Are You Nuts? by Mark Richard Zubro Page B

in her midtwenties. She wore casual shorts and a Harvard University T-shirt. From the grime and dust on her hands, I presumed she’d been unpacking textbooks in her room. Rachel was fun to sit next to at department meetings. She had plenty of sarcastic comments to share under her breath. The funniest times were when she would make a joke, I would laugh, and she would sit stony-faced as if she had nothing to do with my roaring mirth.
    I said, “Meg’s been arrested for murder.”
    â€œWe know,” Rachel said. “That’s part of what is so funny. I can maybe picture Meg slowly reading someone to death, but not bopping them over the head.”
    â€œEverybody knows how it happened?”
    â€œI heard it was the Oxford English Dictionary . The abridged, one-volume edition.” This comment was from Jim Geraghty, another member of the department. A good-looking man, he spent a great deal of time campaigning to be English department chair. He was pleasant enough and usually on my side in interdepartmental squabbles.
    â€œYou guys aren’t sorry Jerome’s dead?”
    â€œAre you?” Jim asked.
    â€œI worked with him a few times with the union.”
    â€œI’m sad about him dying,” Rachel said, “but it’s like at a wake, especially when you didn’t know the person. Laughter helps sometimes, and Meg was so funny last night.”
    I put some quarters in the pop machine, got a soda, and sat down at their table.
    I said, “I wish I’d been there. What happened?”
    â€œWell,” Rachel began, “first one of those religious-right people got up and said we should start the meeting with a prayer and saying the Pledge of Allegiance.”
    Jim continued, “Louis Johnson just gave a weak smile and said he guessed it would be okay. Before anybody could object or say something intelligent, there we all were standing up praying and pledging.”
    â€œLouis is a waste of good breathable air,” Rachel said. “Before Amelia Gregory could get halfway through her opening statement, Lydia Marquez stood up and said she had a point of order. Poor old Louis never had a chance. Before long both sides were shouting to be heard. Carolyn Blackburn finally took control. That helped keep things sane, but it didn’t keep people from saying some pretty nasty stuff.”
    Jim put in, “While Meg was giving her talk at the lectern, one of them walked up with a Bible and waved it in front of her. All Meg said was, ‘It would help some if you were literate enough to read that.’”
    â€œDid anyone see Jerome leave?”
    â€œWe’ve been trying to figure that out,” Jim said. “Each of us has been in to talk to the cops. They told us not to discuss it among ourselves, but this is the biggest thing to happen in the school in ages. We’re curious too.”
    â€œAs near as we can figure,” Rachel said, “he left about the time the voting began.”
    Jim nodded. He added, “We know for sure he didn’t come back and wasn’t there for the announcement of the results.”
    â€œThey talked about you a little,” Rachel said.
    â€œThat didn’t get far,” Jim said. “They can’t just take off after a teacher at some PTA meeting. A lot of the teachers lined up to talk after that. Their side could barely get a word in edgewise. We’ve got to protect our own.”
    â€œWho left when?”
    â€œHard to remember,” Rachel said. “Louis Johnson announced the vote so he was there at the end. A lot of people were still around. There wasn’t an organized exodus.”
    I said, “The police must be keeping a huge chart on who was where when.”
    â€œMaybe not,” Rachel said. “They’ve got their suspect. When they talked to me, they seemed to be more interested in confirming what they already knew. If I were you, I’d be suspicious of