Coming
This Weekend

The Sign

WEDNESDAY MORNING · OCT. 29, 1986 · 7:14 A.M. · PIZZA HUT

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SHE ALMOST DIDN’T see it.

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Since they’d moved to the other side of town, the drive down Main Street to school took about ten minutes. It was overcast this morning. Over the radio, Alabama’s Mountain Music played.

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Her car passed Dairy Queen about the time she’d gone over today’s lesson for the third time. The Pizza Hut sign came into view and she passed it. Her forehead wrinkled.

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Crouching, she looked in the side mirror.

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She was right. Even backwards the words were clear enough.

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BAJA 1000

COMING THIS WEEKEND

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People often paid to put a little happy birthday or happy anniversary message. This morning in bold black letters someone had paid to put the Baja 1000. There was no way that wasn’t the kids.

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The truck behind her tapped his horn. She raised a hand and sped up again.

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WEDNESDAY BEFORE FIRST · OCT. 29, 1986 · 7:45 A.M. · FOURTEEN

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BY A QUARTER TILL EIGHT she’d counted fourteen.

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She stood at that window with the roll sheet lying on the desk. Car after car in the front parking area had large numbers drawn on them. Her coffee cup touched her lips. The Folgers thick and creamy.

“Mmmm.”

Something was going on. Coming this weekend. Coming where? And what exactly?

The first bell rang, catching her counting again.

WEDNESDAY LUNCH · OCT. 29, 1986 · 12:05 P.M. · THE LOUNGE

LAURA HAD THE GREEN FORM folded in her pocket and her sandwich in her hand when Mary Ellen said Matt Garrett’s name. She stopped inside the door.

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“What about him?”

“I don’t know what about him.” Mary Ellen shook two potato chips out of the little bag beside her plate. “That’s what I’m tryin’ to find out. Vanessa Foster and Jerry Martinez were outside my room this mornin’ talkin’ loud enough for the whole hall to hear ’em. Somethin’ about Matt and the St. Joe homecomin’.”

Carol looked up from the papers in her lap. “He went to St. Joe’s homecomin’?”

“With some girl from Victoria, according to Vanessa. Jerry kept askin’ what happened, and every time I got close enough to hear the rest, they stopped.”

“They do that,” Sue said. She came over with her coffee and sat down beside Carol. “They’ll discuss it at the top of their lungs till an adult wants to know.”

Laura set her sandwich on the table and sat down.

“Sarah and Amber came into first period talkin’ about that Monday,” she said. “Sarah was trying to get something out of her. Amber told her Matt’s business wasn’t everybody else’s business.”

Mary Ellen pointed a chip at her. “See. Amber knows.”

“Amber has her head on straight,” Sue said.

“I don’t know what she knows. All I heard was Sarah askin’ and Amber not tellin’.”

Carol put the papers down. “Whatever happened, I doubt it happened the way Jerry’s tellin’ it.”

All of them laughed.

“Jerry can be quite enthusiastic but why do you think that?” Mary Ellen asked.

“I have Matt sixth period. He talks some, but so does Jack, and Jack can do enough talkin’ for everyone in that class.” Carol picked her sandwich up again. “Matt gets his work done and usually listens to me.”

“Usually,” Sue said.

“I teach juniors. Usually is what I get.”

Laura looked at the green sheet she’d brought with her to lunch. She hadn’t been avoiding this. There just hadn’t been a single minute to stop and confirm it all. The first line said number of student copies currently in use. She ought to know that without counting.

“Well, he’s my junior-class vice president,” she said. “I thought he and Bec Sanders had somethin’ goin’ for a while.”

Carol’s sandwich stopped halfway up. “Matt and Bec?”

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“Yeah, I came in my room one morning and he was sittin’ on the edge of my desk with his pant leg rolled up. Bec had the trash can under his foot and was pourin’ horse medicine on his ankle.”

Sue put her cup down. “Horse medicine?”

“Yeah, she had DMSO. I think she uses it on her horses is what they said.”

“She rides horses?” Mary Ellen asked.

“Yes. Rides them for shows.”

“I didn’t know that,” Mary Ellen said, as she took a bite.

“Anyway, Matt was sittin’ there asking why he could taste garlic.”

Mary Ellen stared at her, then started laughing. “And that made you think they were courtin’?”

“Not just that.” Laura folded the form in half. “I mean haven’t y’all seen how they act when they come by in your fourth period classes?”

Sue took a drink of her coffee. “So did it help his ankle?”

She held up her hand to cover the bite she took. “He played on it that same Friday.”

“Of course he did,” Carol said. “They’ll limp through school all day, then Friday night there ain’t a thing wrong with ’em.”

“There better not be this Friday,” Sue said. “Not with Hallettsville.”

The lounge door opened before Carol could answer. Ray came in with a plate in one hand and some papers tucked under the other arm.

“Did y’all see the sign?”

“What sign?” Mary Ellen asked.

Ray put his plate down and sat. “The Pizza Hut sign. Baja 1000, comin’ this weekend. I went by it twice this morning just to be sure.”

Laura brushed her crumbs into her hand then poured them on her napkin. “I sure did. I almost missed it though.”

Carol turned toward him. “Several more were sayin’ ‘Baja 1000’ this mornin’.”

“This has now gone on all week,” Ray said. “Now it’s up on the Pizza Hut sign.”

“Jerry said somethin’ about a party,” Mary Ellen said. “Or Vanessa did. One of ’em did.”

“The sign didn’t say party.” Ray opened his napkin across his lap and took out a pen. “It said Baja 1000.”

Sue blew across her coffee. “Maybe somebody at Pizza Hut likes races.”

“And maybe fourteen kids have now decided to number their cars for somethin’ else,” Laura said.

Everybody looked at her.

“Fourteen?” Carol asked.

Laura wished she’d said several. “This mornin’.”

Mary Ellen smiled at her. “You counted again.”

“They’re outside my window.”

“My third period said somethin’ about a road,” Sue said. “They quit when I walked by, so I don’t know what road.”

Ray looked from Sue to Laura. “A road and numbers on cars. Sounds like they’re fixin’ to race ’em somewhere.”

He drew a line across the napkin. “1593 runs out through there.”

Carol looked at the napkin. “Those boys aren’t racing their cars.”

“I didn’t say those boys.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Mary Ellen ate another chip. “Maybe they’re just goin’ to watch one.”

“In Mexico?” Sue asked.

“I don’t know, Sue. Maybe another race is comin’ here.”

Ray shook his head. “There ain’t no race coming here.”

“Well, the sign says something is coming,” Laura said.

For a few seconds they all ate. The refrigerator kicked on behind Laura. Carol picked her papers back up, read the top page, then put them down again.

“Somebody ought to find out before Friday,” she said.

Frank would know. She almost blurted it out. She hadn’t asked him. She’d gone to Travis first. Saying Frank now would put him in the middle of it too.

She ran her thumbnail over the fold in the green form.

“Ask one of your juniors,” Mary Ellen told Carol.

Carol gave her a look. “And let ’em know I want to know? I’ll never hear the end of it.”

The bell rang for fifth period.

Sue carried her coffee out with her. Ray picked up his papers and his plate. Mary Ellen was still telling Carol which junior couldn’t keep a secret when they went out.

Laura put the form back in her pocket. Her sandwich was where she had set it.

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WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON · OCT. 29, 1986 · 2:20 P.M. · THE PRINCIPAL

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LAURA WAITED UNTIL HER planning period and went down to the office.

Ruth Nester was on the telephone behind the counter. When she saw Laura, she held one hand out.

Laura touched the green form folded in her pocket and shook her head.

Ruth covered the mouthpiece. “Before you leave today.”

“I know.”

Mr. Vasek came out of his office with a folder open in his hand. Short, a little heavy, his brown suit buttoned over a white shirt and a dark striped tie.

“Mr. Vasek, do you have a minute?”

He closed the folder. “Of course, Mrs. Sanderson.”

She followed him in and sat. He left the door open. Ruth went on talking to whoever was on the phone.

“There’s somethin’ going on with some of the students,” Laura said. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but I think you need to know about it.”

“All right,” he said, shifting a stack of papers to the side. “What’s going on?”

“Have you seen the numbers on the cars out front?”

“I’ve seen them.” He reached over and picked up a red handkerchief. “If you count the ones in both parking lots there’s around fifteen.” He patted his forehead where his dark hair thinned.

“Fifteen?” she said, tilting her head. “Well also today the Pizza Hut sign says Baja 1000, comin’ this weekend. We’ve heard the kids saying Baja all week. Mr. Elliot says that’s a race down in Mexico.”

Mr. Vasek set the folder on his desk. “And you think the students put the message on the sign?”

“I don’t know who did. But I don’t believe it’s a coincidence.”

Ruth called somebody’s name from the outer office. A boy answered her, and the front door opened and shut.

“At lunch we started putting together things we’d heard,” Laura said. “Mrs. Walker heard somethin’ about a road. Mrs. Evans heard Jerry Martinez and Vanessa Foster talking about a party. Some of the teachers think the students may be planning to race those cars somewhere.”

“So you think they have something big planned, like an illegal race?”

“I don’t really know.” She uncrossed her legs. “I do know something’s goin’ on. I don’t know if it’s a race.”

Beads of sweat gathered on his forehead. “Any ideas who’s behind it?”

“No one for sure.”

He tapped a finger on the desk. “Has anybody named a road or a time?”

“Just this weekend. That’s all the sign says. I mentioned the numbers to Travis last night,” Laura said. “Before that sign went up today.”

He looked at her. “Did he have any theories about this?”

“Not much. He thought it was probably nothing.”

“It may be.” Mr. Vasek picked up a folder. “It’s difficult to say. You know these students could be up to anything or nothing. I’ll see what I can find out.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you for bringing it to me, Mrs. Sanderson.”

The phone rang again before she reached the outer office. Ruth picked it up with one hand and held the other one toward Laura.

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“Today,” Ruth said.

Laura took the green form out of her pocket and held it up.

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“Before I leave.”