Chapter 4: A Difference of Opinion

26 February 2013 – Devens Regional High School, Shirley, Massachusetts

Once again, her mother was correct. As a teenager, it irked Sabrina to admit that.

When Shirley Police launched their investigation, the other secretaries in the office claimed there were no ‘statements’ to hand over. The detective wordlessly spread the copies obtained from Nicole Latham on the counter, and the woman on the other side flinched under his gaze.

Nicole Latham was sent home and was absent after someone told Principal Atwater she had passed copies of the other students’ statements to Keiko. It’s too bad they didn’t know about the other copies in her large handbag, the copies she delivered to Josh Abernathy’s firm.

“‘Wisdom is but the difference between knowledge and experience,’ Sabrina,” her mother said when Sabrina brought up her apparent foreknowledge of what would happen. “Hopefully, my prediction regarding school leadership will not prove true, either.”

The Shirley detective called in the state police detectives from the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office to help investigate the assault complaints and the school’s tampering with evidence. Within hours of Keiko and Sabrina walking out of Devens Regional, six town and state police cruisers arrived. The investigating officers held the office staff late into the evening.

Devens Regional’s teachers’ union president called Keiko that night for an off-the-record chat.

“Keiko, there’s a group at the high school pushing for your dismissal,” Tracy Pomeranz warned her. “Nicole Latham has been fired. Even though it’s wrong, the union can’t do anything about it because she’s not a member.”

“And what of the superintendent? What does he have to say?”

“I haven’t been able to reach him yet. The main office keeps brushing me off.”

“Thank you for the warning, Tracy. I do appreciate it. Our lawyers know what they are trying to do to my daughter. I shall inform them of this, however.”

Mrs. Haversham ordered Sabrina to report to the administration office after school on Thursday with her parents. The teacher looked a little too self-satisfied when she delivered that message. When Sabrina told her mother about the meeting, Keiko whipped out her cell phone and began a whispered conversation.

“Do not worry, Sabrina,” Keiko smiled after she hung up. “Everything will be fine.”

Sabrina shivered as she walked out of her mother’s classroom, picturing her mother as a bird of prey about to pounce on some small animal. At the end of the school day, they walked into the admin office together.

“Good, I’ll tell Mr. Atwater you’re here,” Nancy Bullock said when she saw them. She picked up the phone.

“You will do no such thing!” Keiko growled, stopping the woman. “My daughter was told to be here with ‘her parents,’ not ’a parent.’ When my husband arrives, then you may notify Mr. Atwater, and not before.”

Nancy Bullock gulped, and the color drained from her face. She lowered the phone’s handset and backed away from the counter. Keiko smiled when Jeff arrived, followed by Josh Abernathy.

“Joshua, thank you for coming,” Keiko said as she hugged and kissed their long-time lawyer.

“Are you kidding?” he chuckled. “This is gonna be great!” He glanced at Sabrina and did a double-take. “Holy cow, Keiko! When did little Sabrina grow up? She could be your sister!”

“That’s what exactly worries me...” Jeff griped.

“Sabrina, I’ll do most of the talking,” Mr. Abernathy told her. “I’ll give you a signal if it’s okay to answer a question, but look at me first before you say anything, okay?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Everyone ready, then?” Josh turned to the office staff when the three of them nodded. “My clients are prepared to meet with Mr. Atwater at this time,” he said.

A smug-looking Eleanor Haversham stood beside Principal Don Atwater’s desk. Jeff gestured for the others to sit in the three available chairs. He stood behind them, scowling back at Mrs. Haversham. His scowl was more unnerving than her smirk. The older woman gulped.

“Miss Knox, you are being expelled for the fight you started at this school on February 27th of this year,” Don Atwater said without preamble and without noticing Jeff’s look. “As you should already know, the Devens Regional School District has a zero-tolerance policy on fighting.”

“And the other two students who were involved in this incident?” Josh Abernathy asked.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Atwater asked as if he hadn’t noticed Josh in the room before.

“Joshua Abernathy. I’m the senior managing partner at Abernathy and Associates, LLP in Clinton, and the Knox family’s chief attorney. Now, as to my question?”

“We cannot discuss matters involving other families,” Don Atwater said with finality.

“Even when they involve my client?”

“No.”

“Very well. I do appreciate your making my job easy in that case.”

Josh rose from his chair. He opened his briefcase and pulled out a stack of paper. Like a poker dealer, he began arranging documents on Don Atwater’s desk, one by one.

<slap!>

“This document is an injunction from the federal court seated in Worcester for the District of Massachusetts. It prohibits any action against Miss Sabrina M. Knox under the protections granted by the federal whistleblower statutes.”

<slap!>

“This document is a federal civil rights suit filed in Worcester against the Devens Regional School District and its agents – namely you and one Ethan R. Lonergan – for sexual discrimination against Miss Sabrina M. Knox, under the federal law more commonly known as ‘Title IX.’”

<slap!>

“This document is an injunction from the First District Court of Northern Middlesex in Ayer prohibiting you from taking disciplinary action against Miss Sabrina M. Knox. It also requires that you place her back in all her classes, both in good standing and until further notice. This order results from your one-sided handling of this incident.”

Don Atwater’s face lost more and more of its once confident look as the documents landed on his desk.

<slap!>

“This document is a civil suit filed with the Northern Middlesex District Court in Ayer, on behalf of the Devens Teachers’ Association, against the Devens Regional School District for breach of contract due to its actions against Mrs. Keiko T. Knox. Specifically, it states the district and its agent – again, you – are guilty of attempting to prohibit Mrs. Knox from acting in her parental capacity when no other parent or guardian was available. A violation of section twelve, paragraph four of the collective bargaining agreement.”

Josh paused for effect before dropping the last document onto Atwater’s desk.

<slap!>

“This document is a civil suit filed with the Northern Middlesex District Court in Ayer against the Devens Regional School District, seeking damages as a result of the district’s inaction during and following the assaults on Miss Sabrina M. Knox on the 27th of February this year. The suit again names the district’s agents: you and Mrs. Eleanor Haversham.”

Don Atwater and Eleanor Haversham stared at the array of documents. They looked up at Josh Abernathy in disbelief. Josh made a show of looking at his phone.

“When you announced your intention to expel my client, I advised a process server waiting outside the school district’s offices in Ayer to deliver copies of these notices. He texted me moments ago to inform me that they had been served. He’s an off-duty Middlesex County deputy sheriff, in case you or the district try to claim you were never served.”

Those in the principal’s office heard the phones in the outer office begin ringing. Josh motioned for the Knox family to rise.

“I suspect that at least one of those phone calls is for you, Mr. Atwater. We will leave now to give you some privacy.” Sabrina saw Josh smile in the same predatory manner as her mother had earlier. “Good day to you both.”

“In case you do not have enough to read tonight, Mr. Atwater,” Keiko said in a flat, emotionless voice as she dropped a sealed envelope atop the legal notices.

“That is my resignation, effective immediately. A copy of this resignation letter was delivered to the district offices with the other legal documents, and a follow-up copy will be delivered by registered mail. I have removed my personal property from my classroom.

“I have informed my colleagues that they may take what they wish from whatever remains. I can no longer work for a school district which so lawlessly tramples people’s rights or does so cavalierly and frequently.”

Keiko spun on her heel and left the offices. In the outer office, she checked her mailbox. After throwing out the school supply catalogs she no longer needed, she peeled her name off the mailbox, turned in her school ID and school keys, and left.

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

Sabrina sat on the floor in her room with strains of Pink Floyd’s song ‘The Final Cut’ echoing around her.

She heard her father play it often enough around the anniversaries of the deaths of battle buddies, including her Uncle Ken’s, so she knew it would fit her mood. The song was almost as old as her parents, but the slow lament of the music soothed her nerves. She stopped crying sometime around the fifth or sixth time the song repeated.

Her father entered after a soft knock on the door. He walked over, sat on the floor next to her, and gathered her in his arms. Sabrina sobbed again.

“Princess, what’s the matter? You’re playing Floyd, so it’s gotta be bad.”

Sabrina shook her head.

“Honey, I can’t help if you won’t tell me what’s wrong.”

“Mom quit her job because of me, Dad, a job she loved,” she sniffed.

“Oh, Princess, she’s needed to quit that job ever since Mr. Hammond retired, and they named that idiot, Don Atwater, principal.”

Sabrina snorted a quick laugh.

“You didn’t hear me say that about Mr. Atwater, by the way.”

“Hear what, Dad?” she snickered while drying her tears.

“Hilarious, Sabrina. Now, about your mom’s job at the high school, Sensei Doug has been trying to get your mother to join him as a business partner for almost two years. He’s seen how little she enjoyed dealing with the school administration at that time. We will buy a forty percent stake in the dojo, and your mom will become a full-time instructor. Trust me, she’ll be a lot happier there.”

Jeff grinned down at his shocked daughter.

“Plus, the more I see Doug Daoust, the more I get to needle him about becoming a grandfather.”

Sabrina laughed, her dark mood gone. Emily Daoust, her former babysitter, had married the previous summer and delivered what her father called a ‘honeymoon baby’ nine months later.

“Will I be able to keep taking my flying lessons?”

“Sure. Why wouldn’t you, Princess?”

“Well, I don’t know what Mom will make at the dojo compared to what her teaching job paid.”

“Oh, honey,” Jeff laughed, “we have more than enough for your flying lessons, don’t worry.” He saw the look on Sabrina’s face. “Princess, do you remember Dr. Sacha?”

“She was, like, one of Grandma’s first math students at Thompkins and came out for her birthday party a few years ago, right? She was cool!”

“When your mom and I got back together in ‘94, I won a court case against a company that wrongfully fired me. I used that money to invest in Dr. Sacha’s company right when she first started it. By the second time I left the Army, your mother and I owned fifteen percent of the company. We now own twenty percent. You might have heard of it – it’s called Neptune’s Forge.”

“Neptune’s Forge?” Sabrina gasped as she sat upright. “They’re like the hottest energy company out there! They’ve been credited with single-handedly cutting carbon dioxide emission levels since they started!”

Jeff nodded.

“And when they launched Poseidon Power Systems five years ago, we received a five percent stake instead of taking a larger ownership interest in Neptune’s Forge.”

Sabrina blinked. Not only did her family own a fifth of one of the fastest-growing companies out there, but they also owned part of another.

“So, you own five percent of Poseidon, too?”

“Well, no,” Jeff admitted. “That’s up to almost fifteen percent now.”

Poseidon took the fusion generator technology invented by Neptune’s Forge and leaped to direct electrical output without the internal steam turbine stage. This would mean onboard generators for electric vehicles in the future. Their current power cell model would fill the cargo area of a panel van, so it wasn’t yet practical for most mobile applications, but its size decreased year by year.

“Dad, that’s cool and all, but the fact remains that Mom quit her job because of stuff I did at school.”

“Sabrina, honey, let me explain something. You didn’t ‘do’ anything except defend yourself and stand up for others. That’s exactly what we’ve been trying to teach you and your brothers to do. And your mom defended you as well, which also pissed off the school. But, as parents, that’s what we do. We will go to the wall for you kids. We will give up everything to keep you safe from whatever. Honey, do you understand that your mom and I would die for you?”

Jeff saw the tears in Sabrina’s eyes as she thought about the possibility of losing her parents.

“Again, Princess, most parents would do that for their kids. You know the scar on my back?”

“The one near your belt line?”

“That’s the one. I didn’t get that because I bumped into something sharp in New Orleans, as we told you. I got that scar because someone tried to kill me.”

“WHAT?”

“Our first few hours in the convention center weren’t pretty. Some guys grabbed your mother and were going to rape her. Rape her, Sabrina. Mr. Ezra and I stopped them, but one of them tried to stab me in the side with a knife. We fought not only to defend ourselves but to stay alive so we could get back home to you kids.

“We didn’t tell you what happened down there because we didn’t think you were old enough yet to handle the raw truth. That’s no longer the case, and I’ll tell your mom that later tonight. The other thing I want to be honest with you about is that I would have killed to get home to you guys, Sabrina. I did it in Afghanistan and would have done it in New Orleans if I felt I needed to. I have no doubt the same is true for your mother.” Sabrina stared at her father.

“I’m glad you didn’t have to, Dad, but why didn’t you need to?”

“Because the guy in New Orleans was out of the fight when I slugged him in the jaw. After that, other people jumped to our defense, so we didn’t have to take that step. But, if it came down to it, I wouldn’t leave a live enemy behind me.”

“How do you know when not to?”

“I wish I could give you a good answer, Sabrina,” Jeff sighed. “It’s become instinct for me, and New Orleans wasn’t war. The Infantry School at Fort Benning first taught me how and when to control it when I was eighteen. The Rangers sharpened that control when I went back in when you were younger. Now, anyone threatening me or someone I love will be put down, and put down hard, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll die because of it.”

Jeff stood.

“Enough guts and glory talk. Let’s go have dinner.”

The return of spring brought the end of the hockey season for the Fitchburg Shockers. They made the league playoffs but were ousted in the first round. Still, Coach Savard was pleased with how the young team performed in their first year. He looked forward to next season. He reminded the players to stay in shape over the summer.

Sabrina restarted her flying lessons. She hugged Hamish MacDougall when she saw him again because she hadn’t taken any lessons since the beginning of November. The redheaded giant froze when Sabrina first hugged him. He glanced over at Jeff. Jeff nodded, and Hamish relaxed and hugged Sabrina back.

“It’s good to see you again, Mr. Hamish!”

“Och, lassie, it does an auld mahn good to see ye again as well.”

“‘Old man?’ My dad’s the only ‘old man’ I see around here!”

Hamish laughed with Sabrina while Jeff frowned.

“And have you beat this ‘old man’ in a running contest yet?”

“Whatever, Dad.”

“Fine,” Jeff said as he walked away. “Have a good walk home!” he called over his shoulder.

Sabrina scoffed at her father before hooking Hamish’s arm to pull him out of the office.

“C’mon, Mr. Hamish, let’s go flying!”

After completing the pre-flight and start-up checklists, Sabrina lifted the Cessna off the runway and into the blue sky.

“Oh, man, I’ve missed being up here!”

“It does grow on one a bit, doesn’t it, lassie?”

“Och, aye, Mr. Hamish!” Sabrina said with a giggle and a passible Scottish burr.

“Cool! From up heah you can see wicked fah!” Hamish retorted in an exaggerated Boston accent. Sabrina burst into laughter and had tears streaking down her cheeks in no time.

“Oh my God!” she gasped as she tried to catch her breath. “How long have you been saving that one up?”

“A while,” he admitted. Sabrina laughed again, and a sad grin crossed Hamish’s face.

“What is it, Mr. Hamish?”

“Nothing, lass, nothing.”

“Mr. Hamish, come on. What’s wrong?”

“Ye reminded me of my wee niece just now, lassie.” Hamish shook his head. He paused and looked out the side window. “I havnæ seen her in some time.”

“How old is she?”

“She’s næ so ‘wee’ any longer. She’d be about your age now.”

“I was born in ‘98. How about her?”

“Aye,” he said with a sigh.

Sabrina could tell he wanted to be done with the subject. She had one last question, though.

“Did something happen to make you leave Scotland and not go back? Is that why you haven’t seen her in a while?”

“Aye...”

The return of spring also brought the return of baseball to the American landscape. The Red Sox began the 2013 season on the road against their arch-nemeses, the New York Yankees. April started with the Sox playing .500 baseball by the events of Patriots’ Day.

Patriots’ Day is a state holiday in Massachusetts, Maine, and a few other states. In Massachusetts, it is celebrated on the Monday closest to the actual anniversary of Lexington and Concord, April 19th. Patriots’ Day commemorates those battles in 1775, which started the American Revolution. The first shots fired collectively became known as ‘The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.’

That Monday is also the day the Boston Marathon is held. Marathon Monday is a special day around the region. Starting near dawn, hardy souls can watch reenactments on Lexington Green and at the Old North Bridge in Concord before a Red Sox game starts just after eleven a.m.