A door opened across the hail. Pitts smirked and said, “I’m supposed to fumigate the offices tonight, kids. Try a motel, or the backseat of a car.” The door closed with a soft squeak.

“Do you think he heard the entire conversation?” I gulped.

Sherwood took my elbow to steer me up the stairs to the land of the living. “Pitts has an ear to every wall and a finger in every cesspool. Luckily, he is too much the resident troglodyte to use the information wisely.”

“Well, we can’t get into the office tonight,” I said, relieved. My conscience (a.k.a. duty to Miss Parchester) prodded me to add, “I suppose we could try tomorrow night. Midnight seems overly furtive; shall we say ten o’clock?”

Sherwood agreed, although he looked vaguely disappointed by my more prosaic suggestion. In the parking lot, he hopped into a red sports car and roared away in a cloud of dust. I chugged home, left my purse on the living room floor, and headed for the nectar of the gods. And I don’t mean apricot juice.

I felt obliged to appear the next day at dear old FHS. Miss Parchester had telephoned the previous evening; I had admitted failure and defeat, rather hoping she would tell me to forget the silly scheme. She had wished me luck.

The cave was hardly home sweet home, but the aroma was familiar. When the homeroom bell emptied the hail, I took my personalized coffee cup (I had scratched an M on the bottom, as in “mindless”) to the lounge, left a box of saltines and a package of cream cheese in the refrigerator (I hate poducks), and filled my cup (I need caffeine). All this was accomplished in semi-solitude. A mute Fury came and went, but the lounge lovebirds apparently had found another place to wish each other good morning.

I returned to the cave in time to greet the first class. They chattered, I read, and the bell rang. The second-period class came on schedule. I had just counted noses and settled then down when the door opened, and Miss Parchester tiptoed in. She wore a baggy blue coat, a plastic rain scant and galoshes. She had an umbrella in one hand, but it may have had more sinister applications than protection from the elements. For the record, the sky had been blue and cloudless when I went underground earlier.

“I thought I’d drop by to see if I might help you in any way,” she murmured apologetically. “You mentioned that the Falcon-name would be published as scheduled. Perhaps I can offer a few words of advice.”

“Ah, thank you, Miss Parchester,” I said. “But are you sure you ought to be here? Mr. Weiss might be upset if he knew you.

She clasped her hands over her bosom as her eyes began to fill with tears. The umbrella swished past my nose with only an inch to spare. “I so wanted to visit, Mrs. Malloy, if only to see my dear students for a brief moment.

Her dear students were gaping like guppies, their eves unblinking and their little mouths opening and closing silently. I took her elbow and escorted her into the darkroom. “I’m not sure this is wise, Miss Parchester. I appreciate your offer to help with the yearbook, but I don’t want you to jeopardize the situation. It really might be better for you to slip away before anyone else notices you.”

She gazed up at me. Her breath would have pickled a cucumber at one hundred feet, and her eyes were etched with fine red lines. I realized she had tied one on since breakfast, no doubt with her blessed mother and the judge in attendance. Her sorrowful smile was interrupted by a hiccup.

“Oh, dear.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “I must have sipped my tea too quickly in my haste to visit you.”

“Oh, dear,” I echoed weakly. “Let me bring you a cup of coffee from the lounge, Miss Parchester. Black coffee, I think.”

She caught my arm in a birdlike claw. “I much prefer”- hic-”tea, dear. Coffee does stain one’s dentures. You’re much too young to worry about that, but we senior citizens must he careful.”

I was aging rapidly; gray hairs were popping out each second I remained in the darkroom with the tipsy trespasser. “One cup of coffee won’t do any permanent damage. Trust me. Now, if you’ll promise to sit on this stool-”

“You’re too Kind,” she said, shifting from manic to maudlin with amazing ease. “It’s been so dreadful these last few days. Everyone must think I’m a common criminal, a petty thief with no conscience. I am beginning to wonder if I might have made an error-although I must assure you it was done in innocence. I-” She broke off with a helpless quiver.

“I’m sure any error was unintentional, Miss Parchester. Please let me bring you a cup of coffee. Please.”

She shook her head as she dug through her purse for a handkerchief. We were seconds away from a deluge that was apt to result in a forty-day cruise. Black coffee, in quantity. Immediately. I opened the door, but again the claw stopped me.

“I shall go to the lounge on my way out of the building,” she said. “I brought a jar of my brandied peach compote for Mr. Weiss. He is terribly fond of it, and I thought he might enjoy it even if-if-it was brought by a common thief.” She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, gave me a jaunty wave, and weaved through the door. A hiccup sufficed for a farewell.

The guppies and I watched her coattail disappear around the corner. I frowned warningly, and they began to whisper among themselves. Miss Parchester’s brief appearance would not remain a secret, nor would her condition. The peach compote was not the only thing with a slug of brandy in it.

Thirty minutes later the bell rang. I went down the hall to the teachers lounge, aware that I was apt to find Miss Parchester snoring on a sofa. The room was empty. I refilled my coffee cup and sat down on the mauve-and-green to think of a way to salvage the poor woman’s reputation.

Evelyn came out of the ladies room. “That room is filthier every day. Pitts is impossible; I wish Weiss would do something about finding a replacement.”

“Did you happen to see Miss Parchester in here earlier?” I waited to hear whether the woman in question was asleep in a stall in the ladies room-or worse.

“Oh, my God, is she in the building? Weiss will have a tantrum if he finds out. He’s in a foul mood today, and-”

A thin young woman rushed into the lounge. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and began to wipe furiously at her dripping eyes. Small, muffled sobs came from under the tissue. I stared at the display of misery, unsure how to offer comfort or aid. Before I could decide, the woman crammed the tissue in her pocket and flew out the door.

“My student teacher,” Evelyn explained. “She is no match for the French II class. They get her every day at about this time.”

“And she wants to be a teacher?”

“When she grows up. I didn’t see poor Miss Parchester, so we can hope she left before Weiss spotted her. Are you ready for our weekly poduck free-for-all?”

I admitted that my preparations had extended only to a stop at the grocery store on my way to school. A brief stop, at that.

Evelyn shook her finger at me. “The Furies live for the whoosh of the Tupperware containers on Friday, Claire. Our little luncheons are a major part of their social activities-those and chaperoning the school dances. What a life.”

“I’m supposed to be chaperone!” I buried my face in my hands. “Miss Dort informed me that I was to appear in Miss Parchester’s place. I tried to block it out.”

“Don’t worry about it. All you have to do is keep the kiddies sober and celibate, the band from undressing or eating their instruments, and the roof from collapsing. Don’t forget earplugs- and shin guards, in case one of the sophomore boys asks you to dance.”

“Asks me to dance? I trust you’re making a little joke, Evelyn. I would no more dance with a sophomore boy than I would balance a desk on my nose while chanting the Koran.”