APT Pupil - By Stephen King Page 0,80

made his parents very proud. And me, of course."

"Yes, I guess we got him over the hump," Ed said. He was smiling as he said it, but his smile was a trifle puzzled - somehow Todd's grandfather didn't sound the same. But it had been a long time ago, of course.

"Hump? What hump?"

"That little talk we had. When Todd was having problems with his course-work. Back in ninth."

"I'm not following you," the old man said slowly. "I would never presume to speak for Richard's son. It would cause trouble . . . ho-ho, you don't know how much trouble it would cause. You've made a mistake, young fellow."

"But - "

"Some sort of mistake. Got me confused with another student and another grandfather, I imagine."

Ed was moderately thunderstruck. For one of the few times in his life, he could not think of a single thing to say. If there was confusion, it sure wasn't on his part.

"Well," Bowden said doubtfully, "it was nice of you to call, Mr - "

Ed found his tongue. "I'm right here in town, Mr Bowden. It's a convention. Guidance counsellors. I'll be done around ten tomorrow morning, after the final paper is read. Could I come around to . . ." He consulted the phone book again. ". . . to Ridge Lane and see you for a few minutes?"

"What in the world for?"

"Just curiosity, I guess. It's all water over the dam now. But about four years ago, Todd got himself into a real crack with his grades. They were so bad I had to send a letter home with his report-card requesting a conference with a parent, or, ideally, with both of his parents. What I got was his grandfather, a very pleasant man named Victor Bowden."

"But I've already told you - "

"Yes. I know. Just the same, I talked to somebody claiming to be Todd's grandfather. It doesn't matter much now, I suppose, but seeing is believing. I'd only take a few minutes of your time. It's all I can take, because I'm expected home by suppertime."

Time is all I have," Bowden said, a bit ruefully. "I'll be here all day. You're welcome to stop in."

Ed thanked him, said goodbye, and hung up. He sat on the end of the bed, staring thoughtfully at the telephone. After a while he got up and took a pack of Phillies Cheroots from the sport coat hanging on the back of the desk chair. He ought to go; there was a workshop, and if he wasn't there, he would be missed. He lit his Cheroot with a Holiday Inn match and dropped the burnt stub into a Holiday Inn ashtray. He went to the Holiday Inn window and looked blankly out into the Holiday Inn courtyard.

It doesn't matter much now, he had told Bowden, but it mattered to him. He wasn't used to being sold a bill of goods by one of his kids and this unexpected news upset him. Technically he supposed it could still turn out to be a case of an old man's senility, but Victor Bowden hadn't sounded as if he was drooling in his beard yet And, damn it, he didn't sound the same.

Had Todd Bowden jobbed him

He decided it could have been done. Theoretically, at least. Especially by a bright boy like Todd. He could have jobbed everyone, not just Ed French. He could have forged his mother or father's name to the Flunk Cards he had been issued during his bad patch. Lots of kids discovered a latent forging ability when they got Flunk Cards. He could have used ink eradicator on his second and third quarter reports, changing the grades up for his parents and then back down again so that his home room teacher wouldn't notice anything weird if he or she glanced at his card. The double application of eradicator would be visible to someone who was really looking, but home room teachers carried an average of sixty students each. They were lucky if they could get the entire roll called before the first bell, let alone spot-checking returned cards for tampering.

As for Todd's final class standing, it would have dipped perhaps no more than three points overall - two bad marking periods out of a total of twelve. His other grades had been lopsidedly good enough to make up most of the difference. And how many parents drop by the school to look at the student records kept by the California Department of Education? Especially