Only Child(62)

“Dave, can you help this young man Zach sign in and find Miss Russell’s room? Today is his first day,” the woman security guard told him.

“Sure thing. Come on, champ,” the security guard Dave said to me, but I didn’t move.

“Go ahead, Zach,” Mommy said. “Listen, I need you to be brave now. I’ll be here to pick you up, OK? OK, buddy?”

I didn’t answer. I just shook my head no over and over again. Mommy gave me a hug, but I didn’t hug her back.

“Sometimes it’s best to just rip off the Band-Aid, so to speak,” the woman security guard said to Mommy. “Two minutes later they’re happy as can be.”

“Yeah…,” Mommy said, and then the woman security guard gave me a little push inside and the door closed behind me, and her and Mommy were outside and I was inside with Dave. I felt like I wanted to turn around and push the door back open and yell for Mommy, but then I saw lots of kids looking at me in the hallway, so I didn’t.

“Come this way, champ,” the security guard Dave said, and started walking down the hallway, and I noticed that the hallway looked almost the same as at McKinley and it smelled the same, too. The security guard Dave walked into the main office on the right side of the hallway that also looked the same as at McKinley. “Claudia,” he said to an old lady with gray hair who looked up and gave us a smile. The security guy Dave put his hand on my shoulder and said, “This here is Zach—what’s your last name, champ?” he asked me.

“Taylor,” I said in a very quiet voice.

“Zach Taylor for Miss Russell’s class.”

The old lady walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a red folder and looked at some papers inside. “Ah, yes,” she said, “Zach Taylor, I see. We’ve been waiting for you, Zach,” and she smiled at me again.

“All right then, let’s get you to class,” Dave the security man said, and he walked back out in the hallway and turned right and he talked to me the whole time we walked down the hallway, but I didn’t say anything back. I had this scary feeling that something was behind me, behind my back in the hallway, and the feeling got bigger and bigger.

I was afraid to turn around to see what it was, and all of a sudden I thought there were going to be dead people on the floor behind me and blood everywhere. I walked faster, and my whole body started to feel hot all over. I saw a door at the end of the hallway, and I wanted to start running to the door, and the scary feeling got bigger still. Then the security guard Dave stopped walking and I bumped into him. He said, “Whoa, slow down, champ. Here we are. This is Miss Russell’s classroom.”





[ 36 ]


    Thunderstorm


“ZACH! HI! I DIDN’T EXPECT to see you today,” Miss Russell said when the security guard Dave opened the door. She came from the back of the room, and she looked very happy to see me. She bent down and gave me a hug. All of my friends from my old class were there, and they said “Hi” to me and said they were happy I was back and stuff like that. I didn’t like all the eyes on me, but Miss Russell showed me my seat, and I was at the same table with Nicholas again. It was like we were still at McKinley and nothing was changed.

“All right, class, let’s get back to work,” Miss Russell said. Everyone had workbooks out, and they picked up their pencils and did some quiet work. “Zach, why don’t you come sit with me for a bit?” Miss Russell said to me, and I sat next to her by her desk.

“Do you still have the charm I gave you?” Miss Russell said to me in a quiet voice so that I was the only one who could hear her.

“Yes,” I said. “It’s in my…I put it in a safe spot and I look at it a lot.”

Miss Russell smiled and said, “Good. It always helped me when I…was sad about something. It helped me to imagine that my grandma was out there somewhere looking over me, you know?” I shook my head yes. “I really do believe that with all my heart,” Miss Russell said. “Your brother, too. He’s not gone, he’s looking over you, too.” Miss Russell put her hand up and touched my cheek, and I started to feel a big lump in my throat from that.

“Have you been doing some of your schoolwork? Should we go over it together?” Miss Russell asked, and then she stopped touching my cheek. She got out a folder from her desk and she showed me the work the class did when I didn’t come to school and it was the work Mimi brought home for me to do, and I did some of it, but not all of it.

I liked sitting there with Miss Russell. The room was really quiet, and everyone was doing their own work. But then all of a sudden somebody, I think Evangeline, did something and I didn’t see what it was, but Miss Russell called over to her to stop. When she talked, her warm breath went right in my mouth. It smelled like coffee. And just like that the big scary feeling from earlier in the hallway was back, and I remembered Miss Russell’s breath from in the closet. My heart started beating fast again, and I was starting to feel sick like when Mommy drove me here in the car.

I did big, heavy breaths because I knew I was going to throw up, and I hate throwing up so much.

“Are you all right, honey?” Miss Russell asked, and her voice sounded really far away, even though she was sitting right next to me. When she asked me that, I could smell her coffee breath again, and the throw-up came out in a big giant Whoosh! all over Miss Russell’s desk and the front of my shirt. I started to stand up and another giant Whoosh! of throw-up came out and it landed all over my shoes.