Page 1 of Jeremiah

Chapter 1

Jeremiah was confused about the absence of a few of his teachers today. There was a mandatory meeting at nine—of course, it was only 8:10 am. That was for them to get to know each other, and then there was going to be a luncheon at 1 pm. Most of the teachers had been there all week, this being a Thursday, to ready their rooms, but no one in the three kindergarten classes nor one of the first-grade teachers had bothered to show. As far as he could remember, they were all starting out brand new in this district. He wished now that he’d pushed harder in getting to go to the interviews instead of the board doing it. He was going to be the one who had to work with them, and it should have him in on the hiring process—oh well, too late for that.

School started on Monday at 8:15 am sharp, and he wanted everyone as excited as he was. Of course, he was usually excited when the whole summer lay before him, getting ready for it to start back up.

He’d taken the principal job when there was a shooting at the school late last school year. Ms. Holt, a woman who was the guidance counselor at the school when he and his brothers were there, saw his brother Loren there, getting the kids excited for college when she’d only just told them that they’d never get to be anything, so they shouldn’t try. And by that, she didn’t want Loren to get them all hyped up so that she’d have to deal with them again. When that hadn’t worked, she brought in a gun and killed two people. If not for his brother shifting when he did to take her down, her plans would have been to kill all ninety-four seniors who were graduating that year. But before leaving that morning, she had killed her husband. He was the nicest man, too. Mr. Gray and Teddy, a senior that year as well, were killed when she started shooting around the room.

“Mr. Tate?” Turning, he smiled at Ms. James, the fifth-grade teacher. “I think that we have an issue. Not us, but you. One of the teachers, one of the new ones, is calling the police on you.”

“I’m sorry? What did I do?” She said that he’d robbed her room. “I don’t understand. But I thank you for the heads up. I’ll go there now. Do you happen to know her name?”

“Ms. Abigal Biggers. Or it could be Beggers. I’m not entirely sure what she was screaming at me about her things being taken.” Thanking her, he asked her to stay and wait to allow the police in. Agreeing too quickly, he wondered if Mr. Biggers/Beggers had taken some of her frustrations out on her. Going into the room, he saw that she’d gathered quite the crowd. He also thought that his new teachers where there egging her on.

“You.” He crossed his arms over his chest and said that he had no idea who she was. “Ms. Betty Higgins. I want to know why everything in my room is missing. I’m told that you did it a month ago. I want them all back in here and put where they were. Now. And I won’t press charges against you for stealing my things.”

“Those were all my things that I took home when I took over the job as principal, your boss, as a matter of fact. Now, I want you to calm down so that we can have a civil conversation without all this accusing me of stealing things that didn’t belong to you in the first place. Besides, I do believe that you were given a credit card with money on it to purchase things for your room. You still have time to get them.”

“I used it on myself.” He asked her why she’d do that when it was specifically for her room supplies. “Well, I thought that my room was finished, so I got my hair done, also my nails and a nice relaxing day at the spa. I didn’t think that I’d have to use it in my room when it was finished up the way that I liked it. Why would you do something like that to us?”

“Us?” She said that her friends had expected their rooms to be as nice as hers was. “Well then, you should have asked. I didn’t steal anything. However, you did. Using that money that was to put your room in order wasn’t to be spent on luxuries. I do believe that you signed a contract that stated that the money was to be used for—”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake. My. Room. Was. Finished. You stole it all from me when we were expecting our rooms to be just as nice. Now? Look at it. It’s going to take you forever to get this back the way that it was, and I demand that you compensate me for my time coming in here and having this conversation with you about it.” He smiled and simply said no. “No? No? That’s all you have to say about—thank god you’re here, officer. I want this man arrested for stealing the things that were in my—”

“Hello, Jeremiah. Congratulations on your promotion. It’s good to see that for you. My kids still talk about how you were their favorite teacher.” Betty grabbed officer Scott and jerked him around to look at her. He had her face pressed against the floor in seconds, reading her the law about grabbing an officer of the law. “Now, we’re going to go down to the station house and have a little conversation about touching an officer while on duty.”

After telling her the rights that she had, the women with her started to look around the room at anything but him. Clearing his throat, he wasn’t going to be putting up with their shit today either. He asked for their names and the grades that they taught so that he could check to see how they’d spent the money for their rooms. He could tell by just looking at them that they’d had the works done on them as well.

After doing research on the women who were now at the police station, he only found that Betty was the only one that they’d hired. The others, telling him that they’d been picked by Betty, said that they were all certified as teachers and had been interviewed by the school. But they’d not gotten a second interview, so Betty told them that she’d take care of it.

“We were thrilled to come here and find that the school did this for us. Now, it turns out that there is a pettiness going on that tells me that I’m not going to be working here. Too much drama.” He asked the woman if she realized that she was the drama, and she waved him off.

Having them arrested, too, seemed the best course of action on his part. He told them that he was contacting someone to get them off the school property now. Instead of turning his back on the women, he reached out for anyone within walking distance of the school. Everyone said that they were too far away but Hanna. He thought that he was more afraid of her than any of the others in his family. Then dad answered that he was with Hanna—oh god—and that he was calling the police to go there too. The woman was still talking, and he didn’t miss anything. It was still the same bullshit as before.

“For what? Having something done just for us when we thought that we’d be taken care of? I’m to understand that you do this every year for the teachers. That’s mighty nice of you, Mr. Tate. Or is it your foundation of rich brothers—it makes me wonder, however, why you’re a teacher, sorry principal, when they have all the money. Odd man out, are you? Couldn’t handle having more money than everyone in the world wants? Everything they said about this town says that the Tates will take care of us. And you are a Tate, aren’t you? Why are you begrudging us a little pamper time when we’re going to be teaching snot-nosed kids here that don’t have a bit of sense between the lot of them? Christ, I wish now that I’d gone with that private school. The pay was better anyway.”

“You do realize that since I’m pressing charges against the lot of you that you’ll have a criminal record. That means that you can’t be a teacher anywhere I’m in charge of.” She waved him off and said that they all had one already. “I see. So she just called you up and said we can go to this school and fleece it for some good times before teaching snot-nosed kids.”

“Pretty much. Oh, you know that they’ll take us even if we killed someone. Haven’t you come to realize that teachers are hard to find? And good ones are impossible. I only went into this knowing that I wasn’t going to be doing it forever. Once I got through this year—all of us, we were going to go up to better paying jobs to get into a college setting.” She laughed then, her cohorts joining her in a joke he didn’t get. “You’ll see. Once word gets out how you took the things from our room for your own personal gain, it will get you. You’ll understand the pull that a woman teacher gets over a man teacher. We’ll have you tared and feathered I no time. You’ll just have to learn to turn the other way when it comes to us. Oh, and by the way, you should have some temporary teachers lined up to take over when we all go on maternity leave at the same time, in four months. We’ll be home just in time to have Christmas and the new year off. Isn’t that wonderful?”

“Goody for you.” They all three turned when Hanna and his dad came into the room. It was scary how his dad came to stand by him when Hanna was with the women. “I couldn’t help but overhear that you’re going to get the sympathy of the town for what Jeremiah did to you? Not going to happen, I’m afraid. He’s the most respected male in the county. Not to mention, he’s been working with the kids around here all his life. But as I’m sure that you’ve heard, when you mess with one of the Tates, you mess with all of us. Now, what is it you think is going to happen when it comes to light how you falsified city records? Or the fact that you each stole a grand of school property? Not well for you three, that’s for sure. With you being out of a job too… Well, it certainly sucks to be you three.” One of them asked Hanna what she was talking about. “The contract you signed when you were offered the job. And I have to admit when I was helping with the background checks on the lot of you, I can easily say that I don’t remember any of your names coming up.”

One of them stepped forward to cozy up to him. “Don’t bother with them. They would have been kissy ass. Unless that’s what you want.” She looked at him, and he felt his body feel like slime had been tossed over him. He felt nasty. “Do you want someone to be a kissy ass to you, Jere?”

He didn’t even bother looking around. Jeremiah felt like if he looked away, they’d be all over him. So he not only kept an eye on them but he wanted to back away. It wouldn’t work. He knew that. These women were used to getting their own way with men.

“That’s about enough, madam. Jeremiah, are you all right?” He nodded at officer Scott again when he came in through the door. “I don’t know if you’ve been made aware of this or not, but these aren’t the teachers that you hired. Ms. Betty is saying how she knew what sort of teachers that she wanted to hang around with, and those others wouldn’t cut it. I haven’t any idea what that means but there you have it.”

“As a member of the board of the school board, I’m pressing charges.” Dad said that he was, as well as they were trespassing and threatening his boy. When the women laughed, it was Jeremiah who laughed too. Telling them that they’d just pissed off three more members of the Tate family. “And for that, I hope you four get the maximum sentencing.”

They were taken away in cuffs, and the other teaches at this end of the hall applauded. He did wonder how much grief they’d gotten before he’d been called down. It occurred to him that he was short several teachers and knew that his chances of having anyone to choose from were going to be slim to none. Not even the teachers that had been hired would be available, he thought. Not this late in the game. He said that to Hanna and his dad.

“When I left the board meeting yesterday morning, they were making calls to line up for temp teachers. They’d been informed that they’d need them in the following school term because of them notifying the board that they were all due at the end of the year. I’ll make sure they’re aware that it’s going to have to be sooner rather than later.” He thanked his dad. “Who would have thought that it’s not even the school year started, and we’re already having trouble. I suppose we should have expected a little. Hiring a bunch of new teachers will be hard to fill, but we’ll get it done.”

“Of that, I have no doubt.” He finished his rounds when everyone said they were leaving. He locked the back doors and then went to each room and closed any windows that might have been left open. As he was going by his room, he went back in and looked around. So many memories. So many children crossed his path in this room. Going into the hall again, he closed the door and locked up the building. Knowing that he’d be back first thing in the morning to help out as much as he could with getting the school ready for the new year. He just hoped this wasn’t the way it was going to go for the rest of his career here.

~*~

“Turner, you have a phone call.” He told his boss that he was too busy right now to take it. “Well, make yourself unbusy and come here and take the phone. I have more important shit to be than your sexy-tary. Get over here. Danny, take over for Mr. Important while he takes care of business on my dime.”

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