An Old-Fashioned Education (7 page)

“You’re not gossiping,” Polly said. “You’re informing me of something I have a right to know. Do you think this is why Paul is so angry with me?”

Noni nodded and sniffed. “Paul is a good man, but he’s a hard man and sees things through a narrow lens. He thinks it’s improper, your staying with Walt. He thinks you did what you did to get closer to him.”

“What?” Polly couldn’t help but to feel angry.

“Yeah, that’s what he thinks. He said Walt is a catch, with his big cabin and good looks. You’re the only single woman in Pepper’s Hollow. He said it’s only natural that you would find a way to get closer to him and that women sometimes act out to get attention.”

“Your husband is delusional,” Polly said, standing up. “Walt Springer is the last man I’d ever be interested in, and if I’d known what he—or this community—was like I’d never have come. You need to tell Paul that if Walt were such a prize his wife would still be with him.”

“It wasn’t Walt’s fault that Melissa turned her back on our way of life,” Noni said almost defensively.

“No?” Polly knew there was no point in arguing with Noni, who thought that living in fear of one’s husband was perfectly fine and normal. She wondered whether Walt had made a habit of lying to Melissa “for her own good.” But she didn’t get to ponder it for long before Walt himself walked in to pick up the kids, who were playing a board game at the back of the room.

Noni almost jumped up and said a hurried goodbye before heading out the door.

“What’s got her so jumpy?” Walt asked.

“I have no idea,” she said. If he could lie, so could she.

“Did you have a good day?” he asked.

“It was … illuminating,” Polly replied, picking up her bag.

Walt was staring at her. “Is that a good thing?”

All the other children had been collected and now it was just her and Walt now. She shut the door, looking across the room to make sure that Aidan and Kerry were still occupied.

“You lied to me, Walt,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“You told me that the community insisted I stay with you, but that’s not true, is it?”

Walt crossed his arms. “Who told you that? Noni?”

“Why do you want to know?” she asked. “So you can tell Paul? So he can beat her for telling me the truth?”

“Women here aren’t beaten,” he said. “They’re spanked.”

“If women are spanked to keep them cowed and afraid then they might as well be beaten,” she said hotly. “And if they’re lied to then don’t be surprised if they want to leave.” She paused. “Even if they’re married to you.”

“That’s not fair, Polly.”

“It’s not fair that you lied to me,” she said. “You told me you were trying to make things easier, but I know that there was opposition to what you’ve done. People here didn’t think I should be staying with you, Mr. Springer, and I agree.”

“Polly–”

“So why did you do it?” she went on, ignoring his attempts to interrupt. “I have a right to know the truth.”

“Because I want you to stay, okay? It’s hard for you to get a real feel for the community if you’re tucked away from your own cabin and keep to yourself, if the only contact you really have is with the kids. You see what you want to see. You don’t see us for who we are, you don’t see me as leader of this community for who I am!”

She looked at him, shaking her head. “I’m not staying, Walt, okay? And you were wrong to lie to me. I have a mind to tell the community that you lied about them.”

“Don’t do that.” His tone was hard.

“Why shouldn’t I? Because you’ll spank me if I do?”

“No. But don’t do it. Winters are hard enough. People are short-tempered.” He sighed. “I was wrong to lie to you. But I was afraid if I told you this was my idea you’d get the wrong idea, maybe think I was trying to lure you into my life somehow. But I’m not like that, regardless of what you think. I miss Melissa. God knows, I miss her every day, but I didn’t want you to think I was trying to lure a pretty female teacher in to take her place. I really did just want you to see things a little more clearly. I shouldn’t have lied to you; I sure shouldn’t have lied about the community. But if you go telling the community that I lied about them, it’s going to undermine my leadership during the toughest time of the year.”

Polly scoffed. “So I’m accountable to you, but you don’t want to be accountable to them. Nice.”

“I deserved that,” he said quietly. “Will it be enough for you if I promise to come clean after the thaw? Before you … leave.” His voice was pained as he said the word.

“I plan to hold you to it,” she said.

He fell silent. “You’re a tough cookie, Polly.”

“Thanks for noticing,” she said. “I’ll keep quiet for now. But don’t lie to me again, okay?”

He removed his glove and extended it. Polly accepted the handshake he offered. His hand was hard and warm.

“I promise,” he said.

Polly sat in her room, going over her hand-written lesson plans. She tried not to feel angry at being denied the computer—
her
computer—that Walt Springer had confiscated. It would make things much easier, she thought, to be able to type things out and organize lessons using software she’d installed specifically for that purpose.

She sighed as she picked up the stack of papers and straightened them by tapping them on the small desk. It had been two days since Walt had admitted to her that it had been his personal decision—and not the community’s—for her to move into his cabin. His confession had explained why so many of the members of Pepper’s Hollow had been casting disapproving glances in her direction; in some cases the glances of women were openly hostile. Polly knew what they were thinking—she’d used her whiles to worm her way into the home of the most eligible bachelor in town, their leader, when the exact opposite was true. Walt had forced her to come live with him; he’d told her that the community had commanded it. Now here she was, stuck with him and his overbearing, patriarchal manner and knowing that he could and would spank he if he deemed it warranted. And there was nothing she could say to set those straight who suspected otherwise.

There was a tap at the bedroom door. Polly laid her papers down and smiled. It was a small tap. She knew right away who it was.

“Hi, sweetie!” she said, stepping aside as she opened the door. “Do you want to come it?”

“If I’m not bothering you.”

“You could never bother me.” Polly put her hand on Kerry’s shoulder and guided her into the room. The little girl was the one bright spot in the disaster that had become her career at Pepper’s Hollow. Kerry had been taught not to impose, but when she requested Polly’s company her little eyes were so earnest and full of longing that Polly could never say refuse. There was something sad about the little girl, although it wasn’t hard to figure it out. Being abandoned by her mother had been bad enough. But the way Walt had minimized the disruption in their family was taking its toll on the family. The kids needed therapy, especially Aidan, whose anger seemed too obvious to Polly.

The boy barely spoke to Polly, and when he did it was with the kind of tone kids use when they want an adult to realize that the respect they’re showing is only forthcoming because it is required of them. When Aidan was especially surly, Polly would glance at his father. But Walt seemed either clueless or unwilling to acknowledge the hostility dripping from the “yes ma’ams” he offered.

But Polly wasn’t about to call attention to it, not with Walt’s belief that a good spanking would correct any problem. In her case, spanking—she had to admit begrudgingly—had worked. She still regretted breaking the radio, and not just because of the potential problems she could have caused. No, the memory of being trapped over Walt Springer’s hard thighs as his hand had peppered her bottom with relentless, stinging spanks would stay with her forever. Of that she was sure.

“Papa said it’s going to snow again.” Kerry climbed up on Polly’s bed and eyeing Polly’s stuffed dog. She’d become quite attached to it, but still made sure to politely ask before snuggling with it. This time, Polly anticipated the question.

“You need to hold my pup?”

Kerry nodded and slid her hand over to draw the stuffed animal into her embrace. Polly smiled at her and looked out the window. It was darker than usual out. The clouds had moved in earlier in the day and now obscured the moonlight. The snow was already drifting halfway up to her window. How much more would they get? Earlier in the day, when she’d walked past a group of residents at lunch, she heard one of the men speaking in worried tones about the severity of the winter and the coming storm. “It’s always been rough here in the winter, but never this rough,” he’d said.

“I hope we don’t run out of food.” Kerry was staring out the window now, her fingers playing in the synthetic fur of the toy dog.

Polly sighed and sat down on the bed beside the little girl, putting her arms around her. “Don’t worry. They won’t run out of food.”

“We,” Kerry said, looking up at her. “You’re supposed to say ‘we,’ not ‘they’, because you’re part of the community now.”

Polly felt her heart twist. She was struggling for a reply when her bedroom door opened a crack.

“Kerry? You in there?”

“She’s with me,” Polly replied.

Walt opened the door but didn’t come in.

“Come on, honey,” he said. “I told you not to bother your teacher.”

“She’s not bothering me,” Polly said, pulling the little girl to her. “She just needed some company.”

“She can have company later. It’s time for her to do the dishes.”

“I’ll do them.” Polly got off the bed and walked to the door, but Walt held his hand up.

“No, that’s Kerry’s chore. Come on, Kerry.”

But Polly stood up. “Since I’m living here now under questionable pretenses, I think I have some say in what I am allowed to do. If washing the dishes is Kerry’s chore, then I can accept that. But I’m going to help her, Walt. And I won’t take no for an answer.”

At her side, Kerry gawked up at her in obvious awe that anyone would speak to her father like that. Kerry did not wait for a reply. “Come on, Polly.”

She led the little girl into the kitchen area of the cabin. Polly pulled out a little apron from under the sink and a footstool. There was already water heating on the stove. Polly supposed that Walt usually poured this into the sink and when it was warm enough she did it herself.

“I don’t get help with my chores.” Aidan’s resentful voice piped up from behind them. “Why should Kerry?”

“All you have to do is ask, Aidan,” Polly replied. “Would you like me to help you with some of your chores tomorrow?”

“I don’t want any help.” He glared at Polly, and she was again aware of how much he resented her presence.

“Aidan!” Walt stalked over and took his son by the arm. “Do you need a whippin’?”

“No, Papa.” The boy’s answer was quiet.

“Walt–”

He shot her a stern look. “I’ve had enough interference from you,” he said and turned back to his son. “Ms. Perkins was kind to offer you help. If you don’t want it, that’s fine, but she’s a guest and I don’t expect you to talk to her like that.”

“I don’t care!” The little boy pulled away violently and Walt started after him. But Polly rushed to grab his arm.

“Don’t,” she said. “It’s not his fault.”

“The heck it’s not. He knows better. And I told you not to interfere.”

“If you didn’t want my opinion, you should have left me in my cabin,” she said quietly.

“Polly, let go. The boy’s got a whippin’ coming.”

“No.” Her tone was resolute.

“You want to take it for him?”

His words chilled her, but not as much as the idea of having to hear an already troubled child made more troubled by unfairly applied discipline.

“If that’s what it takes, then so be it,” she heard herself say.

Walt’s eyes locked with hers. “I’ll hold you to it,” he said. “We don’t play around here at Pepper’s Hollow, young lady. I’ll find some other way to show Aidan the error of his ways, but you will take his spanking, because by interfering you’ve asked for it. Understand?”

She nodded. “Not now, though,” she said quietly. “At least wait until the kids are asleep.”

“Fine.”

She let go of his arm and turned away. Polly’s heart was in her throat, but it wasn’t yet near bedtime and she consoled herself with the knowledge that this would give him time to calm down and rethink the notion of having his children’s teacher stand in as a whipping boy for his son’s behavior.

They’d spoken low enough that Kerry had not heard the conversation. Polly turned her attention back to the child now, her heart lurching with sadness as she looked at the small form on the footstool struggling to heft plates into the hot water. While Polly could understand the importance of teaching responsibility, she did not approve of the gender roles Walt and the others in Pepper’s Hollow seemed so intent on instilling so far as work was concerned. Polly’s father had taught her how to change the oil in her car, change her own tires and had even encouraged her to take an auto repair class so she would not have to rely on a man if her car broke down, or be left helpless to a would-be-rescuer or unscrupulous mechanic. Likewise, her brother had been taught how to cook and do his own laundry. She didn’t think that either she or her brother was reduced in terms of femininity or masculinity.

Polly chatted with Kerry while they worked and played in impromptu game of “I Spy.” From the corner of her eye, Polly could see Aidan on the sofa, watching almost wistfully. But when she turned to look at him he pretended to be reading a book. It bothered her how out of touch Walt was with his children’s pain. Perhaps he would be more open to her talking to him about it later.

Later. She did not want to think that it would come, and found herself subconsciously dragging Kerry’s bedtime ritual out. Polly let the little girl pick out three books:
Where the Wild Things Are
,
The Giving Tree
and
The Berenstein Bears and The Spooky Old Tree.
Polly read them all, and afterwards Kerry leaned over to whisper in her ear.

“I have another book, but it’s a secret.”

“A secret book?”

Kerry nodded emphatically and then slipped off her bed. Polly watched in amusement as the little girl wiggled underneath until only the tips of her woolen socks could be seen. When she emerged, she held a book wrapped in a worn baby quilt. She unwrapped it lovingly.

“Mommy used to read it to me,” she said. “When she left, Daddy threw it in the burn barrel along with her pictures, but I pulled it out.”

She handed the book to Polly, who was familiar with the title. It was
Bunny, My Honey
, a book about a baby rabbit who, along with her duckling friend, gets separated from her mother. The baby calls for the mother, whose frantic search finally leads to her lost child. Inside the book tucked in the middle, were two photos. One was of a pretty, rosy-faced woman with long, curly blonde hair holding a younger Kerry on her lap. Aidan stood beside them, waving his arms in an attempt to get his baby sister to smile. The other picture was of the woman and Walt. They were standing in front of a half-finished cabin, their arms around one another. They looked completely happy; nothing in either of their eyes gave any indication of what turmoil was to come.

“Your mommy is pretty,” Polly said.

Kerry was quiet for a moment. Then she began to sniffle. “I have to take her picture out because sometimes I forget what she looks like.”

“Oh, honey.” Polly took the book and put the pictures back inside. Wrapping it up, she put it back under the bed. Then she took the little girl into her arms and rocked her. Kerry said nothing, but sighed softly against Polly’s chest. She was almost asleep when her brother came in the room and climbed into bed. He stared at Polly and Kerry for a moment.

“She’s too old to be rocked,” he said.

“No one’s too old to be rocked,” she replied.

Aidan turned, shut his lamp off and lay down. Polly sat there with Kerry until she was sure the little girl was asleep and then laid her down on the bed. She crept from the room, being careful to shot the door quietly. When she turned, Walt was standing there.

“Are they asleep?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s time we had our little talk. We’re going to go in my room, though. It’s away from the rest of the house.”

Polly followed him, fear and upset dogging her steps. Surely he did not mean to actually spank her. He shut the door behind them when they entered the room.

“Why did you do that earlier?”

“Why did I defend Aidan?”

“No, why did you undermine my authority?”

“Because you’re abusing it, Walt.”

“I’m abusing it? That’s what you think?” He crossed his arms.

“That’s what I know,” she said. “It seems to me that if you’re simply getting obedience of people through fear while ignoring the hurt and resentment that’s swelling underneath the surface, you’re missing the point.”

“Are you saying my kids resent me?” he asked.

Polly looked up at him. She could see anger in his eyes, and hurt.

“I think Aidan is a very angry child,” she said quietly. “I think you brought me into this house for purely selfish reasons—reasons you felt compelled to cover with a lie. You may be able to fool the adults here, but you’ve not fooled your children. They deserve to be your priority. What they think of you should mean a lot more to you than what I think of this community. But you’re so concerned that I leave this place with positive things to say that you’re ignoring the pain in your children that’s glaringly apparent to me, a total stranger!”

“They are not in pain. They are strong. Kids lose parents all the time, to divorce, death…”

“We’re not talking about just any kids, we’re talking about your kids. Ignoring their pain isn’t going to make it go away.” She paused. “ It won’t make your pain go away either.”

“I’m not in
pain
,” he said, spitting out the last word as if it were a foul thing.