“Who wrote it?” Kristen asked, smirking and obviously knowing the answer.
“James Crittenhouse.”
“I see,” Kristen said. “Do you mind if I take a look at it?”
“Please just read it, Ms. Swift,” Mr. Yank answered. He glanced at my English teacher, who looked as if she just swallowed a bad oyster. “I don’t want people to mishandle potential evidence.”
Kristen moved over to Mr. Yank’s desk and read the papers on the table. “Oh, that’s sweet! That was New Year’s Day! He tied me up and kissed me!”
“This actually happened?”
Kristen shrugged. “Not quite. I made the first move, not him. I tied him up first. He wasn’t interested in tying me up…”
“I think I get the picture, Ms. Swift,” Mr. Yank interrupted. “In general, this is an accurate retelling of a happy moment in his life?”
Kristen turned to me. “Oh, Jim! It was a happy moment for me, too!” Ignoring the others in the room, she lunged toward me and took me into a big hug.
“I think that whether or not this is a threat to Ms. Swift is moot,” the Principal pointed out.
“That’s not the only charge…” Ms. Taylor yelled.
It was my music teacher’s turn to interrupt. “The other serious charge is my so-called berating of Reneé in front of a class of students. As a matter of fact, the only people that were present were myself, Reneé, and Jim, here. He notified me that he wouldn’t be able to lead the jazz band after school and asked me to take his place. When I went to find out why he was on detention, I learned that Reneé doubled his detention merely because he came to me—before detention was to start—to ask to lead his class. He did not ask me to intercede, and in fact, he specifically asked me not to do so. I did not berate Reneé, but merely informed her that she couldn’t punish him additionally for something which we both knew for a fact to be false. I was willing to bring that matter to your attention at that time.”
Mr. Yank turned to Ms. Taylor and asked, “Is this true?”
My English teacher looked a bit flustered as she answered, “I asked Jim to stay after class and he ignored me and he went to a teacher where he is a bit of a teacher’s pet…”
Mr. Yank interrupted. “All students are allowed ten minutes between the end of school and start of detention to take care of things they need to do or to get to their place of detention. According to Mr. Proilet, he apparently wasn’t late for detention, but you insisted on doubling his punishment. That seems pretty arbitrary and vindictive…”
“Vindictive?” Ms. Taylor said indignantly.
“We’ll address this at some other time. From what I see of the evidence presented, you have deliberately misread what the boy wrote in his essay…”
“Did you see the words he wrote? He was explicitly describing sexual scenes! Him… and that senior! He tied her up… he intended to rape her… they both admitted it!”
“Are you now accusing James of lewd and lascivious behavior?” Mr. Yank asked, raising his eyebrows.
My English teacher thought that over and the terms seemed to sound perfect for her. “Yes.”
“This story takes place in a private residence, not on the school campus,” Mr. Yank pointed out. “In addition, I see nothing more lewd or lascivious in this story than anything written by D.H. Lawrence or even Robert Heinlein,” Mr. Yank pointed out. “I might also point out that both authors can be found in the school library. If it is permissible for such writings to be read in this school, I cannot see why such prose, written as nicely as James seems to have done, cannot be written.”
My English teacher was speechless.
“As I was saying, you have deliberately and now repeatedly misread what the boy wrote in his essay. If you didn’t want the boy to write what he did, you should have been more explicit in your instructions to the boy. After all, English is supposed to be your subject. In addition, it is obvious that you were misrepresenting what Mr. Proilet did when James asked his teacher to take over his class for him.”
The Principal looked at me and Kristen and said, “This boy has shown no signs of disrespect. He has only interrupted to correct an obvious misstatement, and, in general, has comported himself in a most adult manner. I see no evidence to suggest that he is, in fact, a disruption to any class! Mr. Proilet also reminded me that this young man actually teaches an extra-curricular jazz band that received a standing ovation at the Christmas concert a couple of weeks ago.”
The Principal turned to my mother and said, “Mrs. Cummings, please accept my apologies for having you come here today. This seems to have been a matter of misunderstanding. Your support of your son is commendable.”
It was time for the Principal to turn to Ms. Taylor, but his intercom sounded again. “Mr. Yankovitz, I have Mr. and Mrs. Swift out here and they are insistent on meeting with you about something that seems to be a matter of life and death.”
The Principal looked at Mr. Proilet and sighed. Kristen simply smirked, and Ms. Taylor looked ashen.
The door flew open. “Excuse me, Stanley,” Mr. Swift barged in. “I canceled a meeting in Denver and chartered a flight here. Somebody told me that there was a possible physical threat of violence against my daughter!”
The Principal sighed. It was clear that the situation was completely out of hand. “There’s no threat against your daughter, Daniel. It was a simple misunderstanding.”
Kristen’s father wasn’t easily mollified. “I also understand that my future son-in-law has been charged with a severe crime. If this is the case, I will ensure that my lawyer comes over here and…”
Again, the Principal looked at Kristen and me. At the mention of a lawyer, even Ms. Taylor looked cowed. The Swifts were well-known in town.
I cleared my throat. “Excuse me, Mr. Swift?”
“I’m sorry, Jim. Hello, Kristen. I’m sorry we’re a little late…”
“Excuse me, Mr. Swift?” I repeated.
“Yes, Jim. Sorry…”
“Thank you for coming out here. I really appreciate it, and so does Kris,” I said. “I think the matter has already been resolved. It seems that everything was a misunderstanding. Isn’t that right, Mr. Yankovitz?”
“Exactly,” Mr. Yank answered. “In fact, it appears that Jim has been behaving himself exactly as we would hope a student would act. It seems that an accidental misinterpretation…” He glared at Ms. Taylor as he spoke those last two words. “An accidental misinterpretation of things led Ms. Taylor to mistakenly think that there may be a problem where, indeed, there was none. I’d further like to state that in this school district, we place the safety of our students at the forefront, and take all such claims very seriously. The fact that this was a simple misunderstanding just means that we didn’t belittle a real problem before it could turn into a disaster.”
Kristen’s parents looked at Kristen, who was now sitting on my lap and holding my hand. Kristen smiled back at them. Her father then turned to the Principal, nodded, and said, “Very well, Stanley. I’m happy that the situation wasn’t as grave as I was informed.” Kristen’s father then moved over to where Kristen was sitting and bent down to kiss her. Kristen hugged her father in response. He then shook my hand as Kristen’s mom hugged and kissed her daughter, and she gave me a handshake as well.
“I’ve got to charter a flight back to Denver,” Mr. Swift said. “Stanley, maybe we’ll meet again sometime at the country club.” The Swifts then left the office.