Dreamcatcher(10)

'No, that's not necessary. Really.'

'You're sure?'

'I am. But there's one other thing. Got thirty more seconds?'

'Sure, you bet.' He holds up a finger to Defuniak and Defuniak nods. But he just goes on standing there until Jonesy points to the one chair in the little office besides his own that isn't stacked with books. Defuniak goes to it reluctantly. Into the phone, Jonesy says, 'Shoot.'

'I think we ought to go back to Derry. Just a quick trip, just you and me. See our old friend.'

'You mean - ?' But he doesn't want to say that name, that baby-sounding name, with a stranger in the room.

He doesn't have to; Henry says it for him. Once they were a quartet, then for a little while they were five, and then they were four again. But the fifth one has never exactly left them. Henry says that name, the name of a boy who is magically still a boy. About him, Henry's worries are more clear, more easily expressed. It isn't anything he knows, he tells Jonesy, just a feeling that their old pal might need a visit.

'Have you talked to his mother?' Jonesy asked.

'I think,' Henry says, 'it might be better if we just . . . you know, orbited on in there. How's your calendar look for this weekend? Or the one after?'

Jonesy doesn't need to check. The weekend starts day after tomorrow. There's a faculty thing Saturday afternoon, but he can easily get clear of that.

'I'm fine both days this weekend,' he says. 'If I was to come by Saturday? At ten?'

'That'd be fine.' Henry sounds relieved, more like himself. Jonesy relaxes a little. 'You're sure?'

'If you think we ought to go see . . .' Jonesy hesitates. ' . . . see Douglas, then probably we should. It's been too long.'

'Your appointment's there, isn't he?' 

'Uh-huh.'

'Okay. I'll look for you at ten on Saturday. Hey, maybe we'll take the Scout. Give it a run. How would that be?'

'That would be terrific.'

Henry laughs. 'Carla still makin your lunch, Jonesy?'

'She is. 'Jonesy looks toward his briefcase.

'What you got today? Tuna fish?'

'Egg salad.'

'Mmm-mmm. Okay, I'm out of here. SSDD, right?'

'SSDD,' Jonesy agrees. He can't call their old friend by his right name in front of a student, but SSDD is all right. 'Talk to you I - '

'Arid take care of yourself I mean it.' The emphasis in Henry's voice is unmistakable, and a little scary. But before Jonesy can respond (and what he would say with Defuniak sitting in the corner, watching and listening, he doesn't know), Henry is gone.

Jonesy looks at the phone thoughtfully for a moment, then hangs up. He flips a page on his desk calendar, and on Saturday he crosses out Drinks at Dean Jacobson's house and writes Beg off  -  going to Derry with Henry to see D. But this is an appointment he will not keep. By Saturday, Derry and his old friends will be the furthest things from his mind.

Jonesy pulls in a deep breath, lets it out, and transfers his attention to his troublesome eleven-o'clock. The kid shifts uncomfortably in his chair. He has a pretty good idea why he's been summoned here, Jonesy guesses.

'So, Mr Defuniak,' he says. 'You're from Maine, according to your records.'

'Uh, yeah. Pittsfield. I - '

'Your records also say that you're here on scholarship, and that you've done well.'

The kid, he sees, is actually a lot more than worried. The kid is on the verge of tears. Christ, but this is hard. Jonesy has never had to accuse a student of cheating before, but he supposes this won't be the last time. He only hopes it doesn't happen too often. Because this is hard, what Beaver would call a f**karow.

'Mr Defuniak  -  David  -  do you know what happens to scholarships if the students holding them are caught cheating? On a mid-term exam, let us say?'

The kid jerks as if a hidden prankster under his chair has just triggered a low-voltage electrical charge into one of his skinny bu**ocks. Now his lips are trembling and the first tear, oh God, there it goes down his unshaven boy's cheek.

'I can tell you, 'Jonesy says. 'Such scholarships evaporate. That's what happens to them. Poof, and gone into thin air.'

There is a folder on Jonesy's desk. He opens it and takes out a European History mid-term, one of those multiple-choice monstrosities upon which the Department, in its great unwisdom, insists. Written on top of this one, in the black strokes of an IBM pencil ('Make sure your marks are heavy and unbroken, and if you need to erase, erase completely'), is the name DAVID DEFUNIAK.

'I've reviewed your course-work, David; I've re-scanned your paper on feudalism in France during the middle ages; I've even been through your transcripts. You haven't exhibited brilliance, but you've done okay. And I'm aware that you're simply satisfying a requirement here  -  your real interests don't lie in my field, do they?'

Defuniak shakes his head mutely. The tears gleam on his cheeks in that untrustworthy mid-March sunlight.

There's a box of Kleenex on the comer of Jonesy's desk, and he tosses it to the boy, who catches it easily even in his distress. Good reflexes. When you're nineteen, all your wiring is still nice and tight, all your connections nice and solid.