A Little Blackmail

As ten year old Tom Hammond lifted his arithmetic book from the backpack, a homemade, construction paper envelope came with it. He had a good idea what it contained, but he pulled out the looseleaf letter anyway.

"Dear Tom, I’m thinking of telling my friends that I think you're really nice and funny and cute.”

His face got red and his eyes were brimming. Just then his dad entered the bedroom.

“Dinner time, kiddo. Hey, what’s going on?” Dad sat on the floor and embraced his son.

“Dad,” sniffed Tom, “I’m being blackmailed.” He handed Dad the letter. “It’s the third one. I don’t know what to do. If she tells her friends, everyone will find out and I’ll get teased forever.”

Dad nodded. “I get it. Do you know who sent them?”

“No,” said Tom. “At first I thought it was a mistake. I mean there are four Toms in my class. There’s Tom Finlay who plays quarterback on his Pop Warner team, so he’s strong and OK looking. Tom Westinghouse wears glasses & braces, but he plays piano really good and I’ve heard girls in the school band like him. And then Tom Harper is really smart and gets good grades all the time. He’s pretty shy and seems kind of afraid of girls, so the letters might be for him, to give him confidence. But I can’t think of any girl who would give these to me.”

“It’ll be alright, Tom.” Dad shook his head. “My God, how do fourth graders even know about blackmail? Maybe Tom, whoever it is just has a crush on you, and isn’t really trying to blackmail you.”

Tom drew the other two envelopes from under his mattress, putting them with the latest one.

“Well look Dad, all the envelopes are black.”