A Girl Between (17 page)

What am I doing up here?  Up in the murk, with the electric
shards stabbing me.  I’m dizzy from the spinning.  Please stop.  I want to
stop.  I want to stop this.  I wanna step down from here.  Please let me down.

I opened my eyes.  What day is it?  Have to think for a
minute.  It’s MONDAY!  Oh crap, it’s Monday.  Is that MORE rain and wind I
hear?  This weather isn’t normal, howling wind in the morning.  That’s just
wrong.  I don’t want to be here.  Something’s going to happen.

I heard Aunt Amy’s voice from down stairs, “Tess, I’ve been
calling you.  We’re leaving for school in 35 minutes.”

“Auntie, can I stay home today?” I asked as pitifully as
possible.

“What?  No way, Tessie.  You’ve got to go today.  And don’t
forget your neck brace, dear.”

Oh, darn, I forgot about that thing.  That does it.  Today
is Total Slob Day, the whole deal:  slippers, sweatpants, t-shirt.  At least
they’re clean.  I’m gonna look like crap with that thing around my neck so I
might as well be comfortable doing it.

I took a five minute shower, threw everything on and ran
downstairs.

First thing, Eve looked me over, “Tess, what’re you doing? 
You’ve reverted back to your old self already.  It’s only been a couple of
weeks.  Did you even comb your hair?”

I asserted, “As a matter of fact I DID comb my hair.” 
Technically, I did the finger comb but what’s the difference?

Aunt Amy added, “Where’s your neck brace, Tess?”

“Aunt Amy, I was thinking that since I don’t have gym today
I shouldn’t have to wear it.”

“Tess, march right upstairs and get that brace.  You heard
the doctor say that you have to wear it for a full week.  Your neck is a rather
vulnerable area you know!” Auntie replied, sounding exasperated.

“OK, OK . . . . .”

I was in a daze all the way to school and into my first
period class.  Initially, students stared at me and my brace but then they
stopped looking.  There was only so much to see.  Between the braces, casts and
crutches, there were other students who had their own injuries on display.  Our
school was lucky because at least no one died from here. 

The principal came on the loud speaker and read the names of
the four students who did die at the Tri Town Fair.  They were from the other
two Tri-Town schools.  The principal talked about the personal stories of each
of the students.

As the principal continued to explain that the School Board
was assessing whether to cancel the upcoming Halloween dance, I could feel a
prickling sensation at the back of my neck.  I reached under the neck brace and
rubbed it, trying to sooth it.  It was really irritating.  Then, it dawned on
me that someone may have been trying to communicate with me.  I turned around
and looked.  No students were looking at me, only the Old Hag English teacher. 
I’m always forgetting her name, probably because I’ve never liked her.  She has
a very unpleasant aura.  It’s a foggy, gloomy gray.  I sense a boring, shallow,
follower type.

I turned back to the front and closed my eyes for a minute. 
I started to ruminate about Ian.  I wondered what he saw yesterday when he
looked out the window.  Maybe it was too dark but I’ll find out soon enough. 
The principal was still talking about the tragedy and the victims at the fair. 
I didn’t know any of them.  I try not to contemplate death because it brings up
thoughts of my mom.  That’s not helpful right now.  There were students in
class openly crying or wiping their eyes. 

The prickling sensation returned with a vengeance.  What’s
going on here?  It almost felt like someone was scratching the back of my neck
with their nails.  I looked back again.  It’s only Old Hag English teacher.  I
turned back to the front.

Then, I heard in my head, “
It’s YOU.  Go away from here! 
You are an unwanted incarnate
.”

I turned around and could only see Old Hag again.  I studied
her closely.  She wasn’t looking at me before, but now she was.  In fact, she
was staring at me with absolute hatred in her eyes.  Oh, my, God.  It IS her! 
Old Hag English teacher is a diabole and she is sending her evil threatening
thoughts directly to ME!

“We don’t want you here. Why didn’t you die with them
?”  Her
thoughts shrieked in my head.  I wish I could shut them out.  I felt like
putting my hands over my ears to shut her out, but that would’ve been
pointless.

Suddenly I realized that the loudspeaker was no longer on. 
It was so silent you could hear a pin drop.  I looked around.  The entire class
was watching me and Old Hag English teacher.  They knew something was up.

What was that? I could hear, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  Where was
that humming coming from?  I looked around.  It was from her.  There was a girl
in the corner humming and it was getting louder.  I turned around to study her
and she flashed me a big grin.  She was Abby, the new girl who showed up in
school about a week ago.  I hadn’t taken much notice of her because she was the
unassuming, quiet type.  She continued humming with a smile on her face. 
Students were staring at her but seemed very unconcerned.  Couldn’t they hear
her?  They appeared to be getting tired, rubbing their eyes and putting their
heads down on their desks.  What now?  Was she the pied piper?

Old Hag English teacher screamed, “Stop your singing! Stop
it NOW!!”

A male voice boomed out from the back of the room, “NO!  She
will not halt her song. There’s no sense involving the innocent among us.”

Who was that?  I turned around to see Abe standing up
pointing at the old hag.  Abe was Abby’s twin brother.  Now I remember when
they first showed up in class last week.  It was striking because Abe was the
gentle giant and Abby was the meek mouse.  There was such a contrast in size,
but their personalities were closely aligned.

Old Hag English teacher yelled, “How dare you!  You go away
from here.  Get out of my room and leave this place.”

Abby’s humming increased in volume.  By this time, every
student had their head on their desks with their eyes closed, fast asleep.

Abe stated loudly as he pointed at Old Hag, “May you be
punished for your action against the sacred one.  Malevolence is practiced by
those who profess goodness but are innately evil.  Stop your blasphemy for it
spreads false witness.”

Old Hag English teacher ran across the room toward me, her
arms upraised in fists. “You do not command me.  You will face the full wrath
of our reckoning.”  As she came at me waving her skinny arms, she looked really
nuts so I dove under my desk.

Abe and Abby quickly made their way over to Old Hag and
grabbed both of her arms.  Abby’s singing suddenly increased in pitch.  I
wanted to block my ears.  It was painful.  She sang as they simply held Old Hag
who continued to struggle for a few minutes.  Suddenly, she stopped moving and
her head dropped.  Abe felt her pulse.  “Her heart is erratic but it is still
beating.  I believe she suffered a mild heart attack.  Tess, call the office
and let them know that she needs help quickly.  I’ll put her in her chair. 
Then, we must sit down.”  He nodded to Abby, “at that time your song must come
to an end.”

Within ten minutes, the students were bleary eyed but
sitting up.  Old Hag English teacher was being carried off in a gurney to a
waiting ambulance.  Abby, Abe and I were in our seats, rubbing our eyes and
yawning, just like everyone else.

The incident with Abe and Abby was freaky enough, but there
were other strange happenings at school today.  A few students I had never
noticed before were smiling and nodding at me as if they knew me personally.  A
girl and a guy I had never spoken to, stopped me in the hall by name, and asked
me how I was doing.  It was more than friendliness.  They were acknowledging a
connection with me of some kind.  I’m sure of it.  Where they luminars?

Word had also gotten around about Tonya, Red and James
having a close call with lightning.  Kids were saying that they were lucky to
be alive, that they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, just a
freak accident.  I even heard some girls talking about how Tonya lost most of
her hair ‘cause it was “fried off”.

Then, I was in the cafeteria line waiting for some food,
when a lunch lady bumped into me and dumped an entire chafing dish full of taco
glop all over my sweats and T-shirt.  I was taken aback and looked up to see a
beast of a women staring at me.  Her name tag said “Helga”.  What was most
surprising was her reaction to me.  I was waiting for her apology but I didn’t
hear a word.  Helga was staring at me with great animosity, as if I just
murdered her baby or something.  Hey, I was the victim here!  A teacher came
over with another cafeteria worker to help clean me off.  Helga picked up the
chafing dish and stomped off without a word.  Her hateful expression never
changed.

I went to the Lost and Found box in the office to get
another pair of lovely ‘worn-by- someone-else’ sweats and bumped into Mercy. 
After I changed, she went back to the café with me and we sat in the corner to
talk.

“Mercy, why was that Helga woman such a nasty witch to me?” 
I asked with a sigh of irritation.

Mercy looked at me in disbelief.  “Don’t you know, Tess? 
Cause she really
IS
a nasty witch!  I figured that out my first day of
school here last spring.  She always gave me a hard time so I learned to avoid
her. ”

I was dumbfounded.  “She IS?”

“Yea, she’s totally wacked.  I’m surprised they put up with
her here.  She must have someone bewitched or something,” Mercy said in
complete seriousness then she added, “Tess, you have to wake up and develop a
better sense for these things.  As soon as I moved here, I saw a number of bad witches
around this place.  They’re the diaboles.  Some of them deliberately showed
themselves to me to flaunt their power.  They viewed me as being vulnerable so
they loved to taunt me.  I was pretty defenseless at that time.”

“Why are things better for you now?”  I questioned.

Mercy looked at me like I was nuts.  “Don’t you know?  It’s
one word, Tess.  YOU!  When you arrived the dynamics around here changed
completely.

“Tess, remember your first day here?  You started out with a
bang, challenging the head big bad witch, Tonya, in that fight, and YOU WON. 
And you won in a very public way.  Up to that point the bad ones ran things
around here.  The good ones, like me, had to keep a low profile if we didn’t
want to get our butts kicked.”

“How has that changed?” I inquired, frowning.

“Well, the bad witches, the diaboles, can’t take being
challenged because they’ve had their way around here for so long.  Look at what
happened in the cafeteria today with that disturbing Helga witch.  Abe also
told me what that Old Hag English teacher tried to do to you during class.  I
had her last year and she was horrible to me, but she never challenged me
openly like that.  So now, the good witches, the luminars, are having a coming
out party here.  Haven’t students been revealing themselves to you?  You know
what that’s about, right?”

“I’m beginning to. I guess I just don’t want to admit it.” I
frowned.

Mercy implored, “Well you better get with the program. 
Tess, they are the good witches in this place – the luminars.  They know that
we’ve gotten stronger and that more good witches will be arriving.  They don’t
have to stay hidden in the shadows.  Abe and Abby just came here last week. 
Their arrival was not a coincidence.”

“Is that why you moved here?” I inquired.

“Yes, it is,” Mercy affirmed.

“How did you know to come here?” I questioned.

“Tess, this has been building for a very long time. 
Remember, it’s why Miss Cassie is here, too.  It’s why you’re here.  Things
have been set in motion.  It’s been building for many lifetimes.  Much of it
was planned a long time ago during the time of
The Between
.  We may
forget the fine details but we are innately aware of what we must do.  We
listen to what our hearts and souls are telling us.”  Mercy looked at me darkly
and added, “Unfortunately, what is not known is the final outcome.  That’s to
be determined.”

“But Mercy, you just said that all of these good witches are
showing up and that it’s really improving the atmosphere around here,” I
exclaimed.  

Mercy glared at me. “Yes, it is, but didn’t you listen to
Miss Cassie?  Bad witches, diaboles, will be coming here, too.  They’ll be
arriving in town and in school.  In fact, some have probably already arrived. 
I looked at the attendance list today.  Do you know what I saw?  Ten new students
registered here today.  Don’t you think that’s a little weird?  How many new
kids do you think this school normally gets in a full year - maybe ten or
fifteen in a year, NOT in one DAY.”

I put my head in my hands and sighed. “I know you’re right. 
I’m just so sick of this stuff.  You don’t even know what happened to me
yesterday!”

“Does it have something to do with Tonya and her fried up
hair?” Mercy inquired, looking amused.

“Yeah, it does.  How did you know?” I asked, stifling a
giggle.

“The minute I heard about it I knew it had something to do
with you, especially since it occurred in Ian’s front yard.  And I have to say,
I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.  I can’t wait to hear what
happened.”  Mercy grinned at me.

“Personally, I can’t wait to see what big bad Tonya is going
to do with her ugly bald head!”