Two Alive

by Jonez, Jeremiah W.

  “John, could you…” Michelle started.

  And Johnathan finished, “I’ll go let the classrooms and staff know the buses are here.” He went through the swinging double doors to the main hallway and went to the left side of the building where all the classrooms were. He started from the beginning of the hallway with classroom 1 then worked his way to classes 2, 4, 7 and 8. Telling all the staff in the rooms that the buses were arriving. Then Johnathan went to the last classroom at the end of the hall, classroom 12, Francine’s class. She was sitting at her desk, blazer over her chair and a handful of ungraded worksheets from yesterday.

  “Oh, Johnathan. Can I help you?” Francine put her papers down, happy to see him.

  “Just came to let you know the buses were just pullin’ up. You might wanna start mentally preparing for Hector.” Johnathan stood at the door and glanced at a student’s desk near him with the letters “H-E-K-T-O-R” scratched into it.

  Francine let out a heavy sigh that turned into a laugh. “You know what? Somebody need to spank his little ass!”

  Johnathan laughed. “I gotta agree with you.”

  Francine shook her head, “Don’t tell nobody I said that. Because I need my job and I don’t want Miss Michelle to hear I said that.”

  “No worries.”

  Johnathan looked around the classroom at all the recent art projects and math assignments that littered the wall. High grades all around and everyone was on level for the March Madness basketball tournament. All except Hector, who had a behavior yesterday and flipped over his desk. That was before he had a small scrap with Miles in the gym. Besides yesterday though, the kid was alright and was actually doing a lot better in Francine’s classroom. Hector was smart when he wanted to be, and Francine was able to make him focus. She had only been working in classroom 12 for a year and had completely turned it around. Johnathan admired her for that, among other things.

  The door burst opened behind him and he turned to see Eryanna rushing into class being chased by a lean woman, Amber; another aide in 12. “Girl you need to slow down running through these halls.” Amber said to the thirteen-year-old, gangly girl.

  Eryanna laughed for a second before noticing she had hit Johnathan with the door. “I’m sorry, old man.” she mumbled.

  “Eryanna go sit down, sweetheart.” Francine jumped up from her desk when the brat tried to take off sprinting again. “And stop running!”

  Eryanna obeyed and walked to her seat, apologizing again. Amber followed the little girl, chuckling to herself and telling Johnathan good morning. He said good morning back and looked to Francine and caught her hazel eyes looking back at him. Johnathan gave her a salute, two fingers to his forehead, and she gave him back the same. He backed out of the classroom and went back down the hall, headed for his office.

  Students were starting to pour into the building and Eryanna wasn’t the only one who was running to class. Hector was on his way, speeding past Johnathan on short stumpy legs but giving the old man a high five as he went. Staff members were in tow, following their students and Johnathan made his way through the hall, greeting all the students that came by him. Shaking hands with some, fist bumping others and debating if the Warriors would win tonight with anyone who asked; student or staff member. Before Johnathan knew it, he saw Arthur making a b-line straight for him as he swung the corner to head to his office.

  “Oh, sorry Johnathan. Change of plans. Uh…” Arthur went through a cycle of emotions, trying to find the words for what he wanted to say.

  Johnathan just stared at him and folded his arms with a hurry-the-hell-up-and-get-on-with-it expression.

  Arthur continued, hurriedly, “Oh, well, Antonio came to class today, and this is the only chance I’ll be able to get him all caught up with his IEP. Brandon and Rachel are taking the kids to the van now, because Jasmine is gonna have to take them to the movies now in order to get classroom 7 to their work on time. It sucks I won’t get to go with them, but I have to stay with Antonio.”

  “Ok Arthur, why exactly are you telling me all this?” Johnathan was squeezing his eyes shut trying to blink away the migraine that was coming.

  “I was hoping you could take Miles out to do some vocational with you so that he doesn’t get left in class alone. At least until Abby gets back. She’s still out picking up kids. But if you can’t I understand.”

  Johnathan rolled his eyes and nodded his head. “Yeah sure Arthur. I got it. I’m free for the moment.”

  “Oh, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Arthur smiled big.

  Johnathan patted him on the shoulder and went with him to classroom 4, leading the way. Inside the class, many of the students were standing at the door already lined up and ready for their fieldtrip. They were all excited to see the old man but even more excited about going to the movies to see X-men: Apocalypse. Many of them were wearing X-men t-shirts and doing poses they saw in the commercials. A boy named Grant, who was tall and lanky with a bird’s nest for hair, was fussing and arguing about everything while the other boys antagonized him.

  The eleven-year-old Miles was sitting at his desk at the back of the class, looking down, sad.

  “Heyyy! What’s up Mr. Johnathan!” Antonio stood from his desk next to Miles and went to dap the old man.

  “Antonio, you finally came to class today? Where you been man?” Johnathan shook hands with the seventeen-year-old and reminded him to pull up his sagging jeans. The puff coat Antonio wore smelled like marijuana, but Johnathan ignored the faint smell. He was happy to see the young man back in class after spending the week absent from school; no doubt with his older brother who lived in Las Vegas.

  Antonio laughed, “I had a doctor’s appointment old man! Don’t trip!”

  “I’m not trippin’. All that means is you can’t go to the movies today. You suck man.”

  “Aw whatever, Mr. Johnathan. Mr. Arthur said I got my IEP today anyway. I could go to the movies whenever I want. I’m ballin’, old man.”

  “Yeah whatever.”

  “Ok Anto-nio.” Arthur spoke with a sing-songy baritone. “Let’s head over to the conference room. I got your folder and everything ready.”

  Antonio’s shoulders sank and he reluctantly followed Arthur out of the classroom, just as a round woman, Rachel, was coming in.

  “Ok guys, it’s time to go. The van is out front.” Rachel said, corralling the boys and telling them to straighten the line.

  Brandon stood up from the computer at Arthur’s desk, finally making his presence known. “We gotta wait for Arthur to come back. We can’t leave Miles in here alone. Arthur went to do Antonio’s IEP.”

  “Yeah, cuz Miles can’t go.” A round and pudgy boy pointed from the line at Miles and made an “ah-ha” laugh.

  “Shut up!” Miles fired back with his lip poked out.

  “Why would Arthur just leave without doing something with Miles?” Rachel put her hands on her full hips.

  “It’s ok, guys. I came to ask Miles to come with me to take some boxes out to the dumpster.” Johnathan went to stand in front of Miles’ desk. “You wanna go do that, Miles?”

  Miles smiled as big as his mouth and face would allow and started nodding and saying, “Yeah, yeah. I wanna go help Johnathan. I wanna help Mr. Johnathan.” Miles turned to Brandon at the teacher’s desk. “Mr. Brandon, since you my staff today, can I go with Mr. Old Man Johnathan?”

  Brandon chuckled. “Yeah, go ahead Miles.” He moved around the desk and started towards the door. “Thanks old man.”

  “Yeah, thank you, Johnathan.” Rachel said as she started ushering the boys out of the classroom. Brandon was right behind them.

  “Ok, Miles. Let’s go get a radio too, in case somebody needs me for something else you can help me with.”

  “Yeah, let’s get a radio! A radio!” Miles was practically leaping for joy as he followed Johnathan out the classroom. They went down the hall, turned right at the intersection and went to the office, to take a radio from behind
the counter of the front desk.

  Justine had the receiver to her ear and looked up when she saw Johnathan, “Now I can’t get through to anyone.” She slammed the phone back down, irritated and rubbed her stomach to self soothe. “I keep getting a busy tone every time I dial out.”

  Johnathan sighed and signed out the radio. “The leaky roof may have fucked up the phone lines.”

  “Ooh, old man you cussed!” Miles said softly, standing behind Johnathan and trying not to laugh.

  “Sorry Miles. Just give the phones a minute, I’ll take a look at the lines when I get the chance.” Johnathan clipped the radio on his front pocket then he and Miles left.

  They continued down the hall and turned left towards Johnathan’s office. Around the corner, other staff members were standing in the hallway, outside the restroom, complaining about the stalls being occupied.

  “Johnathan, they need to hurry up and fix that other bathroom,” one staff said, standing with her arms crossed holding a folder of papers. Her wrinkled forehead was in a frown.

  “Still backed up in there?” Johnathan asked.

  “Yes, it’s ridiculous. Somebody said they think Greg may have locked himself in one of the stalls again. They keep knocking but nobody answering. And they heard him grunting.”

  Johnathan put a hand over his face and shook his head. The last time Greg locked himself in the staff restroom, he was in there masturbating. Johnathan pulled the radio from his pocket and brought it to his lips. “Can we have coverage to the staff bathroom?” He brought the radio back down and said, “There’s someone in the other stall too?”

  “Oh, yeah, but I think it’s just Ms. Dottie.”

  Johnathan looked up and saw Sam coming around the corner with his radio in hand.

  “Hey what’s up, John?” Sam called out with an expression of, where’s-the-fire.

  “Greg might’ve locked himself in the bathroom again,” Johnathan replied, and Sam just shook his head.

  “Yeah, ok. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.” Sam lifted his Oakland Raider’s hat and scratched his head, then went into the restroom.

  “Thank you, Sam.” Johnathan went to the door of his office and entered, closing the door after Miles.

  Johnathan grabbed the box of shirts from under his desk and emptied the contents on the table, before giving the box to Miles. Then he grabbed another box he had been meaning to throw away and stacked it on the box in Miles’ hands.

  “You got it? Is it too heavy?” Johnathan joked.

  Miles laughed with a goofy smile. “I got it! This is weak and I’m too strong!”

  “You sure are buddy. C’mon.”

  They left the office as quickly as they had entered and went left down the hall towards the door to the back parking lot; where the dumpsters were. Miles and the old man went out the door and were met with a cool morning air. Miles was about to slide down the handrail in the middle of the stairs, but Johnathan stopped him, warning that the boy might break his neck. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Miles tried to take off running to the green dumpster, but Johnathan snapped his fingers and the boy stopped.

  “Hold on. We gotta break them boxes down before we just throw them away.”

  “Oh yeah, right.” Miles laughed and started pulling and tearing at the cardboard in his hands.

  Johnathan looked back and past the garden behind him, he could hear Francine teaching her class and calling for everyone’s attention. When he turned back he saw Miles had finished breaking apart the first box so Johnathan took the second and dropped it on the ground.

  “Stomp on it,” Johnathan said.

  The boy gleefully started stomping on the box and flattening it. Johnathan’s smile faded when he saw a rustling in the bushes behind the dumpster. He wasn’t sure what was causing the movement, but it was bigger than a rat or mouse. Bigger than a cat or even a raccoon. This was something like a big dog. But actually, it was a person who came stumbling out from behind the dumpster wearing no more than saggy, soaked jeans and a pair of sopping socks on his feet. Goosebumps covered his body possibly from sleeping in those bushes all night with no shirt on, which might also have explained his sickly skin tone; pale with dark bruising all over.

  But nothing could explain the cold dead eyes of this mid-fifties looking, scraggly man. The man’s eyes were vacant but primal. He was a statue with steam rising from his naked shoulders. His hairy chest rose and fell rapidly with each breath. The man was wild looking with scratches all over his face that looked self-inflicted. The vagrant’s eyes were fixated on Johnathan and Miles across the parking lot.

  Johnathan’s eyes were locked on a bite mark on the strange man’s shoulder; blood was running down from the dark, infectious wound there. Johnathan’s gut instinct was this man was a threat. A thick air between them seemed seconds from turning to some form of violence. Miles was turning to look and see what had Johnathan’s attention and as soon as he saw the disoriented drifter, the savage man twitched with a violent shake.

  Miles yelped, surprised or frightened, and the homeless man lowered his shoulders and started walking towards Johnathan and his student.

  “Mr. Johnathan…” Miles said hesitantly.

  “Miles get over here.” Johnathan grabbed the boy’s collar and pulled the small child behind him. “Hey buddy. Are you ok? Are you hurt? Do you want me to call a paramedic?” Johnathan put his hands up, trying to decrease the tension by reasoning with the lost man.

  But the man’s empty, bloodshot yellow eyes, showed no conscious understanding. Just a visceral anger. And he kept moving forward.

  “Hey, calm down man. You look like you’ve had a rough night…” Johnathan trailed off, seeing the homeless man approaching quicker. This was on the verge of being physical. “Back off man.” Johnathan was balling his fist now.

  “Mr. Johnathan…” Miles whimpered, standing behind him and clutching the cardboard against his chest.

  “Back off!” Johnathan shoved at the homeless man and sent him backwards, stumbling.

  The drifter just came back more aggressive with his hands outstretched and hissing as he charged. Johnathan didn’t want to fight with the stranger but had to defend himself. He pushed the vagrant again and warned the man to get out of the parking lot. This time the bum seemed to fly back at Johnathan with ravenous intent. Johnathan found it difficult to fight off the wild man who seemed to have unnatural strength. But with a hand around the lost man’s neck, Johnathan pushed him back with one hand and punched him with the other. The hits only seemed to make the man more intense and he was snapping at Johnathan, trying to bite him.

  Punch after punch, the homeless man took shots from Johnathan, but the attacks seemed ineffective. Finally, Johnathan gave him one last hit and the derelict spun in a one-eighty turn and fell to the concrete with a sick thud. Johnathan was breathing hard and looked at himself, checking for scratches or wounds. If it wasn’t for the thick Ascend hoodie he was wearing, Johnathan was sure he might’ve been scratched up all along his arms.

  Johnathan turned to the frightened Miles, “Are you ok--” He noticed something moving in his peripheral.

  Three other vagrants were shambling through the park nearby and making their way through the grassy field headed for the fence that separated the playground and the school. They had the same vacant expression as the man Johnathan fought and the same feral atmosphere that he could feel even from far away. Then he saw the man on the ground start to push himself up, moaning incoherently, with blood beginning to pour from his mouth. Johnathan grabbed Miles and they took off running up the stairs to the school door. He started jamming in the security code to open the door but when he turned the knob, it was still locked. He had meant to fix that stupid thing ages ago and right now he was regretting he put it off for so long.

  One last look back and Johnathan saw the man in the parking lot turn to him with a broken jaw that he didn’t seem bothered with. Blood was running down his lips and was pouring down
his chest. He screamed through broken teeth and the men in the park started running for the gate. Johnathan snapped around again and punched in the door code and this time it worked and he snatched the door open. He rushed inside and dragged Miles with him. The door slammed shut behind them.

  Down the hall, Sam was exiting the staff restroom, ushering Greg out. Sam was explaining why what Greg was doing was inappropriate and the nineteen-year-old student couldn’t hide his embarrassment. When the two saw Johnathan doubled over and trying to catch his breath at the back door, they both looked at him puzzled.

  “Is everything ok Johnathan?” Sam asked, seeing the fear on Miles’ face.

  The staff bathroom door was flung open and Ms. Dottie came lunging out, howling and grunting. She shoved Sam and Greg, knocking them out of the way and fell to the floor on her hands and knees.

  “Ms. Dottie!” Johnathan called out and went to help her up, only stopping when he saw her shake violently. A growl was coming from her and was rising.

  “Oh my god, Ms. Dottie are you ok?” Sam went to help the elderly woman off the floor.

  “Sam, wait!”

  Ms. Dottie let out a guttural roar and jumped at Sam fiercely. Her swimming yellow eyes were like daggers aimed at him and he screamed when she overwhelmed him. Greg whimpered and took off running down the hall, past Arthur and Antonio who had just arrived on the scene. Antonio was laughing at first, thinking the staff were playing in the hallway. Arthur understood this wasn’t horseplay but couldn’t figure out what to do.

  “Ms. Dottie! Ms. Dottie!” Sam shouted, trying to fight the older woman off but finding it surprisingly difficult.

  “Ms. Dottie!” Johnathan rushed the woman and tried pulling her off Sam. She was like a lashing whip with flying elbows and fists.

  “Mr. Arthur, go help them!” Antonio was finally gathering that this was serious. “You ain’t gon help them? Go help them!”

  Arthur flinched at the boy’s words but still couldn’t bring himself to move towards the struggle.