Matt & Zoe - Charles Sheehan-Miles Page 0,13

Street, getting the mail from an ancient mailbox in front of an old worn-down colonial. The house looks impoverished, in need of a paint job and probably a lot more. A UMASS police car sits in the driveway, along with her minivan, and Jasmine is sitting in a rocker on the porch next to a female cop.

That explains how the Amherst cops knew Zoe—this woman must be a friend.

“Check out that chick’s butt,” Tyler says. “God I’d love to get a piece of that.”

“Don’t be a dick,” I say.

“Why the hell not?” He asks, chuckling.

I shake my head. “Light’s green.”

He jerks a little, taking his eyes off Zoe, then steps on the gas and turns left toward South Hadley Falls, the area that passes for a downtown in this sleepy little town.

After a couple of thoughtful minutes, Tyler says, “Smoking hot.”

I ignore him. Five minutes later we’re parking in front of the town hall, a three-story structure across from a park and field that butts up against the Connecticut River. This part of town doesn’t have the bucolic feel of the rest of South Hadley. A number of derelict homes compete for space with several condemned buildings. The liquor store, gas station and police department line one side of the street just around the corner, right across from an old house, long since condemned.

The town hall, however, is a nice building, three stories of stone and marble built in 1908 as a combined town hall and high school. The high school moved out in the fifties, but the town hall is still here. I’ve had some of the most stressful moments of the last school year here.

I never wanted to take on the job of union representative. For one thing, I’m pretty new to the district and teaching in general. Some said I’m too young. Or too inexperienced. Or too much an outsider. And for other reasons, I try to keep a low profile whenever possible.

We climb the three flights of stairs to the third floor and the school department.

Peggy Young is standing in the large vestibule outside the school department. She’s a formidable woman. Seventy years old if she’s a day, she has a sharp wit and makes plenty of self-deprecating comments mixed in with acid remarks about the youngsters running the school committee. She’s been teaching at South Hadley High School since before I was born, and almost every member of the school committee was once one of her students.

It astonishes me she hasn’t handed out detention slips to them.

“There you are,” she says to me. “It’s about time, the meeting begins in less than five minutes. I see you brought along your jock friend. Is he going to keep his mouth shut this time?”

“Well—” That’s all I manage to sputter out before Tyler speaks.

“You old battle axe. I’ll keep my mouth shut when you retire to the nursing home where you belong.” His words are rude as hell, but he says them with a grin. Tyler and Peggy have a unique relationship. I have the feeling he antagonized her just as much when he was her student.

She whips up her cane and taps him, hard, on the shoulder. “You don’t talk back to me, jocko. You might be a teacher now, but I remember when you skated by with nothing but C’s.”

Tyler says, “How are ‘ya, Miss Young?”

“I’ll be better when this contract business is over and I can get back to focusing on my teaching. How are you doing? Still chasing inappropriate girls?”

Tyler bursts into loud laughter.

Moments later, the superintendent appears, followed by two members of the school committee. Silently, we follow them into the meeting room. With any luck, we’ll get a settlement before things get much worse.

The superintendent sits down at the head of the conference table. A bad sign—Michael Barrington has been a thorn in the side of the teachers of South Hadley. He took over the job a couple years ago—the third superintendent in four years—and morale in the school system has been at an all-time low. Today his lips are tight, and he says nothing as he takes his seat.

The two school committee members sit at the table across from us.

Dianne Blakely is in her fifties. She had two daughters in South Hadley Schools until last year, and has been a vocal critic of the high school faculty ever since her youngest daughter was expelled from the high school for vicious bullying. The school system still hasn’t gotten its footing after