Showers in Season Read Free Page A

asked, raising her voice more with each word. “As some kidnapper hauls my child across the country, it’s not really relevant if he gets zeroes on his assignments!”
    The woman removed her glasses and gave her a disgusted look. “Mrs. Flaherty, don’t you think you’re overreacting a little? Your son obviously skipped school with his friends. Instead of blaming us, why don’t you go look for him? I suggest you try the homes of the other two boys. They’re probably there.”
    Flinging the backpack back over her shoulder, she trudged back out to her car. She was perspiring as she flew to the home of one of the boys. Looking up, she saw that one of the upstairswindows was open and smoke was drifting from it. Someone was home, and they were smoking enough to fill a saloon in Marlboro Country.
    She went to the door and rang the bell, then banged on the door like someone with authority. She wasn’t sure if that would help or not. Authority might be just the thing to keep them from answering the door.
    She heard footsteps on the stairs, heard someone say, “It’s your mother, man!” Then more footsteps…
    After several moments, Andy opened the door. He was faking sickness. He squinted his eyes as if she had gotten him out of bed, and wore an expression that was a perfect counterfeit of the one Tory had worn earlier. “Oh…hi, Dr. Flaherty. What are you doing here?”
    She crossed her arms. “You should really join the drama club, Andy. Your talents are wasted here.”
    “Huh?”
    She sighed with disgust. “I’m looking for Mark. I know he’s here.”
    “No,” he said. “I’m sick, and nobody’s here.”
    She was getting tired of this, so she pushed open the door and bolted past him into the house. “Mark Flaherty!” she called upstairs. “I know you’re here. Get down here immediately! You don’t want me to come after you.”
    Slowly, Mark emerged from the room upstairs. He came down the stairs, reeking of cigarette smoke. “Hi, Mom.”
    “Get in the car.” She waited as her son rushed out of the house, then turned back to the boy who lived there. “Get one of your parents on the telephone, Andy. They need to know about this.” She looked upstairs and raised her voice again. “And Tad, you’d better get down here and when Andy’s finished, you can call yours.”
    “But Mrs. Flaherty…I really am sick,” Andy whined. “It’s not my fault Mark and Tad came over here.”
    “Just call them.”
    She spoke to both sets of parents—neither of whom knew their kids weren’t at school—and prayed that they would dosomething about it, instead of just shaking their fingers at their wayward sons. Then she went back out to her car. Mark looked as if he feared for his life. As she started the car and popped it in reverse, he turned his round, innocent eyes to her.
    “Mom, I’m sorry. I’ll never do that again.”
    “Got that right.” She glanced over at him. “You were smoking, too, weren’t you?”
    “We were just playing around. I didn’t even inhale.”
    “Oh, now there’s an original thought.” She turned right at the red light.
    “Where are we going?”
    “Back to school,” she said.
    “Mom, you can’t take me there. There’s only forty-five minutes left till the bell rings.”
    “You got unexcused absences in every class, but by golly, you will not get one in your algebra class. You’re going to go to that school and face that principal with what you’ve done, and then you’re going to go to that class and learn something. Am I making myself clear?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “And then you’re going to come home and learn something.”
    “What? Are you going to ground me from breathing oxygen for a month?”
    “Worse. And frankly, Mark, I need time to think about it. I’ll have figured it out by the time you get home.”
    “Well, how bad is it gonna be? Will I be better off running away from home?”
    “Don’t even think about it. I’ll hunt you down and find