About an hour after Cat left for school, Hop Sing came out of the kitchen and asked, "Where Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe? They need go to town and get supplies."
"Except for doing his sister's chores, Adam has today and tomorrow off. I don't know where he went. Hoss and Joe are out mending fences. Make your list and I'll go to town. I've got some harness that needs mending and I believe we're running low on grain for the horses. Instead of staying here, why don't you ride into town with me? Then you can spend some time visiting with your family."
Hop Sing made his list while Ben looked to see how many bags of oats he would need and harnessed a team to the buckboard. When they got to town, he dropped Hop Sing off at the home of one of his family members and then proceeded to place the supply order at the general store before walking over to the feed store. He was greeted by Mr. Winter and placed his feed order. Then he asked, "John, why are Seth and Jackson sharing school books? Cat said that they keep interrupting the class by fighting over the books."
"They both have their own books and should not be sharing. I will have to go home and see which boy did not take his books to school. I wonder why Susan didn't send a note home. I'll have to ask her. I'll also have to tell her not to let the boys sit together because all they do is fight."
"You need to start disciplining those boys before they get out of control and end up in trouble with the law."
"I wish I could but the last time I spanked them, Margaret took them, left me and spent four months living with her parents."
"I'm not trying to tell you how to run your life John, but those boys are preventing other students from learning. Cat said that yesterday's fight happened when Susan was supposed to be working with her and Laura after she taught them long division. Instead of being able to practice with the girls, she had to break up a fight between your sons. Cat struggles with arithmetic and because Susan didn't get the opportunity to work with her and Laura, she became frustrated when trying to do her homework and wanted to throw her book into Lake Tahoe. It's not fair to the other students to have their learning interrupted because of your sons or anyone else's children. Believe me, if Cat ever causes any problems in school, she will be dealt with. I'm going to go and say hello to Roy and Paul. I'll come back for my order."
"Alright Ben. I'm going to go home, see which one of my sons left their books at home and take them to him. While I am there, I am going to ask Susan to separate them. They'll probably be embarrassed but maybe they'll learn something from it."
"That's fine John. I'm going to be in town for a little while. I brought Hop Sing with me and he's visiting his family. I'll be back later. Good luck at the school."
Ben walked toward the sheriff's office and Mr. Winter went home to see which one of his sons had left his school books at home. His wife looked up from her sewing and asked, "What's wrong John? Why are you home instead of at the store?"
"It seems that our sons have only been taking one set of books to school and then fighting over them and disrupting other students' learning. I am going to find the books that were left here and take them over to the school and I fully intend to tell Susan to separate them. I don't need Ben Cartwright or anyone else coming into my store and telling me that our sons are fighting and disturbing the class."
"You can't do that. It will embarrass them."
"They should have thought about that before deciding to leave one set of books at home and then fight over the other set." He walked into Jackson's bedroom and found it a total mess. He found Seth's bedroom in the same condition. "Margaret, come here and look through Jackson's bedroom and see if you can find any school books in it. Under no circumstances are you to clean these bedrooms. Those two are eleven years old now and they know better than to keep their bedrooms in this condition. They'll have plenty of time to clean these pigsties up and help me with the store and you with the house and garden. They are going to be on restriction for a while. I just haven't decided how long. That will depend on what I learn when I find the books and take them over to the school." It took almost thirty minutes before Mrs. Winter found the books in Jackson's room and gave them to her husband who was fuming about having to keep the feed store closed so he could search for his son's school books. He walked into the school and said, "Excuse me Miss Winter. I've brought Jackson's books so he has no excuse for sharing with his brother. In fact, I believe it would be best if you separated them. I do not need parents coming into the feed store to tell me that my sons are keeping other students from learning because they are fighting. Seth, Jackson, you are to come directly to the feed store after school. You are in enough trouble now. Do not make it worse by disobeying my instructions. By the way, Miss Winter, did you send a note home yesterday about them fighting?"
"Yes I did. They said you forgot to sign it."
"I see. Seth, Jackson, what happened to that note?" Neither boy answered. "I asked you two a question. What happened to the note your teacher sent home yesterday?"
"I don't remember getting one," answered Seth.
"I'm sure Aunt Susan didn't give us one," added Jackson.
"When you are in this school you will address your teacher as Miss Winter. So the two of you are going to sit there and tell me that your teacher is lying. I had hoped to resolve this the easy way, but I guess I'm going to have to do it the hard way which will no doubt embarrass you. Did anyone else see Miss Winter give Seth and Jackson a note yesterday?"
"I did Mr. Winter," said Sally. "Jackson threw it in the stove before he left school."
"Thank you Sally. Boys, that lie has cost you dearly. Miss Winter, feel free to punish them however you see fit for destroying the note and lying about me not signing it. Now, please separate them before they disturb your school even more."
"Thank you for bringing Jackson's books and finding out what happened to the note I sent home," said Miss Winter. "David Richards, will you please trade seats with Seth Winter?"
"You can't do that to us Aunt Susan. We'll tell our mother that you listened to Pa when he said to separate us," said Jackson.
"Boys, you are in big trouble and your mother already knows what I planned to do. Miss Winter, I'll leave you to deal with these two. I have a shop to run and it has been closed far too long while I have had to look for Jackson's books. Unless you have a reason to keep them after school, I will expect Jackson and Seth at my store immediately after school is dismissed."
After Mr. Winter left, Miss Winter called her nephews up to the front of the class and paddled them for being disrespectful and destroying the note she had sent home the day before. Then she said, "As punishment for lying to me, the two of you will not get any recess today and you will remain after school. Then you will cut and stack a cord of wood. When you are finished, I will escort you to your father's store."
After leaving the feed store, Ben walked over to Roy's office. Roy looked up from his paperwork when the door opened and said, "Good morning Ben. I was hoping you'd show up this morning. Dan over at the Enterprise would like you to stop over there this morning."
"Good morning Roy. Do you know why Dan wants to see me?"
"Yes I do and I'm not going to spoil the surprise by telling you. In fact, I think I'll walk over there with you because I want to see the look on your face."
They walked over to the newspaper office where Dan DeQuille greeted Ben. "Good morning Ben. I'm glad you came into town this morning. I've got something here I think you'll be interested in." He handed Cat's advertisement to Ben who read it aloud and burst out laughing.
He continued laughing, reread the advertisement shook his head and said, "Oh, this is priceless. That little scamp. She is bound and determined to get rid of Adam one way or another. He is going to be madder than a wet hen when he sees this. You know Dan, I'm half tempted to let you run this ad. I don't know if I should let Hoss, Joe, and Hop Sing read it. They may never let Adam hear the end of it if I do."
"Judging from this ad and your comments, I take it that your oldest and youngest are at loggerheads with each other."
"Yes they are. Cat will be nine and a half in December but Adam insists on treating her like she's five. You can imagine how well that is going over."
"I can only begin to imagine. How bad is her temper?"
"She's a lot like Joe. What does that tell you?"
Dan and Roy laughed. "That tells me a lot Ben. I think that if Cat were bigger, Adam would have a very sore jaw."
"Well, she's not big enough to hit him yet but she has kicked him a few times. I don't know how to get her to control her temper. Hop Sing says she should spend more time with Hoss and Joe to learn what they do, but Joe isn't that good at controlling his temper yet. Hop Sing did point out one positive thing about keeping Cat and Joe together more. He won't be in the saloon as much if his little sister is with him."
"That's true," said Roy. "However, I seriously doubt that you are going to let Joe bring his nine year old sister to town after dark."
"You are right about that, but Joe doesn't come to town too much after dark. Dan would you please…"
"Ben, I already anticipated your request and printed enough copies for the family, Roy, Paul, and myself. I also made one for Sam Clemens and was planning on sending it to him in today's mail."
"Thank you. What did you tell Cat when she brought this to you?"
"I told her I didn't know if there would be room for it in today's paper and would change the sale date to the day after I put it in the paper."
"Thank you for not running it. I'm going to give Adam a chance to fix his attitude and if he doesn't, I may just let you put the ad in the paper. I wonder how much Cat thought she'd get for her brother."
"There's no telling unless you ask her," said Roy. "Knowing she's only nine, she would probably think that twenty dollars was a lot of money. Why don't you ask her when she gets home? While you're at it, ask her what she was planning to do with the money she got from selling Adam. I'd really like to know and I'm sure that Dan and Paul would like to know also."
"That's a good idea Roy. I'll ask her when she gets home from school. I'm sure that her answers will be very interesting. Dan, thank you for printing these up for me. Adam won't be amused, however the rest of the family will. I'll take Paul's over to him now. I'm sure he and Virginia will enjoy the laugh."
Ben walked over to Paul's office where he found the doctor scolding Reverend Long. "Put that hand back in the bowl."
"But the water is very cold."
"Yes I know. It's supposed to be to keep your thumb from becoming badly swollen. Now put your hand back in that bowl of ice water."
Reverend Long wasn't cooperating, so Paul pushed his hand back into the bowl. "Yeow! That's too cold! I think I'd rather have a swollen thumb."
"I declare, you are worse than many of the children who come in here. Hello Ben. What can I do for you today? I hope Cat's head isn't bothering her."
"Hello Paul. Why are you torturing Reverend Long like that?"
"Tell him David."
"I was hanging a picture for Joanne. She distracted me so instead of hitting the nail with the hammer, I hit my thumb. Now Paul has decided that I need to be tortured."
"As I've already said at least five times since you came in here, your thumb has to be soaked in ice water to keep it from swelling badly. You've only been here fifteen minutes and of that time, your hand has barely been in the water for less than five minutes. Now stop acting like a child and put that hand back in the water or I'll send Ben to fetch your wife!"
Ben laughed at Reverend Long acting like an uncooperative child. "No Paul, Cat's head isn't worse unless she's in arithmetic class right now. She says that seeing all of those numbers together gives her headaches and makes her dizzy. I brought something I thought you and Virginia would enjoy reading. Feel free to let Reverend Long read it too. I think he'll get a good laugh from it."
Paul chuckled at how Ben said arithmetic made Cat feel, took the advertisement from Ben, read it, started laughing, walked to the rear door of his office and called, "Virginia, come here please. I've got something you need to hear."
Mrs. Martin appeared a few minutes later, her hands white with flour. "What is it Paul? You know that I'm baking today. Oh hello Ben. It's nice to see you."
Paul held up the advertisement and said, "I know you're baking today Dear, but I thought you would enjoy hearing what Ben brought me." He read the advertisement aloud to his wife and Reverend Long. Reverend Long and Mrs. Martin started laughing. "Well that didn't take long, did it?" asked Virginia. "Cat's been home two months and she and Adam are already butting heads."
"What prompted her to write this?" asked Paul.
"It seems that Adam has started treating Cat the way he treated Joe when he came home from college and Cat doesn't like it any more than Joe did."
"I don't understand," said Reverend Long. "How did Adam treat his brother when he returned home from college?"
"You tell him Ben," said Paul. "It's your story."
"Alright Paul. When Adam left for college, Joe had just turned six and Adam was still treating him like a five year old. When Adam returned home, Joe was almost ten but Adam had a hard time accepting the fact that Joe wasn't five or six any more. He accused me of spoiling Joe and letting him run wild. I will admit that I did spoil Joe more than I did his brothers but that's because by the time he was born, the ranch had been built and we were no longer traveling with the wagon train. I was able to allow him more freedom than I did Adam because the dangers of the trail were behind us. Most of what Adam perceived as wildness was just Joe being a ten year old boy. Adam decided that since I was allowing his youngest brother to run wild, it was his job to put the boy in his place so whenever he caught Joe doing something he thought was wrong, Adam punished his brother, most of the time without letting him explain, even if I was home."
"I remember the one incident," said Paul. "Little Joe was a very sick boy before all was said and done. For a while I was afraid he wasn't going to live."
"Yes Paul. Hoss reminded Adam and me of that incident yesterday. I'm not very proud of the way I acted then. That incident is when I realized that I was so thrilled to have my oldest son back home and was so busy showing him everything that had been done to the ranch in his absence that I ignored my younger two sons. Oh, I made sure that they were fed and clothed and went to school but except for scolding Joe and punishing him for things that he was sometimes innocent of, I ignored them."
"What happened?" asked Reverend Long.
"I'll tell you later," said Paul. "So Ben, why is Cat trying to sell Adam?"
"Because she was unsuccessful in trying to trade him for her friends. He's been treating her like she's five and she doesn't like it one little bit. If Adam is home when Cat comes home from school, he tells her to do her chores and homework, just like he used to do when Joe started school. Yesterday when Hoss and Joe came home and said that she had been hurt and they had to hold her still so you could stitch her head, despite the fact that they're not allowed to spank their sister yet, he told them that they just should have given her a spanking and then she would have held still. When Cat picked up the mail after school, there was a letter in it for her. Adam accused her of lying and tried to take the letter from her. He was going to come into town after supper last night but changed his mind and said that someone had to be home to make sure Cat went to bed on time. I don't know what his problem is, but lately he's been as grouchy as a bear coming out of hibernation. Except for doing his sister's chores today and tomorrow, I have given him both days off. I'm hoping that several days of doing Cat's chores with her checking to make sure they've been done right, will help him to understand how he's been making her feel. I need her to trust him because if anything ever happens to me, as my eldest son, Adam will be the one to take care of his sister. He won't be able to do that if she doesn't trust him."
When Miss Winter dismissed the school for morning recess, Annabel managed to get behind Cat and tried to push her down the stairs. Fortunately, one of the older boys was behind her and pulled her back into the classroom. "Jeffrey, why are you pulling Annabel back into the school?" asked Miss Winter.
"She tried to push Cat Cartwright down the stairs. If I hadn't been behind her, she would have and Cat might have been seriously hurt. I noticed a large rock has been placed at the bottom of the stairs and it wasn't there yesterday."
"Thank you Jeffrey. Will you and Peter please find Mr. Miller and Mr. White and ask them to come here? It is important that I speak with both of them immediately. Recess will be extended until after I have met with them." Jeffrey left to tell Peter that their teacher wanted them to find Mr. White and Mr. Miller. Miss Winter turned to Annabel and asked, "Annabel, what do you have to say for yourself?"
"I got another whipping yesterday and I'm on restriction until after the new year. Pa says I can't have my toys, birthday, or Christmas gifts until I'm off restriction and it's all Cartwright's fault. She should have let me keep her saddle bags. Then my Pa wouldn't have punished me."
"Annabel, your punishment is your own fault, not Catherine's. You are the one who stole from others. Catherine did not. From what I understand, you have been stealing for a long time and were only caught because Catherine refused to give you her property. How did that rock get at the bottom of the stairs?"
"I put it there so I could kill Cartwright. I tried yesterday but she wasn't close enough to the bench. So I put the rock at the bottom of the stairs. If she fell down the stairs and hit her head, my problems would be over."
"You are very wrong Annabel and I am sick and tired of you trying to hurt Catherine. I guess the paddling I gave you yesterday wasn't enough to teach you a lesson so you are going to get another one. Then you are going to stand in the corner until your father and Mr. Miller arrive." After punishing Annabel, Susan sat at her desk and wrote out Annabel's assignments for the rest of that week and the following three weeks. She intended to ask Mr. Miller to call a meeting of the school board and to tell Mr. White that Annabel was not to attend school until after the meeting. She no sooner finished writing out the assignments when Mr. Miller walked in.
"Hello Miss Winter. Jeffrey said you wanted to see me." Seeing Annabel in the corner, he added, "I take it that there is a problem you wish to discuss."
"Thank you for coming Mr. Miller. If you don't mind, I would like to wait until Annabel's father gets here before having our discussion. He needs to be here since it involves his daughter."
"That's fine. So how do you like teaching in our little school? How are your students doing academically?"
"I enjoy it very much and am quite fond of most of the students. Needless to say, there are several, including my nephews, that seem to enjoy trying my patience. Academically, most of them are doing quite well. The youngest students have learned their numbers and letters quite well and are now learning to do simple addition problems and make simple words with the letters. Almost all of the other students are also doing quite well. I am especially pleased with my two fourth grade students. One of them is in the seventh grade reader while the other should be in the sixth grade reader by Christmas. I am allowing them to work together and it is benefiting both of them greatly."
"I am very happy to hear that." Just then, Mr. White walked into the school and noticed Annabel standing in the corner.
"Hello Gerald. Miss Winter, I received a message that you wanted to see me. I take it that Annabel is in trouble again."
"Hello Mr. White. Thank you for coming. Since Mr. Miller is head of the school board, I asked him to come here so he could also hear what I have to say. Ever since she was caught stealing, Annabel has been blaming Catherine Cartwright because you punished her. Among other things, she has made several attempts to goad Catherine into a fight. Much to her credit, Catherine has done her best to ignore Annabel. Things have now gone way beyond normal childhood behavior. Yesterday, Annabel tripped Catherine causing her to hit her head on one of the benches."
"Was Catherine seriously hurt?" asked Mr. Miller.
"Fortunately she was not. However, she did require four stitches and missed an hour of school because she did not understand what Dr. Martin wanted to do and would not cooperate with him. Sheriff Coffee had to find Joe and Hoss to help the doctor with their sister. I assume that both of you gentlemen have seen that large rock at the base of the stairs. Failing in her attempt to seriously injure Catherine yesterday, Annabel placed that rock there this morning and attempted to push Catherine down the stairs when I dismissed the children for recess. Thank God Jeffery was behind Annabel and prevented her from following through with her plan. If Annabel had pushed Catherine down the stairs and if Catherine had hit her head on that rock, she might have been killed, which Annabel told me was her intention. Gentlemen, including Annabel, there are twenty students in this school, all of whom need my attention. It is not fair to them for me to have to continually pay attention to one student in order to keep her from harming another. Mr. Miller, I am asking you to please call a meeting of the school board to discuss this situation."
"I will do that Miss Winter. However, it will be sometime next week before I will be able to hold a meeting. This is a very busy time of year. The ranchers are beginning to move their herds to winter pastures and the farmers are getting ready to harvest their crops."
"I understand the difficulties of scheduling a meeting immediately," replied Miss Winter. "I know that you will schedule it as soon as possible." She handed Mr. White the paper she had written and said, "Mr. White, these are Annabel's assignments for the rest of this week and the following three weeks. Please keep her at home until after the school board has met. Even though Annabel will not be here, I still expect her assignments to be turned in when they are due. The due dates are written next to the assignments. You can ask one of the other children to bring the papers with them. If one of her classmates wants to, they can explain new material to her. Although I do not wish to see Annabel fail, she will not be in class so I cannot give her full credit for the assignments. Therefore, every assignment that is submitted when it is due will receive three quarters credit. Any assignment that is one day late will receive half credit. If an assignment is two days late, it will receive one quarter credit and after that, it will receive a failing grade. I believe that is more than fair as most teachers would not give more than half credit to assignments submitted by a student who has been excluded from school due to behavior issues. Annabel, your father is here to take you home. Gather your belongings and go with him. He has your assignments and knows when they are due. You are not to return to school until after the school board has met. I truly hope and pray that you will take the time away from school to reflect on your actions and learn to stop blaming others for them. Nobody made you steal and you were stealing from people long before Catherine Cartwright moved to the Ponderosa. You are angry with her because she would not give you her property, your father found out you had been stealing and punished you for it."
"Thank you Miss Winter," said Mr. White. "I appreciate the fact that you do not want to see Annabel fail and are giving her the opportunity to still do her work even though she will not be in school. Your terms are more than fair. I know that some teachers would not allow a student who has been excluded from school to turn in assignments and receive a passing grade for them. Annabel, you heard your teacher gather your belongings and come with me. You are in more trouble than you have ever been in before and I can guarantee that you will not like the consequences you are about to experience. Now thank Miss Winter for allowing you to do your assignments and gather your belongings. This is the third time you have been told to do so and I am very close to putting you over my knee and spanking you in front of all the other students. Now get moving!"
As Mr. White started to take Annabel from the school, Mr. Miller said, "I have an idea Frank. I don't know if it will help or not, but why don't you take your daughter over to see Judge Parker? Ask him to tell Annabel what penalty she would face for stealing and attempted murder if she were older. His words may cause her to think about her actions and future consequences. You might also have Reverend Long talk to her about her actions."
"Thank you Gerald. Those are excellent ideas. Hopefully the judge will be in his office. As you said, what the judge tells her may give Annabel food for thought. I'm sure that Reverend Long will have some excellent advice for her also. I don't know what I'm going to do if she doesn't change her attitude and behavior." He took Annabel over to the judge who scolded her and said that if she were older, he could sentence her to twenty years in prison for stealing and attempted murder. He also told her that if she didn't stop trying to hurt Cat, he would send her to a home for wayward girls and told her father where one was located so he could take Annabel to see what it was like. Then he took Annabel over to see Reverend Long who also scolded her and talked to her about what the Bible had to say about her actions. Then he assigned her an essay on the Ten Commandments, what they meant, how she was going to keep them and every reference she could find in the Bible about how people were supposed to be treated.
When the rest of the students returned to the classroom, Mr. Miller addressed them. "I have been talking to Miss Winter and she has told me what fine students you are and how much you have progressed in the month since school started. I was very pleased to learn how hard all of you are working and hope you will continue. Miss Winter, if you don't mind, before I leave, I would like to have your students show off some of their skills for me."
"That is fine Mr. Miller. Which students would you like to hear from?"
"I think I'll start with one of the eldest students. Peter Shepard, please simplify this arithmetic problem for me. Three x cubed times five x times four y squared."
Peter stood up and said, "Three x cubed would be twenty seven x. Twenty seven x times five x is one hundred thirty five x while four y squared is sixteen y so the answer is one hundred thirty five x times sixteen y."
"That is excellent Peter. Thank you."
Mr. Miller continued asking students to solve arithmetic problems aloud and Cat was afraid he was going to call on her. He saw the frightened look on her face and said, "I think we've done enough arithmetic. I would like to hear some of the students read. He smiled to himself when he saw the look of relief on Cat's face and made a mental note to talk to Ben about it. Catherine Cartwright, please read the next selection you will be working on in reading." Cat stood up and began reading the next story in her reader. Since it was new, she struggled with a few of the words but Mr. Miller didn't say anything until she was finished. "That was very good Catherine. I am pleased with the way you attempted to sound out those unfamiliar words. Laura Ingalls, will you please read the next selection in your reader?" He continued calling on students until every one of them had either solved an arithmetic problem or read. After the last child had finished reading, he addressed the class. "Boys and girls, I cannot begin to tell you how pleased I am with what you just showed me with your arithmetic and reading. You and Miss Winter can all be proud of your achievements. Rest assured, when I see your parents, I will tell them how well you did today. Please keep up the good work. Miss Winter, thank you for allowing me to take up your valuable class time to see how much your students have learned." He left the school and Miss Winter began the history and geography lessons.
Mr. Miller decided to visit the school board members who lived in town to see when they would be available for a meeting. He walked over to the general store where he saw Ben loading supplies on the back of the buckboard. The two men greeted each other and Mr. Miller asked, "Ben, what on Earth have you done to your daughter? I was just over at the school listening to the students solve arithmetic problems aloud for me and she had a look of sheer terror on her face at the thought that I might call on her to solve one."
"Did you ask her to solve one?"
"No. I was going to but when I saw the look on her face, I started having the students read instead. She was so relieved, I thought she was going to hug me."
Ben breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you for not having her solve a problem aloud. Cat struggles with arithmetic and won't ask for help when she needs it. Her temper is worse than Joe's because she hasn't learned how to control it yet. She told me that while she was living in Dodge, a boy laughed and threw a book at her when she made a mistake doing an arithmetic problem on the board. Cat said that she beat the stuffing out of him and I believe her."
"Why won't she ask for help? Adam should have no problem helping her with fourth grade arithmetic."
"She's a Cartwright & doesn't believe in asking for help. She wants to do everything by herself. I almost got hit by a flying arithmetic book yesterday. Also, right now she and Adam are at odds with each other."
"Oh, what's going on there?"
"Adam has started treating Cat the same way he treated Joe after he came home from college and she doesn't like it any more than Joe did. He has the next two days off, however he has to do Cat's chores and she has to make sure he did them right. I'm hoping that having his nine year old sister checking up on him will help him to realize how he's making her feel. I'm also hoping that a few days off will put him in a better frame of mind. I just don't know how to get Cat to ask for help when she needs it. She is so independent that it scares me. She thinks she can survive on her own and doesn't need anyone. So why did you decide to examine the students today? School has only been in session for a month."
"I was there because Susan Winter requested my presence. It seems that Annabel White has decided that all of her problems are Cat's fault and tried to push her down the school steps at recess, hoping she would hit her head on a rock she had placed at the bottom of the stairs this morning." Seeing Ben's look of alarm, he continued, "Don't worry. Susan told me that one of the older boys stopped Annabel before she could carry out her plan. Except for being terrified I was going to ask her to solve an arithmetic problem aloud, Cat is fine. Judging from Frank's reaction, I don't think I can say the same about Annabel's bottom. Susan asked me to call a school board meeting and Annabel is forbidden to return to the school until after the meeting. Will you be able to make the meeting if I hold it on Wednesday?"
"Yes, Wednesday will be fine. Just let me know what time you will be holding the meeting."