Bridge of Sighs

dark deeds, right?”
    Perry looked around the room for an ally. “That’s crazy.”
    “Or do you think she’s secretly fond of you?”
    Now it was Nan’s turn to grimace.
    “No.”
    Mr. Berg nodded. “You’re probably right.” Perry’s face darkened and he added, “Right to be suspicious, I mean. Most people
are
up to no good, isn’t that true?
    “I guess.”
    “I don’t mind telling you,
I’m
worried,” Mr. Berg continued in a tone that made it impossible for Noonan to take anything he said seriously, though most of his fellow students seemed to. This was a game, and the referee was crazy. Which meant there was nothing to do but relax and enjoy it. “I could be fired for giving Mr. Marconi a cigarette, and he could be kicked off the team for smoking it. As you point out, it’s against the rules, so maybe this means the end for Mr. Marconi and me. And yet the fact remains, I love to smoke and so does Mr. Marconi here, I can tell. We’re mighty glad, he and I, that the principal isn’t likely to walk in on us, not all the way over here, which may have been another reason I chose this room. Far away from prying eyes and malicious gossip. My inference is—and you may be interested to hear this, Miss Beverly—that if nobody rats out Mr. Marconi and me for smoking, maybe we’ll break some other rules, too. Does that possibility frighten you?”
    “What other rules?” Nan asked warily.
    “Are you sure you wouldn’t like a cigarette, Mr. Kozlowski?”
    That Perry would have loved one couldn’t have been more obvious as he regarded Noonan with longing and hatred. Who, in return, stretched out and smiled back, exhaling languorously out the side of his mouth.
    “I really wish you would,” Mr. Berg said. “Then I’d be less worried about losing my job and getting Mr. Marconi kicked off the football team. Both of those possibilities trouble me greatly.” In actuality, Noonan felt certain he couldn’t care less about either one, though Perry seemed not to grasp this essential fact.
    “I better not,” he said glumly.
    Mr. Berg shrugged. “Of course the real reason I selected this room may have nothing to do with cigarettes. Maybe I’ve located us all the way over here not so much because we could
do
things as
say
things. Things we might not want to say over there.” He was again talking to Nan Beverly in that same mock-confidential tone. “Things we might not want overheard.”
    “Such as?”
    “There is no God,” said Mr. Berg, then clapped his hand over his mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that. Wow. If somebody heard me say that, I could be fired. Just like for smoking.”
    “Are you saying there
is
no God?” Perry Kozlowski said.
    “No, that just slipped out. It was only a thought. But it’s a good thing we’re over here, isn’t it? Not the sort of thing you’d want our principal to overhear. I believe he attends the same church as Miss Beverly, and in faculty meetings I’ve heard him speak about God as if they converse regularly, so I know he’d be very displeased to hear something like I let slip. Which he might just do in that honors room, right next to his office. Have you ever noticed how sneaky he is? How he likes to loiter in the hallways and listen to what’s going on in the classrooms?”
    “He could still do that here,” Perry pointed out.
    “But he’s also fat and lazy,” Mr. Berg said. “He wouldn’t come all this way. And if he did we’d probably hear him because that’s how fat and lumbering he is, though I probably shouldn’t be saying such things. He
is
our principal, after all. The only reason I mention that he’s fat and lazy is because it’s true, which is different from saying something just to be unkind, don’t you think?”
    “Yes,” Noonan volunteered.
    “Yes,” Mr. Berg repeated. “Mr. Marconi agrees. I expected as much. But Miss Beverly, here’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you. It’s about our country. People say it’s great, indeed the greatest country of all. Do you agree?”
    “Yes?” she said, herself glancing around for support.
    “Why?”
    She thought about it for a moment, then said, “Because we’re free? Because we can be whatever we want?”
    “Are those statements or questions?”
    “Statements?”
    Mr. Berg sighed. “Oh. I thought perhaps your lilting inflection suggested a reservation. But maybe by the end of the term you’ll be able to speak in the declarative. Does that strike you as a