Page 39 of Inside Out
“Please call me Jackie, and thank you. I’ll take all the luck I can get.”
My phone rang as soon as I settled in my car. I hadn’t started my engine yet, so the call didn’t show up on my display or ring through my speakers. I fished my phone out of my pocket and saw that Priscilla was calling me. I wasn’t late, so there was no reason for her to be busting my balls so early on a Monday morning.
“Good morning, sunshine,” I said, knowing it would rile her up.
She ignored my greeting and didn’t offer one in returned. “You better get your ass over here. We have big trouble brewing.”
“How can there be big trouble brewing already. The day hasn’t started yet.”
“Evil waits for no one.” Click. She hung up without another word.
My mood soured quickly as I made the short drive to my office. I shared a space with the school board officers: president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary; the assistant the four of them had to share; and my secretary, Priscilla. When I walked through the door, I was surprised to find all the school board members present, not just the officers, along with their assistant.
“Surprise,” Priscilla said drolly.
“You shouldn’t have. It’s not my birthday,” I replied, trying to inject a sense of humor to lighten the mood of the room. Whatever they had to say couldn’t be that bad. My optimism faded when it occurred to me someone might’ve seen Julius walk me to my car at one o’clock that morning and kiss me goodbye. We weren’t talking about a quick peck either. Julius gave me a why-don’t-we-take-this-back-inside kiss.
“Dr. Bradley, could we have a private word in the boardroom?” Caitlyn Simpson posed it as a question, but the look on her face told me she expected me to follow without hesitation.
“After you,” I said to all of them. I stopped by Priscilla’s desk and handed her the coffee carrier and bag of pastries. “Go ahead and enjoy your treat.”
“You’re too good to me,” she said tearfully.
“It’s going to be okay,” I consoled her, wishing I felt as certain as I sounded. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
She snorted. “That evil bastard doesn’t care who he destroys.”
I wanted to ask who she meant but knew I’d find out soon enough. The school board looked pissed enough as it was, so I didn’t want to keep them waiting. Each of the board members had daytime jobs they were missing to host this impromptu meeting with me.
“Dr. Bradley, won’t you have a seat?” Caitlyn asked, gesturing to an open chair across from her. “We won’t keep you long, but an issue was brought to our attention late yesterday evening that impacts all of us and our students. We decided it was best to get this out in the open so we can devise a plan.”
“Why didn’t you just call me last night, Cait?” I asked. “Maybe it would’ve saved you all the hassle of being late to your jobs.”
“This is too important to handle over the phone,” she replied. I noticed both her posture and tone of voice had softened. “Dr. Bradley, we”—she circled her forefinger in the air to encompass everyone in the room—“really like you and the positivity and experience you bring to our school. We respect all the measures you’ve taken to rebuild the relationship between the faculty and the school board. I cannot express how happy that makes me—us.”
I glanced around the room to see everyone nodding solemnly. “But…”
“There are no buts,” Earl Jenner, the vice president said. “We just want you to know how much we appreciate you before we discuss the matter at hand.”
“Which is?” I prompted.
“You have the board’s full support, Dr. Bradley,” Cheryl Highlander said. “We truly admire you.”
“Thank you,” I told her. If they were so happy with my job performance, then why did it look like they were attending my funeral? “I have to admit, I’ve never received praise like this delivered in gloomy monotones. It kind of feels like I enteredThe Twilight Zone.”
“It’s because none of us want to be the one to repeat mean, hurtful things to a person who’s done nothing to deserve them,” Cait said.
“Clearly a complaint was filed against me. Can I ask by whom and what their grievances were?”
“Apparently, word has filtered around the county about the play we plan to perform in January,” Cait told me.
“The play the board voted on before I was hired?”
“Yes, that play. The school board has received a signed petition asking us to terminate the production ofInside Out.” Then I realized that most of Caitlyn’s hurt came from the idea of disappointing her daughter. She had to know how muchInside Outmeant to Clara.
“No,” I said firmly. “There’s not a single line in that play that is inappropriate for the student body to speak or an audience to hear.”
“I agree with you wholeheartedly, Dr. Bradley,” Cait said. “You have to know how personal this is for me, but I have to think like a mature adult and not the mother of one of the creators.”