Chapter 7

7

L ouis sat in the kitchen, eating the steak and French fries the cook had set out for him. Paltier came in and asked how his lunch was, and he grunted in reply. He’s only nice to me because he’s an employee . Even as the uncharitable thought crossed his mind, he knew it wasn’t fair. Paltier had always been kind to him.

Louisknew he wasn’t overly friendly. He used to talk too much—could say “Papa” forty times in the space of an hour. Now he never had anything worth saying. He wondered if he ever would. The phone buzzed next to him.

Hi L. Talked to ur dad in London.

Ya. Was there w/ Manon.

Have u met her yet?

RU kidding? Then he’d have to spend time w/me.

Come on. U know he only pretends 2b tuff.

Whatevs. How’s ur bf?

Good. Ull meet him soon.

Really? Ur bringing him to France?

Ull see. TTYL – have class. Stay off the drugs.

After a minute, Louis received another text:

I mean it.

Louis deleted the conversation and speared a French fry with his fork. He was nervous. Jumpy. He wished he hadn’t told Isabelleabout the pot. He liked her and trusted her—probably more than anyone. However, he liked to keep his own counsel, and only told her one night in a moment of weakness when he thought he was smoking too much. Now that it was daytime, and sunny and cheerful outside, he realized he had been exaggerating the problem.

He took his last bite and drank an entire glass of water. Then he jumped up, wiped his mouth on the cloth napkin, and slung his sack over his shoulder. It was a quick walk to the school, but he was early and didn’t go straight there. He lit a cigarette, and started smoking as he headed towards the old fountain. Walking past the smaller family houses, ones that most people would find majestic, he imagined the people’s lives there, filled with the warmthhis own household lacked. Maybe it was simply because there were fewer echoing rooms to fill. He hitched his bag higher on his shoulder and scowled.

Louis hadn’t gone out of town with his father in years. He always stayed behind with Paltier or one of the other staff members. He had looked forward to their trip to Deauville but had found his father distant and testy, asking too many questions about how Louis spent his time. He knows about the drugs, he thought. Probably the only reason he invited me.

When he arrived at his destination, Jean was already there. He was an older man—Louis guessed in his mid-twenties or thirties—and he always dressed well, but young. Today he was wearing designer jeans, an Oxford, and a padded designer vest. Louis liked the guy because he didn’t treat him like a stupid kid. Jeanwas seated on a bench facing the fountain, and Louis reached down and shook his hand before sitting next to him.

They both faced forward, and Louis took out his textbook so it looked like they were discussing his studies together. This had been Jean’s idea. Louis spoke first. “So there are five people whowant to buy.”

“That’s good,” Jean said. “Up from last week, which means there’ll be more for you.”

“Yeah.” Louis’s mouth turned downwards. “The two extra people are from word of mouth because I’m not friends with a lot of people.”

Jean responded with a shrug. “You will be. You’ll be the most sought-after guy in school. Don’t you worry about it. People love the guy who can provide the entertainment.”

Louis nodded and pulled out the euros stuck in the pages of his textbook. He slid them discreetly to Jean underneath the book. Jean took the money and slid a couple small bags of marijuana back.

“Do you know of any parties coming up where they might want more?”

“I’ll ask around,” Louis answered. “I don’t wanna draw a lot of attention to myself, especially since no one really knows me.”

“Don’t worry,” Jean soothed.“Take it slow." He held out his fist, and Louis bumped it with his own.

"If I don’t hear from you before then, I’ll see you next Monday. You know how to reach me if there’s a problem."Jean stood and stretched, and when he did that, he looked like someone Louis’s age. “By the way, there’s a little surprise for you in your bag to help you get through the rest of the day.” With a wink, Jean sauntered down the street, his hands in his pockets.

As soon as Jeanwas gone, Louis peeked inside the bag of marijuana that he supposed to be his own. There was a little red pill inside. He was surprised because he had never taken anything that didn’t require smoking. He sat for a moment, considering. It must be safe to take now if Jean had told him he could get through the day like that. The more he thought about it, the more appealing the idea was. There was an additional benefit—he would have no telltale smell of marijuana. I’ll just try it. His pulse quickened.

Chastity was crossing the street towards the school entrance when someone called her name. It was Marc.

“Oh, hey.” A blush stole over her features. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m not stalking you, don’t worry.” Marc laughed. “I had to meet a friend in the area.”

“Really?” She raised her eyebrows. “You know people in Maisons-Laffitte besides us?”

“I really do.” He grinned disarmingly. “I still have a few friends from my summer visits home who are willing to be seen with me. One of them has moved out here.”

“Oh, good.” Chastity was distracted. She didn’t expect to meet Marc here, and she wasn’t sure how she looked. Plus, her class was about to start in fifteen minutes. Yikes. I forgot to get the handouts I need for the next class.

Marc studied her face. “I can see I caught you off-guard. Sorry about that. When I saw you, I didn’t want to keep walking without saying hello.” Hescratched his chin, which had a tiny bit of stubble on it. He looks cute —the thought distracted her even more.

“Anyway,” Marc continued. “We never set up another coffee date. Do you have time this weekend? Unless—did you want to have dinner with me instead?”

“Um…” Chastity was trying to sort out what she wanted. “You know what? Let’s stick to coffee dates for now. I don’t want to have to worry about finding a babysitter.” Or about explaining to Thomas why I’d be going out with his father without him.

“Okay, so then Saturday?” Marc leaned in. “I’ll call you.”

“That sounds fine,” Chastity said, evading his kiss aimed at her cheek. “See you.”

When she arrived in the building, she found her heart was beating fast. She tried to decipher what that meant, and whether she could possibly be falling forMarcagain. That, my dear girl, would be the height of folly.

She ran up the stairs, and after a quick detour in her office, walked into the small classroom, which sat sixteen at most. This was her largest class for the day, and no one was there yet. She went over to the whiteboard and wrote at the top.

Reflective Essay

What cultural elements of the Colombian fishing village played into Santiago Nasar’s death?

As she was writing the other questions, the crowd of students that had congregated outside the doorway began to enter the room noisily, throwing their book bags downand talking over one another.

“Take a seat, everyone,” Chastity commanded over the bustle. “We’ve got a lot to cover this afternoon, and you have a homework assignment. The more we have time to discuss in class, the easier the assignment is going to be for you.”

Everyone settled into their chairs, got out their laptops—or in some cases—their notebooks and pens. A few took out the book.

“I hope everyone had a good lunch.” Chastity gave a friendly smile and continued, “but not so good that you’re falling asleep.” She wrinkled her nose, and a few laughed. The students generally liked her, but they didn’t want to break the secret teenage code and make her life any easier by showing it.

“You were supposed to have finished reading the book by now. How many of you really did that?” Almost everyone raised their hands, but a few made her doubt their veracity.

“Good,” she said brightly. “Then it should be no problem for you—”

She was interrupted by Louis’s entrance.

“Sorry, Miss Whitmore.” His words tumbled out. “I didn’t mean to be late. I was in the library trying to finish the book and then a class came in, so I went down to the computer room, but there was a class there too. So I went outside and read on the bench and didn’t notice the time. As soon as I saw I was late for class, I rushed right in. I’m here now, though. Prepared to work. Ah. Here’s a seat.”

He dropped his bag on the table and hooked the chair with his foot, pulling it out with a loud scrape so he could sit. He pulled the contents out of his bag and put them on the table noisily, opening his computer and squinting at the board to read the words before typing them on a new document. He did all this with precise movements and loud alacrity.

“Okaaay,” Chastity said. If she were not so alarmed by his behavior, she would have wanted to laugh. He had not spoken that many words in the entire semester so far, and this…"Energizer Bunny" was a far cry from his usual state of sullen lassitude. A few of the students were giggling, and others were looking at Louis curiously.

With practiced deftness, she took control of the situation. “So let’s take a look at the first question. What are the cultural elements in the story?”

The hand of the brightest student in the class shot up. “One of the cultural elements is religious piety, which would cause an entire town to rush to the dock to meet the bishop, giving opportunity for a murder.”

“Great point, Samantha,” Louis interjected before Chastity could comment. “I hadn’t thought about that aspect of it. I was more focused on machismo and family honor.” He put his head back down and began to type madly again.

At this, the whole class erupted in laughter. Samantha was offended.

“Yes,” Chastity said evenly. “Samantha, you’re absolutely right. Religious piety is often overlooked as a contributing factor, but it’s true that it provided an opportunity for the murder. It also affected the way the people viewed the murder, as the priest did not publicly condemn it.”

“And you’re right too, Louis,” she continued smoothly. “Family honor and machismo are perhaps the two dominant cultural elements that contribute to Santiago Nasar’s death.” She turned to the class. “Now. Someone tell me—how is that so? How do they contribute?”

A student named Justin raised his hand casually. “The Vicario brothers couldn’t let Bayardo send their sister home because she wasn’t a virgin without going after the guy who did that to her.”

“She wasn't a viiirgin .” Louis played with the words dreamily, biting his lip on the V sound and then puckering his lips out for the rest. He said suddenly. “Hey. We don’t know whether she was a virgin or not. We don’t know whether Santiago did it. Whether they did it.”

People in the class started laughing again. “That’s half-true, Louis,” Chastity said, raising her voice over the noise. “It’s pretty well accepted that Angela was not a virgin, but it’s never sure whether Santiago was involved or whether it was someone else.”

“What are some of the other cultural elements?” Chastity prompted, trying to turn the teenagers from the runaway subject ofvirginity. Some of the kids in the class launched into a discussion, in which Louis didn’t participate. After having typed every word that had just been discussed, he stopped suddenly and scrutinized a spot on the wall near the ceiling. He stared, immobile, barely blinking.

Chastity kept the discussion going, and only glanced at him discreetly from time to time to see how he was doing. Her mind was turning over what should be done. Should she talk to his father again? Ugh. She didn't want to do that. She definitely needed to speak with the principal about this because his behavior was uncharacteristic. Should she offer student counseling in hopes it might encourage him to open up? She was worried and unnerved by his behavior.

Towards the end of the class, Louis snapped out of his trance and seemed to come to life again. He didn’t participate. However, he took furious notes and flipped through the pages of the book whenever the teacher referenced a passage. She had never seen anyone so assiduous in class, much less Louis.

When the bell rang, everyone shoved their books back into their bags and stood, talking.

"Wait. Not so fast." Chastity gestured for everyone to sit back down. "You should’ve all noted the questions. I want you to write a one-page reflective essay on how your perspective changed on at least two of these issues following our class discussion.It's due next class. Got it?"

A few students muttered their assent, and the rest of the class began walking towardsthe door. Louis did the same, making a beeline forMax and slapping him on the shoulder. “So. Max. Do you know of any parties going on this weekend?”

Max frowned at him. “Ah, sure. I’ll be sure and let you know.” He and his friend exchanged a look.

Louis followed them out of the classroom, waving to people in the hallway he barely ever spoke to, much to their amazement. “Hi, Tiphaine. Hi, Vincent.” They offered him tentative smiles and turned away.

There was not another class scheduled for the next period, so Chastity did not immediately gather her materials. She erased the board mechanically and chewed her lip. Setting the eraser on the metal ledge, she sat back down again. Suddenly she shuddered. I do not want to have to call that man back in here, but I don’t see how I’m going to avoid it.