ST. EDWARDS SCHOOL

"Remember when the grad speaker was Bob Montana?" David Sato said to his colleague, Wanda Chu as they walked into the school's parking lot. He opened the back door to the car and threw his briefcase in.

Chu said, "that was fifteen years ago, David. We had to explain to half the student body who Archie and Jughead were!" That had been Chu's first year at St. Edwards in rural New Hampshire. The early 70s were the time that St. Edwards was highlighting native born, New Hampshirites - Montana had been born in Manchester, and had brokered his 'Archie comics' into him being one of the most famous graphic artists there were. At commencement, he'd been a real hit, and donations had climbed accordingly.

That's how Sato had evaluated anything that the school had done. His pet phrase had been, 'no bucks, no Buck Rogers,' whatever that meant.

Closing the door at the back, he opened the driver's door. He quipped, "maybe for convocation this year we can get Richard and Maurice McDonald, except they'll want Quarterpounders served at the dinner." He'd not wanted to mention that he'd actually talked to Jane Badler, the ex-Manchesterite who'd starred in the T.V. series 'V', and was a former Miss New Hampshire. Badler would have been a budget balancer.

Chu was just standing there not turning towards her own car. Noticing, Sato closed his car-door and leaned against it, "okay, what is it now?"

"I hear you've been in contact with Henry Jennings' folks," Chu said.

"Actually, it was the other way around," he sighed. "Me, I've got the only job at this place where I am by definition, 'the bad guy'."

Chu had heard that the conversation with the Jennings (people she had not yet met) had not gone well. David Sato being the 'Tuition and Billings officer' at St. Edwards, it wasn't hard to predict the topic.

Putting that aside she continued, "you know that Henry Jennings is quite popular - at the school I mean. Coach Bowman says that he'll be next year's hockey captain. That the varsity team is a lock for regionals next year - the team is only losing half a dozen to graduation, nearly all of this year's starting juniors are coming back as seniors."

Sato said wryly, "I thought you were going to make a case for Henry Jennings?"

She smiled, "I am!"

Sato continued, "So, what does Henry know about all this?"

Chu said, "I can't see it being good for him, David. Two years here, successful years I mean. To pull him out for his graduation year, I'm not sure how that benefits anyone."

Sato said, "Look, Wanda. I just report the numbers." He sighed, "okay, the Jennings are not exactly part of our elite 'clientele'…"

Chu bristled, "God I hate it when you talk like that, David!"

Sato said back, "this is why I always get to be the 'bad guy', Wanda. We have about a dozen 'less than well heeled' families here, the Regents want it that way - but there's a cost, Wanda. Who do you think pays your salary!?"

Sato had yet to reconcile this year's alumni/ae donations with the bequests that were reaching their term. Of all the years to be faced with challenges of income, next year (1988) was not the right time to make exceptions for non-payment of tuition.

Then Sato admitted to himself, 'heck, the hockey program is safe, what with its endowment.' Seeing that he was losing Chu with this talk he switched gears, "what does Chris say? Henry's always had the backing of the northern Virginia crowd…"

Chu responded, "Chris and her family, that's not my department, David." Shuffling her feet, she added, "look, maybe we can continue this conversation closer to Christmas. See where the Scholarships and Bursaries stand. All I ask is that you help out the boy with the numbers - me, as the academic advisor… well, there actually has never been a problem in that department. Quite the opposite. He's a model student - a leader on the ice, a leader in the dorms. And he's a junior… he organizes math-homework sessions for sophomores, I mean - who does that?"

Chu just didn't see why it was difficult to put something together for Henry Jennings, particularly for the next academic year.

THANKSGIVING 1987

In her almost 15 years at St. Edwards, Wanda Chu had never once driven a student anywhere. Taking Henry Jennings to the Manchester train station, she would accomplish two tasks. One, it would allow her to chat about his 'situation' to see if within his circle of friends, there was some solution to this 'tuition crisis'.

Two? She briefly took her eyes from the road to look at the wrapped package on the seat between them. Besides, Henry Jennings was an exceptional young man - someone who for three years had taken advantage of every opportunity that St. Edwards could afford a student. She'd also simply value the 45 minutes alone with him - driving him into Manchester proper, so that he could catch the Amtrak to D.C. for the 12-hour rail trip to Thanksgiving with his folks.

She'd rarely had this detailed a conversation with any of her students, and just 'shooting the breeze' with Henry Jennings was long past due.

"So, Henry, how's math going?" she led off.

Henry said nonchalantly, "I don't want to sound conceited, Ms. Chu, but my buddies and I are already halfway through senior's level. Some guys are talking engineering, maybe M.I.T. or something, and you have to know your math cold."

Chu said, "you're an exceptional student, Henry. We don't get a lot like you."

He said, "It's not just me, Ms. Chu. My sister, Paige, she was the 'smart one' in the family, that's what mom and dad always said." He paused then added, "here, it's a good group of guys. We just stay away from the chuckleheads. There's always time for foosball….."

"I'm told that things back home, that the 'finances' are not what they were." Chu waited for Henry to respond, hoping she hadn't embarrassed him into silence or crossed some other line.

He looked out the window at the late-Fall scene outside, then said, "well…. I don't understand it, but dad says that things are not so great right now. Public school back in Falls Church, it's free…."

Chu said, "your dad, he's a travel agent, isn't he?"

"Mom, too," Henry said. "I kind of don't get it, they work really hard. I mean, me and Paige growing up, we rarely saw them."

Intrigued, Chu asked, "really?"

"I get it, I really do. Dad used to say that his business was 'the people business'. They'd be gone at all hours of the night, seeing to clients… sometimes all week. Paige would look after me."

".…. at night? In the travel business?" Chu interrupted.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "Apparently they had to travel even then to reach people. Me, I didn't think much about it…. I think it really messed up Paige, though."

At the second mention of his sister, Chu took another glance at the package on the seat between them. This had only been the first 15 minutes of a half-hour drive. They had quickly strayed a long way from Henry's finances that was endangering his enrollment at St. Edwards. Wanda Chu couldn't help but think that she was tiptoeing around some sort of major life-story, sitting beside her in her car. She just sat in silence making sure she was concentrating on the winding road ahead of her.

Voicing a random hunch, Chu eventually said, "is there family, Henry? People who could either help out your dad's business, or make sure that next year at St. Edward's is taken care of?"

"Well, there was Chris - as you know Ms. Chu." Chu had known that it had been Chris's family which had helped Henry with the rough transition to being a sophomore back in 1985. These days, it was hard to believe Henry had once had a 'deer in the headlights' look to him at the school. Those days were long gone though, Henry was now a staple and popular - through his academics, and then there was his hockey.

"There's Mr. Gardner," Henry remembered. "He once said he could help me with a summer job. Mom didn't like that, because that would mean that I'm not at home for the summer. Yet all the jobs in Falls Church, they're flipping burgers. Mr. Gardner's connections…. well, lets just say his son drives a car at St. Edwards."

"I was talking about family, Henry," Chu reminded him.

"I was just thinking that Mrs. Gardner, she dotes on her children. I wouldn't know what that was like."

SISTER PAIGE

Chu thought carefully before continuing. "Families are different, Henry. I know a lot of families who work hard - both parents - and let's be honest, even they would not be able to afford St. Edwards." She paused, looked at the wrapped package a third time, then asked perhaps for the umpteenth time, "you and your sister, Henry, the two of you were pretty much on your own growing up?"

"Pretty much," he answered. "Me and Paige, we got on. Paige was supposed to be the smart one, she's at George Washington right now."

"By the sounds of her, Henry, we would have loved to have had her up here in New England." One more glance at the package as they arrived in Manchester's outskirts, it caused her to inquire, "are you going to return it to her?"

Henry could no longer avoid it, he gave his first look at the package and started to feel a little defensiveness rise up.

"Oh boy, is that was this is?" he asked, knowing full well what it was. Taking hold of the package and putting it in his lap, he let out a long breath.

Chu said, "Yup, her diary. I've held on to it, just like you asked. And the cassette tape, too. I figure that you're now 17, we're certainly looking forward to you being a senior here next year…." Chu said, choosing her words. "What was it you said - you were 15 - you didn't trust yourself with this package?"

"I still don't," Henry said with some embarrassment. He continued trying to explain, "Paige must have left it in the laundry room - right beside the cassette. I couldn't get the clasp open on the diary - I won't tell you who, but a guy in the dorm up here said he could pick the lock on the clasp, easy-peasy. I told him, 'no!' That's when I asked you to hold on to them, for me. Honest, I've not violated her. I just don't know what to do. I had to figure out what to say to Paige, how her diary got up here to New Hampshire."

Chu asked, "did you ever listen to the cassette?"

As the train station came into view, Henry paused, then it was him choosing his words, "Just once, just the first few minutes of it. Someone in my family must have been trying to learn a language or something. A guy in the dorm said it sounded like his Ukrainian grandmother….."

"So you played it for others?" Chu asked as she pulled into the Amtrak parking area.

"Not really, just that one time," he answered, as he placed the package back on the seat. "The guy said that the only word he could make out was 'daughter', but that the thing sounded like a Ukrainian soap opera." Henry paused then asked, "Please hold on to it for me, again. And thanks Ms. Chu for the ride." Henry got out, opened the back door to get his pack, said thanks again, and ran into the station.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1987

There was only one Amtrak a day which came from Boston, so it was not as if she would miss him when he got off. As it was, Wanda Chu had not exactly planned out what she was going to talk with Henry Jennings about.

Besides, Chu kept saying to herself, 'it's not as if it would be me getting into trouble over it all. Its content, Paige's bizarre musings, it was unbelievable! It's just that Henry says he doesn't know what's even in his sister's diary! How could he, with the stuff she had read. And that the cassette tape, it was not part of a language instruction program - it was an audio letter, from an aged mother to her middle-aged daughter.

It wasn't in Ukrainian. It was in Russian.

When she saw Henry Jennings come out of the Amtrak station, he immediately saw her and waved.

As he got in on the passenger side, thanking her profusely for the ride, he noted that his package - it was exactly in the same place it had been when she'd dropped him off the previous week.

To him, it looked untouched - which had been her intent in retying it. Indeed, they didn't even talk about it - Henry was full of news as to how weird his family was over Thanksgiving. For her part, Chu updated Henry on her last conversation with David Sato.

(to be continued…)