Apple in the Earth

by C.T. Millis

Chapter 7

  At recess, James started walking towards the bathrooms. Three of Sonny’s friends walked towards him and spun him around. They started walking so close to him that the only way he could keep from falling was to walk towards the slide.

  The pain from Sonny’s first punch spread out from his abdomen like a blooming flower. James bent over; the pain from the second punch threw him back onto the cold dirt. James moved his hand to his face and saw it turn red.

  He heard some strange sobbing echo, but before he could figure out where it came from, Sonny had his full weight on him and was punching James’ arms and back.

  “Are you ever going to talk about me again?” Sonny’s words shot out of him and rose as steam into the air between them.

  “No!” James’ muffled voice crept from under his arms.

  “I asked if you were ever going to talk about me again!”

  James moved his arms down and said, “No, I’m never going to talk about you again!” Sonny punched him in the face, got up, and then kicked James in the back.

  “You’d better not,” Sonny spit on the curled up version of James and walked away. The other kids around laughed, jumped, and followed Sonny towards the kick ball field.

  James wiped his face in his coat after righting himself, and looked for Ms. Hopcke. He saw that she was at the other end of the playground talking to another teacher. He started walking, back carefully facing her, towards the boys’ bathroom.

  While passing the orange plastic tube slide, he heard that strange echo again. He bent over and looked up. Sophie was crying in the slide. Her white coat glowed with the orange that radiated from the inside of the tube and the ends of her long blonde hair stuck to the inside of the slide because of static electricity.

  “It’s okay- don’t cry.” He said, she looked up, “It doesn’t even hurt that bad, and it’s over, so it’s okay.” James continued. Sophie’s glasses were fogged up. She hid her red face in her hands and let out another echoing sob in the slide. “I’m just going to clean up, and then I’ll be okay,” James smiled. Sophie looked at him and saw red between his teeth.

  The bathroom floor was smeared with mud, and it the smell of his classmates’ piss stuck to the inside of his nostrils. James walked into the second stall and grabbed a bunch of toilet paper, putting some in his jacket pocket. He brought more to the sink and looked at himself in the mirror. There was not that much blood and the black eye did not look like it would be too bad. James spit into the sink and Paul came in the bathroom after him.

  “Are you okay?” he asked

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine, I just can’t let Ms. Hopcke see.”

  “I want to help you get him after school,” Paul said. James thought about it, Sonny could plunder any kid in class, but more than one would be able to get him pretty badly.

  I can’t fight anyone, it’s not right for me.

  “No, that’s okay- this isn’t so bad,” James said.

  “We can take him, really, after school- Sonny has been messing with us for too long,” Paul continued, “and I feel bad about what I said yesterday, your dad is a soldier- I’m sure he was really cool. He died keeping people like Sonny from-”

  “Thanks, but really, I’m fine- it’s over, I’m just going to go home.” James smiled, “I’m just going to go. If you want to help, make sure Ms. Hopcke doesn’t know what happened- tell her I got sick and my mom picked me up.”

  “Really, I can-”

  “No. Just tell her, Okay?”

  “Yeah, I’ll tell her,” Paul started walking out, “Thanks, though,” James yelled after.

  James slipped past the teachers in the playground and cut through the back yards behind the playground to get away from anyone who could see him and send him back. He rubbed his face and still saw thin streaks of mucus and blood from his nose. James pulled toilet paper out of his jacket, balled it up, and held it to his face.

  If you are proud of me, send snow.

  He pulled it away every few steps to see more blood accumulating on the toilet paper. James dropped his tissue and ran for three blocks. When he stopped running he bent over again, and looked at his feet to catch his breath.

  He sat down on the curb, pinched the end of his nose, and tilted his head back. All he could see was the bright grey sky.

  It was then that the heart of the sky opened up, and it began to snow.