Five

He had been at the school for nearly three weeks before the school term officially began. He had been teaching at Haverhill High School for almost ten years, and he was surprised his contract was renewed. The district had been talking about cutting the art and music programs for the last two years, but at the last minute, there seemed to be just enough money to keep the programs going. So Bryan St. John got to keep his job for another school year.

The uncertainty of the situation he found himself in every year was getting quite old and redundant. The district would run out of money for extracurricular activities, and the talks of cutting programs would begin. Things like football and other sports would never be threatened, but music, art and special needs programs would face the ax year after year. Often, he would learn of these things not from the district higher ups, or even the principal, but by reading the newspaper.

Bryan St. John taught beginning and intermediate band in the morning, and art classes in the afternoon, with a study hall period right after lunch. It made for a long day, but teaching was rewarding for Bryan, so he didn't really mind it. However, the money problems the district had every year, and the threats to his job, he did mind. In fact, it pissed him off.

He had a new class of freshman coming in on Monday, so he prepared his lesson plans for the first full week of school. None of this day by day crap other teachers did. He had a reputation at Haverhill High of being highly organized. Some would have said Bryan was almost obsessive about it, but Bryan never thought so. He just liked being prepared for anything. He had been like this his entire life.

Bryan himself had been a student at HHS, graduating in 1980. He then went on to college to get two Master's degrees: one in Art History and one in Music Theory. During his college days, he met and married a spectacular young woman named Diana Campbell, with whom he had a beautiful daughter in 1985 named Valerie. The marriage didn't last long, though, because Diana grew increasingly bored with being a wife. She looked elsewhere for companionship.

Bryan had been crushed with Diana asked for the divorce, and custody of their daughter. His ex and Valerie moved to a small New Hampshire town near Concord, and Bryan saw his daughter three weekends out of the month.

It was about this time he heard there was a teaching position at his high school alma mater. He applied, not expecting to get the job, so he was surprised when they offered him a contract to teach not only music, but art as well.

And now, ten years later, at the age of thirty-nine, he was still there, albeit by the skin of his teeth. He kept busy, hoping that one day, one of his students would consider him an influence in their life.

When he was done preparing his lesson plans, and the classroom, Bryan headed home. He lived not far from the school, and walked to and from there when the weather was good. When the weather was bad, he, too, hoped for a snow day, though his students never knew this.

As he arrived home, he noticed that Eva's car was gone. He figured that she was still at work. Bryan sighed, deciding that he needed the time alone to think.

Bryan's girlfriend, Eva Melendez, worked as a nurse at Lawrence General Hospital. She worked all sorts of odd hours, dependant on the hospital's needs. Bryan, then, wasn't surprised he wasn't home.

Their relationship had grown strained as of late, because Bryan had recently learned that the pretty twenty-four year old Latina had been cheating on him nearly as long as they'd been together, which had been three years.

Bryan had ordered her out of the house when he found out, but Eva begged him to give her another chance, promising not to stray again. It was a promise, Bryan realized, she made with her fingers crossed behind her back. He allowed her to stay, hoping she would change, and knowing she wouldn't. She just got better at hiding her sneaking around. All the while, Eva kept telling friends that Bryan was the love of her life. Soon, even her friends didn't believe it, but did any of them bother to tell Bryan she was sleeping around?

Bryan had one hobby he pursued with passion. He played guitar and bass, and sang lead vocals for a semi-professional rock band called These Three. They were a group of men in their late thirties and early forties who played most weekends, and, to Bryan's great surprise, were rather popular on the local college circuit.

The band wasn't playing anywhere that weekend, because the drummer's son was getting married. Bryan had a free weekend to paint if he chose to. Painting relaxed him when nothing else would. He'd take his canvasses and his paints up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and create a fantasy in oils.

His deep thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the garage door being opened. Eva was home, and so another night of turmoil was about to begin.




Eva drove home, dreading another boring night with Bryan. She had hoped that his band would be playing somewhere this weekend, but he had told her a couple of mornings ago that the drummer had a wedding to attend for his son, so the band would have this weekend off.

Dammit! Eva said under her breath, why do you ruin my plans all the time, Bryan? I had one hell of a great time planned and you go and fuck it up by staying home.

Eva had grown bored with Bryan St. John about a year ago, after she gave the relationship what she thought was an honest chance. Things were promising when they first hooked up three years before, when the thrill of being with an older man was all she could think about. She even thought she was in love with him, but recently realized that it was probably lust that propelled her into this dismal scenario.

When he discovered she had been unfaithful, he asked her to leave. Eva cried and begged and promised she'd never do it again, and Bryan soon relented and let her stay. Eva smiled when she thought of that Oscar-worthy performance and how she had pulled the wool over Bryan's eyes.

When Eva was a young girl, she saw everything that most parents would shield their children from: prostitution, drug trafficking and abuse, domestic violence, infidelity, teenage pregnancies…the list went on and on. Growing up in the largely Dominican and Puerto Rican neighborhoods of Lawrence's Tower Hill, Eva had seen more before age thirteen than most people saw their whole lives.

Yet, she managed to escape the poverty and the crime and do well in school. She got a diploma from the unaccredited Lawrence High School, which was pretty much not worth the paper it was printed on. Still she was able to go to Northern Essex Community College, then nursing school in Boston.

When she returned to Lawrence, she got a job at Holy Family Hospital, stayed a year, then applied at Lawrence General, where she was hired as an RN on the geriatric floor.

Eva had met Bryan at one of his band's gigs at Northern Essex, and they clicked immediately. They dated throughout the time she lived in Boston, and she moved in with him a year and a half later in his house in Haverhill near the high school where he taught.

Eva fully intended to stay faithful to Bryan, but when other men hit on her, especially when she went club hopping in Lawrence with some of her homegirls, she never mentioned that she had a boyfriend. She liked the attention she got, and a lot of the time, she ended up in bed with whatever guy she met that night.

The thrill she felt when she got away with it without Bryan finding out soon became addictive. She needed a fix so badly at times that she wasn't always careful about hiding her tracks. That's how Bryan found out about her affairs. And was he pissed off, Eva remembered.

Now, however, as she drove her little Honda into the garage, she knew somehow that Bryan was home. She closed the garage door and went inside the house. Bryan was in the living room, as she could hear the television on.

"Bryan?" she called in her sweetest voice, "you here, baby?"

"Living room, Eva," Bryan replied.

Eva walked into the living room, and saw that Bryan had his paints out on the coffee table. Maybe he'll go paint this weekend, Eva though hopefully, then maybe I could go see Francisco.

"You gonna paint this weekend, baby?" she asked.

"Yeah, maybe. I have Valerie this weekend, so maybe I can combine the two. Val's gotten really good at landscapes."

"Well, she got it from her papa," Eva said sweetly.

And that was another thing: Bryan's daughter, Valerie. The sixteen year old took an instant dislike to Eva when they met eighteen months earlier. Maybe the little bitch put the bug in daddy's ear about me, Eva thought. I wouldn't put it past her.

"Valerie seems to think so, too." Bryan said now, in response to her last comment.

Eva knew then that Bryan would go up to New Hampshire on Saturday. He'd be back late on Sunday. She had the whole weekend to herself!

"You know, Eva, you are always welcome to tag along," said Bryan, knowing she would say no.

"I know, baby, but it's like I’m a third wheel. You and Valerie should spend quality time together, without me in the way," Eva said, dreading the thought of Valerie St. John hissing at her all weekend. "Besides, I have to work tomorrow. I traded days with another girl."

"Too bad for you, but it's nice that you could help someone else out," replied Bryan, knowing that Eva wasn't known for her generosity. She must have a tryst planned, that's why she's so anxious to get me out of the house, Bryan thought blackly.

"What were you thinking about for dinner, baby?" Eva asked, changing the subject quickly.

"Hmm, I don't know, sweetie," Bryan said, wincing at his use of that term of endearment toward Eva, "whatever you feel like fixing is okay with me."

"Baby, you know I hate it when you say that!" Eva said as Bryan walked into the kitchen. "It leaves me at loose ends."

Awww, Bryan thought, too fuckin' bad, dear. Aloud he said, "You're a good cook, you'll come up with something. Say, how about that casserole?"

"I'll have to go to the store for the stuff, Bryan. But if that's what you want, I'll do it."

"Yeah, that's what I want, Eva."

With that, Bryan turned and walked back into the living room.




Bryan went to bed early because he wanted to get an early start driving to pick up Valerie. Since Eva said she had to work the next day, he thought she'd go to bed early, too. Instead, she left to go clubbing, or whatever she was really doing, after she thought Bryan had gone to sleep.

He couldn't worry about Eva anymore. She destroyed what little trust he had in her. Just so long as she didn't pass anything she might pick up on to him.

They hadn't had sex in several months, and didn't sleep together any more. He hated putting up the façade that they were this happy, mad-about-you couple. He was sure people could see through it. He knew Eva didn't believe it.

He hated that she called him "baby" all the damn time. And in that baby voice that grated on his nerves. God, woman, give me a little credit for brains, here! I know you're faking it just so I won't kick your skanky ass out on the streets. There were times that he wished she'd leave and never come back. If the guys she fucked around with were so damned wonderful, why doesn't she move in with one of them?

As he began to fall asleep, he wondered why he even put up with her anymore. Oh, yeah, he thought, because I still love her.