Texas by the Tail

unimpressed.

'But no one knows you received this, Major. That's right, isn't it? If the question should ever arise- and it won't- there's no way to prove that you received it.'

'But-but I know, Mr. Corley. I, uh, know and my duty is painfully clear.'

Mitch said that he didn't see it that way at all, and he was sure that the major wouldn't if he thought things through. The major's first duty was toward his students. And how could duty be interpreted as the punishment of a student for the wrong-doing of a parent?

'You're a man of the world, Major; I can see that. I'll bet you've had a fling or two yourself, haven't you?' Mitch smiled engagingly. 'A man right in his prime as you are can still enjoy a juicy taste of life. He knows what life's about. There are certain rules to observe, of course, but he certainly isn't going to embarrass someone like myself, another man of the world, because of a youthful mistake.'

The major coughed. His swollen flesh shifted inside the tan uniform, straightening and readjusting its mass, trying to remold itself into some semblance of the trim figure that sat across the desk.

'As you say, Mr. Corley-huh-huh. These things do happen to the very best of us fellers. Oh, yes, huh-huh. There was a girl in the Philippines-' He broke off in sudden alarm. 'Now, Mr. Corley! I really can't see-'

'No one knows about this.' Mitch said steadily. 'No one but you and I. There's not a reason in the world why anyone else has to know it.'

'But-but what are you suggesting?'

'I can't enter Sam in another school at this late date. If he's forced to leave here, he'll lose an entire semester's work. Now, I was reading an article the other day on the cash value of an education to a boy. I don't remember what the overall figure was, but I think that if you broke it down a semester would be worth about… two thousand dollars?'

The major stared at him dazedly. He looked down at the band that was being held out to him, heard Mitch murmur that he'd have to be running along. The major shook the hand and withdrew his own palm. Felt the flat-folded crispness that was like no other feeling.

It was done, then, so easily and smoothly; a gracious thing that could only be undone ungraciously. He wobbled upright on his wretched legs, hardly at all discomfited, the benefactor rather than the benefacted, seeking the words appropriate to one man of the world when addressing another.

'We must get together again, Mr. Corley. Two fellers like us, heh? And, uh, let me repeat that we are most happy to number Samuel among our students. We shall, uh, hope that he shall be back with us again next year.'

'That's very nice of you,' Mitch smiled.

But he was thinking, The hell Sam will be back here another year! Not in the same place with a character like you! And then, leaving the office, going down the steps of the administration building, he was fairer about it.

He was used to giving bribes; the major clearly wasn't used to accepting them. The poor ineffectual bastard had been flattered and persuaded by an expert, honestly convinced no doubt that he had only cooperated in an act of good will. And… who knew? Who knew? Perhaps he also had a nemesis who would make him do things he would never ordinarily do? A dogged and vicious creditor, a disease which impelled the life it was destroying to a last desperate tasting of life, a woman who had had him hunted down just when he thought he had it made…

He knew now that he should have leveled with Red when Teddy first reappeared in his life. But he was afraid of losing her-he and Red hadn't been together very long at the time. And even with Red knowing and accepting the truth, there would still have been Sam to protect. How could you tell a kid, or let him be told, that his mother was a whore, that she hated him? How would he take it? How could you risk the terrible damage that it might do to him?

He could divorce Teddy, naturally, but that would accomplish nothing. Divorced, she could do just as much as she was doing now. Divorce would crack the whole nasty mess wide open, destroying everything that he had been trying to preserve.

Sighing, he pushed the problem to the back of his mind, putting on a bright face as he came up to Red and Sam. They strolled across to the campus lake together, remained there talking and skipping stones across the water until late afternoon. Then, they returned to the car, and with Sam waving good-bye, Red and Mitch started back to Houston.

Red was looking a little glum, depressed as she always was after leaving Sam. Mitch suggested stopping someplace for a drink and dinner, but Red wasn't hungry. He gave her a brief one-armed hug, knowing what was coming but knowing of no way to head it off. She led into it by a new route, telling him that she thought Sam knew the true nature of the relationship between them.

Mitch shook his head firmly. 'You mean you think he suspects that you're not really his aunt, don't you?'

'Well, yes. But-'

'But that doesn't mean he suspects anything else. No,' he went on. 'I think it's more a matter of wishful-thinking on his part than anything else. He likes you. He'd like to have you for a mother. Therefore, he wishes you weren't his aunt.'

Red was silent for a moment. Then she said quietly but flatly that she wanted to be Sam's mother.

'Now, Mitch. Let's get married right away. We've got more than a hundred thousand dollars, haven't we? That certainly should be enough to-to-'

'To what?' Mitch said. 'Just what do we know about anything except what we are doing?'

'Well-well, we can learn, can't we? My gosh, other people do, and they don't have a hundred thousand dollars either!'

'We're not other people. We've been living high off the hog for a long, long time, and I think we'd have one hell of a time doing a complete right about-face. As I see it, and you've been seeing it the same way, we'd just about have to have enough to retire on. To retire comfortably. Or at least enough to look around on and find something solid before we jump into it.'

'But a quarter of a million dollars, honey! Do we really need that much?'

'We agreed on it. We decided that we'd need every penny of it.'

Red said crossly that they could undecide then. There wasn't a real reason in the world why they couldn't get married right now… unless, that is, Mitch no longer wanted to marry her.

'You know better than that!' Mitch said sharply. 'My God, what a nasty thing to say!'

'Well… I'm sorry, Mitch. I didn't really mean it, of Course.'

'I should think so!' –

'But-but couldn't we do it, honey? Please?'

'Of course we can,' Mitch said. 'But-wait now, Red! Wait a minute! We get married, and then what? Yank Sam out of school?'

'Why, no. Why would we want to do that?'

'But we'd at least have to have some kind of home where he could visit us. And an income to support that home; something legit. Or did you think we could go on with the dice hustle?'

'Oh, of course not, silly! But…'

'Well, then? Were you just planning to go up to the school and tell Sam we were married, period? I don't quite see what it'll accomplish, but if that's what you want…'

Red told him snappishly to just shut up, for God's sake. He was so darned smart, he ought to hang a medal on himself. Then, after a moment or two, she laughed and patted his cheek.

'Sorry, darling. You're right, of course. It's just that when a person wants something so much-'

'We both want it, and we're going to have it, too,' Mitch said warmly. 'Who knows? Houston is a good town. Maybe we'll make it right here.'