Terminating The Generations

The Old Bat

"As I remember it, everything began at a college party... Yes! Oh yes. But that's not where I'm going to begin this story,"Ms. Darenlone spoke with a raspy voice. Her dark brown eyes twinkled under the dull light of the library reading corner lamp.

The reading corner was normally where Ms. Darenlone read to the children. It was a huge area in the corner of the library with green (puke-like) carpet covering the whole area. There was a desk lamp next to her on top of this old fashioned wooden desk. Ms. Darenlone sat in the same old rickety rainbow chair that she had for years. She had been reading here since before I was a kid, excitedly jumping onto the carpet just to hear the weird old lady tell her stories.

Everybody always thought of Ms. Darenlone as batty but she seemed to be twice as batty today. She stopped me and my friends today on the way to school. We told her we had to go but she wouldn't listen to us. She said we could skip today and that this was important.

We were just waiting for Anna and Dan, they hadn't walked with us today so of course I had to call them. Dan is  basically a narcoleptic, he is always late because he always sleeps in, so I had to leave him several messages before he finally picked up the phone. However, Anna wasn't here yet for a much different reason. Anna was skeptical of Ms. Darenlone and didn't trust this spontaneous meeting. I was just grateful to be out of school. Weird enough, Ms. Darenlone wasn't surprised by our reactions. She acted like this was all too familiar to her.

"I'll wait.. don't worry,"Ms. Darenlone said in a sickeningly sweet tone.

I nodded with a nervous smile then looked back down at the ground.

Ms. Darenlone always gave me a creepy vibe, don't get me wrong she's as sweet as pie and has never done anything wrong to me but I don't know... she's something else I guess.

Sam, Kyle, and I had been walking to school when Ms. Darenlone's shenanigans began.

"Okay, Ryan, I understand where you are coming from but its prom... all of us are dressing up. You can wear a dress just this once..."Sam pleaded with me. I wasn't completely opposed to wearing dresses but I loved to argue with Sam. He's just so douchey and anti-feminist (or as he calls it "traditional") that its hard not to get into some heated debates with him. Plus I have to keep up my tomboy appearance, can't let anyone know there's actually a woman under these baggy clothes and tied up hair that may or may not have been brushed in the past five days. 

"Okay, Sam, I understand where you are coming from but its 2022... I can do whatever the fuck I want." I gave him a stupid grin and crossed my arms.

Kyle peaked up from his phone for this first time in the past 10 minutes of walking and looked like he was about to say something before Ms. Darenlone piped in. "Well dearies, I always thought dances were a terrible excuse for young men and women to rub up against each other anyways. What's the point in even going to something so scandalous."

I almost shit myself. That lady came out of no where, oh and I could have killed her. Kyle barely mutters a word as is, we almost got him to bud into an argument before she rudely and creepily interrupted.  

"Why don't you guys come inside the library. I have a story to tell you..." Ms. Darenlone gave us her usual toothy (or half toothy due to the teeth that she has lost over the years) as she beckoned us towards the library. 

Sam and I argued that we had school and although we would love to "hang" we had to get going or we would be late. 

She insisted that she would write us a note for community service and not to worry. I mean who are we to deny time out of school. Plus we had to wait for our friends anyways. 

Now we are sitting in the same corner we sat in every friday after school as kids. Interestingly enough, this is where we all became friends. Our parents would drop us off here for daycare so they could have some free time. Little did they know they handful for a group of friends they would receive because of this.