In the Image of Grace
Page 18
“Thank you so much.” I grabbed Jeremy’s hand leading him towards the classroom door. I dragged him into the hall where I immediately gave him a kiss.
“Your sisters told me what happened,” Jeremy avowed after our kiss with his mouth drawn into a frown. I was so pissed I didn’t know what to do.”
“There was nothing you could have done,” I said looking into Jeremy’s eyes and grabbing his hands in mine.
“I was just so worried.”
“Don’t worry, I’m okay. Whatever he stuck me with is wearing off even though my neck is still kind of sore.”
Jeremy reached up and brushed my hair over my shoulder, so he could look at my neck. “Yeah, there’s a red puncture wound here and there’s a bruise around it. That’s prolly why it still kinda hurts ya,” Jeremy concluded giving my neck a gentle kiss.
“How you feeling,” I asked noticing that his wounds looked like they had gotten worse and not better.
He shrugged as the classroom door opened.
“Minute is up,” asserted the teacher from the classroom.
“Meet me by my locker after school,” I told Jeremy thinking how quick a minute passes.
“Of course,” he replied flashing me a smile.
I turned, went down the hall and actually then did go to the library to use up the rest of my study hall time. The rest of the school day passed with quite whispers and stares in my direction. I tried to ignore them, but it was still annoying. After school Jeremy met me at my locker and we embraced in a hug that I wanted to last forever, but it was interrupted by my sisters who informed me that we had a car waiting out back.
I interlaced my fingers into the ones on his left hand. “Come with us.”
Clarissa answered instead of Jeremy. “I think it’s just taking us home.”
“That’s fine with me,” I told Clarissa studying Jeremy for an answer.
“Won’t you get in trouble again?” Jeremy asked.
“What are they going to do, stick me again,” I said raising my eyebrows up and down.
I was surprised to see that it wasn’t Mr. Carl taking us home. It was actually Pastor Dave and he seemed none the wiser on if Jeremy was able to come with us or not. When we got to our house Pastor Dave and Jeremy shielded us from the awaiting sharks. Once buzzed in and past the gate, Pastor Dave left and Ms. Dunderfeltz opened the door. She held up a hand as to stop Jeremy, but I told her if Jeremy didn’t come inside with us there would be severe consequences. I used pretty much the same wording Reginald used on us. She didn’t put up a fight and we all entered the house. Jeremy went straight up to my room with me, so I could fill him in on the evening before and the morning.
We laid in the middle of my floor on our backs perpendicular to each other with my head on his stomach.
“How come nobody ever mentions Elizabeth?” I queried.
Jeremy ran his fingers through my hair. “I honestly don’t know.”
“Is it because she was flawed? She didn’t turn out right. She wasn’t a freakish inhuman copy of perfection?”
“You’re not freakish or inhuman,” Jeremy stated trying to console me.
“If I had some major flaw would I be ignored too? Why did something have to be wrong with her?”
“It only shows that she was human Charlotte, as you are too. You’re not human unless you’re flawed. Your father or Reginald and whoever just want to maintain the image of perfection as they call it. They’re just trying to keep secret the fact that you’re totally normal human teenage girls. I’m sure it’s all for the sake of publicity.”
“Am I flawed?” I asked fully aware that I totally was and probably beyond repair.
“You’re totally flawed. You’re way too polite. When you’re a teenager sometimes you just have to be a jerk.”
“That’s all that you could think of?” I asked rolling over to my stomach and resting my chin on his chest. “What about anxiety ridden?”
“That’s pretty normal for some teenagers,” Jeremy said while playing with some of my hair.
“Really, what about neurotic?”
“You’re not neurotic.”
“You sure about that? I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel half the time.”
“Does anybody really?” Jeremy took the hair he was playing with and tucked it behind my ear.
“You’re just trying to make me feel better.”
“No, I’m totally genuine.”
“Well, what about Elizabeth?” I pondered rolling onto my back laying next to Jeremy.
“What about her?” He asked turning onto his side and propping his head up with his hand.
“Well, she was never happy, what went wrong? Does she count as an average teenage girl? Is what she did average?”
“Well, from my understanding she was a teenage case under totally different circumstances. She was never set free like you and your sisters were.”
“What if I meet her same fate?”
“I won’t let it happen and besides you’re a totally different person,” Jeremy said softly rubbing my cheek with his thumb.
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Ignore what everybody is saying. There is nothing wrong with you. You, Clarissa and Isabelle are all totally unique individuals that have as much right being here as anybody else. Don’t let anyone let you think else wise.”
“I’m so glad you came along,” I told Jeremy as I rolled to my side, then giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“Well, I’m glad to be here,” Jeremy replied with his whole face lighting up.
“Sing me a song?”
“Really?”
“Yes, please.”
Jeremy lay flat on his back, looked up at the ceiling and started singing. He sang a song about a boy on a bridge with his brothers and mother. It sounded so beautiful and comforting in his soothing voice.
………………………………………………..……..
Jeremy stayed quite late into the evening. We spent our time talking and pretending to do homework. It was mostly talking and well, some kissing. When he left the alarm went off, but Reginald didn’t call right away or even at all. We were unaware that he even came home. We just woke up in the morning and were informed by Ms. Dunderfeltz that we could not leave the house the whole weekend, which somehow included Friday.
Chapter Twenty
As Friday and the weekend passed the news spread. Our faces continued popping up everywhere. We were on the cover of every newspaper and magazine that you could think of. One magazine cover had a picture of my face and said, “The Image of Perfection” above it. My face was even on the side of a bus. We were on every news show that was out there. On certain channels it seemed the topic of discussion all day long was my sisters and I. The media and people in general all seemed to have a range of feelings about our being. Many were in awe of Reginald for creating such a scientific breakthrough. Many were thrilled what it meant for the cure of certain diseases, being able to clone embryos for the stem cells, which was also a large part of the debate. Many religious groups were angered at Reginald. Dr. Reginald Schlobohm was the devil himself according to them and anything he created was an abomination.
We received a lot of mail from those who did not feel positive about the way we came into the world. Mr. Carl handled all the mail, but I saw the look on his face when he read a couple of the letters when he came and checked in on us over the weekend. But supposedly our existence did give hope to many who could not have children the traditional way some stories said and gave hope to people who had lost loved ones, which I myself found extra creepy. The thought of cloning somebody you lost to have a new version seemed too off the charts for me. I had even lost a loved one and I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Emotions were flying high for everybody, so when the month of November gave us another unseasonably warm day that Monday morning it seemed to offer some hope.
When I awoke that morning after our weekend of being trapped in the house I was quite ple
ased to see the sun streaming through my window. Even though I had my awful nightmare with intensely loud screaming that seemed to be coming from our house itself, the sun helped lift my spirits and suppressed any anxiety I might have felt that morning. Jeremy was supposed to meet me at the house and I couldn’t wait to see him. I quickly got dressed and met my sisters downstairs for the start of our day. We were all dressed for a spring day as opposed to what should have been a normal cold late fall day. As we were set to leave I wore a sweater for a jacket. Clarissa wore a cardigan with frou frou decorations on it over her shirt and Isabelle wore a light weight pea coat. Mr. Carl was there that morning waiting for us in the foyer talking to Ms. Dunderfeltz about the abnormal weather. I heard the gate buzz and before anybody could react I buzzed in Jeremy.
Mr. Carl looked at me with his lips tightly pressed together. “He’s not riding with us.”
“Yes he is,” I snapped back. “I’m tired of you people trying to run our lives. I myself can easily get and have my own little press conference.”
Mr. Carl scratched the back of his neck and looked at the ground letting out a deep breath. Before he could respond I opened up the front door to leave. As soon as the door opened the sharks started their attack. The cameras started clicking and the questions started flying. Then in the quickest second ever I heard feet running across the front porch as Isabelle and I stepped out the door and there were these loud noises kind of like when a car backfires. Then Isabelle and I were flying backwards towards the ground as Jeremy flew through the air careening with our bodies. Before I knew it I was on the porch sliding backwards, where I slide all the way to the railing. My head made a cracking sound as they collided.
I was totally confused and dazed by what happened. I laid on the porch staring up at the white bead board that was on the underside of the porch roof. I reached up and felt the top part of the back of my head. I didn’t feel any blood or anything. I cautiously sat up. Isabelle was sitting on her butt next to me patting herself to check for any wounds. There was a whole bunch of noise, mainly screaming. I was pretty sure I wasn’t screaming and I looked at Isabelle again, her mouth was hanging open, but no screaming was coming out. I then focused my attention in front of me where Jeremy was on his hands and knees breathing heavily and staring at me through his new glasses. I studied him as he started to make his way in our direction. I could tell he was wincing. He most obviously seemed in pain.
“Are you two okay?” He asked Isabelle and me.
I didn’t answer at first. I was still totally confused. Then all of a sudden it seemed like the porch was full of people. Then the question was asked again, but by a different voice. It was Mr. Carl. He squat down next to Isabelle and was checking her out.
“What’s going on,” I managed to sputter out.
Jeremy finished his slow crawl over to us, sat down next to me and leant up against the railing. “You okay?” He asked again.
“Yeah, what about you? Somebody tell me what has happened.”
Mr. Carl looked up after his inspection of Isabelle. “Somebody shot at you girls.”
“What!” I screamed. “Is that why…” I started to say realizing that Jeremy saved us. “Oh God, are you okay?” I asked Jeremy, my heart filled with panic.
“Yeah, I think it’s just a flesh wound or whatever you call it,” he said softly.
“You appear in pain,” I cried scanning him and sitting up straight tucking my feet under me. “Your neck,” I gasped reaching up and gently touching his neck.
“Did I get hit there to?” Jeremy spoke softly, reaching up with his right hand, touching the back of his neck. He pulled his hand down and studied the blood on his fingers.
“You mean you got shot somewhere else? Somebody actually shot you!” My heart was ready to jump out of my chest. I couldn’t believe somebody shot my boyfriend. I looked him up and down and saw that the upper part of his left hoodie sleeve was covered in blood, a lot of blood, so much that it seemed to be dripping down his arm inside his hoodie and was collecting in a pool on the porch. There was one other time when I saw blood collect like that. “Oh my God. I think they hit an artery.”
“That bad?” Jeremy asked in a whisper.
“Mr. Carl,” I yelled. “Mr. Carl!”
Mr. Carl’s head shot up and he said something to Isabelle and came over.
“He’s going to bleed to death!” I shouted. “Do something!”
He took one look at Jeremy and said, “Oh.”
“Can’t you do something?”
I then heard Ms. Dundefeltz scream from somewhere, “Apply pressure.”
Mr. Carl looked like he was going to vomit. I took in a deep breath because I wasn’t exactly sure if I was capable of applying pressure because I was so dumbfounded. Then some guy with bushy black hair rushed in and did exactly what Ms. Dunderfeltz said to do. I looked at Jeremy while I was bouncing up and down, flailing my hands like a mad person. He looked like he did that day he got sick, but his eyes looked like they were somewhere else.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” I babbled. My hands were shaking. I was so scared for Jeremy. Then I heard a scream. I realized it was Isabelle and then I asked myself where’s Clarissa? “I’ll be right back,” I told Jeremy, not wanting to leave his side. I got up and ran across the porch where Isabelle and a crowd of others stood. I saw why she was screaming. Clarissa was on the floor of our foyer with her arms splayed out to the side, her face the palest shade of white, lying in a pool of her own blood that appeared to seep out of a wound in her chest.
I tried to scream, but nothing came out and then I was looking at the underside of the porch roof again. Then I heard a bunch of thudding like running feet on wood and a lot of commotion. I felt somebody step over me and then a middle aged woman’s gently wrinkled face appeared and asked where I was hurt. I responded with, “Clarissa.” I didn’t bother to move. I figured I’d let the woman figure out if something was wrong with me, too bad she couldn’t see in my head. I felt her take my pulse and listen to my heart and pat me all around. I then decided to sit up, but did a little too fast and stuck out my hand to catch myself. The woman, who I realized was a paramedic, with her white shirt and black pants, then started to inspect my head. She concluded that I might have had a concussion and had to go to the hospital. I was going to protest, but then decided to go along with whatever she said.
Clarissa and Jeremy were then loaded onto stretchers and taken out to the waiting ambulances. The street was lined with emergency vehicles; ambulances, police cars’ and for some reason a fire truck. Cops tried to hold off the crowds. They put up a barrier, but the crowd was going wild. They looked hungry and wanted in on some of the action. It looked like the cops apprehended whoever shot at us because they were loading somebody into one of the police cars. Then I was forced to sit on a stretcher and was the last to be taken out to an ambulance. Isabelle rode with me, but she appeared to be okay so she just got to sit like a regular person in there.
At the hospital we were met by a shiver of very hungry sharks wanting to get a picture or a word from us. Cops held them back as we were taken inside. A doctor took a quick look at me, asked a few questions and made me get my head scanned all to find out I was okay. Reginald actually showed up, signed off on my paper work and I was sent to wait in the waiting room. Isabelle and I paced as we waited to hear word about Clarissa. She was rushed into surgery and the doctors didn’t say too much to us. As we were waiting Jeremy’s mom and stepdad came in and had a seat with us. They didn’t have much to say. His mom just scowled at me. His stepdad Brett looked pretty indifferent.
“The doctor says he should be okay,” I told his mom.
Jeremy was going to be fine. He lost a lot of blood and had to get a transfusion because he was shot in his brachial artery, but he was going to be okay.
“Yes, I know. I have been informed. I am his mother you know.”
I bit my tongue trying to hold in some snide comeback, trying to remember my manners even
in a tense situation. I looked around the waiting room. Jeremy’s mom and stepdad sat side by side in a couple of the mauve waiting room chairs. A couple of fake potted plants were splattered about trying to make the room look welcoming. Florescent lights buzzed overhead. Isabelle paced back and forth. Ms. Dunderfeltz sat in a corner reading a book with some bifocals on the tip of her nose, and Reginald and Mr. Carl were nowhere to be seen. Nobody else was allowed in. The door to the waiting room was actually guarded by a cop who stood in a wide stance with his arms crossed across his chest.
It was pretty quite in there, nobody said much of anything. Isabelle and I didn’t say a lot to each other. It was as if we spoke of what happened it somehow made it more real and true and yet unbelievable. I was still sorting things out in my head. I still wasn’t exactly sure on all the details, but what I knew was that somebody had an intention to kill us. Luckily Jeremy had awesome reflexes and got Isabelle and me out of harm’s way. The two of us could have been in the same boat that Clarissa was in or even dead. Clarissa was shot center mass, right in the middle of her chest and that was all I really knew. I kept pacing back and forth. Isabelle chewed on her nails as she paced and occasionally shook her head back and forth. She still wore her jacket. A nurse tried to get her to take it off, so she could relax a little, but she refused.
At some point I must have sat down because before I knew it I was being woken up. I felt a hand gently shake my shoulder. I opened my eyes and Mr. Carl was standing there.
“How about we get you home,” he said.
I sat up rubbing my eyes. “No, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Charlotte, you need your rest.”
“I said no.”
“All right,” he said placing his jacket on the chair next to me.
“What are you doing?” I asked him suspicious of his actions.
“I’m staying here with you and your sister. She too refuses to leave.”
“Why you staying?”
“I’m not leaving you girls here alone and your father had to go take care of some things.”