Page 24 of Second Start: Family
“Dorian Gray. Not bad for a heathen.”
“Well, shucks, ma’am.”
“But the big question is what do you want for Dan?”
“I want him to have choices.”
“Then you can’t make his choices for him. You have to give him the chance to make his own choices — even if it’s the chance to make the same choices you made.”
*
Hall exited the schoolhouse to see Prentiss Kevery closing in on Prentiss’ son Evan and Dan, who were near the bottom of the stairs.
Kenzie stood some distance off, along with his other three kids among others clustered around a bench beyond her. The geography said Prentiss had left her and headed for his son.
The expressions — hers deliberately blank and Prentiss’ dark with displeasure at being thwarted — confirmed there’d been some discussion between the two adults. … Using that term loosely in the case of Prentiss.
None of them noticed Hall.
“What’d she say, Dad?” Evan asked as Prentiss approached.
Prentiss slashed a be-quiet hand through the air. “Never mind that. This isn’t over. ’Course there’s no budging Vicky Otter, everybody knows what a stubborn bi— biddy that one is. Now this other one’s shaping up that way already, too. We can’t be having that. It’s our school. We pay for it. Pay for them, too. There’s got to be something we can do about it.”
Dan muttered, “She probably has some horrible secret in her past.”
“You mean her husband staying in California and not coming around anymore?” Prentiss asked. “That’s no good. Everybody knows about that.”
“Not Ms. Otter. The new one,” Dan said. “Why would anybody who’d been teaching at some big, rich school back east come here?”
“Yeah, look into that why don’t you,” Evan sneered. “What do you know about crap like that.”
“More than you,” Dan snapped back.
Prentiss spotted Hall, but tried to pretend he hadn’t.
“Shut up, both of you,” Prentiss ordered without looking at them.
The direction of his look had caught the boys’ attention and they saw Hall now, too.
He came down the rest of the steps, looked evenly at the other man until he looked away. Then he turned toward Dan. But his son had twisted away, hands dug in his pockets.
Prentiss said, “What do you say, Quick? Everybody knows you don’t want Dan going to Cheyenne and I do want Evan to get that scholarship, so we should work out something between us without anyone else having a say-so.”
“The teachers nominate the candidates.”
“I know that,” the other man said impatiently. “Doesn’t mean that’s the end of it. You and I can—”
“Haven’t made up my mind. C’mon, Dan, we gotta go.” Aware of Kenzie listening, having closed the distance to a dozen feet, he raised his voice to collect the other kids. “Everybody in the truck. Time to go.”
He raised a hand in farewell to nobody in particular and headed out.
With the little ones occupied in the back seat, Dan said, “You talked about me?”
“That’s what teachers and parents do, Dan. Trying to figure out what to do about … problems…”
“She’s not my teacher. She hardly talks to me.”
Hall didn’t realize he’d braced until the moment was past, and his son hadn’t said,You’re not much of a parent.
