Morning arose once again from the night, like a celestial spirit rising from a darkened grave. Fresh morning sunlight shone through the window, and I noted the intricate deign it made by running through one of Claire’s sun-catchers, with bright reflections of sparkly light, and an array of small colours on the table cloth.
I squinted my eyes, and settled down with good old cinnamon toast cereal. The taste was hardly noticed, as my mind was clouded with grogginess.
“Good morning, Sea. Did you have a good sleep last night?” Claire asked me as she hurried down the stairs, her stringy hair flinging each way and sprinkling wet drips of water from the shower all over the floor.
I looked up at her with a mouth full of cereal. I nodded and smiled to the best of my ability without chocking. For some reason, cinnamon toast crunch was so easy to choke on.
“That’s good,” she answered. “Okay, I had to get to the restaurant early this morning, we have some new exciting things going on, but I'm sort of running late.”
Claire hurriedly twisted her hair into a neat little bun on the top of her head, and fastened it with a tie. She smiled at me with her carefully coloured lips and continued talking to me as she moved around the house.
“So, you’re okay walking to school by yourself?”
“Yeah. It’s only a few blocks away. I’ll be fine. Thank you,” I called.
A few seconds of sheer icy silence surpassed, which was peculiar, for there was always at least the sound of the birds communicating amongst each other, and whistling their contented little hearts out. They soon resumed, as did Claire.
“I’ll be home before you get out of school though, do you want me to pick you up?” she asked, reappearing into the kitchen.
She looked at me, and quickly refigured something in her mind, speaking before I even had the chance to reply. “Oh, I got a call last night. The social worker wanted to talk to you. His name is Samuel, right?”
I nodded, wondering what else he could possibly have to say so soon.
Claire stopped shoving things around her purse for a moment, and looked past the things around her, somewhere far and captivating.
“Okay then dear, I'm leaving now sweetie. Would you mind pouring a little food in the kitty dish before you head out? I love you!”
And with that, she was gone.
Pour some food in the kitty dish?
For some reason, the thought that cats needed food too hadn’t occurred to me. Although, I had not given the cats much thought anyways.
I put my dishes in the sink, and scavenged the kitchen for the cat food, which ended up being located in the most obvious spot. I found it in the closest cupboard to the tiny bowl placed neatly on the kitchen floor.
Hesitantly, I pulled it out, and struggled a bit with its weight. Carefully, I let some of the brown pieces of the unknown substance into the bowl, where it clinked against the sides as it fell. The smell of it was absolutely awful, and it filled my nose with the fishy stench of garbage.
Despite the unappetizing smell, tiny footsteps of the eager cat rushing down the stairs were heard. The black fluffy ball of fat hurried over to the bowl as fats as its stubby feet could carry it, and it quickly plunged its round head into the bowl. Even though I hadn’t exactly taken a liking to it right off the bat, I felt myself being quite intrigued and marvelled at it.
I carefully bent down beside her, and looked at the gracious way it crunched each bite of terrible kitty kibble. She looked so soft, as if her long black fur would feel like velvet, and running a hand down her long back would feel like stroking a slip of silk.
Considerately, I bent down reached my hand out to touch its fur, feeling guilty that I had judged the poor animal so quickly. I think part of me trusted Doug with things such as this, for his opinion seemed more practical. Maybe he was wrong about cats.
My fingers softly brushed against her smoothly groomed fur, and ran down her back. It was as soft and silky as I imagined, and so beautiful too. Just like petting a smaller, fatter version of a panther, but a tamed one.
“Aw, hi there snowball,” I whispered.
I slid my hand up her back to the flat of her head, ruffling up her fur.
Rapidly, the cat whipped around from her bowl, and lunged her bared nail like teeth towards my hand. I quickly snapped it away, and jumped away from her.
I landed hard on my backside, and stared at the cat with bewilderment, which was casually eating its food again.
I scrambled to my feet, a little cautious of being around the thing, and made a mental note of never to touch it while it was eating ever again.
When I arrived at the school, the air wrapped around me and refreshed my tired mind. It was frigid, but brightly lightened by the sun, delicately kissing it as it poked from the clouds in the sky.
I recognized Willa, Zoë, and two other girls waiting at their usual spot at the front doors. As Willa saw me, they all came up to greet me with wide smiles, as they were absent the day before.
Zoë’s long wispy hair blew down around her hips, and I marvelled on how long it was. She looked at me with a serious face and asked, “Are you okay? I mean, from Saturday, and the fire and all?”
I nodded and smiled at the group. “Yes, I'm doing well, thanks. How are you guys? I didn’t see any of you yesterday.”
“My parents wanted me to relax for one more day since the fire. It was kind of pointless, but whatever,” Willa explained with a shrug.
“Yeah,” perked up the other girls, even the ones who weren’t there.
The group seemed to have no interest in telling me their weekend stories until they fished out every detail of what happened, and took great interest in my strange adventure. I revealed what parts I could, deliberately leaving out the snippets of information that was deemed evident to Samuel’s case. I didn’t breathe a word about the wallet Matt went back for, so when they questioned where he went afterwards, I said I wasn’t sure.
“Yeah, I can’t believe that happened! It’s too bad, since we didn’t get to hang out after and all,” Zoë exclaimed after I finished.
Willa gave her a look. “You mean, we didn’t get to finish our project, right?”
She rolled her glossy brown eyes.
“At least I have it finished, we don’t have to worry about it,” Willa said, sighing to herself.
I felt my stomach clench ever so slightly, for I had yet to even start the thing. I was always one for routine, and for things to have specific sense to it, wasn’t I?
Students began filing into the school to start the day, and my little clique flowed inside with me trailing behind to keep up with their long and swift strides. We soon left the glory of the morning, and entered the dim halls.
We were forced to walk in a single file line through the halls, for the capacity of the space was nearly packed full of other fellow teenagers. They clung together in groups, talking rambunctiously amongst themselves, and huddled close together.
I wasn’t sure what all these people were doing all clinging together in a mass of bodies. The school was fairly large, and with a low population, which confused me as to what was going on.
In the knot of noise, I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. The weight of it caused my heart to flutter, before settling back to its normal beating.
Turning around awkwardly, I came to find that it was Matt. His dark hair was shaggy and fell over his eyes in ragged strings. He bore no emotion.
I smiled, and gave a little wave. “Hey Matt. What’s up?”
In his other hand, he produced a piece of paper full of sentences that ran all the way down the page in small lettering.
“I figured that you had a lot on your mind. So, I uh, finished the report,” he mumbled, barely audible to my ears.
A gasp escaped my mouth, and a grin spread across my face. That was one thing more I didn’t have to worry about. I took the paper into my hands, scanning the text.
Looking back up at him, I said; “Thank you. So much. This is great, but I'm really sorry that I didn’t take a part in it. I'm so sorry.”
He waved it off. “I want to be a writer or maybe a reporter when I'm older. It was no sweat, more like an enjoyable day to me, instead of a chore day.”
I nodded, and read the first couple sentences, and they really were quite impressive.
“So,” he said. “Remember when we last talked, after the fire? I was just wondering if…you know… any body else knows?”
I stared at him without expression, as did he for a moment’s pause. I quickly realised what he meant, however, and answered: “No. I didn’t tell a soul. Well, someone knows about it, but not who you are really or what you’re doing with it.”
I tried to be as vague as possible in the compressed space, but his eyes still dashed around like wild defensive hounds.
“Sea…”
“I just want you to send me the information, like the identification and whatever is noteworthy. That’s it. You can do what you want afterwards.”
I hated knowing that I couldn’t do anything about him hiding this piece of an accident scene from the police. I let the bitter words slid over my tongue, and did so surprisingly well. That almost worsened it.
He gave me an unhappy agreement in response. I thanked him, and escaped from his grasp as politely and quickly as I could, and hurried through the halls to catch up with Willa.
I bumped into multiple people along the way, most of them hardly recognising I was there. There was on girl, however, who did see me. She was a skinny looking freshman, with straight blonde hair and wide eyes. She gaped at me when we collided, immediately sending a rant of apologies. I smiled, and watched the gangly figure smile back before heading off. She understood.
Through the mob of students, I caught a glimpse of Willa’s shiny brown hair, swishing around in its ponytail. I snaked through the hall to get to her, relieved to have made it through the hall safely.
“What’s with everyone using this hall today? It’s so crowded,” I exclaimed.
She smiled and nodded, saying, “I know! It’s crazy! But everyone’s over here because we’re all supposed to wait by the auditorium for some presentation. I don’t know why they won’t just let us in already.”
“I don’t remember hearing that it was an assembly day.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, it is.”
I quickly dumped my stuff into my locker, and continued to wait around the hall with Willa, and her friends. They were discussing the actors in a movie coming out, and I did my best to follow the conversation without getting totally lost in their long opinionated speeches about different people I never heard of.
Thankfully, the hallway began to open up, revealing the space it actually has without being crammed with kids. Slowly, students started filing inside the doors. My friends quickly saw an opportunity to push through to the doors, and they all quickly scrambled away. At first, panic set in, for I had no desire to be lost in the mess of rowdiness. Fortuitously, Willa grabbed my shirt, pulling me along with her.
“Come on, Sea!” she called, and followed the rest of the girls, whom were scurrying to the middle seat, all scoring a spot together. We squeezed into the seats, and settled down to see a young, professional looking woman on the stage, awaiting the students to also settle down.
I sighed, and leaned back in the scratchy chair to listen to the banter buzzing around me. It all melted together in one big hum of noise, and the sights of constant movements of different figures all danced over my eyes.
Minutes later, the woman cleared her throat into the microphone, and the sound of shushing fell over the audience. Soon, a silence flooded the room, with the exception of a few people awkwardly clearing their throats and a few cell phones begin shut off. The woman then smiled, and introduced herself as Lindsey, a member of the school board, and then immersed herself into her speech.
I could hear Zoë and Sara mumbling to each other in the seats beside me, and saw them through the dim room, exchanging phone numbers by writing it in pen on their hands. Typing it in their phones would be too risky.
I turned my attention back to the speaker, trying to catch some of the words she was trying to convey, but her voice was rather small and mumbling, and much of her speech was lost in translation. I could see that a lot of the other members of the audience felt the same way. I could see various people in front of me whispering in each others ears, or staring off into space.
I turned me head straight up front, and tuned my ears to the lady, soon drowning out all sound except for the beating of my heart. Putting my head at the back of the chair, I became somewhat oblivious to everything going on around me. I could tell that the woman was interacting and asking questions with the audience, from the sudden attention and interactions being shared for the woman up front, but I couldn’t comprehend what the topic was. Something about bullying, I suspected, or perhaps just issues with the school in general.
Regular everyday battles, I supposed.
Suddenly, everyone was looking directly at me. The woman at the stage flashed her pearly white teeth, which could be seen from my seat, in an overly happy smile, that crinkled her eyes.
I wished I wasn’t so close to the front.
Did they ask me a question?
Willa lowered her hand, and leaned closer to the front of her chair and called out, “I'm sorry, I couldn’t hear your question!”
I relaxed, feeling the room turn back to its normal temperature.
The woman laughed a nervous giggle, and a few students coughed up a jeer. The woman then repeated it again, still inaudible. Willa leaned towards the people in front of her, asking what she said. They whispered to her, and she nodded, sitting back into her seat.
She leaned towards me, and muttered in my ear, “I think she’s asking us what kind of boundaries separate us from success, but I can’t really hear her. I don't even get why some of these people even try. Do you think something’s up with the microphone?”
I considered what she had said, whispering back, “What kind of things separates us from success? Well, the mic is messing with our success of hearing what she’s actually saying.”
Willa nodded and smiled, turning her attention forwards once again.
Just then, Sara and Zoë climbed over Willa, then I, to hurry up the isle leading up to the doors. I let them squeeze by, and fell back into my train of thought. I thought about pretty much nothing, I only let myself relax the somewhat quiet tranquility to clear my mind.
I soon sensed a presence behind me, and felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned my head to see a friendly face, a teacher, whom I couldn’t place the name of. I could recall, however, that she liked me, and that I had taken a liking to her as well. She always wore such funky, bright looking cloths, and junky, stylish jewellery, despite being her supposed to look like a teacher should. She was certainly different.
“Are you Sea?”
I nodded.
She looked back up to the entry way of the auditorium for conformation and said: “I'm sorry to bother you, but there’s a man out here, and he’s been repeatedly requesting to speak to you. He won’t leave us alone until he gets a word. Claims he’s your uncle? I don’t know, could you follow me please?”
I nodded and smiled tightly to her, and looked back at Willa. Her eyes were narrowed, and confused. Her small lips formed an O, as if frozen before she got the ability to get her words out.
“What’s going on?” she asked just in time before I got out of my seat.
I bent down, and whispered, “My uncle is here, he wants a word with me. I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, and turned back around, and I went to follow the plump pixie fairy of a teacher up the isle to the door. I kept my head to the dirty redish carpet on the ground, and ignored the staring eyes on me as I walked passed them as best as I could. I took one long stride at a time, hoping to get to the top as fast as possible, for I couldn’t stand being the most interesting thing to watch at the time.
We finally made it through the doors, and I stepped out of the dark room to the more dormant, eerily dim hallway. I felt the empty air swirl around to greet me, and it chilled me to the bones.
The teacher twirled around, her dangly metal earrings chiming together as she did so. Her eyes scanned the hallway, as did I, to locate the man she was referring to.
The sound of boots hitting the tiled floor became evident from the left side of the hallway. They stepped closer and closer towards us, becoming louder, but no faster than their slow, even pace. My curiosity perked up, and I tuned my ears to place the sound of the strides.
Another sound was heard, the sound of two girls gleefully chatting amongst themselves, with sweet little sounds of fits of giggles.
“Is that your uncle?” the lady kindly asked me, with a gentle hand on my shoulder. I nodded, dumbfounded, and she gave me a quick squeeze before heading back inside the auditorium.
Samuel strolled up to me, and set his large hand on my shoulder, giving me the scent of man that hasn’t showered in a few days, and was wearing the same jeans and plaid button up t-shirt for too long. He didn’t have his blonde locks gelled to the side, and out of the way as he normally did, so his hair was a puff of curly hair on his head. A white puffy bandage was taped to the rose of a wound on his head.
The two girls walked passed us, winking at me, before slipping back into the auditorium, leaving us alone with the quiescent of the hallways. To my embarrassment, Samuel waved them goodbye before putting a serious look on, and began talking.
I wasn’t quite sure what it meant.
“Sorry, Sea. I didn’t want to pull you our of school time. Were you doing anything important?” he asked when the woman stepped out.
I shook my head. “There’s just a presentation going on, but you can barely hear a word that comes out of the lady’s mouth. It’s okay. But I think it’s almost over. So, what’s going on?” I asked enquiringly.
He led me down the hall, further into the depths of solitude and mystiqueness.
“Well, I read the news a couple days ago. I know, I don’t usually do that kind of thing, but I thought that I should stay tuned to the world around me in times like this. It proved to be an effective trick, for I learned of some interesting activity going on up north. I have a lead.”
I stared at him, waiting for a further explanation.
“A really suck lead, but it’s still something. The other day, somewhere up north, in one of those nothing towns, a poor old woman died.”
I clinched my eyebrows together and shook my head. “Samuel, as unfortunate as it may be for some people, everyone dies eventually.”
He plunged his head forwards and replied: “Well yeah, but I meant that this lady was killed. She was an innocent little store owner. According to the witness, whom was probably the other half of the town’s population, sounds of an argument were heard outside of the store, and then two shots. A few minutes pause in between.”
I interrupted. “But what does that have to do with us?”
He waved off my protest. “I was getting there, Sea. But don’t you see? Isolation, gunshot, you know…”
I raised my eyebrows again, and looked away. “So, I assume that you think that it was Lincoln up there?”
“Maybe.”
“But he was just here yesterday! Remember? He kid of clubbed you?
Samuel nodded solemnly. “He must have a vehicle registered…perhaps…or maybe borrowed one, either way, I don’t have access to figure that out.”
A bundle of emotions swept over me. The perplexed part of me ruled over, and I asked, “So what are you going to do about it?”
“Well, I’m going up there of course!”
“Samuel, that’s crazy. Why isn’t anyone from up there investigating the thing?
“They are. But they won’t succeed. No one knows what it might be connected to, like we do.”
I nodded, and let the information set in. I let my eyes follow the chipping paint on the lockers as we strolled by them in the silence that settled between us. Samuel then spoke up again.
“That’s why I came here so early. I have to leave early to investigate the situation before they flee. I even have a warrant and all the legal stuff thanks to my boss. Something tells me that I'm going to be fired once I get back. I don’t know how long this will take…anyways, I'm actually leaving sometime today, and you know, I and to inform you earlier,” he explained.
My eyebrows furrowed together with his words. I looked at him, silently questioning his statement, although he didn’t notice that anything was out of the ordinary. He kept walking, casually as ever.
“You shouldn’t go up there Samuel. Don’t you see how stupid it is?”
He didn’t reply. The words sunk into the hallway. The silence burned my skin as if it were a corrosive acid.
“Wait…You are leaving today? What about me?” I asked as politely as I could.
Samuel looked at me, confused, and then smiled. “Well, Sea, you probably should have already known this. I can’t take you with me, to solve an investigation such as this. I'm pretty sure it’d be kidnapping, since your grandmother certainly wouldn’t let you, and it’s much too dangerous anyways.”
“Dangerous? We’re back to this again? Samuel, you’re the one that let Lincoln knock you out in your hotel room! You need me. We need each other. We have to do this, please?” I pleaded, feeling somewhat annoyed that I was still considered so young. I didn’t understand why age was so important to people. That’s what this was about wasn’t it? Age?
Samuel shook his head, and turned around, leading us back the way we came. “Yeah…that was because I needed things to lay low for a while. But this here is real. You can’t. Don’t be stupid.”
My eyes bugged out of their sockets at the thought of him calling me stupid for something that he was already planning on doing.
“They killed a little old lady, Sea. Why would you even want to?”
I shook my head. “I have to help my family? What about my dad? What if I could help you in some way, I could be a distraction or something, anything! I just have to know!”
Samuel put his arm over my shoulder, having to bed down uncomfortable to do so. “Sorry Sea.”
We walked like that in an uncomfortable manor, and with an uncomfortable silence. My gaze dropped to the floor, like the heavy trench in my stomach, and treaded back up to the auditorium.
Once we got back to where we started, Samuel gave me a pat on the head, as if I were a dog, and slipped out of the school the way he came.
Exasperated, I sat on the ground of the school, tracing the dusty, grimy tiles with my fingertips. They were cold, and sticky, but I paid no attention to that. I focused on my breathing and on the growing void of frustration within me.
It was like my stomach had squished itself together into a tiny ball of hard muscle, and it pained me with the agonizing moments of fear it gave me.
I knew what I had to do.
I knew I owed it to the heroic man Samuel said he was back in the police unit. I knew I owed it to the source of my childhood stories, which contributed to my vivid imagination, and perhaps to all of what made up myself.
Samuel was most definitely a wonderful person, but was scattered, and one single person. My heart, my soul, my mind and every particle of myself and of my body urged me to listen to it. Every fibre screamed at me that I was intelligent enough to know the difference, and to know when the right time was to break the rules.
It was like something beyond me, out in the patterns of the stars, somewhere far and wise, was speaking to me. It whispered its low, sweet and oh so lovely voice into my ears, filling my mind.
Thoughts of imaginations, and scenarios played in my head, clicking together in perfect chaos, perfect sense. It played before my eyes in the most powerful way possible, so vibrant and free.
Something within me shifted. I could almost literally feel it shift.
I slowly stood up, and moved along the hallways of the silent school in a state of perfect knowledge. The sounds of the voices in the auditorium moved farther and farther away, as I walked further away from it.
I walked into the darkness of the halls, and came upon the office. I breathed.
I stepped inside, managing the heavy door like a pro.
Faces looked up at me with astonishment. Some protested, others questioned.
I smiled at them all, looking as friendly as I hopefully as.
I walked up to the first one, and gulped down my fears, my anxieties, but kept the solid, powerful taste of my instincts lingering.
“Hello,” I greeted.
More eyes looked at me, and I kept mine focused on the lady in front of me.
“I was just told that I’ll be gone with some family for the next few days? There’s sort of been an emergency…do you need my number or anything?”