“When you told me how my son was doing academically, you oddly neglected to mention that someone had left a threat, along with a dead rattlesnake, in his locker. And you say he’s having a little trouble socially? You’re not only the master of metaphor, Perkins, you’re the emperor of euphemism.”
His expression didn’t change. He un threaded his hands and opened his palms, a mannered gesture of helplessness. “lf we had any idea ? “
“Have you tried to find out? Or are you sticking with the environment-of-trust idea?”
?Mrs. Korman, In seventh grade ? “
?First of all, Mrs. Korman is not my name. Second, you’ve just had a murder here, at your school, as a matter of fact in your home. Third, somebody threw a rock through our window the night of that murder. You can’t dismiss that snake as a prank! This school is not a safe place!”
“Ah.” He adjusted his glasses and pursed his lips. Portrait of pensive. The wild white hair gleamed like a clown’s. “Goldy, isn’t it? I d~ believe we have a safe environment here. Whatever happened to unfortunate Keith was… out of the ordinary.”
I swallowed. Headmaster Perkins drummed his fingers on the antique mahogany desk. “The kids,” he mused aloud, “engage in this… alternative behavior… all the time. I refer to the reptile, of course. If we become authoritarian, they’ll rebel with… more antisocial behavior, or with drugs. Look around you.” His delicate hands indicated his elegantly appointed office. “Do you see any graffiti here? No one is rebelling. And that’s because we make this school an environment where our students don’t need to rebel.”
“Thank you, Mr. Freud. Threats are worse than graffiti, don’t you think? Maybe the kids rebel in ways you don’t know. A murder, Mr. Headmaster. Rattlesnakes. Now, let’s get back to it being your job to at least try to find out who ? “
The headmaster waved this away. “No, no, no. That simply is not possible, Mrs. K?Goldy. We do not have a regimen of conduct, and we do not go after offenders. We encourage responsibility. This… reptile incident should be viewed as a challenge for your son, a social challenge. It is young Arch’s responsibility to learn to cope with hostility. What I am trying to say to you, what I have to say to so many parents, is that we simply cannot legislate morality.” Perkins gave me his patronizing grin. “And Mr. Freud is not my name, sorry to say.”
Oh, cute. A social challenge. Can’t legislate morality. I stood. At the door, I stopped.
“Tell me this, Mr. Perkins. Why exactly do you spend so much time and effort raising money for this school? And worrying about its precious reputation?”
“Because money is the”-he pondered for a moment, then spread his hands again-“money is the… yeast that… leavens this institution’s ability to provide the best possible education. Our reputation is like our halo ? “
“Is that right? Well. You can have a huge doughball of responsibility, Mr. Headmaster, sir, but without morality it’s going to fall flat. Halos are elusive. Or, put another way, even a reptile knows when he’s in the dirt. Ta-ta.”
At home I forced my mind off the school and set it onto the penitential luncheon four days away, the bookstore reception that same Friday evening, and the SAT spread for Saturday morning. Thank God I was going to Schulz’s for dinner. But not until I set some menus, ordered food, and had a heart-to-heart with Arch.
For the clergy luncheon I decided on triangles of toasted sourdough spread with pesto, followed by Sole Florentine with fruit salad. The original recipe for Sorry Cake called for a rich batter developed to offer penance, my cookbook told me. The offender, a thirteenth-century French baker, had confessed to overcharging for bread. The local priest had ordered that the baker give away sweet cakes to all the villagers on Shrove Tuesday. Let the punishment fit the crime, I always say.
For the bookstore affair, there were soft ripened cheeses-Gorgonzola and Brie and Camembert ? to order for the Volvo set and Chocolate-Dipped Biscotti to make for the young crowd. Better than trick-or-treat any day.
Chocolate-Dipped Biscotti
1 cup sugar
? cup (I stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons anise-flavored liqueur
1 ? tablespoons sour mash whiskey
2 tablespoons anise seed
3 large eggs
1 cup chopped almonds
2 z cups all-purpose flour
1 ? teaspoons baking powder
1 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons solid vegetable shortening
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar and melted butter. Add the liqueur, whiskey, and anise seed. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the nuts. Sift the dry ingredients together. Gently stir in the dry ingredients until well incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for about 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 375°. Butter 2 cookie sheets. Shape the dough on cookie sheets into 3 loaves, well spaced. Each loaf should be about 2 inches wide and ? inch thick. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the loaves are puffed and browned.
When the loaves are cool enough to touch, cut each loaf into diagonal slices about ? inch thick. Lay the slices on their cut sides and toast them at 375° for an additional 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool.
Dip biscotti in chocolate the day they are to be served. In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips with the shortening, stirring frequently.
Remove from the heat and stir until a candy thermometer reads 85 . Holding each cookie by its bottom, gently dip the tops into chocolate. Turn immediately and allow to dry, uncoated side down, on wax paper. Continue until all biscotti are topped with chocolate. Makes about 4 dozen.
Which reminded me. Since I had to be at the school for the SATs very early in the morning after the bookstore reading, I’d have the pleasure of baking fresh corn, blueberry, and oat bran muffins at four A.M. Saturday. That ought to make me real sharp for dealing with lots of hungry, nervous seniors.
Arch traipsed in and groaned deeply, not a good sign. Over the summer Arch had fallen under Julian’s spell. In the clothes arena this had meant eschewing sweatsuits and working to coordinate school outfits, holding pants up to the light to see if the color matched a shirt, trying on leather bomber jackets and baggy pants in our local used-clothing store until he resembled Julian as closely as possible. But the three shirts that Arch had carefully layered in hues of blue and gray this morning now hung in uneven tails over his gray cotton pants. His face was unnaturally pale; his eyes behind the glasses, bloodshot.
I said, “I saw the snake.” He slung his heavy bookbag across the kitchen floor. The bookbag, another new accoutrement, had replaced his elementary-school backpack. Not that the new books seemed to be getting a lot of use. Arch dropped heavily into one of the kitchen chairs. He did not look at me, and he was fighting the tremble in his bottom lip.
Arch, do you have any idea who ? “
?Mom, don?t.”
?But I’ve been so worried! And that painted message! Tattle about what? What do you know that you could possibly tattle about?”
“Mom! Quit babying me!” This would get us nowhere. I asked, “Where’s Julian?” Since Arch no longer took the bus home, Julian was in the habit of driving him.
“Left me off and went to the newspaper office.” He pushed the glasses up on his nose and released another sigh, as in, You are so nosy. “The Mountain Journal. Okay? Can I go now? I don’t want a snack.”
I ignored this. “Arch, I also need to talk to you about your grades ? “
“Seventh grade is hard for everybody! Just let me worry about my grades!”
“Are you worried about your grades? Are the other kids doing this poorly?” I changed my tone. Try soft, I ordered myself. “Do you think we need to go back into therapy together?”
“Great! This is just great!” My son’s thin face was pale and furious. “I come home after a horrible day and
