Chapter 47
“Up until the time that Macbeth kills Duncan, has he done anything wrong?” Ron started his class on Monday morning with a feeling of rededication. Maybe he had stumbled but he would pick himself up and get back on track.
“I don’t really like him. He only thinks about himself,” said Barbara.
Ron looked at their smooth expectant faces and smiled. They smiled back.
Sonia raised her hand. “Are you feeling better, Mr. Tuck?”
“I wasn’t really sick, Sonia. My mom had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital.”
The girls’ faces in unison turned to instant concern. “Is she going to be Ok?” said Barbara.
“I hope so. I think so. We’ll know more after today.” He was so tired of saying that she had a heart attack. Part of him still wanted it to be a bad dream. “Macbeth is deeply troubled about killing Duncan and maybe this is a good time to stop for a second and do a little history.” Ron moved to the chalkboard. “The real Macbeth lived in the 11th Century. By rights, when the king died, Macbeth had the best chance of succeeding him to be king. But Duncan named his son Malcolm as his successor. Now this was a break from tradition. And it caused a conflict and Macbeth did kill Duncan, but not at his house. In reality, Macbeth was not a bad guy. He was seen as a good prince. But for all the world, since Shakespeare, he has been viewed as a horrible monster. The point is the power of literature is greater than the power of an army. Who remembers that Macbeth was a good guy? Nobody does and nobody cares. They don’t care because the Macbeth that Shakespeare created was more interesting than history.”
The girls looked confused and Ron sensed that he had made a mistake. He had spent weeks building up Shakespeare and now he had taken him down a peg.
“Why did Shakespeare lie?” asked Barbara.
Ron paced and rolled his chalk between his fingers. “Why do any of us lie?”
Ron stopped and looked at them. “Anybody here never told a lie?”
No one’s hand went up and Ron waited. “Ok, so think of a time when you lied and ask yourself why did you do it?”
Connie turned to her friend Barbara and then raised her hand. “To save my….” She stopped and giggled. “To stay out of trouble,” she said grinning to Barbara more.
“That’s why Shakespeare did it,” said Ron. “He wanted to stay out of trouble with the new king. But it was more than that. He wanted to tell a good story and to tell a good story, sometimes the facts get twisted. Sometimes we exaggerate. Sometimes we attribute the thoughts of others to ourselves to make us look good in a story that we are telling.”
Imelda’s almond shaped eyes glittered as she said, “Do you do that, Mr. Tuck?”
Ron enlarged his eyes in mock shock. “Me? I wouldn’t know how to lie to you guys. You’d catch me anyway.”
The class laughed and Ron started the tape of the play. He hoped that he had salvaged a little bit of the damage that he had done to Willie.
That night after tutoring and the hospital Ron drove home happy and tired. The test had gone pretty well and no real blockages had been seen. However Dr. Gutberg cautioned that this was not the most reliable test and told Marjorie again that he really needed to do the cardiac catheterization. But Marjorie was feeling less tired and was now in a regular room. Ron felt better about things with the shrouded machines and screens removed, as if it was their presence that announced ominous possibilities.
Tutoring had been smooth. Dennis Mooney had even showed up and had done some work. Ron had gotten new assignments for James Devin and the kid was responding to the tutoring and his desire to please Ron.
Ron stopped for some Chinese food and got coral shrimp which he ate out of the container sitting in his front room and reading papers and listening to music. It was strange to him that when he read, he blotted the sound out but liked the soundtrack in the background. He had learned to be alone again after Zoe had gone to art school. At first it had been difficult. He had grown used to her presence. He loved the daily sex and the games that they played. Now he was relegated to masturbation, but his house was his own and each evening he felt like he returned to a cocoon and was replenished.
Occasionally it occurred to Ron that no one ever called him. There were the crazy silent phone calls from Zoe but they didn’t count. Chris never called. Quimpy never called. Warren had never called him once. Ron wondered if these people were truly his friends. Didn’t friends have an interest in you? Weren’t they curious to see how you were doing? Maybe he was guilty of the same thing. He had never called April after she had asked him to contact her because she did not have his new number. Ron wondered if the reason that he never called April was that he was pretty certain that he would not be able to sleep with her. He tried to think if there were any girls that he didn’t want to sleep with that he had ever phoned. The answer jolted him. There was only one, Laureen. He had thought of her as his friend, but he had written those songs about and depicted her in a cruel and insulting way. He had made her look horrible. And then there was the trouble in Rahway. No wonder that they weren’t friends any longer.
His apartment had warmed up by the time that he finished dinner. He was too tired to read anymore. He had just lain down on his bed and turned on the TV when the phone rang.
“Ron, it’s Bernadette.”
Ron was startled and smiled. “Hi, what’s up?”
“I don’t know when they are going to announce it, but Irene Emanuel is leaving at the end of the week.”
“Leaving for where?”
“She’s been sent to South America.”
“At this time of year?”
“I know. It’s very odd and everything is hush hush. Rita won’t even talk to me about it and she tells me everything.”
Ron had always assumed that Irene Emanuel was the Mother Superior in the convent. She just seemed to be in charge of things wherever she was. He had found out at the end of last year that the Mother Superior was a tall business teacher named Sister Rita Julia. Rita Julia had never had a conversation with Ron but she always had smiled for him.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Ron. “I’m going to miss her. She’s taught me a whole lot.”
“Well, you know that she was never really happy here.”
Ron hadn’t known that. It was something that had never occurred to him. “Who is replacing her?”
There was a pause and in a whisper Bernadette said, “Sister Donna Maria.” There was a tone of disgust in her voice. “She’s a dangerous woman. She believes in things that have been out of date for a long time. We’re going to have our hands full on the faculty council.”
“We’ll be fine,” said Ron, not knowing what he was in for.
“Can you come in early tomorrow? We can have coffee and talk more about this.”
“Absolutely,” said Ron.
Ron put down the phone and lay back to watch Monday night football and was quickly asleep. He woke at some point in the middle of the night and turned the snow off the screen and then immediately fell back to sleep.
The next morning he waited for Bernadette to come for coffee but she didn’t show up. She walked in just a few minutes before class began and when their eyes met she put a finger to her lips and shook her head almost imperceptibly. The stood together in the hallway as was their custom when the classes changed. Talking like a convict out of the side of her mouth, she said, “I think someone overheard me on the phone last night. Don’t say anything to anyone.”
The week rolled by with the sameness that winter has: white to gray to black. Macbeth killed Duncan and then he killed Banquo. Marjorie grew stronger and started walking to the bathroom on her own. Harry stopped at the hospital every couple of days and Marjorie never failed to mention it to Ron when he did. Lois started living at Marjorie’s house to take care of Chipper. It seemed to Ron that Lois avoided him when he was coming to the hospital.
On Friday afternoon at the very end of the school day, Irene Emanuel came onto the PA system.
“Good afternoon ladies, Sisters, teachers. As some of you know, I have been at Our Lady of The Forlorn for almost six years. It has been my privilege to be your principal and to watch you grow and teach and come to a deeper understanding of God. After today I will be leaving the school. I am very excited about my new assignment in Chile. It is one for which I have waited a very long time. As you may know, it is the end of summer in Chile and I will be taking on the responsibilities of principal at Our Lady of Heavenly Treasures High School in Santiago. I hope that I have done good service to you while I have been here and I will miss some of you very much. Thank you for your kindnesses to me and for the good work that you are doing. This is our good-bye and I would ask that none of you come to the principal’s office after school as I will have already left and my replacement is not due to arrive until tomorrow. I trust that you will show her the same respect that you have always afforded me. Please remember me in your prayers as you will always be remembered in mine.”
Then she was gone and a few seconds later the bell rang to signal the end of the day. Ron’s students left quickly. He sat down at his desk and had the sensation that he was going to cry. It was then that he realized how much he had loved and respected Irene Emanuel. He thought about his earliest mentor. His Aunt Dottie was long deceased now, but Ron had seen a similarity between them that he had never put together before. It was like he shared a secret with them and that secret had somehow given them confidence in him. He wished that he knew what the secret was. Ron stood up, packed his books and locked his door. He looked across the hall at Bernadette’s classroom but it was already locked and dark. He walked across the courtyard and into the other building. The principal’s outer office was lit up but her door was closed and no one was around. For the first time the school seemed dreary.