“What are you saying, Win?”
“I’m saying either Tricia Bellamy lies with the skill of a sociopath or that a physical relationship actually took place between the two of you.”
“Jesus Christ, Win! I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” Carl exploded, as I had expected he would. But even I didn’t like the tone and the intensity of his voice.
“Would you calm down?”
“How the hell can I calm down?” he demanded. “This kid, this obviously disturbed, psychotic girl is trying to ruin me!”
Mustering up my courtroom bravado, I rose to face him as close to eye-to-eye as possible. “If you don’t calm down,” I hissed at him quietly, “Tricia won’t even have to ruin you. You’ll do it yourself.” Carl glared at me, his eyes two small circles of ice. “People are starting to arrive in the building, Carl. If you don’t keep your voice down, any hope of confidentiality is out the window.”
After a small eternity, he turned away from me and walked towards his desk at the front of the classroom. He sat down behind the teacher’s lab counter and became engrossed in a flint lighter used to light Bunsen burners. Also, if I remembered correctly, they could be used to torment people you didn’t like by lighting their hair on fire. Flick. Flick. Flick.
“Did you tell her you were my lawyer?” Flick. Flick. Flick.
“Yes. I did.”
“And that didn’t get her to change her story?”
“Is that what you were hoping would happen?” Flick. Flick. Fli...
“Well, yeah.”
“Why did you think telling her I was your lawyer would make her change her claim? Did you send me there to scare her?”
“Yeah, Win. I hoped that once she realized the seriousness of what she was saying, she would drop whatever she’s doing to me, and we could just go back to school without having to worry about being fired.”
“Or worse.”
“Worse?”
“Tricia is legally a child. If you had a relationship with her...”
“She’s seventeen!”
“And according to her, the relationship has been going on for over a year. That means not only was she a minor, but she was unable to form consent, since you were in a position of authority over her. That means this isn’t just a civil matter. It’s criminal. We’re talking the potential for jail time.”
“But she’s lying! It’s not true!” Carl nearly yelled again.
“Carl.” I held up my hands. “Calm down.” He paused long enough to resume his role of flint flicker. Flick. Flick. Flick. “I said I would help you, and I will. I gave you my word, and I am now your legal counsel. If you had a relationship with Tricia Bellamy, you showed extremely poor judgment, and I certainly wouldn’t be proud of being your friend right now. But regardless, you have retained me as counsel, and I will see you through this.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. There’s a ‘but’ in there.”
“Okay...but?”
“But, if you aren’t telling me the truth, if you are or were sleeping with Tricia, I will not try to defend your actions. I will only see to it that you are treated with due process. You understand?”
“Okay.”
“And it would be really helpful if you would tell me up front the absolute truth.”
“Win, I’m telling you now. As God is my witness, Trish is making this up. I don’t know why, but she is going to destroy me. If she goes to the principal, it is inevitable that my wife will find out, and it will just create unnecessary stress. I did not sleep with Trish or any other student.”
Damned if I didn’t believe him. “Okay, Carl. That’s all I wanted to hear.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“What do we do now?”
“There’s really nothing we can do. Now, we wait.”
“But...” I could feel his anxiety rising again.
“There’s nothing we can do. I talked to Tricia. I interviewed her. It’s possible she believes this story she’s telling. But even if she doesn’t, in my capacity as your lawyer, there is nothing I can do to prevent her from going to the principal with this story. All I can do is defend you against her allegations once she makes them.”
“But that’s insane,” he protested. “All it will take is for her to make a complaint, and I’m ruined.”
“There are things we can do if or when this gets into the legal arena. Discredit her story. Ensure reliable alibis. I’ll look after that. But we can’t tie her down and stop her from talking to Don.”
“Shit, it doesn’t matter whether or not you can get me off, Win. All she has to do is talk to Don and make an accusation, and I’m history.”
“Not necessarily,” I tried to reassure him, though I knew he was basically correct.
“Yes. I’m completely innocent, but every student, every other teacher, every principal, every parent is going to be looking at me like I’m some kind of sex fiend.”
“Just calm down, Carl.”
“No. I’ll end up having to transfer schools. And my wife will want to know why I’m leaving the school I love, and I’ll have to tell her some kid is claiming I banged her!”
“Carl.”
“No, Win. I can’t just sit back and wait for Trish to fuck up my life.” He got up and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve got to try to stop her.”
I took two steps after him to try to block his exit. “Wait. Do not go and talk to Tricia.”
He whirled and faced me, eyes blazing. “Why the hell not?”
“Because obviously, previous conversations you’ve had with her have not gone well. Getting confrontational with her is likely going to make her more angry.”
“I’m just going to talk to her.”
“Trust me. If I’m going to be your counsel, you’re going to have to listen to me.” I stepped between him and the door.
“Win, move.” Carl stepped back and put his hand to his forehead.
“Carl, listen to me. Just listen for a minute, okay?” I used my best soothing voice.
“Win, just get the hell out of my way, okay? I need to talk to Trish. I will not sit here and watch my life go to shit because of her.” His voice was steely cold. I actually felt just a little threatened, at least enough to step aside from the door.
“Okay.”
“I’m just going to talk to her, all right? Maybe I can fix this.” Almost as quickly as his rage had come, it was gone.
“All right,” I told him. It wasn’t.
He put his hand on my shoulder momentarily, then walked out the door.
Days like that rarely get better, and this day was no exception. The kids were kids, not wonderful, but no one went out of their way to make the day difficult for me either. Carl had largely taken that task on himself.
The