Flashbacks

What Minkus Said

One mother/son dance. Two former classmates. What Minkus said sends Shawn running to Jon in tears.

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For the next two days everything was relatively normal for Jon both at school and at home. There had been a few moments of acting out from Shawn, but they were short and not as volatile as before. Audrey told him what she talked to Shawn about when he was out but could not yet say with certainty what was going on with the teen. However, she did recommend trying to distract him when he started to get upset. That, so far, was working.

That morning had gone exceptionally well. Perhaps too well. Shawn had been in a cooperative mood and had gotten ready for school without any arguing or trying to manipulate his way out of class. Cory had stopped by to walk to school with Shawn and the two managed to not only get to school early, but they were in their seats in his classroom before he walked in. That probably should have been a warning that the dam was about to break.

That dam broke with ten minutes left in his fourth period freshman English lit class. In the middle of his explanation of the homework assignment, Jon's classroom door swung open with a sudden burst. There stood Shawn in the doorway with a panicked, stressed look on his face, extremely upset.

"Shawn?" A thousand thoughts ran through the teacher's mind at once as to what could be the problem then one in particular stood out: Chet was back.

"I need to talk to you now." There was a weighty fear attached to each word, yet the teen's voice was surprisingly steady.

Jon looked to Audrey for help. She motioned for him to go and stepped up to take over the class.

Out in the hallway, Jon braced himself for the inevitable: either Chet was back, or he was gone for good. Prepared for the worst, he took Shawn by the shoulders, inhaled deeply, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Shawn's eyes were wide and distressed. "You're not gonna believe what Minkus did."

Jon stared at him thinking he must have misheard him. Shawn could not have just said Minkus. As in Stuart Minkus? The kid must have said something else that sounded like Minkus. Shminkus, Rinkus, Dinkus...there wasn't a rhyme Jon could come up with that made any sense.

He could not have said Minkus, though. There was no way Shawn left Eli's class to interrupt his class about something Minkus did; they weren't even in the same classes. Jon tried to focus on what Shawn was saying to understand the actual reason for the interruption. Out of Shawn's mouth came a torrent of words, most spoken so fast that they were indecipherable, except for the name Minkus that kept coming up. The best Jon could understand was that two former classmates had some exchange in the hall as Shawn headed back to Eli's class from the bathroom.

Jon frowned. There wasn't much time left before the end of the period. By the time Shawn could make it back to Eli's room the period would be over, and the teen might bail on the rest of the day.

"C'mon, Shawn," the teacher sighed. "I can't understand what's goin' on, so go sit in the back of the room until my class is over. We'll talk then."

Shawn nodded and anxiously ran his hands through his hair as he followed Jon. Once in the classroom, Shawn went as far back in the room as he could. It struck both Jon and Audrey as very strange that he opted to sit on the floor in the corner rather than in an empty desk.

After the period was over and everyone was gone, Jon shut the door to the classroom and stood in front of it. "All right, Shawn. What's goin' on?"

Shawn stood to his feet slowly, his shoulders slumped forward, and his eyes downcast. Then he looked at Jon and blinked as though the light was hurting his eyes. The next thing the English Lit teacher knew, Shawn rushed at Audrey and threw his arms around her.