'No doubt – but in this predominantly Baptist part of the country, such an image would be easy enough to generate.'
'Are you threatening us?'
'Not at all – only pointing out the adverse effects for YOU, if this should go to court.'
We all heard him sigh before he asked 'Why is that you are so adamant about this matter?'
'Because of the attitude taken by this petty, tyrannical, pompous, ignorant, stupid, overbearing jackass you have holding down a chair in this office. If he had any two of ethics, a sense of fairness, or two brain cells to rub together, I believe we could have settled this amicably. Instead, he's tried to bully and berate the student, threatened her AND me, and generally been a pain in the ass. People like that aggravate me to no end, and I'm not going to give this twit *anything*.'
'I see.'
'Please understand, sir – my position is that the young lady should be free to give the speech she originally wrote. Whether you choose to disclaim it, ignore it, or otherwise disavow it is up to you. We can do it easy, with Little Hitler here prefacing it by saying that it's her speech, and not condoned by the Church or some other folderol, or it goes to court. If it does, I might lose, or I might win – but either way, the Church comes out looking none the better for the fight. It is your choice, sir.', I said, and then shut up. I'd pointed out an 'out' for him, and hoped that he'd see it as a way for all of us to avoid even bigger trouble.
After a couple of minutes, we heard him say 'Very well, then, Mr.
Marshall. There is much to be said for the validity of your points and opinions. Mr. Jenkins?'
'Yes, sir!'
'I wish you to take note of the following.'
Jenkins hastily grabbed a pencil and note pad.
'First: the young lady is to give her speech, as written, as Valedictorian. She has earned the honor, and we will not remove it from her. You are also to forward a copy of it to my office, for review.
'Second: When you introduce her, you are only to say that her speech is her own, written by her. No editorializing or other disclaimer. If she has learned enough at our school to make this kind of stand, then it is our duty to let her speak freely.
'Third: You are to develop a set of guidelines for future speeches, properly worded, so that future students may have independent guidance.
These guidelines are to be objective, and sufficiently detailed as to prevent future confrontations such as this. Further, no ONE person shall have final approval of the content. I would suggest a member of the clergy, a member of the administration, and one of the independent teachers, for a proper balance and perspective.
'Fourth: you are to apologize to the young lady – not only for your ignorance in knowing her status as an adult, but for any inappropriate tactics you may have employed in attempting to deal with this farce.
Dorsai
Jan
'Fifth: you are to apologize to Mr. Marshall, for reasons that should be obvious by now, even to you.
'Sixth: at your earliest convenience, I wish to visit with you in my office.' With that one, Kelly looked at me – she knew that 'earliest convenience' meant 'instantly if not sooner', and that it wasn't going to be old home week for Mr. Jenkins. He knew it, too – the sweat was popping out on his forehead.
He finished up by saying 'Mr. Marshall, I apologize to you for any inconvenience or unpleasantness resulting from this confrontation. I promise you, no one else will have to go through it. I would also apologize to the young lady involved – I trust she's there and can hear me as I say that I am both sorry for putting her through this, and admiring of her for having such a friend as Mr. Marshall. I would also congratulate her on her achievement – I have no doubt that she has well and truly earned it.'
Kelly spoke first, saying 'Thank you, sir, for both your apology and recognition.'
I followed her by telling him 'I wish to thank you, as well, sir. It is a pleasure to speak with someone of your intelligence and caliber.'
I could almost hear him smile as he said 'Indeed. I think I would like to meet you, Mr. Marshall, under more – shall we say amicable? – circumstances.'
'I think I would like that, too, sir.', I answered.
'Then if there is nothing else?'
We all assured him we were done, and the connection ended.
Mr. Jenkins waited, nervously, until the phone went dead; then made his apology to Kelly. She accepted it, quietly, while looking at him as if he was something that had just crawled up out of a primordial ooze.
His apology to me was nearly as abject and profuse as what he'd offered Kelly – I treated him as though he were something I'd have to clean off my shoe.
When he was done, I stood up, and asked Kelly 'Do you want to leave now, or finish up the rest of your classes?'
She glanced over at Jenkins; he looked as though wishing the ground would open up and swallow him. Clearly, whatever her decision, his opinion wouldn't be a factor.
'I think I'll finish up. See you at home?'
'Gladly.'
With that, we kissed – Jenkins only glanced at us – and left the office.
At the secretary's desk, Kelly said 'I'll be needing a pass to get to class, please.'
The secretary seemed hesitant to comply – until she looked up at me, and saw that I wasn't going to tolerate any nonsense or delays. A few seconds later, Kelly had the requisite pass, and we went out into the hallway – where she hugged me fiercely, and said 'Thanks, Dan. I'm sorry to have to ask for your help like that, but he just wouldn't listen to me.'
'It's okay. I've met him, now, and understand completely. But I don't think you'll have any more problems with him.'
She smiled, and said 'I don't think anyone is going to have any more problems, once the Bishop gets through with him!'
I grinned at her, and when she turned to head toward her class, I gave her a pat on the butt. A nun saw me, and looked horrified at what I'd done. I couldn't resist it, and grinned at her before heading back out to my car, shocking her even further.
Only two things came out of the situation. First, a few days later, Kelly got a letter from the Bishop – not just his office, but the Bishop himself, handwritten – telling her that he'd read her speech, and found it 'provocatively honest' and 'thoughtful'; he also said that he looked forward to actually hearing her as she gave it. The other was that some of the teachers that had seemed to delight in singling her out in class had eased off, considerably – apparently lest they come to the attention of the notorious (infamous?) Mr. Marshall.
In the final weeks leading up to the prom, I found out that none of the other girls at the sleepover had accepted dates from any of the boys at school. I discretely asked Kelly about it, and she said that all of them had told her that after me, none of the boys at school had any interest to them – at least, not enough to go to the prom with one. She also told me that she'd done everything she could to convince them to accept and go anyway, but none would. I let that rattle around in my head for a couple days, and finally talked to Kelly again, asking if she would mind if they went with us. She smiled at me, and said that she'd already thought of that, but didn't want to say anything to me for fear of making ME think SHE wanted them to go with us. We both laughed at that, and I asked her to get them all over after school one evening – that I wanted to have a 'chat' them.
A couple of days later, I got home to find all of them in the living room, chatting away. When I went in, Kelly saw me, and discretely moved herself out of their sight – she knew I was going to lay into them a bit, first. I looked down at them: Jan, Susan, Candice, Robyn, and Sandra all looked up at me, expectantly.
'First off, it's nice to see all of you together again. But there's something I think I need to say, and get things straight between all of us.'
They smiled at the welcome, but quickly realized something was going on, and got serious.
'I want you all to know that you're being foolish. Your Senior Prom is a special event in your life, and not something to miss. I remember mine, like it was yesterday; and I'd hoped that all of you would have enough sense to realize what you were setting yourselves up for by not accepting dates.'
They looked mildly surprised at my words, and I went on 'You're all also being a pain in the butt – not just for
