subtlety and finesse one would have expected in someone much older.

It was the second week of school before Neil realized what a problem he had on his hands, and it would have taken him much longer to accept if he had not been warned by his fellow teachers. Jessie’s technique consisted of faking a wide eyed innocence that bordered on stupidity. As long as the teacher bought the pose, Jesse could get away with murder.

For example:

On Monday, September twentieth, Sean and Duarte spent the morning sniping at each other, keeping their remarks just within the limits of Neil’s patience. Then they went out at noon and got into the fight that got them suspended. Neil had had to take over Carmen’s noon duty so she could take the two of them to the office; that made him two minutes late to his afternoon core and when he got there Jesse had Mickey Kerr’s arm in a lock with his head forced down on the desk.

Neil growled and Jesse let go, but slowly, with a knowing look on his face that irritated Neil. In that moment his whole view of Jesse refocused and he realized for himself what the other teachers had already told him — that Jesse was completely aware of everything he was did. It was not only deliberate; it was coldly pre-planned. The patina of innocence fell away from the angelic face of Jesse Herrera and Neil thought, “That boy would pull the wings off butterflies, and smile while he was doing it.”

Neil sat down and explained why he was late. He wanted to remind the other children that fighting would get them suspended. Jesse said, “They were bad boys!” in his sickly sweet, little boy voice. Neil shot him a dirty look and realized that even his voice sounded different.

“I will have to be careful,” Neil thought. “I saw no fault in him yesterday, and today I am ready to see no good in him.”

They began the period with reading. While the students read, Neil kept half his attention on Jesse, and was amazed at what he saw. The boy was near the back of the room and behind the facade of an angelic face he was tormenting all the students around him. He poked Mickey Kerr in the back with a pencil. He said things to Lisa Cobb that Neil could not hear, but which made her face turn red and her teeth clench. He stole Randi Nguyen’s paper, crumpled it and tossed it toward the door. He kicked Rabindranath Kumar’s chair on his left and Stephanie Carter’s on his right. more tomorrow

Finally there came an awkward pause. They had explored surfaces as far as possible, and both hesitated before plunging into the depths. Finally, Neil asked, “Why did you invite me over? I mean, why tonight in particular?”

“Well,” Fiona said, smiling to take the sting out of what she had to say, “until today, I thought you were pretty dull. You tried so hard to look cool and fair and impartial that you came out looking uninvolved. Today was the first time I saw you stand up on your hind legs and act like a man.”

“When?”

“When you told me that my being Sean’s mother meant nothing to you.”

“That is not exactly what I said.”

“That is exactly what you said. Now don’t spoil it by trying to be polite. I like you better with backbone.”

After a long pause, she said, “Say something.”

“A man can’t always appear to others the way he would like to appear.”

“Why not?”

Neil smiled. “Because then people would ask too many questions.”

“Are you hiding a deep, dark secret? Who did you murder? Did the FBI give you a new identity?”

“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you, Fiona.”

She sighed. “Sarcasm suits me fine. I’m a bit of a bitch, and I know it. But I don’t like dishonesty.”

“I have never been dishonest with you, or with anyone else.”

She snorted. “When you put up a barrier like you do, it amounts to the same thing.”

“You don’t know the situation well enough to say that.”

“So explain it to me!” she snapped.

Life with Fiona, Neil decided, would certainly never be dull. Her temper lay close to the surface. Yet he wasn’t sorry to have aroused it. Anything was better than being ignored.

“Fiona, I have my reasons. They are good ones, but I can’t explain them.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t know you well enough.”

Surprisingly, that satisfied Fiona. Neil had expected it to send her temper blazing again, but apparently the honesty of it met with her approval.

It was also the limit of honesty for a first conversation. Their talk slipped back to surfaces and remained there until Neil was ready to go. Fiona walked him out to his car and as he got in, she added a final word. “Neil, you seem like a nice person. I don’t know why you feel you have to be so secretive, but when you are ready to share whatever is on your mind, try me.”

Her concern was a balm. He said, “Thank you. I will.” Then he grinned and said, “I think you are also a nice person. Pretty, too.”

“Why thank you!” Her face lit up with an impish grin. She leaned in to kiss him briefly, but it lasted longer than she had intended. When she drew back, her face held a thoughtful look.

“You taste good, too,” Neil said, as the car slid away from the curb.

She got the last word in, shouting, “Ah, go on with you!” after him in a mock Irish brogue.

# # #

Three days later, Sean and Duarte got into a fist fight on the playground. Carmen caught them, wrote them up, and they were suspended for three days. Neil started to ask Fiona what punishment she had meted out at home, but she was so angry he decided to let it ride. more tomorrow

There was no sign of Sean anywhere.

“Would you like a beer,” she asked.

“A soft drink, please.”

She disappeared inside and returned with two ice filled glasses. “Don’t you drink?” she asked.

“Only when I’m depressed,” Neil answered honestly.

She made a face. “That’s not healthy.”

“I know, so I try not to drink at all. Mostly, I succeed.”

Neil studied Fiona’s face as she sipped her drink. Her face was very tan — unnaturally tan for someone so blatantly Irish — and her skin was smooth. Neil found himself revising her age downward. He had thought she was forty. Now she seemed closer to thirty-five.

Then she smiled and more years fell off her apparent age. For the first time, Neil realized she was hardly older than he was, and that joy or sexual excitement would transfigure her face and make her beautiful.

“What are you staring at,” Fiona asked, shaking back her hair, and Neil found himself without a reply. He was saved when she suddenly sniffed the air and leaped up to turn the hamburgers over.

“How do you like your hamburger?” Fiona asked over her shoulder. Neil continued to study her. He had not been with a woman since before Alice Hamilton had made her accusation. Lynn, his lover, had been unwilling to touch him after that, and he had been in no emotional condition to go searching for other companionship.

As Fiona fixed their meal, her natural motions brought that half year of stifled desire to a pressing urgency. The slenderness of her arms, the rich creaminess of the finger-width of back exposed by her blouse, the movement of muscle in her lean legs, and the firm motion of her buttocks beneath the thin material of her shorts became a sweet torment.

The essential question — the question that make all other considerations momentarily unimportant — was: Had she dressed provocatively for him, or was she simply being cool and comfortable?

They ate sitting across a tiny metal mesh table. Her glances told him that she was aware of his interest. After dinner, she served expresso in tiny cups. He took his sprawled out on a chaise lounge; she sat across from him on a matching lounge with her feet tucked under and her back straight.

Whatever had prompted Fiona to invite Neil over, seduction had obviously not been uppermost in her mind. Their conversation was light and wide ranging. He found out that she had been born and raised in Ohio. She had moved to San Francisco a decade too late to live the hippie life and that was one of her regrets. She had been caught up in the back-to-the-Earth movement until one week on a commune had shown her that she had an antipathy to pig manure. That realization had sent her back to college, and from that she had gone on to teach elementary school. She had graduated at the time of a teacher glut, and the only job she had been able to get was in this small district. It had suited her well, and she had been her ever since.

If there had ever been a husband, she did not mention him, nor did she make any reference to Sean’s father.

She drew out some of Neil’s history. It was not hard to do. He was hungry for a friendly ear. He told her about how much he missed Oregon and how much he hated the Modesto heat.

Beneath the surface conversation, a second conversation was taking place — a conversation consisting of the intensity of his looks and the softening of her body in response. They were both aware of this undervoice, but neither one acknowledged it directly. more Monday

The fallout from his confrontation with the two boys was not over yet. Before he had had time to gather up his briefcase and go, Delores Zavala came over to him. She was clearly embarrassed, and the first thing she said was, “I’m sorry for the way Duarte acted today. I am really angry with him. He had no reason to cause you so much trouble.”

In the two weeks she had been working with him, Neil had gotten almost used to Delores’ self-effacement. She was much closer to the traditional picture of a Mexican woman than Carmen. He made light of the incident, then said, “Why are you apologizing for Duarte? You told me you weren’t married, so I didn’t make any connection between you and him.”

“He is my brother’s boy. My brother took his family back to Mexico a month ago, but Duarte does so well in school that I talked him into leaving him with me. If he went back there he couldn’t do anything. He doesn’t read or write Spanish.”

That, Neil knew, was a real problem for those families who went back and forth between Mexico and the United States. The brightest children leaned to speak, read, and write English, but they were illiterate in Spanish. They could speak the lower class Spanish used in their homes, but they usually could not read or write it. Worse, their dialect was no more suitable for a good Mexican school than an American hillbilly dialect would have been suitable for a high school in Boston.

Neil assured Delores that he had the matter under control.  She did not contradict him, but her expression showed no faith in him.

# # #

By the time he got to the parking lot, Neil had heard all he wanted to hear about Sean and Duarte; but he had not heard all he was going to hear. Fiona was waiting for him, standing in the open doorway of her car. Sean was sitting in the passenger’s seat, looking very unhappy. At least Fiona was smiling. She said, “I want you to come over for dinner tonight.”

Nothing could have been further from Neil’s expectations. Few things would have been less welcome. He was in no mood; he said so, very politely.

“Nonsense. I’m cooking hamburgers on the grill. I’d like to feed you and then talk to you.”

“I’m sure Sean would not like to talk to me.”

“You’re right there. Sean isn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, including me — especially me. He is going to eat before you get there, and then he is going to his room without TV, stereo, or anything he likes to read. For the rest of the week I am going to be childless from four P.M. until morning. I do not intend to be embarrassed by my own son’s behavior in the future.”

Fiona shot Sean a look with this last statement and he glowered but did not contradict.

Feeling trapped, Neil agreed to arrive at five.

# # #

When Neil got to Fiona’s, she escorted him directly to the back yard and put two waiting hamburger patties on the grill. She had changed to a faded blouse, knotted in front to expose her midriff, and very short shorts that left her long, lean legs exposed to the cooling wind. Her red hair was a fluffy cloud around her head. Neil began revising his estimation of why he was there, and his opinion of her looks. more tomorrow