Her Secret, His Child

"In the South?"

"Yes. When?"

"Jim, linebacker, number eighty-five," the student recited so quietly Jamie hardly heard him. ' 'In 19…no, 1885?"

"Right." Kyle obviously meant business. "And does Jim have a particular team he wants to play for?"

"This is a dumb one, Professor."

"Who cares. You're learning, aren't you?"

"He plays for the Huckleberry Finns. Ain't no football team ever going to call themselves 'the Huckleberry Finns.'"

Jamie grinned. She had to agree with the guy.

"Who's the owner?" Kyle wasn't lightening up a bit.

"Mark Twain?"

"And how does Mr. Twain feel about Jim's plight?"

Sliding down to sit on the floor, Jamie listened intently, waiting to hear the student's response.

"He knows it ain't right, that those people are evil for wanting to keep the blacks down that way, but the people are his fans who pay for tickets and if they don't want to see Jim, he can't make them."

"So how does he view those people?"

"As hypocrites."

"And?"

"They're filled with lovelessness." The word was

TARA TAYLOR QUINN

said so slowly Jamie could almost have spelled it as it was being said.

"Okay." Kyle sounded relieved. "Do we know anything else about Jim?"

"Yeah, he ain't givin' up."

"Anything else?"

Silence.

"Think, Brad," Kyle encouraged. "What's the name of the team?"

"Oh, yeah," Brad said, sounding as if he were really expending some mental energy. "Jim's got one friend, a white boy, Huck," he said. "The team's named after him."

"And?"

"Huck helps Jim get free from his old biddy manager. He gets to play ball, but then they can't be friends no more 'cause the fans just ain't ready for that."

"And that, my boy, is the story of Huckleberry Finn." Kyle sounded inordinately pleased.

"You're somethin' else, Professor," Brad said. "The guys are never going to believe this—the Huckleberry Finns."

' 'What matters is that you remember this stuff for the next essay quiz."