The Hayloft. A 1950s Mystery

beaten Carter, and I had played well. Surely he didn’t remember me.
    “The team can use you. A couple of our key players graduated. And, of course, Ralph Harrison was on the team. Ralph was your cousin, wasn’t he?
    “First cousin.”
    “I’m sorry about what happened to Ralph. Do you play any other sports?”
    “I play tennis.”
    “I play tennis. Maybe we can play sometime.”
    I couldn’t picture that. I hadn’t been buddy-buddy with the school administration at Atherton. Although, perhaps if I had, I wouldn’t be here now.
    “I liked Ralph,” Dr. Graves said. “He was a good student and a good athlete. If you do as well as he did, you shouldn’t have any problems.”
    If Ralph were still at Carter, I wouldn’t consider it so much of a tragedy to enroll here. Maybe Dr. Graves knew something about Ralph’s death that I didn’t know. “I never heard the full story about how he died.”
    “There’s not much of a story. He fell off the balcony in the auditorium.”
    “That’s hard to believe.”
    “Well, you know how teenage boys are, Gary. They do stupid things. Ralph was probably doing something stupid.”
    “Ralph wasn’t stupid.” And a principal shouldn’t talk like that about his students.
    “I’m not questioning his brains, only his judgment. In the first place, he shouldn’t have been on the balcony all alone when he was supposed to be in class.”
    “Why do you think he was all alone?”
    “Because he was. Mr. White, the janitor who found him, said nobody else was there. The police said the evidence pointed to him being alone.”
    “But couldn’t somebody have been with him and left—?”
    “As to why you are here,” Dr. Graves said, interrupting me, “that’s strictly between you and me. It won’t get beyond this room unless you let it.”
    I gathered that the discussion about Ralph was over. And that if I wanted to be admitted to Carter, I had better not bring it up again. “Thank-you.”
    “There’s one more thing.”
    I tensed. Here it comes, I thought.
    “I need you to do something for me.”
    Dr. Graves took off his glasses and looked hard at me. I returned the look, trying not to squirm.
    He said, “None of what I’m about to say goes beyond this room. Just like the story of why you’re here. Swear you won’t breathe a word to anyone.”
    I nodded, dumbly.
    “I want to hear you say it.”
    What were we talking about, military secrets? “I swear I won’t say anything.”
    “Good.” He placed his elbows on the desk and leaned forward toward me. “Have you heard of the House Un-American Activities Committee?”
    If you listened to the radio, you couldn’t avoid hearing about HUAC. But I tried to ignore it. What happened in Washington wasn’t high on my radar screen. “Yeah.”
    “To refresh your memory, there are dangerous people living in this country. People who are intent on selling us out to countries like the USSR. HUAC investigates them.”
    “Communists,” I said, wanting to appear intelligent.
    “That’s right, communists. You never know where they might be. They can be anywhere.”
    “Even here in Carter?” I asked, beginning to get his drift.
    “Even here in Carter. I have asked one of our student leaders, Sylvia Doran, to show you around the school and help you get acclimated. She’s president of the student council and knows everybody. What I want you to do is to report to me anything she says of a suspicious nature.”
    I was flabbergasted. “Do you think she’s a communist?”
    “No, but her father might be. I particularly would like to know anything she says about him.”
    “But…that makes me a spy.”
    Dr. Graves smiled. “Nothing as serious as that. I just need to get a little information, that’s all.”
    “Who wants this information?”
    The smile vanished. “Don’t ask too many questions. Remember, we’re dealing with the security of the United States. It’s the job of every loyal American to step up to the plate and do his part.”
    I gulped and said, “I don’t think I can do it.”
    Dr. Graves scowled. “Yes, you can. Because if you don’t, I don’t think I can admit you to Carter High School.”
    He started to tap his pencil again. I slumped in my chair. So this was the catch. Somehow, I had known there was one. How could I face my father if I were thrown out of two high schools within a week?
    “All right,” I said, gritting my teeth, “I’ll do it. What do you want me—?”
    “Excellent.