Dallas shook his head, and read the note again, more slowly this time. It still said the same things, and the fact that stood out was that Craig Collins had hired someone to watch everything Dallas Bradburn did. That was going to make It exceedingly rough for him to continue his swinging association with the kids; he’d have to be damned careful, every move he made, and his telephone…
Tearing the note into tiny strips, he scattered its confetti throughout his wastebasket, feeling like some kind of secret agent, feeling more than a little pissed off.
Leaving his office behind, he looked in his box at the mail center, fully expecting some directive from the principal. His box was empty, and he thought that Kingston might be backing off, after that little hassle with the coach.
But possibly Kingston knew of the private eye following Dallas, and was simply awaiting developments Dallas glanced around the empty cubicle, expecting to see some visible sign of a net closing in. Grinning he carried his briefcase down the corridors now almost emptied of students, and made his way across the parking lot to his VW.
Nobody else seemed to be in sight, which was a little strange at this time of day when teachers ought to be hurrying home.
He was just opening the car door when she came around the hood of the station wagon parked nearby. “Dallas-oh, Dallas! May I speak with you?”
The biology teacher, the clinical lady who used better English than the English teacher; he straightened up and watched her approach. Selena Johnstone, neat and tidy as ever, not a hair out of place, the practical suit she wore without a wrinkle, but for all of that, she looked pretty good. Or maybe because of all that, he thought; it was possible he wasn’t one of those guys who wanted a woman all plastic and shiny, just so he could muss her. Only, mussing Selena had been a problem, so he’d stopped trying.
“Dallas, I’m glad I caught you. I’ve been wanting to talk with you, and-must we stand out here? May we sit in your car?”
He nodded. “Sure,” and didn’t go around to the other side and open that door of the VW for her. He didn’t do it because he had always done it, and because she expected it of him now.
Selena waited, a fraction of a moment, then strode around and climbed in, without even a disapproving glance at him. When he sat down, she said, “Dallas-you’re too intelligent to get yourself into something like this. Next year, the university has an opening for an English professor, and by persisting in this-this ridiculous behavior, you won’t even be considered for it.”
He pursed his lips and wished that she didn’t have such good, long legs. “You have advance information? Yeah, I guess so; if the stick doesn’t work, try the carrot. But you know what? I like these kids; I dig them. I think I’ll be teaching them next year, and the year after that, if I decide to.”
She made an exasperated sound. “The faculty is having a meeting right now, Dallas; only you and I have been excluded, and I’m a messenger. The rest of the teachers are considering what to do about you. Your contemporaries, Dallas-your peers.”
“Mostly, just my acquaintances,” he said. “You’re the only friend I have among them, Selena.” It was funny to look her over, he thought, for him to see her tits through her blouse and the crisp curling of her pubic hair through her skirt, and not to be excited.
Selena had a great body, all sweeps and ripe valleys, but she used it-or allowed it to be used with such detachment that he felt, she had never really been involved with their screwing. She was still a technical virgin, he thought, and wondered If she had ever come.
She said, “You can have a future, Dallas. I saw that in you immediately, and I thought we could make a fine team of teachers and we still can, dear-If you simply listen to reason. Or to me, as a woman who loves you.”
It was the first time she’d said love, he thought; In all their couplings, through all their properly positioned fuckings, neither of them had ever said:
I love you. He now decided that wasn’t so strange; they didn’t love each other now, and never had.
“Selena,” he said, “would you go down on me?”
Her eyes went wide behind her rimless glasses.
“W-what did you say?”
“I said would you go down on me; give me head, suck me off, give oral sex?”
Her hands clenched on her knees, the knuckles turning pale. “Of course not.
That’s a terrible thing to say. Are you sober, Dallas? Or perhaps you’ve going all the way with this identity thing, and smoking pot, too.”
He said softly, “I never ate you, either. I never thought about it.”
Her eyes flashed at him. “Are you going to harp on such-such perversion? Maybe I never really understood you, Dallas. But I’m willing to forget this nonsense and try again.”
“Providing,” he said, “I get a haircut and shave my moustache and genuflect to our own little Mecca, twice daily and without fail.”
Selena said, “It’s not like that at all. You’re twisting things.”
“Oh shit,” he said. “I’m going home, Selena. May I drop you anywhere?”
Swiftly, she ducked out of the car. “I’m genuinely sorry, Dallas.”
He only shrugged, abut when he was driving away, said softly, “I’m not sorry at all.” He said it softly and late because there was no sense in hurting Selena Johnstone; she had already done enough damage to herself.
When he parked the bug in his own driveway, he remembered that he was most likely being followed, and that his scene with Selena had also been seen, if not acoustically monitored. At least, the guy had gotten an earful. Whistling, making a show of gathering his briefcase and books, Dallas went into his place and flicked on a light.
Only for a few moments did he consider breaking the date Kathy had set up for them. Of course, that would be the logical thing to do, but he wasn’t being logical any more. He was doing what felt right, and to hell with anything else.
So he took a quick shower, grabbed a sandwich and downed two beers, all done with the TV on and turned louder than usual. Planting open books on a table, Dallas switched on another light, then slipped into a jumpsuit and tennis. He was out of the back door and across the-busy yard in seconds. On the next street, a restored T-Bird waited-Joey Nottingham’s car.
They eased off into gathering shadows, and Joey said, “Be a low rider, man-scrunch down so anybody can see only the top of your head. We’ll be at the pad in a few minutes; going in the back way this time, through the woods and turn around.”
Dallas slumped low in his seat. “I appreciate this, Joey. If I’m being watched …”
Joey laughed. “You never saw that big dude in the parking lot? He’s got fuzz marked all over him. You’re being watched, all right. But the dude is back at your house now; gonna’ be there awhile, too.”
Dallas had to grin these kids were sharp in so many ways. He was glad they were his Mends.
“Party night,” Joey said. “Not a real big one, just a few couples. The chicks said you had to be there, man. There’s the cutoff, through the bushes-if I don’t scratch up my paint.”
“Party?” Dallas asked, sitting erect as they, turned off into the woods.
“Yeah,” Joey gunned “Friday night man, no school tomorrow.”
The week had whizzed by for Dallas, what with his new and fascinating activities; he hadn’t realized the weekend was here.
The house was quiet, and even though Dallas listened hard, he could make out only the soft music of a radio or stereo, turned down to establishment sound level. There was a murmur of voices, but no more than that around some dinner table. If there was a group of kids inside, they were holding it down. Dallas looked around and made out the vague shapes of only two cars, tucked discreetly behind the house, their grills pointing out.
Joey turned the knob and motioned him inside the door. Dallas went quickly, blinking in the soft yellow, light. They moved through the kitchen and he caught the odor of grass, but nobody was smoking when he and Joey went into the living room.