A Missing Peace

by Beth Fred

  In the time it took her to drag me across the curb, I didn’t hear her sob. I only heard heaving grunts. This was hurting her, too.

  There was something soothing about the dirt under my skin. It was almost cooling—almost. Mirriam let out a heavy sigh, and the next thing I knew she had my head in her lap. She kept stroking her hand over my face whispering, “It will be okay.”

  Everything went black…

  I was in a room I hadn’t seen before. Mirriam had her hand in my pocket. I must be dreaming…

  I drifted in and out of consciousness, then I woke up long enough to figure I was in a hospital. Mirriam was still there. Sometimes she sobbed. Sometimes she sat silent.

  I tried to piece together the events of the night. First, I had dinner with Mirriam. We walked home. Something hit me.

  I woke up here—at the hospital with Mirriam. Mom wasn’t here. My friends weren’t here. Only Mirriam. I slipped in and out of a hazy black sleep, almost like darkness mingled with smoke. But every time I opened my eyes, Mirriam was there.

  She was like my angel—the only thing anchoring me to the room.

  Then she wasn’t there anymore. I would have thought I imagined the whole thing, except my mom was here by then, and she told me how Mirriam stayed with me. How she’d insisted on saying goodbye before she left.

  The next time I got a visitor, I thought it might be Mirriam. Maybe I even hoped it would be her. But it wasn’t. It was Josh and Matt.

  “‘Sup, Miller?” Josh asked.

  “Not much.”

  “They found the driver, you know,” Matt said. “They’ve arrested him. My dad told me.” Matt’s dad was a cop.

  I nodded. “What was that guy’s problem? I mean why was he tryin’ to run people down?”

  Matt shrugged. “Dad said he was a drunk. He didn’t mean to hit you. Then he freaked out and tried to leave, but since he was drunk, he had a hard time getting out of there. He hit a tree a few minutes later and left his car smashed into the tree. That’s how he got caught.”

  “As soon as I can stand up, I’m going to kick that guy’s ass.”

  The guys went quiet and exchanged a look before Josh said, “You know that’s going to be a while, don’t you?” The words came out of his mouth slowly and carefully. I had never heard my best friend speak with this amount of caution before. Ever.

  When I didn’t answer, Matt said, “He’s behind bars. They’re charging him with assault with a deadly weapon.

  I never imagined a car being a deadly weapon. I wanted to laugh, except the parts of my body I could feel hurt like hell, and I had no idea when I was getting out of that bed.

  The guys hadn’t been gone long when Kailee showed up.

  First of all, I was not in the mood to see girls. There was just something unimpressive about a bed-ridden gimp. Even though, I kept finding myself looking for Mirriam. Kailee was not the sort of the person you want to talk to when you’re vulnerable.

  “Hi, Caleb,” she said as she waltzed in.

  “Hi.”

  “How are you?”

  Is she serious? I looked up at the IV dripping into my arm. “Fine.”

  She nodded and sat down in the chair beside my bed. “Can I get you anything? Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “So when do you think you’ll get to go home?”

  “Soon.” I hope.

  She settled back into the chair. She didn’t say anything for a minute, and then she got to the point. It was Kailee. There had to be a point.

  “Well, I see your girlfriend’s not here.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend, and she was here all night Sunday.”

  “I don’t really know what you see in that A-rab chick.”

  “I—we’re working on a project together. Do you have to call her that?”

  “You were working on a project at Pizza Hut?”

  “What do you want? We’re not together anymore.”

  She laughed for a minute. “The next time you see Miss A-rab, tell her I said hi.” I wanted to kick her out, but before I could, she said, “Well, I have to run. Ciao.”

  There was something strange about Kailee asking me to tell Mirriam hi, but at this point, I hadn’t seen Mirriam in days. I didn’t know what Kailee was up to, so it was probably better if I stayed out of it. Not to mention, I had bigger problems to worry about. Like if I’d ever walk again.

  Chapter 11

  Mirriam

  By the time I made it to school, it was lunch. I caught Kailee at her locker with the two girls that followed her around. The brunette from Pizza Hut—I found out her name was Farrah—and the blonde, Lacey.

  I stepped up into the semi-circle the three girls formed around Kailee’s locker. Of course, the princess was the center of attention. I stared Kailee down and waited for her to acknowledge me. When she saw me, she said, “Uh, you’re in my space.” She snapped her fingers. “Back up.”

  I moved closer to her. “Stay the hell away from me. Got it, bitch? Stay away from my family, and stay away from my house.”

  She didn’t back away. Instead, she locked her eyes with mine. “Except you are in my space. Don’t tell me to stay away from you. You stay away from me. And stay away from Caleb while you’re at it. Don’t act like you run things around here. This is my school. Got it, bitch?”

  I took another step toward her. I had to bend slightly to whisper what I didn’t want everyone else to hear, because in my tennis shoes I was still taller than Kailee and her two-inch heels. “Mess with me, and you can be the first headless cheerleader on YouTube.”

  Her eyes grew wide. “Oh, yeah right.”

  “Try me.”

  Kailee froze, and I laughed as I straightened up.

  “What’s funny?” she hissed.

  “Your heels weren’t tall enough today.”

  Our confrontation started to attract attention, making it harder to get away from Kailee and her minions. “Don’t repeat what I told you,” I said.

  “If I do?”

  I drew a finger around the edge of my neck.

  She crossed her arms and glared. “Oh, yeah right. You’re full of crap.”

  I clapped my hands in front of my chest then shot them up over my head like I’d seen the cheerleaders do. “Am I?”

  “I’m calling the police. That kind of thing isn’t funny ‘round here.”

  “Do what you have to.” Zmal. If she called the police, Abrahem would kill me, assuming I didn’t get arrested first. We would have to move again. My fault. “Wouldn’t be a good idea,” I said, hoping I sounded mean. I thought I scared her. That was the thing. You didn’t have to be Muslim. You only had to look it, and people were already afraid.

  I headed for the cafeteria, but I wasn’t far from Kailee and her group, when someone behind me called, “Hey.”

  I turned around to see a fat white girl about the same height as me. She was wearing a blue dress with a matching feather boa, fishnet hose, and black boots. We’d been sitting at the same lunch table since I came here, but she’d only spoken to me twice. The first day, she said I was in her spot but it was okay. The second day she said, “It doesn’t pay to be different here, does it?” I hated that. I didn’t need another lunch loser patronizing me.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “I saw you stand up to Kailee back there. That was awesome. She deserved it. I’m glad someone finally put her in her place.”

  I sighed. “Thanks, I guess.”

  “I saw what she did to your house. I’m sorry.” The girl was walking beside me now.

  “Is that why you’re talking to me now? You don’t have to.”

  The girl’s eyes narrowed into slits and her lips turned up, but she wasn’t really smiling. “Mirriam, I’ve talked to you since you came here. This is just the first time you’ve talked back.”

  I ran our previous encounters through my head. I’d thought she was angry I took her seat without knowing, and I didn’t like her po
inting out that I was different. I knew that without anyone telling me, but now that I thought about it, she was different, too.

  “I’m sorry. How did you know my name?”

  “You’re the Arabic chick.” She grimaced as she said it. “Sorry. Everyone knows your name.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’m Morgan,” she said.

  “How did you know what she did to my house?”

  Morgan shrugged. “Her Facebook profile picture is a garage door that says in metallic pink, ‘Ragheads Go Home!’ so when I saw you attack her, I assumed it was yours.”

  “She put that on Facebook?” I wanted to go back and slam her head into her locker. And Caleb got me out of the house, so she could do this. I hated him.

  “Sorry.”

  “She makes me sick.” I lowered my voice, so no one else would hear us. “She threatened to call the police on me.”

  Morgan’s eyes popped in surprise. “What did you say to her?”

  I laughed. “Not much.”

  “She tagged your door first. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

  Except that we aren’t citizens. She is. Abrahem painted the door without reporting it.

  “They don’t know that. I doubt they’d believe me.”

  “You called the police, didn’t you?”

  “No, my brother repainted the door.”

  “Let’s go.” Morgan grabbed my hand.

  “Where are we going?”

  “The library to print her profile pic. If she threatens you again, threaten her back.”

  Chapter 12

  Caleb

  After a week in the hospital, I got to go home. It would be a couple of weeks before I could go back to school. I couldn’t take stairs or do anything more than walk. Even walking was limited, because standing hurt like hell. No running or jogging for a while, and I might need physical therapy to get my right leg functioning correctly again.

  My first day home, the guys came over with pizza. It was the second day that things started getting interesting.

  I was lying on the couch, because I couldn’t take the stairs to my room yet. I was willing to throw this piece of medical advice out the window, but I couldn’t figure out how to get up the stairs dragging my leg behind me.

  There was a knock at the door, and I yelled, “Come in,” expecting to see Josh or Matt or both come through the door. Instead, Mirriam burst in like a stick of dynamite. She didn’t say anything. She held her body so tight every breath looked painful. She wore a straight face, but the effort she put into not glaring at me was obvious. She was more than angry. We were back to the first day I saw her, and I had no idea why. I hadn’t even been around for a week. I wasn’t sure what I could have done.

  “You wanna sit down?” I asked.

  She moved almost robotically to a chair across from the couch. She stared at me, and the silence we were captured in bothered me. Mirriam was not the kind of girl to go quiet when she was mad.

  She knew about the bet. That had to be it. Why else would she be sitting across from me too mad to speak?

  I broke the ice. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Pulling me out of the road that night.”

  “It was the decent thing to do.”

  It may have been, but it was more than that, too. She proved it the way she hovered over me until the ambulance got there and then sat in the hospital until my mom came. But I didn’t say anything yet. If I waited a little longer, she would tear into me. I would feel better when she did, and she would get over it.

  She reached into her grey and pink backpack and grabbed a book and a few sheets of paper. She tossed them onto the coffee table that filled the space between us. “I brought notes and some books, so you can prepare your side of the debate.”

  “I don’t get a vacation after being hit by a car?”

  “I need an A.”

  “Right.” She stood, but before she could turn for the door I said, “Leaving so soon?”

  She took a step toward me. “You got me out of the house that night.”

  “What?”

  She laughed. “Caleb, let’s face it. The way you just randomly started walking home, volunteering to be my partner, suggesting Friday night study sessions—none of it ever made sense. I’m not the kind of girl that attracts football players, and I’m definitely not the kind of girl that attracts wannabe jarheads. I should have been the only person home that night, and you made sure I wasn’t there. You gave her free reign, and then since she accidentally ended up at Pizza Hut, she has a solid alibi.”

  “Who? What are we talking about?”

  Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Goodbye, Caleb.” She left.

  The first day I met her, seeing Mirriam cry might have been impressive. It would have made her human. But since then, I’d seen so many things that proved she had a good heart. I didn’t want to see this. I’d rather get hit by a car again than see Mirriam cry, and I was kind of pissed at the same time because she attacked me over something I knew nothing about and I just got home from the hospital. It wasn’t the bet. I wanted to know what she was so mad about.

  Before I could figure out what I thought about my latest encounter with Mirriam Yohanna, my phone rang. It was on the couch with me, so I could call mom if I needed anything. The screen blinked Sgt. Rodniski. My recruiter. I hadn’t actually signed yet. Mom wanted me to wait closer to the end of the year, so I could still decide to go to college.

  “Hello?”

  “Miller, how are you doin’?”

  “I’m good.” As good as a guy who got hit by a car a week ago can be.

  “I heard about the accident, and I saw your mom last week. She said you were in the hospital. How bad was it?”

  “It’s been rough.”

  “I bet. Are you able to handle a lot of strenuous moving right now?”

  “I’ll be okay.” I knew where this was going.

  “Caleb, I’m sorry, but you need to bring me something from your doctor when you come to sign the contract.”

  “Something from the doctor?”

  “I need a medical release.”

  There it was. “Well, I’ll be okay. I just need a few weeks.”

  “Well, we can wait to sign until you get the release, and I’ll get you in a different boot camp.”

  That would be the end of summer. Assuming, I didn’t need physical therapy.

  “Thanks,” I said flatly.

  “Hey, you know I want to get you in for your dad. If you were already in, I could get you a desk job, but you have to understand even paper pushers must go through basic. If you’re physically unable to do basic right now, my hands are tied.”

  I threw the phone across the room. I didn’t need to hear anymore of his empty apology. I’d seen enough sports injuries to know I would need physical therapy. The doctor was sugar coating it when he used the word “if.”

  I thought I could somehow validate my father’s death, if I could follow in his footsteps. Maybe, I could even go to the Mid East too, track down the monster who did this. I would volunteer to be stationed in Iraq. No one wanted to go there, so I’d get it.

  Every chance of that died the day the coupe plowed me to the ground.

  Chapter 13

  Mirriam

  Another two days passed without me seeing Caleb at all.

  I liked it that way. I made sure he had what he needed to do his half of the project, and I had no desire to see him other than that. Before the accident, I had started to like spending time with him. Even all those stupid arguments gave me an adrenaline rush like I’d never felt before. We were supposed to be friends. He’d said it, not me. But the truth was from the first time I saw him, All-American Boy was gorgeous, and I allowed myself to be blinded enough by that to let my guard down. Lesson learned.

  Then he called. That took me by surprise for a moment, but I remembered leaving my number on his bedside table in the hospital, so he could call if he needed something.

&n
bsp; “Did you forget about me?”

  I live across the street. How the hell am I supposed to do that? “What do you want?”

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Come across the street.”

  “No.”

  “Well, then we’ll both fail. I need help.”

  “Zmal. I gave you the book. What do you need? Me to read it for you?”

  Caleb laughed, and I could tell he was enjoying this. But this wasn’t like the old arguments that were semi-serious yet fun. This was a Post-Caleb-the-Traitor argument. “Yes, I hit my head. I’m illiterate now.”

  “You didn’t have to hit your head very hard to accomplish that.”

  “Mirriam, I can’t walk across the street. Come over. Please?” His voice was laced with desperation.

  “Tell me what you want.”

  “I told you, help with Government.”

  I groaned. “Liar.”

  I knocked on his door, and he yelled, “Come in.” He was lying on the couch with his legs propped up wearing the same clothes I’d last seen him in. He was still undeniably attractive, yet there was something pathetic about him today.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “What happened?”

  “You look rough.”

  “Being hit by a car will do that to you.”

  “You look worse, and I don’t think you got hit by a second car.”

  “Well, you’re no beauty yourself.”

  I smiled. “Of course, I am. You told me so.”

  “Believe me, I wish I could take that back, but what happened with Kailee?”

  “Kailee?” I had no idea what he was talking about. I hadn’t even spoken to her in a week. Then I realized Caleb hadn’t been at school. She must have only recently found the time to tell on me, and I laughed. I didn’t regret it, and I had no intention of apologizing for it. Still, I wasn’t about to let Caleb’s little fake blonde redneck girlfriend run us out of town. It took my mother forever to find the nursing job here, and I suspected that was because of government reservations for refugees.