Sometimes Fish Run

Sometimes Fish Run: Chapter 23 part One

Sometimes fish run. They run to do extraordinary things when they are seen as irrelevant and are often overlooked. Tough as it is, that is just how humans are. Often surfacing surprising sequences where masses are flowing in the same stream. Always headed in the same direction.

However, these unique actions are not acceptable to the masses. They are repulsive; found to be guided by the hands of evil in desperate acts of attention and diversion. Shameful. These actions are to be praised and rewarded. The light of good should be shone from them, not shrouded by darkness.

Much like the fish that run, I too run against the course. I do things most teachers wouldn't do. Too pressured by their six hundred a week after taxes, only to just go through each day as a routine, almost as if to counteract the 'decathlon' of duties forced upon them. Where they failed to help their students excel and strive for realistic successes, I remain content and relentlessly benevolent in helping.

The bell rings.

First period begins of the second nine weeks of the spring semester. Much has changed since the beginning of 2016. Each year being I receive a new class of students that will ascend in grade as well as their level in class with me. At Avery Township High, I am one of few prestigious teachers who are lucky enough to teach freshmen through senior classes. Although it may not mean a difference in pay, it does mean more recognition within the district. That also means that it keeps me away from my hormonal wife. She says she's pregnant and it explains her fluctuations, but let's be honest; married women do not need an excuse to be upset. I know what she did. Pretending she hasn't cheated or tarnished my name and reputation as she did does not easily become extinguished like the dancing flame of plastic lighter.

Every spring, I've become accustomed to the play-on idea that perhaps my students enjoy me much more knowing that summer is just around the corner and I give less homework. Perhaps that would be case had it not been for the recent spring of rumors. Campus rumors state my involvement with a female student prior to her legal status. From the full student absence within the classroom, all that can be seen is the reflective dust from the morning sunlight. Welcome to spring 2017.
A few minutes pass.

Feeling I wouldn't have any students this first class period, I reach in my bottom desk drawer. The bottom right has a remote control for the television wired to the wall overhead the desk. I feel something strange next to it yet I dismiss it.

I take the remote and press the red power button. Weather station. "This afternoon we will have a series of rain showers followed by—" click! "Look, I'll tell ya Scott, the Cubs winning the World Series is—" click! "National hero, Adam Moreston, better known as Elemental H—" click! This time I shut the television off.

It's only a matter of time before this day ends before it begins. What will happen if I'm the one found guilty? Will I rot for what I haven't done? No. I can't. I'm the one who has the evidence. Or...at least until my phone went missing last week. With her missing then it's only time. It could be five minutes now. It could be an hour. I can feel my heart beat quicken and the temperature in the room rise.

"This is it" I worry myself, "today is it."

"Coach Peterson?" I hear the name to which students refer to me as. "You look pale, are you alright?"

I can hear the floor tremble as a backpack thuds on it. My hyperventilation begins. However, my panic attack is thwarted by the small, soft and reassuring hand of Ms. Burches, one of my most loyal students. Ms. Burches always looks like a porcelain doll with her pale skin and school dresses. She notes me sweating, profusely if I may add, and my trembling.

Choking on simple words, I can only manage a smile as I rise to face her. "I...yes. Yes Ms. Burches. I'm absolutely fine." I manage. I share a weak smile with her.

"I hope I'm not interrupting. Am I?" peering beyond my students' shoulder, I find Private Investigator, Detective Javier Shaw. In his usual depressingly gray dress clothes and black suspenders, he leans against the doorway with a silver briefcase in hand. He fixes his eyes on my hands as if I carry the gull to assault my own student. Being childhood friends, I trusted Shaw enough to hire him at the beginning of last semester only to spy on my wife. I wanted to catch her adulterating but managed to only do that myself. Now, here he is investigating me. I believe to try to convict me.

"Ms. Burches, there won't be any classes with me today. Would you please leave us." I point toward Shaw, meaning for the doorway.

She turns and begins to head for the door. Stopping she asks, "But the homework for today—"
"Postponed until further notice. Please leave." With no further queries, Ms. Burches exits the class with a look of worry. I had hoped she would've shown me some strength for my sake. However, her presence alone speaks enough. This student believes in me—trusts in me! It's settled then, I won't be worried.

A soft creak comes from the door frame as Shaw relieves himself from it. He taps the silver briefcase against his hip a few times before nodding toward my office at the back of the room. Being one of few teachers of impressive credibility, we are rewarded with offices to retire to.

Following behind, I can't seem to evade his silver briefcase with my eyes. I haven't seen him carry a briefcase. Any evidence he acquires comes in the form of pictures in envelopes. This worries me. For him to carry a briefcase it must surely mean that he was able to pile an overwhelming case against me. His hand grips the doorknob as we both glance at the post of the kitten that reads 'Hang in there!' That isn't helping. Not at all. Guilt is written all over my face as he opens the door and motions for me to proceed first.

This office hasn't been used since she and I spoke privately, uncovering matters of the heart to which have deeply scarred her. Of course, our meeting is kept under wraps—no one could possibly know.

"A lot of shower caps on the wall" Shaw acknowledges. I half expect a chuckle as if to lighten mood and follow up with light of good news. But that's what I want unrealistically. He kicks back briefly, rocking in a suave yet masculine way.

"And what could you be implying?" I raise my voice. Standing to gain some edge on him.

Shaw springs forward as if Geppetto himself strung him up to mirror me. He then puts his left hand over the silver top and ran his fingers down to the chrome binding and numbers. As he does so, his nails grind against the groves to create a deafening anxiety inducing sound.
He lifts the bagged sample and tosses it in my hands. Regression begins to set in. Whatever composure I had left is being wiped away like my dignity with my wife. I sit back, recline with a deep breath before letting my fingers fiddle on the bag.

This bag—her blood. Could this blood be from the night she? No...it couldn't be! She never reported the incident. I...I can't. How could they get their hands on this? Impossible.

"Ms. Elizabeth Anne Marsh's blood. Supposed virgin blood. I actually acquired this from your office the last time I visited." No! Shaw was only there Saturday to inform me about my wife.

"Thi—this is ab—absurd" I begin to stammer, "I wasn't the one who hurt her Shaw. I told you who it was!"

End of Part One.