Read Online Indigo by Richard Wiley - Free Book Online Page A

should be grateful for the official American support, but all that had really happened was that he’d been pushed around a little and spent a night in jail. It had not, after all, been so much, and he was embarrassed by his imbalance, by the unreasonable fear he had felt.
    â€œIt wasn’t really that bad,” he told Leonard. “Once everything’s straightened out I’ll have another good story to tell.”
    The school board president smiled and stood up. “Good,” he said. “I’m glad to hear your spirits are up. Let’s get on over to the school and meet the others.”
    But Jerry excused himself, saying he’d be right along, and when Leonard left he dressed and then went into the kitchen to pick up his lunch. When he looked inside his sack he could see his thermos, but his sandwich was wrapped in waxed paper, across the top of which Jules had written his name. When Jerry saw it he experienced a little dip in his mood and reached down to tear the name away, leaving a portion of the sandwich exposed. It was a silly thing to have done, perhaps, but it made him feel better. Now whatever happened there would be no evidence that this sandwich, or anything else in the sack, was his.

    As Jerry hurried over to the school the chief custodian found him and reported that he’d just spent his third consecutive night sleeping inside the copy machine. “It is strange,” he said. “Like some man know I am there.”
    â€œIt’s over, Joseph,” Jerry said. “I’m sorry you weren’t told, but I know who took the toner.”
    â€œYessir,” Joseph said, “the culprit is who?”
    Jerry found Nurudeen’s name on the tip of his tongue, but he held it there, deciding that it might be better to retain some secrecy for a while.
    â€œIt was not one of your men, Joseph,” he said.
    â€œYessir, not one of my men.”
    Jerry could see that Joseph wanted to be told, but he suddenly needed to know immediately whether or not Nurudeen was in school, so he left Joseph standing there, saying he’d tell him everything later on. It was good luck that he hadn’t expelled the boy. With Nurudeen around, perhaps the key to the truth was at hand.
    Inside the main office the school secretary said she was sorry and then handed him a stack of pink message slips, as well as copies of the morning newspapers. The story of his ordeal was everywhere, but there were no photographs. Somehow, during all the time he’d been held, no one had taken his picture, and that suddenly seemed very strange to him, giving him, however briefly, the idea that maybe someone was working on his behalf on the inside.
    Leonard Holtz came in and took his arm. “Everyone’s waiting,” he said. “Some of them can only stay a minute.”
    Jerry was rested and his head was clear but he wanted to use his time finding Nurudeen, reading the stories in the newspapers, and deciding what he should do. A school board had its place, but at the moment it was far less important to him than it wanted to be. Still, Holtz was pulling on him so he tucked the papers under his arm and followed Leonard down the hall, glancing first at the messages that he held. The top one said, “Pamela called.” His secretary had written the additional word “twice” on the memo, but there was no phone number, and no other clue as to what her business might have been.
    The school board meeting was short and its tone was supportive. Jerry was told that the school’s attorney could be used and that school time could be spent getting to the bottom of it all, but when the meeting ended and he went into his office again, his mood had darkened, and his anger rose, focusing, oddly enough, on the people around him, on the board members and on his steward, on the worthless phone messages that his secretary took. And as he sat there he realized that somewhere along the line he