Private Relations by J.M. Hall Read Free Book Online

glasses of wine instead of mugs of beer.”
    Knowing that my mother had a tendency to talk on the phone as if she were shouting across a football field, I asked the bartender to watch my things, then stepped outside onto the street.
    “Is everything OK?” I asked. “How’s dad?”
    “Don’t ask me. Haven’t seen him in close to a year.”
    My parents had been divorced for close to seven years now, though each time one of them referenced the split, it still rubbed me raw. For years they’d been quarreling, bickering, parting ways only to reunite a few months later. They’d kept up appearances for my sake while I was still living at home, but once I’d graduated high school, moved to New York City for college, things quickly began to deteriorate.
    “I’ll give him a call soon,” I said. “Wouldn’t kill you do to the same.”
    She ignored my suggestion and said, “Have you seen the news?”
    “Same old, same old. Broken government in Washington, retail sales are lagging, people blowing each other up in the Middle East.”
    “I meant the local news, here in Philadelphia. Don’t you watch that for work?”
    “No clients in Philly, mom.”
    “It’s the Academy,” she said. “Your old high school. A teacher got caught having sex with a student! Can you believe it?”
    I was certain I’d misheard her. “What?”
    “A teacher at New Hope Academy got caught having sex with a student,” she said. “I can’t believe you didn’t hear about it yet.”
    My right hand began to tremble, and I nearly dropped my phone on the street. I steadied myself against the front door, took a deep breath. Calmly, I asked my mother to tell me what she’d heard so far: when the news first broke, how old the student was, and whether or not the media had named the teacher.
    “Hold on,” she said. “Let me bring it up on the computer…”
    “Hurry,” I pleaded. “It’s important.”
    “The student is a boy. Imagine that. Seems to be the trend these days. What is it with these perverts and teenage boys?”
    Bile threatened to bubble up from my stomach and shoot out my throat. I felt hot, nauseous, shaky on my own two feet. Bobby’s face flashed across my mind’s eye, as did every sex act him and I performed together. Was he really dumb enough to screw around with another kid?
    “Did they name the teacher?” I asked. “Do you see anything?”
    “Oh yes, here she is.”
    “Wait -- what did you say? She ?”
    “That’s right. The teacher is a woman. Thank goodness the principal is there to handle it. Such a nice man.”
    A wave of relief fell over me like a summer rain. “Thank God. And yes, Principal Kramer was a very good principal.”
    “Oh, he’s not there anymore, honey. Says right here he retired back in 2008. There’s a new headmaster now.” She paused, said she was scrolling down to catch his name. “Yes, right here. Principal Allen.”
    “Allen…?”
    “That’s what I just said! Principal Robert ‘Bobby’ Allen.”
    *      *      *
    I’d rushed back home after taking my mother’s call. Within seconds, I’d logged onto Philadelphia magazine’s website and pored over the articles detailing the scandal at New Hope Academy. I read The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal and countless online outlets every day, and none of them had picked up the story. For now, it was a regional scandal.
    However, it could blow up on the national stage at anytime.
    The teacher in question, Simone Martin, was accused of carrying on a sexual relationship with an unnamed student that was sixteen when the sex started, though was now thought to be closer to eighteen.
    Simone had managed to keep the relationship under wraps -- until someone had tipped the magazine about the so-called “affair.” The rumor spread, until the teacher in question was finally put on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
    Standard-issue procedures for such an incident. Terminate her without sufficient