Betrayal

Betrayal (Approx. 2,000 wds.)

In 1941, the year that Joe DiMaggio hit in 56 straight games and Ted
Williams hit over .400, a group of boys were playing stickball in the
gutter of their street, Webster Avenue, in the Bronx. Home plate was a
sewer cover in the middle of the gutter. The cars parked on the street
were considered part of the field.

Danny Stein, then 12 years old, went back, back, threw up his glove
and caught the ball just before it would have bounced off the gray
Chevy sedan parked by the curb in right field. His best friend, Mike
Glass, playing first base, yelled, "Nice catch, Danny." His next best
friend, Mort Kagel, at shortstop, called out, "Way to go, Danny."

Danny threw the rubber Spalding ball back to home plate and
professionally took up his position again. He was glad he'd made the
catch. He knew he was different from the other kids. He was the
smartest kid in his sixth grade class; in fact, he was going to be the
valedictorian when they graduated in a few weeks. His friends thought
he was strange because he actually liked school. He enjoyed solving
math problems and reading books. He even liked tests because he knew
he'd do well in them. Luckily, he was a pretty good ballplayer. But he
was always nervous when he played a game because he felt he had to do
well to keep being part of the gang.

The game ended when the mothers of a couple of the kids who lived in
the front apartments of the tenements that lined their street yelled
down that it was time to come up for supper. Danny, Mike and Mort hung
around on their stoop for a few minutes, arguing about who was better,
DiMaggio or Williams. Danny, a great Yankee fan, couldn't see how there
could be any doubt; DiMaggio was the best all-around player in the
game. You could always count on him.

Finally, Danny said, "Well, I better be going. My Ma'll be waiting for
me." As soon as he came through the door of his apartment, his mother
called from the kitchen, telling him to wash up good. "Okay, Ma," he
answered.

The supper was pot roast and potato pancakes, one of Danny's
favorites. "So when are you going to write your, what is it, your
valituderian speech?" asked his mother.

"Valedictorian. Pretty soon. I have to talk to Miss. Rice about
it."

"Is that your teacher?"

"My English teacher, Ma."

The day rarely went by when Danny's mother didn't mention his speech
and she never let a meeting with a neighbor go by without a reminder
that Danny was graduating at the head of his class. He was an only
child and his parents doted on him. He knew they were already talking
about his being the first on in the family to go to college.

After supper, his mother washed up the dishes while his father, a
plumber who went to work at 6 AM each morning carrying a heavy toolbox
that Danny could barely budge, dozed in a living room chair with the
Daily News. Danny went to his room and did his homework. Then he read a
baseball book by his favorite writer, John Tunis. At nine, he went to
bed.

He thought that maybe he'd ask Miss Rice about the speech tomorrow.
She was his favorite teacher. She was a plain-looking woman, or, as his
mother would put it, a Hollywood actress she was not. But she was
youngish and had a figure. She actually looked like a woman, unlike
most of the other female teachers with their antiquated dresses that
came down to the floor.

But this wasn't why Danny liked her so much. Miss Rice loved books and
she encouraged him to read. She had even loaned him some books of her
own. She was a lively teacher and she could hold her own with the
class. Once, when she mentioned Sir Walter Scott's "Lays of the Last
Minstrel," there were the inevitable titters from the class. She'd
immediately said, "I know what 'lays' means. Does anyone else here want
to explain the word?" When there was silence, she went on with the
lesson.

After thinking about Miss Rice, Danny's mind drifted off into a
baseball fantasy based on the book he was reading. An unknown, he was
summoned from the bullpen after injuries had cut down the rest of the
Yankees' pitching staff. As he trotted in to the mound, the great
DiMaggio winked at him and said, "Go get 'em, kid."

An image of the catch he'd made that day flickered through his mind
and blended with thoughts og his being class valedictorian, Mrs. Rice,
going to college. All in all, his was a happy world. Smiling slightly,
he fell asleep.

The next morning at school, coming down the staircase from his math
class on the fourth floor to Miss Rice's class on the third, a large
balding man with an angry red face stopped him and his friends Mike and
Mort and pulled them out of line, accusing them of talking. The man was
Mr. Weintraub, the new school principal.

Their math teacher, Mr. Schultz, spoke with a pronounced German accent
and Mike had been imitating him. "Vun and vun equals zwei." Danny knew
this was stupid but when Mike did it everyone laughed. Arnold had been
laughing along with the others but he hadn't been talking.

"Don't you boys know there's a rule about talking on the stairs?"
asked Mr. Weintraub.

Mike and Mort looked down at their feet and remained silent but Danny
protested, "I wasn't talking. I may have been laughing a little but I
wasn't talking."

"Don't get wise with me," Mr. Weintraub told him. "You're in enough
trouble already."

Danny couldn't believe it. Him, in trouble? Apparently Mr. Weintraub
didn't know who he was, Danny Stein, the valedictorian. "Where were you
three going?" Mr. Weintraub asked.

"To Miss Rice's class."

"Okay. Show me where her room is." Good, thought Danny. Miss. Rice
would clear things up. As soon as they entered the classroom, Miss Rice
stopped in the middle of whatever it was she was saying and exclaimed,
"Mr. Weintraub? What's the problem?" Danny thought she'd turned
pale.

"These three boys in your class," said Mr. Weintraub. "I caught them
talking and fooling around on the stairs. This one here seems to be the
ringleader." He looked at Danny.

"But I told you. I wasn't talking," said Danny.

"And he's defiant, too."

"But he's my best student," said Miss Rice. "He's going to be the
class valedictorian."

Ah, thought Danny. Now he knows.

But Mr. Weintraub simply scowled. "We'll see about that," he said
ominously.

"Oh," said Miss Rice. "Well, if you want, we can make a change. The
programs haven't been printed up yet."

What? thought Danny. Make a change? What was she talking about?

"We'll talk about it later," said Mr. Weintraub. "We don't want a
hooligan representing our graduating class.." He turned to the three
boys and said, "Now get to your seats and behave yourselves. Carry on,
Miss Rice."

"Yes, sir," said Miss Rice subserviently. Danny went to his seat but
he wasn't aware of the lesson. His mind was in a whirl?A hooligan, him?
The new principal must be crazy. And what about Miss Rice? Why hadn't
she defended him? Was she afraid of the madman? She'd given him up
without even the slightest struggle. And what about his parents? His
mother? What would she say if he wasn't the valedictorian after all?
Just yesterday everything had been fine. Now his whole life had been
turned upside down. Could just a few minutes on the school staircase
have done that? It seemed so unbelievable.

After school, he caught up with Mike and Mort going home. "That
Weintraub's crazy," he said at once.

"Yeah, said Mike. "He was so red I thought he'd have a heart
attack.

"No, I don't mean that. How come you didn't tell him I wasn't
talking?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know I wasn't talking."

Mike shrugged. "I don't know. We were all fooling around."

Danny turned to Mort. "You know I wasn't talking, don't you?"

"I don't know who was doing what. Like Mike said, we were all fooling
around."

"But he's going to make someone else valedictorian."

"So what?" said Mike. "You think if we get punished it doesn't
count?"

"Yeah," said Mort. "You're in this just as much as we are."

Danny was shocked. He'd thought Mike and Mort were his best friends.
Now they were willing to throw him to the wolves, or to Mr. Weintraub,
which was even worse. Was it possible that all along they'd been
jealous of him? Just because he was smarter than they were?

They'd reached their tenement. They stood on the stoop steps for a
minute, not looking at each other. "Well," said Danny, "I'll see you
guys later."

"Yeah," said Mike.

"Okay," said Mort.

Danny waited another minute but neither one said anything so he ran up
the stairs. His mother gave him her usual greeting as he came in. "So,
did you have a good day at school?"

This time it seemed funny to Danny. "Yeah, Ma," he said. He ran to his
room, closed the door and lay down on his bed. What would happen when
his mother heard the news?

Danny, Mike and Mort got two days' detention after school. Danny told
his mother he had to stay late because he had a special project. The
next week Miss Rice talked to Danny about the valedictory speech.
Apparently, he wasn't going to be replaced after all. Maybe she'd been
mistaken and the programs had already been printed up so they couldn't
replace him. She didn't mention the incident of the stairs.

At the graduation, Mr. Weintraub presented Danny with his diploma and
made a little speech lauding him as the top student in the sixth grade
class. Danny wondered if Mr. Weintraub even remembered him as the
hooligan. After the ceremony, Danny was about to leave the auditorium
with his parents when Miss Rice came running up to them. "I didn't want
you to leave without saying good-bye," she said, a little
breathlessly.

"Oh," said Danny. "Well, good-bye."

"Are these your parents?" asked Miss Rice.

"Yeah," said Danny.

"You should be proud of your son," said Miss Rice. "He has a very
bright future."

"Thank you," said Danny's mother, beaming.

"I have something for you, Danny," said Miss Rice. She handed him a
book. "It's by John Tunis. He's one of your favorites, isn't he?'

"Yeah," said Danny. "Thank you."

Just then, Mike and Mort, who were still Danny's best friends, came up
and told him to come on; they were going to celebrate their graduation
by going to a movie. Danny's father pressed a dollar bill into his
hand. "Have a soda after the movie," he said.

"Thanks, Pop," said Danny.

"You'll come back and see us, won't you, Danny?" asked Miss
Rice.

"Yeah, sure," said Danny.

The three boys went quickly off, talking about baseball, arguing again
about DiMaggio and Williams. That night, when Dsnny looked at the John
Tunis book Miss Rice had given him, he saw she'd written in it, "My
best wishes in whatever you do." Danny did read the book but he never
went back to his old school and he never saw Miss Rice again.

The End