by J. A. York
Chapter Six
Celeste's Bad Night
"Well, let's see how she's doing," Celeste said.
She and Benjamin went into the bedroom, where Holly Stark had been sitting by Rachel's side, stroking her hand, waiting for the tranquillizer to do its work.
"How are you feeling, Rachel?" Celeste asked. "Are you awake?"
"Umm," Rachel said, opening her eyes.
"She's been sleeping," Holly said.
"That's good," Celeste said. "That's what we want. Well, let's proceed then, shall we?"
Celeste reached into her leather case, which was sitting on the floor next to the bed, and pulled out a long, narrow cloth bag. She laid it on the bed, then reached back into her case and brought out a small bottle, a cotton cloth and a pair of plastic gloves, which she also laid on the bed.
"OK, Rachel, this is what is going to happen. Are you listening?"
"Yes," Rachel whispered.
"Good. In this bag I have a common, ordinary knitting needle. You might have used one just like it."
Celeste pulled the 12-inch needle out of the cloth bag.
"You can see it is pointed on one end," Celeste said, showing Rachel the needle, "and it has a cap on the other end. OK?
"In just a minute I am going to put on these plastic gloves and then take this cloth and wipe the needle clean with the alcohol in this bottle.
"Once I have it nice and clean, I then am going to insert the pointed end into your – "
Suddenly the bedroom door flew open, and Rodney burst into the room.
"Stop it!" he screamed.
He grabbed Celeste by the shoulders and yanked her off the bed. The needle clattered onto the tile floor.
She started to reach for her leather case, but Rodney pushed her into the wall. At the same time, Benjamin grabbed Rodney from behind.
"Rodney, stop it! You stop this right now!" he yelled.
By this time, everybody was screaming at everybody to stop. Rachel, now wide awake, was on all fours on the bed screaming. Holly was hopping around the room screaming. Celeste was screaming every obscenity she could think of.
Rodney broke loose from his father's grip. "Dad," he yelled, his eyes blazing, "don't make me hit you."
The women's screams grew louder. And now the three young children were standing in the doorway, bawling and screaming. Holly and Rachel grabbed them and hustled them back into their bedroom.
"You're gonna hit me?" Benjamin said. "Go ahead, hit your father, Rodney. C'mon, hit me!"
"You can't do this," Rodney said. Even he was crying now. "Tell her to get out of here!"
"He won't have to," Celeste said. "I'm leaving right now." She picked up the needle and started to gather her stuff.
"Rodney, you either hit me, or you go right back to that bedroom and stay there. You are not the man of the house here. I am. Hit me or leave. Now which is it?"
"Dad … "
"Which is it?" Benjamin screamed.
Rodney turned and ran out of the room.
Benjamin turned to Celeste. She was putting on her coat.
"Celeste, no, wait, Celeste," he said.
"No, you wait, mister," she said. "I gave you one warning, and now you've used it up. Your time's up, and we're done. I'm taking your money and getting the hell out of here."
She snapped her case shut and started to leave the room.
"Celeste … "
"Forget it!" She headed for the front door. He went after her.
"Celeste! I'll give you more money," he said. "Please."
She stopped.
She took a couple of steps toward him.
"How much more money?"
"A hundred dollars," he said. "It's all I have in the world."
"In cash?"
"Yes."
"Let's see it."
Benjamin walked over to the back door, which was held shut by a five-gallon bucket full of his carpentry tools. He had set it up against the door to keep it from blowing open. He dug down into the bucket and pulled out a small paper sack.
He handed it to Celeste. "It's a lot of little bills, but it's all there. It's actually a hundred and two dollars," he said.
Without a word, she started counting it. When she was finished, she said:
"You're right. Here's your two dollars."
Benjamin shrugged. But he took the money.
"OK," she said. "I'll do this under one condition – that you lock those kids in that room. I don't care how you do it. You can nail it shut. You can put a piano in front of it, I don't care. Just do it! Because this really is your last chance, mister. Do I make myself clear?"
Benjamin nodded. "Yes."
Celeste put the bag of bills in her case and snapped it shut.
"Now get Rachel and her mother back in here, then do what you have to do to that door," she said. She turned and walked into the bedroom.
Rachel and Holly were dabbing their eyes with handkerchiefs when they came back into the bedroom, but they said not a word.
Rachel climbed into bed. Celeste pulled a couple of long straps out of her case.
"I'm going to strap your arms to the bedposts," Celeste said. "It's standard procedure. It's for your own protection. If you start flailing your arms about during the procedure all sorts of bad things can happen."
Rachel's eyes darted about the room as Celeste strapped her to the bedposts. When Celeste was done, she took the knitting needle out of her case.
Then she took the blanket off the bed and pulled Rachel's nightgown up above her waist.
"Mom, I want you to grab one foot and Dad you grab the other. That's right. Now, pull her legs apart. Good. Now put your other hand on her hip bone, that's right, and hold her down. It's important that she doesn't start switching her hips and moving around, struggling.
"OK, Rachel, we're going to start now. I'm going to insert the needle in you."
"Aren't you going to sterilize it?" Benjamin asked.
"I've lost all patience with you people," Celeste said. "The needle is clean enough. Now I'm going to talk you through the entire procedure, Rachel, so you'll know exactly what's going on. Everybody else, keep your mouth shut.
"Here we go."
Celeste poked and prodded for an opening.
"She's as dry as a 90-year-old woman," Celeste said. She reached into her case and brought out a small jar of petroleum jelly. "Maybe this will help."
"OK, Rachel," Celeste said a minute later. "You're lubricated now. Here we go."
Celeste leaned down to insert the needle – and was rewarded with a stream of urine in her face.
She jumped back and nearly fell down.
"Shit!" she cried. "Damn!"
Fifteen minutes later, after she cleaned herself up, unstrapped Rachel and gave her two tranquillizer pills, and after Rachel went to the bathroom, then helped her mother change the bed sheets, a sullen Celeste sat in the living room with Benjamin, waiting for the tranquilizer pills to work their magic.
"This is the worst night of my life," Celeste said.
Benjamin wanted to choke her. He wanted to tell her what a hateful witch she was.
But he kept his hands at his side, and his mouth shut.
Chapter Seven
The Bullies
Rachel went through the lunch line at the Chante High cafeteria, then looked for a place to sit down. She didn't see anybody she really knew, but she spotted a table that had room for her.
"Hi," she said to the girls at the table, "mind if I sit with y'all?"
"Y'all?" said a girl named Julia Jackson. "You sound like a Tennessee hillbilly."
There was laughter all around. Rachel went to look for another table.
"Y'all come back sometime, y'heah?" Julia said as Rachel walked away. More giggles. "Trailer trash," someone yelled.
●●●
Rachel sat down at her desk in the assembly hall. She had just finished her biology class in Room 14, and now she had an hour to review the homework she had done the
night before for her U.S. history class.
She lifted her desk top, which doubled as the lid over a drawer that contained all her school supplies, and sometimes books and other items.
The drawer was full of wadded up toilet paper. She rummaged through the paper. Her pencils, pens, erasers – all her school supplies – were gone.
But worst of all, her history homework was missing.
●●●
The PE class that Thursday was over, and most of the girls had already showered and gone home. Rachel stayed late, waiting for everyone to clear out. She ran laps around the gym, did some stretching exercises, ran some more laps. Anything to kill time.
Tabby usually would be in the class with Rachel, but Tabby had sprained an ankle earlier in the week and was excused from PE that day. Nobody bothered Rachel when she was with Tabby. Without her, Rachel wanted no part of the girls' shower room. It was the prudent thing to do, considering how things had been going lately.
Rachel waited till she was certain she was alone before she headed for the showers. Sure enough, the place was empty. She walked to her locker and opened it.
There were all her clothes, sopping wet in a pile on the floor. They smelled of urine, as if they had been dumped into the toilet, and the toilet was then used.
She sat down on one of the wooden benches in the locker room and began to cry.
Minutes later she walked down the hall to the janitor's supply room, where she found a large plastic bag. She tossed her wet clothes into the bag, slung the bag over her shoulder and left the building.
It was a warm fall day. The football team was still on the practice field. Their first game of the season was Friday. Ordinarily she might have waited for Rodney and caught a ride with Sheldon or maybe Jimmy up to the cemetery.
But she was in no mood to talk to anyone. She wanted to wait until she had thought things through. Maybe she would talk with Tabby tomorrow, before the football game. All she knew at that moment was that she needed someone to tell her what to do. She didn't know what that might be, but something. And talking it over with Tabby seemed like a good place to start.
The bag of wet clothes was heavy. But Rachel ran the five miles up Cemetery Road to her place without stopping.
●●●
Her mother's mouth fell open when Rachel walked in the door.
"What … what?"
Rachel told her what happened.
"Oh, that's too bad, honey. I'm sorry. People can be so mean," her mom said.
"Well, I might report this to somebody. I'm not sure what I'll do," Rachel said.
"Now you're just upset, honey, and I don't blame you. But you're new to this school, and to this town. The kids will get used to having you around, you'll see. They'll be fine. I wouldn't stir up no trouble."
"Mom, if was the first time I might agree with you. But there has been other stuff, and I don't .. it's just not fair."
"What stuff?"
"Just … stuff. Mean stuff. I don't want to talk about it."
"Honey, let me wash those clothes and hang them on the line for you. You'll feel better tomorrow."
Rachel headed for her room.
"Rachel?"
"What?"
"Sit down a minute, honey, and have a talk with your mother. I can tell you're upset."
They went into the living room and sat at the table.
"Honey, don't start no trouble. Please. Back in Tennessee, where we lived, it was different. People there were … were like us. They understood, you know, they understood … us. There weren't no rich folks there. There wasn't nobody who thought they was better than us. They were just folks, like us.
"But it's different here. People are different here. And it's going to take them awhile to get used to us. And us to them. But we will. And they will. You'll see. There's good people all over. And there's good people here.
"Why, the way you talk about that Tabby. And the way Rodney talks about that Sheldon, and Bull. And who's that other one?"
"Jimmy," Rachel said.
"Yeah, Jimmy. Especially Jimmy. Why, I never heard you kids talk about other kids the way you do those kids, like they was the best friends you ever had."
"They are, Mom, but – "
"See? There's good people everywhere. You just gotta give 'em a chance."
Rachel rubbed her face with both hands.
"OK, honey? What do you think?"
"I'll sleep on it, Mom."
"That's my girl."
"Right now I have to get out of these gym clothes and take a shower," Rachel said.
"You do look a little sweaty," her Mom said with a smile. "Toss those clothes out the bathroom door and I'll wash them too."
●●●
At 2 p.m. the next day, Friday, the Chante Lions took the field for their first football game of the season. The opponent was the Ashland Tigers, one of the Chante Valley Conference teams that most people thought might be able to challenge Chante for the conference championship.
The Tigers won the coin toss and opted to go on defense.
Standing in the end zone waiting for the kickoff was Rodney Stark. The Tigers had hardly heard of him and knew little about him. All they knew was that he was a sophomore and brand new to the Chante team. So they weren't particularly worried about him. Had they known more, they might not have kicked the ball right to him.
Rodney took the kickoff 2 yards deep in the end zone. He came straight up the middle, broke one tackle, then another, cut to his left, juked one defender, leaped over another and streaked untouched down the sideline for a touchdown.
It was a school record 102-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
On Rodney's very first play as a Chante Lion.
On Chante's second possession, Rodney weaved his way through defenders for a 33-yard touchdown. Later in the first quarter, Bull rammed it home from 8 yards out. In the second quarter, Sheldon threw two touchdown passes to Jimmy. By halftime the score was Chante, 35, Ashland, 0.
Chante's second- and third-string players, including running backs Danny Jackson and Oscar Olney, played most of the second half. Even so, the final score was 56 to 0.
Coach O'Connor awarded the game ball to Rodney during the coach's post-game talk to the team in the locker room.
The coach referred to Rodney as "102 yards and a cloud of dust Stark," a phrase that quickly spread all over town.
As had become their habit at the end of most school days, Sheldon, Tabby, Bull and Jimmy escorted Rachel and Jimmy up to the cemetery.
The football game was replayed on the way up, but when Sheldon pulled into the cemetery, Rachel asked him if he would turn off the engine.
"Uh, sure," Sheldon said. He paused. "What's up?"
Tabby was the first to sense something was wrong.
"What's the matter, Rachel? Tell us," she said.
Rachel bit her lower lip, fighting back the tears.
"I told myself I wasn't going to cry," she said. "Now look at me."
Jimmy put his arm around her.
"I'm really sorry, Rache," he said. "But, honestly, we didn't know you were an Ashland fan."
The explosion of laughter blew the tension in the car to smithereens, and Rachel was laughing the loudest.
"Oh, I love you guys – no, I love y'all so much. I can't tell you." She wiped her eyes, but they were tears of laughter.
"All right. I'm OK now," she said. "I'm going to get serious again in a minute, and I'm not going to cry this time.
"I was going to apologize for being such a downer right after you had such a great game today, but then I realized that with friends like you, apologies aren't necessary."
"Absolutely not," Bull said.
"The thing is, I need your help. I feel like I'm a crybaby and a tattletale, but I need you to tell me what I should do."
Then she told them the whole story. The snubs, the taunts, the giggles, the pointing, the put downs, the angry stares, the thefts, and then yesterday, soaking her clothes in the to
ilet and throwing them on the floor of her locker.
"Good lord almighty," Sheldon said. "I can't believe it."
"Me neither," Jimmy said.
"You know, I kind of thought something like that might be going on," Tabby said. "But I didn't know … I mean, there are some real jerks in this school, but usually if you just ignore them they'll go away. Because all they want is attention."
"And you've had some of this too, haven't you, Rodney?" Bull said.
"Well, with a couple of guys, yeah," Rodney said. "But nothing I can't handle. Most guys have been really nice."
"But this is serious stuff," Tabby said. "I mean, stealing stuff out of your desk? Throwing your clothes in the toilet? That's criminal. I mean it. Rache, if I were you I wouldn't wait. If I were you I would go the principal's office first thing Monday morning and tell him everything you just told us. And if you want, I'll go with you as your support person. This just makes me as angry as hell."
Rachel nodded. "I think you're right. And I would love it if you came with me. I'm not sure I could do it alone."
"It makes all of us angry, Rache," Bull said. "And if you need character references or something, we are here for you."
"Can someone explain something to me?" Sheldon asked. "From everything I heard, Rachel, you knocked 'em dead at the Chanteuse tryouts. I mean, people were crying, standing ovation, all that. Everybody in school was buzzing about it, for a week or more. I think they would have elected you student body president or something. Then all of a sudden things turned sour. What happened?"
"I'll tell you what happened," Tabby said. "I'll tell you exactly what happened. The girls who got accepted into the Chanteuses, and all of us who already were members, love Rachel. Actually, I think most of the kids at school like Rachel. The problem is that the girls who didn't get accepted into Chanteuses hate her. They're blaming her for their own failures. There's probably what, 10 or 15 people, out of maybe 200 kids in high school, who are causing all the problems for Rachel. I think I could name most of them. Really."
"That's pretty much what happened to Rodney with Danny Jackson and Oscar Olney," Bull said. "Rodney beat them out for the first-string running back spot. And now they're trying to get revenge. Or at least they were. Which kind of makes me think. I'll probably get into big trouble for saying this, but sometimes I think girls are bigger bullies than boys. You know what I mean?"