Read The Cat's Dowry and Other Short Stories Page 7

  * * *

  Leon entered the front door of his modest Florida home in the Dolphin Cove subdivision of their upscale neighborhood. He and his wife Sylvia along with their teenage boys, Cliff and Wyatt lived a good life. With his salary as principal of Poseidon Middle School and his wife's salary as a CPA, they were able to keep up with the other couples in the neighborhood and look forward to their boys attending, if not the finest, high ranking colleges. They were both in their early 50's and in excellent health. All things being equal, they believed they should have a long and prosperous retirement plan.

  That was all going to change as of today. He needed to talk to Sylvia and then possibly his attorney. Leon fixed himself a scotch on the rocks and waited for his wife to arrive home from work. It would be awhile; she was senior associate at her firm and sometimes stayed to help others. The boys came home and one at a time went to their room to study. Sylvia arrived as Leon fixed his second scotch.

  "Had a bad day?" Sylvia fixed herself a drink and sat down next to him on the couch.

  "We need to talk, alone. The boys are upstairs doing their homework" Leon's face was solemn and what Sylvia called his ‘worry lines' showed.

  "Okay, go on." She knew from the years of being married to Leon, when things were not right.

  "Have you read the papers yet?" Leon asked.

  "No, not really. I got the highlights on line at lunch." Sylvia had no time or interest in local affairs or politics.

  He handed her the newspaper, opened and folded to the article that he wanted her to read. Poseidon's population of forty thousand was able to maintain their local newspaper for over twenty-five years, a fact for which the town was extremely proud.

  When she finished reading, she laid the paper down and turned to her husband. "What does this mean to you?' She looked at him with the most intense question on her face.

  "I'm sure I don't have to reassure you that I was not one of her clients, so let's get that out of the way before we go any further." Leon was a person of high moral standards and Sylvia never questioned his fidelity.

  "You don't have to worry dear, a woman never really knows her husband as well as she would like to think she does, but I would be willing to put my life on the line, that if you said you were not one of her clients then you weren't." They had always had an honest and loving marriage.

  "I thank you for that vote of confidence. That goes both ways of course. Now, here is the problem that we need to discuss. I knew what Kristy was doing and I ignored it. Of course, you want to know how I knew and why I'm so sure about it. Kristy came to me because she feared that one of her student's parents was one of her clients and that student knew about the liaisons. The student approached her and confronted her indirectly for the truth. She didn't admit anything, but she felt that it was a matter of time before everything came out in the open. She didn't tell me who the student was and I didn't ask. We had a long talk and I agreed not to reveal her profession if she would give it up. She said she would, but she needed some time. With the school being in its last quarter, I told her that I expected her to be out of the business before she returned in the fall. I considered that generous. I have to tell you that I didn't have much symphony for her, it was her daughter I was thinking about."

  "What did she say about that?"

  "She has no support line from anybody. She has no father figure for the daughter, no relatives. She is strictly on her own and trying to keep things together. She says that her daughter doesn't suspect. I don't know if that's true or not or whether it's wishful thinking on her part."

  ‘I see what you mean. We have an issue of honor, confidentiality, probably a breach of contract and or maybe some sort of code of ethics that has been broken."

  "That is why I suggest we get in touch with Brandon, our attorney and find out what we should do. I am not sure if I should come out with my story now and try to save some of my dignity and integrity or wait until after the fact and then take the consequences. Either way, it appears that I have a dilemma and I have found myself in the middle when all I tried to do was help her. She is a good teacher. The children love her. The other teachers respected her at least up to this point and she is big in community service work. I don't think she knows how many people's lives she has screwed up and negatively affected by her actions"

  "I agree with you. Let's place a call to Brandon and see what he thinks. I do believe one way or another you are going to need some legal advice."