Adolf Hitler! He was comparing her to Adolf Hitler?
“You can’t be serious,” Henry said calmly. “I hardly think that’s a fair comparison.”
Mr. Royer came out from behind his desk and began to adjust the bird prints on the wall, tapping the side of one drawing, then another.
Miri was stuck on Adolf Hitler so missed whatever Henry said next except it ended in freedom of expression.
Mr. Royer whipped around. “Don’t lecture me on free speech, young man.”
Tiny began to cough, just as she had the last time they were in his office.
“Do you need water, Mrs. Wallace?” Mr. Royer asked, annoyed.
Tiny shook her head. Again, she dug out a cough drop and put it in her mouth.
“I think the best thing for all involved would be for Miri to leave the school paper of her own free will,” Mr. Royer said.
He was kicking her off the paper?
Tiny held a tissue to her mouth, got rid of the cough drop and cleared her throat a few times. “She’s a good student,” Tiny managed to say. “And a fine young reporter. She’s never been in trouble. This would be very harsh punishment.” She eyed the pitcher of water on Mr. Royer’s desk.
Uncle Henry poured a cup and handed it to Tiny. She drank it down.
“You think this is harsh punishment, Mrs. Wallace?”
“Yes, I do,” Tiny said with conviction, “and I’m concerned it will affect the morale of our other editors and reporters.”
Henry said, “Why not give Miri another chance, Mr. Royer? I’m sure she understands now that your strong feelings come with serious consequences.”
“I don’t want another chance!” Miri said. “What good is a newspaper when its reporters can’t write about what’s on the minds of its readers?”
“That’s it!” Mr. Royer said. “You’re off the paper and you’re on probation for the rest of the school year. One more incident and I promise you, Miss Ammerman, you will be expelled.” He said the last few words very slowly, making sure they sank in.
Tears stung her eyes but she would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
Henry reached for Miri’s hand. “Mr. Royer, with all due respect—”
“I suppose you’re a bleeding heart, Mr. Ammerman…I suppose you think it’s fine for students to break the rules.”
“Sir, I don’t think that at all.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it because this meeting has gone on long enough.” He nodded at Tiny, then at Uncle Henry.
Miri half expected him to add, Dismissed.
She was so angry she was shaking, and so shaken by Mr. Royer’s power over her, she wanted to scream. Was she supposed to be relieved she hadn’t been expelled?
Out in the hall, she hugged Henry for coming and for standing up for her. She thanked Tiny, too. “This, too, shall pass,” Tiny said.
Miri didn’t know how to respond. Was that like Time heals all wounds? She’d heard both expressions at Mrs. Barnes’s house on the night of her son’s funeral. They both sounded like bull to her.
“I promised to call Rusty and let her know what happened,” Henry said.
“She’s going to be mad.”
“At Mr. Royer, not at you.”
—
RUSTY WASN’T just mad, she was furious.
Who did he think he was, threatening to expel her daughter? She knew men like him, drunk with power, certain they could get away with anything and everything. Oh, she knew them, all right! She’d like to give him a piece of her mind. And maybe she would. She’d gone to Hamilton, too. So had Henry. But they’d had a different principal, one who’d joked with them. How do you spell principal? he would ask. Remember the P-A-L on the end because the principal is your pal. Ha! Mr. Royer was no pal. She bet he wouldn’t dare behave that way toward her daughter if she had a husband. It was because she wasn’t married, because she went to business, that he showed her no respect. A young uncle didn’t count, even if he was a prominent reporter. Royer was a bully.
Henry urged her to let it go. Miri had just this semester left at Hamilton.
“And it should be a happy time for her,” Rusty argued.
“She can join High Spots when she gets to Battin,” Henry said. “That’s a first-rate high school paper. I know Mr. Komishane, the adviser.”
“Royer shouldn’t get away with this.”
“Maybe not. But Miri can handle it. If you go to see him it could be worse for her.”
“You really believe that?”
“I do, Rusty.”
“I’m not sure I agree.”
“You don’t have to.”
Rusty said, “When you’re a parent you’ll understand.” She knew she was saying that too often, whenever she was stuck. But she couldn’t help herself.
—
ELEANOR CALLED an emergency meeting of the Hamilton Headlines staff. Tiny came, too.
They applauded when Miri came in. She looked around, her eyes misty. “I’m going to miss this,” she said.
Eleanor said, “We’ve talked about going on strike.”
Suzanne said, “Or resigning.”
Eleanor said, “On the other hand, we can use this as a chance to write what we think.”