Chapter 4
Ally quietly closed the door behind her and stumbled to her desk in the principal's office. Struggling to control the racking sobs that were trying to rise past her throat, she shuffled frantically through the papers that lay on her desk, trying to find something to take her mind away from the agonizing thoughts that were stampeding through her tortured brain. A moment later, she abandoned the search and eased down into her chair, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her eyes wide and unseeing.
"Good God, woman, you look as though you'd just seen a ghost! Where did you disappear to so suddenly? The superintendent wanted to speak to you before he left."
Ally barely heard the principal's voice. At that moment, nothing was real to her but the shattering scene she had witnessed in her husband's classroom. The image of the vile spectacle lay like a hot coal on her mind, the burning pain of its presence blocking out everything around it.
"He couldn't ... not Jeff ... not with that girl...." She spoke slowly and calmly, as if trying to reassure herself with the familiar sound of her own voice. Still, the picture of her own husband, sitting behind his desk, clutching that young, voluptuous red-headed girl, with his hand squeezing under her blouse, his lips pressed hard on hers ... try as she might, Ally could not erase the horrible scene from her anguished mind.
After walking all over the school, she had finally found his room and seen that ... that teenaged slut squirming on his lap as though they were lovers. Ally had taken one look and kept on walking, for hours it seemed, trying to calm the tumult in her brain. Once, she had turned back to go and try to talk to him, but she had quickly changed her mind, afraid of what she might find if she returned to the classroom. Jumbled fragments of the overheard conversation ricocheted through her mind. "He was fucking her like it was the last day in the world ... ripping off these girls in the classroom ... sucking him off in the teachers' bathroom ... damn kid just out of college...." No, no, her mind screamed, it just couldn't be her Jeff!
"Ally, dammit, what's wrong with you?"
Ally started as the concerned tone of the principal's voice brought her back to her surroundings. She remembered that she had come back to the office to hand him her resignation. Of course, that was changed now, she mused, trying to be rational, I'll probably need a job after Jeff leaves me. Obviously, he was not happy in their marriage. Why else would he....
"Ally!"
She felt the warmth of the principal's hand on her shoulder and looked up to see him standing beside her, his eyes warm with concern as he studied her face. He must never know, she told herself, if he doesn't know already. Forcing her voice to be calm, she said, "Oh, it's nothing. Nothing at all. I just felt a little sick and didn't want to disturb you, that's all. It ... it's getting better already. Utilizing all her self-control, she smiled up at him.
"Good. You had me worried for a moment: I thought I heard you talking to yourself." He smiled in relief. "By the way, I just got a note from your husband. He said he's staying after school to talk to some parents...."
Ally's composure crumpled at the principal's words. She didn't need to hear anymore, she thought, it was obvious that Jeff thought she was so stupid that she would believe anything. Bitter tears cascaded down her cheeks and she didn't fight as the big, gray-haired man enfolded her in his arms and began to comfort her.
"Come on, Ally," he crooned soothingly. "Tell me all about it. It will make you feel better."
As she started to blurt out the story of what she had seen into his warm shoulder, Ally couldn't see that the principal was wearing a little smile of smug satisfaction. In fact, she felt nothing but gratitude for his understanding when, a few minutes later, he whispered:
"Don't worry about it any more. I'll help you find out for yourself exactly what's going on....