I did not reply immediately.
“Marinette this is quite serious. Did you understand what I asked because lives depend on it? Where were you when you didn’t come to school?” Mrs Wills gestured frantically.
Her hands were now all over the place as if she was going to hit me and it took me a few seconds to even understand what she was asking me.
A line of sweat formed on her brow and began to trickle down the left side of her face while her left eye began to twitch in rapid succession.
“I walked around the mall, so I could clear my head,” I signed. It was the only lie I could think of at this moment.
“Hmmm. I am so thankful….,” I continued.
Mrs Wills grabbed hold of my arm pinning it onto her desk while her other arm began looking for something and the shock of her grabbing and pinning my arm threw me into a daze and I was slow to react.
I didn’t understand what was going on, but this was neither the caring Mrs Wills who was always on my side nor my favorite teacher who hugged me so tightly the other day at my home. I didn’t know why she was acting like this and I realized I didn’t have the time to find out because I needed to get out of here but the force by which she had pinned my arm down made it impossible for me to get free.
I finally noticed she was trying to use her other arm to pick up her phone and send someone a message, but I didn’t intend to wait to find out. I tried again pulling my arm with all my might, but it was firmly planted on the desk like it was supposed to be there.
I heard a loud bang near the door making both Mrs Wills and I to turn to it and, to my relief, Susie barged in with her backpack and threw it in the direction of the desk. The backpack landed on the desk hitting Mrs Wills smack on her face the impact of which stunned Mrs Wills momentarily giving me enough time to pull again and get free from her. I grabbed Susie’s backpack, ran out of the classroom with her and we both raced down the empty corridors until we exited from the rear of the building.
Outside I let go of Susie who was panting alongside me and I realized neither of us would be the next school captain of any sports team I guess. I smiled at the thought and looked at Susie who was staring intensely at the exit expecting someone to chase us but no one emerged from the building. Whatever was going on had to do with Mrs Wills and she had decided not to chase us and for the first time in my life I was glad not to see her.
Susie turned to me. “Are you okay? What happened there and why was Mrs Wills grabbing you? I have never seen her act like this before.”
I shook my head in disbelief because I still could not believe what happened inside there just now.
“I don’t know, but thank you for rescuing me like you did. If not…,” I signed.
Susie waved and hugged me. “It is okay. Luckily I was around and just finished helping one of the other teachers. I saw you go into Mrs Wills classroom and decided to see what’s going on. Okay, I admit I was being nosy I guess.”
“I am happy you were being nosy,” I signed and grinned.
“But you cannot come to school anymore Marinette,” Susie motioned. “I do not know what is going on or what made Mrs Wills act like the way she did now, but all I know is that you must stay away from here because it is no longer safe here for you.”
The way Susie said it made me wonder if she knew more than she was letting on, but this wasn’t the time to ask her.
I nodded at her realizing my world had become one place smaller all because of the car explosion incident and I walked away thanking Susie again, but I did not know what would happen to her. Susie took a great risk helping me, but the fact Susie’s father worked at the Magistrate was one thing going for her and it should keep her safe.
I walked slowly to the nearby town library, took a seat, tried my best to check if Mrs Wills or anyone else was following me while I gathered my thoughts. Everything happened so fast earlier my mind was still reeling from it because, in an instant Mrs Wills, my favorite teacher and the only mother-like figure I had ever known, became someone I was so scared of now. Who was she trying to message and why did she do what she did? Something had changed since I last saw her at my home a few days ago.
I was certain Mrs Wills would message Felix and make up some fake story about me running off again or something worse. I didn’t know whether Felix would believe her or not, but I could not do anything about it and even if I messaged Felix and told him the whole truth I was unsure if he would believe me this time since I had kept so much from him and he knew it. The consequences of my trail of lies had finally caught up with me.
Taking a great risk, I decided to text Oliver although he did say not to contact him, and I knew he wasn’t going to be happy with this, but I didn’t have any choice left. I sent an urgent message to him saying something awful happened in school and I needed to meet him and thankfully I got a short reply. “Same place. Be careful.”
I breathed out, collected my things and made my way to the west side of town again as Oliver’s last two words reminded me to really be on guard this time.
FOURTEEN
My second trip down the dirt road through the green fields was a more relaxed one, which sounded funny now because it was only a couple of hours ago I was in complete fear wrestling for my precious life with Mrs Wills. Yet now the fear had completely left me, while disappointment had successfully taken its place with what Mrs Wills tried to do because it was so unlike her and I still remembered the sense of determination in her eyes as she was reaching for the phone.
I did not know what triggered her to act like this because it was, as if, she was a completely different person, and this alone scared me a lot. My mind started wandering down passages akin to a science fiction movie as I debated whether Mrs Wills in the classroom wasn’t really her and someone had taken her place. The Mrs Wills I knew would never ever force something on me because it was not in her DNA, but, then again, she could have been under some sort of drug or mistook me for someone else. This also really didn’t make sense either because Mrs Wills isn’t so old to start losing her memory and isn’t the type to try drugs and so her actions remained a riddle to me.
I started to smell a bit of burning in the air but didn’t think much about it at first as there wasn’t anyone out here in this wasteland. I kept walking looking forward to seeing Oliver again as he was the only constant I could depend on now and talking to him about what happened would make me feel better. He even would be able to tell me what was going on with Mrs Wills because his love for books had really made him someone who knew a lot of things about the world.
The burning smell escalated and I abruptly stopped as a funnel of smoke rose ahead of me into the sky. My heart skipped a beat, my throat became dry since according to my calculations the funnel of smoke should be right in the middle of the abandoned buildings. I was frozen in place again just like what happened when I saw the woman in the burning car and, as I thought of Oliver waiting for me there or worse even injured, it helped me overcome my fear, made me start walking at a faster pace and then I began to run. Approaching the stretch of abandoned buildings, I stopped and not a moment too soon as there were two military vehicles parked further ahead one of which was an open-air truck. I hid behind the first abandoned building.
The open-air truck was but a few meters from the patch where the smoke was rising, and it then dawned on me the patch was the building where I met Oliver a few days ago, but all that was left was a pile of rubble. Oliver was nowhere to be seen and my hopes of meeting him started running downhill with the fact he had not texted me anything about looking for him somewhere else. I tried to remain calm, but I could not as thoughts of him being in the burning building when it burnt to the ground invaded my space. I didn’t want to let my mind go down this road because I knew my heart wouldn’t be able to take this a second time. Speaking of my heart, it was in the middle of yet another marathon and was now thumping loudly and I tried to think of something else to control my emotions like when Oliver and I were in the
cellar of the now burnt down building.
My eyes became distracted by some movement inside the truck and, as I realized there was someone in the truck, I squinted my eyes to get a better look and, to my relief, I recognized the side of Oliver’s face. He was probably on the lookout for me and, as I was about to move closer, two men walked out from the front of the truck and I quickly crouched lower recognizing one of them as Josh, but he was no longer in his office wear of the other day. Instead, he was wearing a military uniform which obviously showed that Josh had even lied about being from the police when he visited my home while the other man was shorter with brown hair. I moved to the next abandoned building making sure the two of them could not see me and realized both of them were preoccupied by their conversation.
“We finally got him,” the brown-haired man signed. “The boss wants us to move the boy to the warehouse now. What about the girl though? We can wait and see if she comes.”
“We can’t wait any longer,” Josh motioned. “There are other ways to lure the girl out. It is only a matter of time. We will catch her very soon because she cannot survive out on her own now. Her only friend is with us.”
Her only friend is with us. How did Josh even know Oliver was my only friend? Was it Susie who told them and was I wrong to think she was possibly on my side? Was it Mrs Wills or were there Magistrate people in my school watching my every move already? I didn’t know what to think now but I pushed those questions aside as Oliver was my priority and I looked around for any thing to help free him but there was nothing useful around. The two men still hadn’t moved, and the brown-haired man was now using his phone. I didn’t know what to do because I could not let myself get caught. What a selfish thought? I was torn between rushing to Oliver and hiding shamelessly here and yet I knew Oliver would want me to stay away and find out about the process.
The brown-haired man nodded. “Then let’s get out of here. I can’t stand the burning smell.”
The two men got in their vehicles, drove off in the opposite direction with Oliver as I watched helplessly and then I waited a few minutes before walking over to the rubble of the building but there was nothing much left. I did not know if it was my carelessness which led them to this building or whether we left some evidence behind, but it really didn’t matter now because what mattered was finding a way to help Oliver escape.
In the moment I reached a choice with my limited options to find out what Mrs Wills was up to and, although it sounded crazy and logical at the same time, she was the only remaining connection I had to this whole mess and, at least, I knew where she lived.
FIFTEEN
I could not believe I was standing opposite Mrs Wills’s home hidden behind some trees because this was the last place I thought I would end up at. It was also the last place Josh and his people would ever look for me since they thought I could not survive too long outside on my own. I smiled but for a few seconds. I waited despite the fact patience wasn’t one of my strengths but then again it was time to work on it for Oliver’s sake. The lights at Mrs Wills’s home were off and it appeared no one was home which wasn’t strange considering it’s a weekday night and people were probably working late or even having their dinner.
As the thought worked its way through my mind a car drove up to the home, parked on the driveway and there were two figures inside which should be them. It was a bit strange because the two figures did not immediately get out, but I really didn’t know much about family life to know how it worked for them and they could have a thing they do before entering their home every night.
Mrs Wills got out, slammed the door, walked to the front door and a man, most likely her husband, slowly followed. Mr Wills appeared older and a bit frail which was something I didn’t expect considering how much youthfulness and energy Mrs Wills showed in class as she was always racing around the room helping us and, to me, it always seemed like she was either on a sugar rush or high on drugs. Thomson, like any other town, wasn’t free of the temptation of drugs and I knew quite a few of my classmates who used them illegally even at school itself.
Their body language showed me why it took them so long to get out of the car; they had been arguing and it hadn’t even ended when they both reached the door because Mr Wills continued to gesture at his wife, but she didn’t turn to look at him although from my vantage point I could not see their hands. I shrugged and started thinking of my next step as the two of them entered their home because I bet their argument had something to do with me and what happened at school earlier today.
I darted over to a large tree next to a window on the second floor of their home and hid behind it as the lights on the home appeared. Looking at the tree I recalled my love for climbing them whenever I could, and it was something I grew up with because of the nearby park next to my block of homes, which became my real playground during my younger years. Over time the love of climbing trees became another victim to the pains of growing up and understanding life wasn’t always a fun place.
I started climbing quickly, got onto a branch near the window and tried the latch which to my surprise was unlocked. I gently slid the window fully open, climbed into the dark room and was glad the full moon had chosen to make its presence felt tonight as it helped shine some light into the dark interior of the room. As my eyes adjusted I realized it was a young child’s room and a small girl’s room from all the girly soft toys on the bed and the shelves. The bed appeared to have not been slept in and there were no signs of anyone having used the room recently or it was possible the owner of this room was super organized but my memories of being such at this age made me doubt it though. I knew Mrs Wills had a family, but she never spoke about it with the class or me personally and I assumed she preferred to keep some things private.
I heard footsteps approaching the door, glanced around for a place to hide, realized the bed was too small to sneak under and instead ran into the walk-in closet keeping the door ajar.
Mr and Mrs Wills marched into the room and by the two of them motioning with their hands frantically I realized their argument hadn’t ended yet. As I was thinking what kind of argument could remain so intense for so long between a couple I was shocked when I finally understood what they had been arguing about.
Their little girl had been taken by the Council in return for the Wills capturing and handing me over to them and everything fell into place and now I began to understand why Mrs Wills, like any other parent, driven by pure desperation over their own child, acted as she did. I began to feel extremely sad for her despite her failed kidnapping attempt of me because a parent losing her child to a sickness or accident was tragic but to have your child taken until you did something was cruel. Since when did the Council get involved or had they been involved since the day of the car explosion incident? This was much bigger than I expected since the Council was involved because I had heard they wielded a lot of power over society and their resources were unlimited. Although the Magistrate had some level of power, it was nothing compared to the Council as I remembered once Oliver sharing that the Magistrate was simply the puppet of the Council and I started to wonder what I had got myself into.
My mind began to wander, and I realized all the people closest to me, starting with Oliver and now Mrs Wills, were getting punished because of what I saw on the day of car explosion incident which led me to making a sound. I wished right now I hadn’t been able to make the sound because none of this would be happening, the people closest to me would be okay and my life would have been continuing down it’s predictable path to nowhere. I clenched my hands tightly and felt like banging something inside the closet because this was so horrible, and the Council had no right to do this to the people I cared about the most. Who were they to kidnap little innocent girls to get to me? If they wanted me they should come after me without doing such evil things and, then, I realized I might be losing control and tried my best to keep my emotions under control because this wasn’t the place to release a sound.
I l
ooked again at the couple watching them for a few minutes longer and their conversation continued to stun me.
Mr Wills motioned. “Look we cannot do anything until we get the girl. You had your chance and it didn’t work.”
Mrs Wills signed furiously. “I didn’t expect Susie to come barging in. The only reason I haven’t brought Susie in is because of her father’s place in the Magistrate and I don’t want to get further tangled in with the Magistrate.”
“We need to let Josh know we have run out of options,” Mr Wills signed.
Wait a minute. Were they working with Josh or against him?
“The little brat is not so smart you know,” Mrs Wills started gesturing.
My feeling of sadness for her predicament went away the moment she said it.
Mrs Wills continued. “She is the slowest in the class. Did you know? She is not the street-smart girl type which is so obvious but I never told her but now I wish I had. She cannot survive on her own without any help because she is a weak person and quite dependent on others. With her only friend Oliver now with us there is no one else she can get help from. They will catch her soon and then our dear little girl will be back with us and this nightmare will be over.”
Piercing Through the Silence Page 7
