“Do you want to sleep in my bed? I’ll go sleep on the couch.”
“No thanks.” She grabbed her jacket and purse and headed for the door. “I’m not going to be staying after all. Brad’s wanting me to meet him.”
I stood there not sure what to say as she headed for the door, but I soon found myself chasing after her. “Shelby, he hit you. Why are you going to meet him—alone? What if he does it again?”
“He won’t. He was just stressed out, that’s all. Really, he’s not normally like that. He keeps texting me telling me how sorry he is. He called me while you were in the shower and left a message.” She looked me in the eye. “He was crying.”
Shelby opened my front door and walked out onto the porch. “Thanks for being a good friend to me tonight. But everything’s fine now.” She walked down my steps and then turned to speak one last time.
“Don’t tell your parents—ok? Your mom might tell my grandma, and it’ll make it harder for me to see Brad.”
Then she got in her car and left. I stood there in the doorway and watched her headlights disappear down the road.
Chapter 12
I was too worried about Shelby to relax. I tossed and turned for about an hour before I got up and texted her. She texted back that she was fine and again reminded me not to tell my mom. I kept telling myself that she knew her boyfriend better than I did. Maybe she was right, and there was nothing for me to worry about. My gut gnawed and churned, refusing to swallow what I was trying to feed it. The worry kept me awake until the early morning when I finally went to sleep. It was lunch time when I got up. I was running late. I jumped in the shower and used my new hair products. I got out and dried my hair with the paper towel like Shelby had instructed me to. My hair had ringlet curls instead of frizz.
I dusted on a little mineral powder we’d picked up at the cosmetology store. Shelby said it would blend my skin tone and freckles without hiding them. I didn’t do much beyond that. Just mascara and lip gloss. Not the full kabuki my mom liked me to wear. I thought about my mom teaching me to put makeup on thick until no spot, line or flaw showed—full coverage. Then she showed me how to go back and redraw my whole face with the pallet of colors, pencils, and brushes she had picked for me. My real lips, skin, eyes, cheeks all covered by fake ones. The ones my mom wanted me to have. The kind she wanted people to see when they looked at her daughter. In the end, I never recognized myself in the mirror.
I looked in the mirror and for the first time ever, liked what I saw. It was me—but an improved me. Not a disguised me or a pretend me. My heart felt light and fluttery like a butterfly. My head raised and my shoulders moved back without my mom reminding me. It was automatic and natural.
The thought of Theo came to mind. My heart changed again from a butterfly to a hummingbird. Warm blood raced from it, through my veins and out to my fingers and toes, electrifying my skin and raising goose bumps the way his whispered words did when we had painted.
I was smiling when I walked to the kitchen. My parents were outside working in the yard. I put together a quick lunch of bologna and cheese before I went back to my room, locked the door and changed out of my bathrobe into clothes. I was on my laptop at my desk doing a map search for the district office when a familiar voice spoke behind me.
“You ready?”
Even though I knew the voice, I wasn’t expecting it. I spun around to see Theo eyeing my pink walls. His lips twisted in disapproval. When my heart resumed beating, I spoke. “I didn’t hear you come in.” Then I noticed my door was still shut behind him. I jumped up and checked the lock. The button was still pressed in. I turned back to see him touching my floral window treatment. “How did you get in here?”
He shook his head. “This room isn’t you at all. You’re not a pink kind of person.”
“My mom decorated it. It’s her style, not mine.” My hands went to my hips. “Answer me. How did you get in here?”
He smiled and sat on my bed. “The back door.”
“My room doesn’t have a back door.”
“No.” He stretched out on my bed and picked up one of my throw pillows and started spinning it by a corner tassel. “You came in the front door of my home. You could because I have it connected to the school. But I have a back door that’s always with me. It leads to…” He stopped as if to think of the right way to put it. “…wherever I want to go. I turn around, and it’s there. I walk through it and think about where I want to be, and that’s where I am.”
I went back to sit at my desk. “Can I do it and let’s say…go to Paris?”
Theo sat up. “I don’t know. Let’s see.” He took my hand as he turned around and disappeared. He had my hand, and then suddenly he didn’t. Within a minute, he was there again. “Why didn’t you come with me?”
“I tried but…I don’t know. You were gone, and I was here.”
“Well it doesn’t really matter. It was nasty weather there anyway.” He turned and looked around. “Do you have a clock?”
I pointed to my alarm clock, “We need to get going if we want to make it to the meeting on time. Geo and Bio went to get Chemistry. They’ll meet us there.”
I asked Mom for the keys but decided not to point out that Theo was with me. Why make things more complicated? The office was just outside of Chesnee, between it and the small town of Boiling Springs that was also a part of Spartanburg School District 2.
I handed Theo the directions to read to me while I drove. Theo smiled at me. “You know this is my first time in a car?”
I thought a second before I responded. “Why ride in a car with me when you could just use your back door? Gosh, that would be so cool.”
Theo wrinkled his nose. “Not when you’ve been doing it forever. I’d love to drive a car.”
We got to the district office a little late because I missed the turn the first time. We slipped in and sat on the back row. Theo had to point out that Bio and Geo were there already. I didn’t notice them at first. Bio leaned in to speak to us.
“Looks like you were right about Fritz.”
Theo stared at the school board members seated up front, taking turns speaking into their microphones. “I can see that.”
I watched and listened as the board members spoke. Nothing looked suspicious to me. I leaned closer to whisper to the guys. “How do you know Fritz is involved?”Theo pointed at one of the speakers. “Because he’s up there whispering in the speaker’s ear right now. See him right there, to her left.”
As soon as he pointed Fritz out, I saw him. How had I missed him standing there, walking around, leaning in and whispering into people’s ears? He saw us too. His glare was penetrating as the whites showed just under his pupil. There was something about the way he walked among the people in the crowd—the way he looked at them. It reminded me of the way Tina had looked at Shelby—disgust, distain, hate. I would have thought such a face would be like something from a horror movie. Instead, Fritz had the face of a movie star. Who knew evil could look so good? “Does she know he’s there?” I looked at Theo. “Can she hear him talking to her? I thought painters were not noticeable.”
“She can hear him, but she doesn’t know it. She thinks what he’s saying are her own thoughts. We immortals have the power of whispers. We can whisper in the ear of a person. If that person is in tune with what we are saying, we can influence them without them even knowing.”
Geo leaned in closer. “So you didn’t notice Fritz without him being pointed out, but you noticed Theo all on your own?” He tapped Bio. “What do you make of that? Got any biological explanation for it?”
“No.” Bio tossed his head to the side to move his bangs from his eyes. “The whole thing about these two is bizarre.” He turned to watch the proceedings again. “I’m a science. I don’t like bizarre. I like order and predictability. I’ll need to observe and study a little bit more before I draw any conclusions. There has got to be an explanation.”
Mr. Jolly, one of the board members leaned in
to speak into his microphone. “We cannot risk the health of our children a moment longer. The old well has been compromised. We’re lucky nothing has contaminated it before now.” He looked at his fellow trustees. “We should have switched the school to public water years ago. We’ve messed up. We’ve failed here, and we need to own it and take immediate action. As you know, I have a construction company. We will work at cost to dig and install pipes. By next week, we can have the school on public water and have the whole thing corrected.”
Suddenly, Fritz was beside the middle aged man whispering in his ear. Mr. Jolly’s eyes dilated as if he’d just thought of something. He continued his speech.
“And to be on the safe side, my company will fill in the well with concrete to seal it off permanently.”
The board members took turns speaking, all of them in agreement with Mr. Jolly’s plan of action. Theo’s face contorted as he spoke. “No one up there thinks permanently sealing the well is a bit extreme? They’re going to go along with it without even thinking about it. People are so dull minded.” Then he looked at me, suddenly realizing what he’d said. “Not all people…not…you.”
“You could go up there and whisper too—if you wanted to,” said the guy sitting beside Bio. It was the first time I had noticed him. I’m not sure how I’d missed him. He wasn’t dressed for a school board meeting. He wore ripped jeans and white fitted t-shirt that hugged his muscular upper body. He fit right in with the sciences so I guessed he was Chemistry.
What he said got me thinking. “Why don’t you get up there and whisper, too?”
Theo leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms in front of him. “I don’t like influencing people without them knowing it. It doesn’t seem right to me. Plus, right now I doubt they’d be open to what I said.”
Geo spoke, “So you dragged us here, had us check out the water, had us bring Chem here to check it too. And to what—sit here and do nothing? We could be back at your place playing cards instead.”
The school board opened the session to questions from parents. Most were asking about what would be done to keep the kids safe until the water pipes were installed. Or was there any reason to believe terrorists were involved? Theo looked at his friends. “Guys, give me some reasons to keep the well. Things humans might accept as believable, so they will reconsider their decision.”
Bio rubbed his stubble. “Money. It’s quite important to humans. The construction company is giving the school a discount, but it’s still going to cost money. Plus public water comes with payments. Well water is free. How are they going to pay for it? Raise taxes? People hate higher taxes.”
Theo smiled. “Perfect.” Then he looked at me. His gray-blue eyes bright with joy. Theo tapped me. “You could go speak. You hear me and know it. It wouldn’t be like whispering, and you’re the only human on the planet who knows the truth.”
I looked at him, confused. “What?”
“Get up there and speak up for the well, for the blessing in it.”
I sat there dumbfounded. “Ummmm…I can’t go up there. What am I supposed to say?” I shook my head. “No…no…no way…no. ..unh, unh.”
“How can you sit here too scared to speak when you know the truth?” Then he pointed to the school board. “Right now, those board members are being lied to without knowing it. Unless someone gives them another option, they’re going to listen to Fritz,” he looked back at me, “But you know the truth.”
“But the truth sounds crazy.”
I looked at the board members and the way Fritz weaved his way among them. I swallowed and closed my eyes. Fear raced through my body causing me to quake inside. I took a deep cleansing breath and blew it out before I looked back at Theo. My breath caught as I considered what he was asking.
“You want me to go up there and say what? Something like, ‘my friend the earth painter here says the water isn’t contaminated. No, it’s blessed, and he’s brought the sciences— the rock-n-roll looking bunch right here. The unknown substance is actually a blessing intended for all humanity. So could you please leave the well as is?’” I stared at him in silence for a minute.
“No, you’ll give the real but easier to understand reasons we’ll tell you.” He pointed to the sciences.
“OK, but stay with me the whole time. And you better give me sensible things to say.”
Chapter 13
I walked up to the podium set up for people to ask questions. I looked down at first wondering—why me—as I pressed my lips together and squeezed my fists until my nails were cutting my palms. Then I heard him speak beside me. “You can do this. I’m with you.”
I kept my head down and glanced to the side. He was there, along with the sciences who had the knowledge to feed me the right words. It was like having the script when I’d delivered my monologue. I was terrible one-on-one with people because it was up to me to think of what to say right there on the spot. But I didn’t have to come up with it off the cuff. All I had to do was give their words a voice. My shoulders relaxed as I looked up at the eight pairs of eyes on me.
My eyes were drawn to a face. Her name plate said she was Martha Strickland. I hadn’t seen her face before, but it looked familiar. The only African-American sitting on the board and she looked like her son—my friend, Anthony.
I introduced myself to the board, explained how I had been present when Wayne entered the well, thanked them for looking out for the students at Chesnee High School. Then, I finally asked my question. “How will you pay for the pipes and the new water bill? Will taxes go up?” I looked around at the people in the room. A few looked like business men and women, but most looked like laborers—people who worked with their hands just to have enough money to get by.
“Jobs are pretty hard to come by these days. No one’s in a position to start paying higher taxes.”
Anthony’s mother had his same kind eyes as she spoke. “Do you have any other suggestions? We don’t want to raise taxes, but we can’t leave the students at risk either.”
I stood there and looked at her. I looked around and noticed Fritz whispering in Mr. Jolly’s ear again. I glanced at Theo and his crew, begging them for help with my glare.
Geo didn’t let me down. Because of what he said, I suggested they have someone come secure the well with a protected shaft and add a filtration system.
Mr. Jolly rolled his eyes at me and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Ms.…?’
“Holly Scruggs.”
He smiled condescendingly. “Ms. Scruggs, I appreciate your concern but this proceeding is for adults. If your parents are here and want to say something, have them step up and speak. If not, you should just have a seat and let the grown-ups make the critical decisions.”
Fritz stood and folded his arms in front of him. You could see the smugness in his crooked smile.
I felt my face turn red. Heat radiated off of it. I hated being belittled and was fed up with never being heard. “I am eighteen. I am an adult and a student at Chesnee High School. If anyone should have the right to voice an opinion, it should be me and others like me who will be impacted by your decision.”
I glanced over at my group as nonchalant as possible. Chem added to my reasons and again I passed them on.
“Chlorine, which is added by the public waters systems to clean it, is associated with heart disease and poor circulation. A study using chickens showed evidence to that and is still used by the poultry industry today. Most industrial chicken farms won’t give chlorinated water to their chickens to drink. And a recent study in Japan, linked chlorinated water used in cooking and making tea with creating cancer causing substances called THM’s when the organic materials bonded with the chlorine.” I repeated the words and then realized what I was saying. I’d never heard any of that before. I would definitely Google it when I got home.
I continued, “Shouldn’t we treat our kids better than chickens and at least research it and see if we can make the well safe and protected, compare the cost of pu
blic water expenses with a filtration system and securing it from vermin or whatever it was that dug the tunnel? A fully informed decision will be a better decision than one rushed into by fear.”
I could see rethinking taking place among the members of the board. The crowd of parents was humming behind me as they discussed it among themselves. A little thrill ran down my spine. I kind of liked speaking in front of people. I liked swaying thoughts and opinions—making people think. Theo and the sciences had given me information, but I had used my words and my conclusions to deliver it.
The board decided to do more research and convene again in a week because the matter required an immediate decision. Until then, the school would use bottled water. Anthony and Wayne came to speak to me. Anthony’s mom joined us and asked me to meet her later in the week to research possible alternatives to save the well and the tax payers’ money.
Theo and the guys noticed Mr. Jolly leaving and Fritz by his side. They wanted to follow the two of them. I excused myself to go to the restroom instead of going with them.
I stood alone in the restroom looking in the mirror after cooling my red face down with some cold water, thinking about all that had just happened. I couldn’t believe I’d stood up in front of people like that and liked it. But as I stood there looking in the mirror, my thoughts began to take a turn.
What was I thinking getting up there and making a fool of myself? I probably looked like an idiot. Mr. Jolly was right. No one cared to hear what I had to say. Mrs. Strickland was probably just being polite to her son’s crazy little friend.
The longer I stood there thinking and looking in the mirror, the worst my feelings about myself and what I’d done got. My freckles were all I could see in my reflection. My ringlet curls suddenly looked like a giant ugly orange mass. Why would anyone want to hear from someone who looked like me?
I couldn’t remember ever feeling so down on myself. Not even my mom’s nitpicking made me feel like this. I heard Theo shout, “I hear him. He’s in there with her.”
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