7 MERCY FOR MARCY
Mom had suggested I take the day off of school and she would play hookie from work too, then together we would go to the city and see a movie as a birthday luxury. She wasn’t in hysterics over it or pleading me to stay at home, but the urgency in her voice told me her fears for me today. It was not lost on me that if all went to schedule I would get ‘it’ full fledged in my Geography class. I will not tell you my eyes were not glued to the clock, because they were. Strange, the idea that a person’s life can go from semi-normal to out of control chaos in the matter of a minute. I had a little bit of time to prepare myself for the possibility that very soon I may have a vast and likely infinite insight into the private lives of everyone I meet from this day until forever. That is what I have decided ’it’ has to be. I had explained to Mom her plan sounded like fun, but I could not miss school on the day I was throwing a huge party for my classmates to attend. I will never forget the look of pure horror that passed across her face, although just for an instant. Then she was busying herself with getting ready to go off to the dentist’s office, clearly, dragging herself along. I have concluded that having ‘it’ in a high people traffic situation must be very draining and why her job has such an effect on her.
I was barely paying attention to Mr. Rokol’s lecture on Greece. The minutes were crawling by and Marcy was enthralled in learning. I took a moment to truly inspect Marcy as she was unaware of my scrutiny. Here is an average girl that has some deep dark secret that she is deathly afraid of anyone ever knowing, but you would never know it to look at her. As her friend, you would never guess it either. So many people moving about in their day to day lives harboring their true identities. Maybe I am being naïve, but seriously, how bad can Marcy’s secret be?
Under normal circumstances, there is no way I could have heard the ticking of the second hand on the clock at the front of the class over the teacher talking and the rustling of the students squirming in their chairs anxious for the class to be over, but today was an exceptional day. The noise was deafening, like someone hitting a gong when the minute hand moved to the next notch in time. I was so wrapped up in my own mental conversation with myself that I hadn’t noticed a hall monitor enter the classroom. Mr. Rokol called on me and it drew my gaze away from the clock. “Charleigh, your mother is in the office and you need to go see her.” All the students looked at me in envy that I got to leave the class, but it was mixed with a hint of concern which sent my own mind into questioning if there could really be something wrong or just ‘it’.
I followed the hall monitor to the main office on the first floor taking every opportunity I could to look at a clock, 12:28. When we arrived my mother was standing and pacing the area in front of the big receptionist’s desk. “I have cleared everything with the principal, you are coming home with me.” No further information was provided, but I knew she could not tell the school staff the real reason. I assure you a big part of me let out a major sigh of relief, but on the same token if I am going to have ‘it’ the rest of my life this is merely putting off the inevitable. I told Mom I needed to go to my locker first, but she was adamant that we didn’t have time for that. We aimed for the big double doors right outside the office and the last time I looked at a clock before hitting daylight it was 12:32.
Mom rushed to the vehicle with me in tow. Mr. Bendim, my drafting instructor was standing at the corner of the parking lot smoking a cigarette. When we stopped, before entering the traffic on the street, he waved at me. An onslaught of visions and voices washed over me sending my insides on a rollercoaster ride of nausea. I felt the pumping of my blood at every point in my body from the knowledge of that man’s perversion. When someone is in a car wreck or serious accident I have heard it said their life passes before their eyes, I just got a glimpse into Mr. Bendim’s twisted existence and that man should never be allowed to work with children. “You saw it didn’t you? That man back there, you saw his soul, his memories and what he is, I can tell by how pale you are. Charleigh, I am so sorry. I have given you a horrible curse.” Mom turned the car into the nearest parking lot and stopped in a space. “I don’t know how to prepare you for what you now have, because I still cant control it or successfully deal with the power it has over me. Nothing will ever be the same for you again and I can not even begin to express how sorry I am that you now have it too.” Mom was in tears and tormented by her feelings of guilt. Could this somehow be Mom’s fault? Beyond she had it and by having me I inherited it.
