The Hayloft: a 1950s Mystery (16 page)

Then I thought about my brother, Tom, who
wasn’t here to defend his relationship with Kate. What
relationship? They had only seen each other once. But she was just
a kid. Too young for me. I finally said to her, “Ed said you wanted
to build a fort in the hay bales.”

“That sounds neato,” she said, brushing
stalks of hay out of her hair.

I asked Ed if he wanted to build a hay fort,
but he shook his head. So I took Kate up to the top of the stacked
bales at the other end of the barn. She was quite strong, and
together we wrestled the heavy bales into position, creating a room
with a roof over it.

I kept an eye on Ed. I was trying to be the
good host. He had stopped sliding and was wandering around the
floor of the hayloft near the walls, as if he were looking for
something. I called to him a couple of times, but he said he was
happy.

We finished our room, leaving a narrow
opening for a door. Kate crawled inside and said, “This is keen.
Come on in.”

She seemed to be enjoying herself. As a jaded
senior, I didn’t feel quite so enthusiastic about playing in the
hay, but I crawled in after her. It was dark inside. We sat with
our backs against the wall of bales, squeezed together. I was aware
of her closeness and felt uneasy. It was one thing to be touching a
girl when you were dancing or sliding down the hay together. The
activity gave you an excuse for putting your hands on her.

But this was different. I tried to think of
something to say. How did you talk to a sophomore? “So, what
classes are you taking?”

“Oh, the usual. English, history, algebra,
biology, gym…”

“Did you have Mr. Plover for science last
year?”

“Yes. It was so booorrring. I sat in the back
of the room and talked to my friend, Nancy.”

I quizzed her a little about his teaching
methods and received confirmation of what I had heard before. I
wondered if Sylvia planned to go in front of the school board with
this information. Maybe before her father’s firing—she had the guts
to do it—but would she have any credibility with the members now? I
also wondered what she had been doing since I took her home this
afternoon.

“We’d have more room if you’d move your
arm.”

Kate’s statement brought me back to the
present. The only thing I could do with my arm was to put it around
her shoulders. Is that what she wanted me to do? Apparently so,
because when I lifted it, she snuggled up against me. I was
conscious of the fact that her hair was touching my cheek.

Then she turned her head, and her face was
touching my cheek. I turned my head slightly to find out what was
going on, and our lips came together. She made no effort to remove
hers. We kissed for a few seconds. I felt more and more
panicky.

I pulled my face away from hers and said, “We
can’t do this.”

“Why not? You can teach me.”

With my vast experience. Or my half vast
experience. “We can’t because…Ed’s here.”

“Who cares about Eddie?” She sounded
petulant.

“Well, we just can’t,” I said logically. I
untangled myself from her and rotated my body forward onto my
knees. I crawled out the entrance to the fort, breathed the cool,
fresh air, and felt relief. Kate called my name a couple of times,
but I wasn’t going back into the spider’s web. She might be good
for a nighttime fantasy, but the reality was too much to
handle.

I spit on my fingers and rubbed my mouth
vigorously. The lipstick the girls used came off on everything. I
climbed down to the floor of the hayloft to see what Ed was doing.
He was still prowling around, as if he were Sherlock Holmes. Was he
really looking for something?

“Did you lose your virginity?” I asked, and
then realized that if I talked like that he might guess what Kate
and I had been doing. “You look like a building inspector.”

Ed grinned and said, “This barn is
well-built. I think it will last a few more years.”

“Right. Now tell me what you’re really up
to.”

“I’m looking for Grandmother Adelade’s
diamond necklace.”

“If you find it, I get half the
proceeds.”

“If I find it, even if we split it among our
three families, there will be enough money to send all the kids to
college and build us vacation homes besides.”

“Okay, I’ll play your silly little game. What
makes you think Adelade’s diamond necklace is hidden in the
hayloft?”

Ed suddenly became serious. “You won’t tell
anybody else about this.”

“Look, I’m tired of secrets. My secrets and
other people’s secrets. First, I didn’t want people to know I was
Ralph’s cousin. But you and Dr. Graves already knew that, so it was
impossible to keep it a secret. And I didn’t want people to know I
was kicked out of Atherton. You and Dr. Graves knew that, too. Then
you told me not to tell about Ralph standing on his hands on the
balcony of the auditorium. It turned out that Ruth and half the
world already knew that. Now the guy who told me about Dr. Graves
taking him up on the catwalk swears me to secrecy, and it’s driving
me crazy. I suspect other people know about it and aren’t talking.
Anyway, I’m not going to agree to keep any more secrets. If you
don’t want to tell me about Adelade’s necklace, fine. Don’t. But
I’m not going to promise anything.”

Ed smiled at my outburst. “All right. All
right. Don’t get your knickers in a twist. I don’t have any problem
with family members knowing about it. As I said, the necklace
belongs to all of us. I just don’t want outsiders to know—outsiders
who might tear up the barn looking for it.”

“I don’t see any outsiders here.”

“You’re right. And I know you’ll be discreet
in talking about it outside the family.”

“I have no plans to talk about Adelade’s
necklace to anybody outside the family.”

“I don’t either.”

We looked around and saw Kate, who had
managed to climb down the hay bales without us knowing it. She had
hay in her hair, hay sticking out of her holey old sweater, hay
everywhere. She had better clean herself up before she went home or
her mother would wonder what she’d been up to. And I could be in
big trouble. Or so my thoughts went as I was feeling the guilts
again.

Ed looked at Kate with distaste and said,
“You’re always blabbing about bloody well everything to your
friends. I hear you on the phone.” He spoke in a high-pitched voice
with an English accent. “Eddie’s sweet on Carrie.” And in a normal
voice, “I’m not sweet on anybody. I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“At least, I don’t sound like I just got off
the boat from Dover,” Kate said.

“All right, boys and girls,” I said. “You can
carry on your personal discussion later. Right now, we’re talking
about Adelade’s necklace, and Ed is going to let us in on a family
secret.”

“Don’t take it so lightly,” Ed said. “I have
reason to believe that the necklace may very well be hidden in the
barn—specifically in the hayloft.”

“The first question that comes to mind is who
hid it here?”

“Ralph.”

“Do his parents know about this?”

“No, and I couldn’t tell them. Especially
right after he died.”

“What’s the scoop?” Kate asked, breathlessly.
“Geese, Eddie, sometimes it takes you an hour to tell what time it
is.”

“Since you’re both in on it, I might as well
tell you the whole story. But I have to do that at our house
because…I have a document that Ralph wrote. Let’s meet there after
school tomorrow afternoon, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

Kate looked disappointed. “We have to wait a
whole nother day?”

“Yes. And clean yourself off, Katie, or Mom
is going to give you what for.” He looked at me. “And at least
don’t tell Cousin Dorothy until after we get together
tomorrow.”

I didn’t promise anything.

By the time we went inside the house so they
could say good-bye to Aunt Dorothy, Kate was looking presentable
again. I walked them out to the car. Ed got in the driver’s side. I
opened the door for Kate to get in the passenger’s side. As I was
saying good-bye to her, she turned her face up to mine and kissed
me on the lips. Then she jumped into the car.

I reflexively wiped the back of my hand across my
mouth while I glanced quickly around to see if Aunt Dorothy was
looking out one of the living room windows. She wasn’t. And Ed
hadn’t seen it, either. I was glad Kate wasn’t mad at me. Because
that meant she wouldn’t give away
our
secret. One of many I
had. Apparently it wasn’t possible to be a teenager and not have
secrets.

***

At dinner that evening, I asked Aunt Dorothy
and Uncle Jeff how Ralph and Dr. Graves had gotten along.

“Ralph got along with everybody,” Aunt
Dorothy said.

That wasn’t the answer I was looking for.
Nobody gets along with everybody.

“Why? How are you getting along with Dr.
Graves?” Uncle Jeff asked.

He was very astute. How should I answer that?
“Well, he did let me attend Carter.”

“Dorothy had something to do with that. She
talked to him.”

“Thank-you,” I said. I hadn’t thanked her
before.

My father had also talked to Dr. Graves. Had
it been that difficult to get me admitted? If so, should I be
jeopardizing my position by being friends with Sylvia?

“You owe Dr. Graves a lot,” Aunt Dorothy
said. “Without his help, I don’t know where you’d be. I hope you’re
getting along with him.”

I didn’t tell them what Ed had said about the
necklace. I decided I wanted to hear more solid facts before I
started any rumors.

***

I had trouble sleeping that night. First it was Kate,
about whom I felt a combination of guilt and hormone-induced lust.
Once I got her off my mind, I started worrying about my association
with Sylvia. It didn’t seem logical that Dr. Graves would expel me
from Carter just because I was driving her to school and eating
lunch with her. But he might be looking for an excuse to do it. So
I had better stay on the straight and narrow.

What if he told my father what I was doing?
That would not be a happy situation. But what could Dad do about
it? I wasn’t even living with him at the moment, and next year I
would be away at college. I had gone against my father’s wishes
before—notably with the episode that got me kicked out of Atherton.
I couldn’t kowtow to him forever. And I hoped I wasn’t enough of a
bastard to desert Sylvia now—as her boyfriend had done.

I was still awake when the horn of the peanut
train sounded its invitation to those people who were wanderers by
nature to get out of their warm beds and hit the open road.
Although this train went only about twenty miles, the sound hinted
of other trains that traveled across the country. And across other
countries. And then there were cars and airplanes. I was tempted to
answer the call—and I would someday—but right now I had to stick it
out here.

CHAPTER 17

I drove Sylvia to school and ate lunch with
her and the other two members of our group, but I still had mixed
feelings about it. By lunchtime, I had decided on at least a
partial course of action. We had glibly called ourselves the
freedom fighters, but I didn’t feel much like fighting for any
principle right now.

It was Sylvia who brought up Dr. Graves. “I
haven’t been able to get anybody to say anything bad about Dr.
G.”

“You didn’t mention the catwalk incident, did
you?” I asked.

“I didn’t use those words—”

“Good. I think we should drop the whole
thing. We don’t want to start any nasty rumors, especially if they
might be traced back to us.”

“Are you having a change of heart, Gary?”
Barney asked. “Getting cold feet maybe?”

“I just don’t want to get kicked out of this
school,” I said, deciding to be frank. “One a year is enough.”

“Yeah, Gary’s probably right,” Ed said. “I
talked to Ruth, and she didn’t know about any problems between
Ralph and Dr. Graves. We have no reason to believe that he had
anything to do with Ralph’s demise.”

“Okay, maybe he didn’t,” Barney said, “but
even if all he’s doing is taking innocent boys up on the catwalk,
don’t you think it’s our duty to do something about it?”

“We can’t prove it,” I said. “My contact’s
not going to testify, and we haven’t found anybody else who will
admit to doing it. I say drop it.”

“I’d like to pursue it,” Barney said. “I’ve
got some friends among the freshman boys.”

Barney and I started to argue. We were
getting louder and in danger of drawing attention to ourselves when
Sylvia stopped us.

She said, “Barney, you can only talk to the
kids in a way that doesn’t sound negative. ‘How do you like Dr.
Graves?’ not ‘Have you had any problems with Dr. Graves?’ And don’t
mention the catwalk.”

Barney promised he would be discreet. I
wasn’t sure how discreet he could be, but I settled for that
solution since my name would not be linked to anything he did.

***

I went to the Drucquers’ house after school.
They lived in a hovel a few miles from the farm. That’s the only
way I can describe it. The small, one-story house had seen much
better days. It was in disrepair and needed painting. The roof had
missing shingles, and I saw a cracked window. However, the small
yard was neatly kept. The lawn was mowed, and although no flowers
were in bloom, the flower beds were free of weeds.

The Drucquers had emigrated from England two
years ago, a few years after the war ended. From the accounts I had
read, most of the English were very poor after the war. Friends of
ours had sent boxes of canned food to relatives in Liverpool. From
the looks of the house and the clothes they wore, the Drucquers
were still poor.

The doorbell was hanging by a couple of
wires, so I knocked on the front door. The screen door was missing
altogether. Kate opened the main door and smiled at me. She was
wearing her school clothes, a skirt and a blouse. Although the
skirt didn’t hang quite right and was frayed at the bottom, and the
blouse was a faded pink, I had to admit that she looked good.