"S. A. Gorden - The Duce of Pentacles" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gorden S A)that way-were the two troublemakers. The remaining board members were easily
controlled. The third member was the twenty-seven-year-old son of the local banker. His father wanted him in state politics and ordered him to run for the school board as a starting point. The fourth board member was a local doctor. He felt he should be on the board as his part of community service but was so busy with his own work he just rubberstamped whatever Jefferson wanted. The fifth member had been on the board so many years that he had grown senile. The sixth member was a mother who had five children. The oldest, a nineteen year old, had just been sentenced to twenty years to life in the state penitentiary. The mother blamed all her troubles on her children's teachers. In order to get _Them_, the teachers, she convinced her church, a strict fundamentalist denomination, to back her election. The seventh and last was a wife of a local hardware storeowner. She was dumber than the doorknobs her husband sold but she worshiped strong people. She would look at Jefferson with those big doe eyes your hear about but seldom see. The only way the day could get better was if he had an excuse to fire a teacher. He always thought it was funny how the politicians would, during their campaigns, complain how you couldn't fire a bad teacher because of the union-backed tenure laws. You could always fire a teacher if you had an excuse. You just had to do your job. All teaching contracts had simple procedures that could be followed to fire a teacher for cause. Jefferson was always disgusted by the superintendent or principal who couldn't follow the rules and fire a teacher. He voted ultra-conservative Republican because he wanted to be able to fire a teacher for fun. Jefferson fantasized for the next few minutes about being able to walk month before his retirement benefits started. The smile was erased from his face by the knock on the front door. "Thelma, I told you no disruptions before the board meeting." "Sorry, Mr. Shermon, but two sheriff's deputies are here. They want to talk to you about a complaint they received about a teacher." Thelma missed the smile that erupted on Jefferson's face. By the time the two cops entered the room, all that could be seen on Jefferson's face was a scowl of great concern. Jefferson was barely able to control his glee when he heard the name James Makinen. He knew that after the divorce, James had nearly broken down. If he handled the allegations correctly, he should be able to completely destroy James. He had only completely broken one other person before, and he still relished the look of abject despair on his former girlfriend's face those twenty years ago the night before her suicide. Tonight after the board meeting, he would use the leather straps on his wife. His wife's face twisted in pain would be the jewel crowning the best day so far in his life. **** James lived on a three-acre plot he purchased on the corner of his cousin's farm. He had pulled onto the lot a rebuilt fourteen-by-sixty trailer house. The land and trailer had been purchased using a loan his father had given him after his ex-wife had left for California. The payments to his father and the utilities, child support and food bills left him the grand total of seventy-five dollars per month for luxuries such as furniture and clothing. The trailer had been delivered with a complete kitchen and built-in |
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