Merly stood there listening to every word that was said to her. “Did you ever see her with anyone or outside the library? Or someone else speaking to her?”
“That is the oddest part, in all my working years, I have never seen her talking to anyone in particular, no student in particular to be more precise.”
“No student in particular?” Merly asked.
“That means she never speaks to any students, but she does speak to someone that you know.” Merly was almost sure whose name would be said.
“Yes, she does. Occasionally, I have seen Mr. Stevenson speaking to her. You see, I have been here for a long time, so I know people around here, but this girl I don’t know, which class she goes to or what she studies, but I have seen her for a long time. I have seen strange things happening, but even for me, this is strange. However, old Mr. Stevenson, he never seems to get upset whenever this girl is around.” The cleaning lady shrugged clearly expressing that she didn’t know the reason regarding why Mr. Stevenson acted that way.
“Have you ever tried talking to him about this?”
“He is old, I try not to rile him up. He flips over little things these days. I have known him for a long time and I am sure he won’t mind me asking, but then, I don’t think he would take it very nicely as well. Haven’t you heard what some kids say? They say that he talks to himself, but all my years, I have never seen him do that. Mr. Stevenson is kind, compassionate and very sensible. He would never do something so senile as talking to himself. He doesn’t do that.”
Merly could feel that the topic had deflected from the green-eyed girl to Mr. Stevenson and the cleaning lady was seemingly angry about the entire situation. Merly couldn’t understand why she changed her topic so drastically, and she tried to steer the conversation towards the girl who apparently was always seen in the library.
“So you are telling me that she never talks to any other student and the only one she talks to is Mr. Stevenson? Do you know what they talk about?” Merly steered the conversation back.
“That is what I am telling you, she never speaks to any student, the only person with whom I have seen her speak is Mr. Stevenson. He seems tense while talking to her, so I never bother him, and he has so much going on in his life already, with his son and everything else. That is not my story to tell, but why are you so concerned about this girl?” the cleaning lady said with suspicion.
Merly didn’t know what to make of the situation. On one hand, she was confused regarding what she was told, and on the other hand, she couldn’t figure out why the girl only spoke with Mr. Stevenson. Then she had no answer she could possibly provide to the cleaning lady and fumbled with her answer. “I want to know because … I spoke … I mean I saw her, too, she was there…”
Merly left her answer midway and never completed what she was saying.“What are you saying? It hardly makes any sense.” the lady looked confused as well.
“It’s nothing, ma’am, I just wanted to know out of curiosity. There are so many students around and the one you were talking about intrigued me.” Merly hoped that the answer was satisfactory.
“You might find her in the library if you go now.” the lady urged her.
However, Merly was not very confident about that, she had no intention of meeting the creepy girl as she was starting to believe that the green-eyed girl might be a ghost, too. She excused herself and walked towards her classroom. There were students coming in now and a few of them passed her by, a couple of them greeted her, others simply went their own way. Then a realization struck Merly, she thought that if the cleaning lady was able to see the ghost of the green-eyed girl, then she could see the ghost of the old librarian, too. Merly judged if it was appropriate to ask her about that or if she could ask without raising her suspicion. Hence, she turned back and decided to ask her, but by the time she reached the first classroom, the cleaning lady was already gone.
Merly looked outside and then on the inside of the classroom. She even walked a few stairs down to see if the lady was still there, but she was no where in sight. A little disappointed, Merly walked back to her class and waited for the rest of her classmates to arrive before the first lecture commenced.
The class started filling in, and the familiar faces started to appear one by one. But Merly didn’t concentrate on any of that, the only thing that went through her mind was to confront Mr. Stevenson. The first teacher who came to give a lecture informed the class that the lecture hours will be doubled that day, for the other days, since they missed the class on the previous day. Merly found that her patience was running thin, but she had no other choice other than to wait. Therefore she waited, with every minute feeling like hours, but that is how Merly’s lack of patience was showing recently.
Jeremy noticed Merly’s taut expression and tried to call her across the room, but she was too lost in her own thoughts to take notice. “Merly! Merly!” he tried again, but Merly seemed to be in another dimension.
Sandra who usually sat beside Merly saw that so she alerted her, “Hey, can’t you hear? Jeremy is calling you. He is asking you something.”
Merly got back to her senses and looked in the direction where Jeremy sat. He mouthed some words and she tried to focus on to what he was saying, but she couldn’t. She tried to listen hard, but somehow she couldn’t understand what he was saying.
Merly was disoriented and looked at Sandra, but she was copying down the notes, and then Merly looked back at her own note book, but that was blank. A jab of regret and shame filled her mind and heart. She was neglecting her lessons and she knew that would reflect on her academics.
“Merly!” Jeremy called again, and this time a bit loudly and they were both lucky that professor Clint’s voice was louder and stronger than his, otherwise, both of them would have been expelled from the class. Mr. Clint was strict and the students were well aware of that, yet Jeremy took his chances. Merly looked directly at him and saw that he gestured her to wait for him outside after the lecture by professor Clint was over.
As the time lapsed past one hour, it got difficult for Merly to contain herself any longer. She wanted to excuse herself and leave, but understood that it would draw attention, so she sat there waiting for the class to get over.
Sandra who was sitting beside her saw Merly’s blank notebook and nudged her. “Hey, you are not writing down anything? You got a problem?” Sandra wanted to know. Sandra knew that according to the grade of the class, Merly was one of the best students in the class. She never missed any of the lectures, was always on time, submitted her assignments regularly and she was always the one to go ahead and ask the extra questions of the professors. Everyone in the class was acquainted with that, but recently, her reluctant behavior didn’t go unnoticed. There were several students in the class who talked about it and said that it was only a phase. Others couldn’t understand what prompted her to change all of a sudden.
Merly didn’t answer Sandra’s question directly and pretended that it was not important enough to answer, but her friend didn’t let it go. While they were given a short break of ten minutes, Sandra got hold of Merly,
“Just wait, why are you avoiding my questions?” She seemed to seriously wanted to know.
“I am not avoiding anything; and there is nothing for me to tell you.” Merly avoided looking into Sandra’s eyes fearing that’s her lies would be caught.
“I don’t think that you are exactly telling the truth, Merly. You haven’t copied anything down and there is so much that Professor Clint already said. You are hardly present in class and you leave most lectures in the middle, and you don’t even come back for the end of it. I have been sitting here for the past week, and there is obviously something wrong with you.” Sandra looked concerned, and as one of Merly’s earliest friends, it was obvious.
Merly wondered why Sandra didn’t show her concern before, and her unexpected interest regarding her problems bothered her.
Sandra appeared to have known what was going through Merly’s min
d, so she said, “I didn’t say anything, because now a days you hardly talk to me anymore, since you made friends with Natalie. I was still your friend despite you being so close to Nora. I was sad and hurt so I didn’t intervene before, but if you continue with this attitude, your grades will fall. Did you listen to what the professor said?” Sandra’s voice fluctuated from being sad, hurt to concern again.
Merly had no answer to offer. She was aware of where she stood. Her recent friendship with Natalie bothered many and Sandra was no exception, still what she failed to understand was that Sandra was not jealous or curious; she was vexed by Merly’s reluctance and indiscipline.
“What did the professor say?” Merly asked clearly bypassing what Sandra said before, she kept her voice low.
“You were not even listening, were you? We have to submit the assignments by tomorrow and we will be marked on them. You didn’t even bother to copy down the topics.” There was a clear amount of displeasure in Sandra’s voice.
”I can always ask him again,” Merly said humbly.
“You know that you cannot do that; he will get furious. Here take this, I have noted them down for you.” She handed her own note book to Merly.
Merly took the notebook from her, then flipped through the pages to take a look at the assignment that was given to her. For some time, she didn’t say anything, but just stared blankly at the paper with words and sentences scribbled on them. Sandra nudged her from the side again, and whispered that it was time for Professor Clint to be back and resume the lectures. So Merly picked up her pace and started to scribble down her assignment as fast as she could and as Sandra told her, the professor was back and continued with his lectures. Merly tried to focus harder this time so as not to disappoint her friends; Sandra glanced at her every now and then to make sure she was taking down everything that was being said.
Professor Clint stopped in middle of his lecture, checked his watch and announced that the class was over for the day. While most of Merly’s classmates got busy preparing for the next teacher and the given assignment, Merly carefully took her leave. She made sure that no one was looking at her, not even Jeremy.
Sandra was predictably upset and her face didn’t betray those emotions. “You won’t be attending the next class?’’ she questioned, but it was more of a confirmation.
Merly nodded, “I will be back, but for now I have to go.” She refused to offer any other excuses, and quickly left her seat to meet Natalie.
On her way out, Sandra’s sad expression bugged her. She felt like a fool, and she felt sorry for neglecting her friend. She increased her pace to reach the library, but no was there. Natalie was not there. “Was she here waiting for me? Or didn’t she come at all?” Merly murmured, then looked frantically, but Natalie was no where in sight. She dialed the number on her phone, and it rang, but Natalie didn’t answer.“ She might be in class, but she was supposed to be here, why didn’t she tell me? Merly went on saying the words to herself before she decided to check out her classroom, when someone pulled her from the back.
“Merly you are late! What were you doing? I was waiting for you here all along, and now you just arrive? I saw him. Mr. Stevenson is there today.” Natalie dragged Merly towards the library entrance.
“Professor Clint made the classes too long. I couldn’t manage to sneak out,” Merly said.
“You couldn’t or you didn’t? Merly, this is not the time to give explanation. I saw the assistant librarian going out and this might be our only chance and we have to take it. He might be back at any time and we have to make sure that Mr. Stevenson answers our questions. Now, let’s go!” Natalie said while still dragging Merly.
Merly didn’t say anything and followed Natalie inside the library, and as usual, Mr. Stevenson was at his desk, looking down at a newspaper. The seat beside him was empty indicating that his assistant was out. Merly and Natalie looked at each other and then approached Mr. Stevenson. “Mr. Stevenson,” one of the students called out before either of the girls could call him, “please sign this for me.” He signed the paper and handed it back to the student. Nora and Merly waited along the side for him to finish his work, once Mr. Stevenson was finished, he was the one to call out to the girls.
“Merly, good to see you back! How are you feeling now?” he asked, and Merly knew what he was referring to.
“I am doing fine, Mr. Stevenson,” she said.
“What happened that day? I heard that you were stressed out, are you rested well?” he wanted to know. Mr. Stevenson lowered his glasses and asked both and them to come forward and sit to which they willingly complied.
“Yes, I was stressed out, but I was given proper medication and I did rest well,” Merly assured.
“You say it as if it happened many days ago, but it was just yesterday.” Neither Merly nor Natalie expected him to say that; therefore, Merly had nothing to say and her facial expression changed.
“Mr. Stevenson, we are here to ask you something,” Natalie spoke first, because she spotted Merly’s discomfort at Mr. Stevenson’s statement.
“Go ahead, you want to borrow books? Is that is what you want to ask about?” he asked both the girls.
“Today, we are not here to borrow books, Mr. Stevenson, because there is something else we want to know, so it would be helpful if you could just answer our questions,” Merly said so Mr. Stevenson wouldn’t deny her request.
In return, Mr. Stevenson looked at them with a confused expression and awkwardness, as if he was caught in the middle of something. “I am busy now,” he said and tried to dismiss what was asked of him and waved his hand to make the girls go away.
Merly and Natalie both knew that it would be difficult for them to convince Mr. Stevenson to answer their questions, but his awkward denial even before they asked a single question, at least confirmed that they were on the right track; therefore, they didn’t give up. Their only concern was that the assistant could be back any time, and then the opportunity would be lost.
“Mr. Stevenson, you were not busy a moment ago and we haven’t even asked you a question yet. You are refusing and you want us to leave, but please just give us a chance,” Natalie said.
“I have no answers to give you, so please go,” he ordered.
The girls were determined. “We will not leave until you answer our question. We will sit here asking you, so please just tell us what we want to know,” Merly firmly said. She was getting tired of going round and round in the maze for days and she couldn’t take it any longer.
Mr. Stevenson must have sensed it, because after that he didn’t ask them to leave. “Tell me what you want to know? And if I can, I will answer them, but don’t expect anything, because I cannot promise,” he said.
Something was better than nothing, Merly thought, and then said the first thing that came to her mind. “Mr. Stevenson, I saw you talking to the curly-haired girl with deep green eyes. Who is she?”
Both Natalie and Mr. Stevenson were taken aback by the question. He didn’t expect it, and neither did Natalie. Natalie was also unaware of the conversation that took place between Merly and the cleaning lady previously in the morning, so she looked at her with wide eyes and asked, “What are you saying? Why are you asking him this?”
“I know what I am asking, so please trust me on this,” Merly whispered back to Natalie.
“Whatever that means. If you ask these questions, then we will never get to ask him the questions we intended to, so can you ask him what we discussed last night?”
“Natalie, trust me, this is the right thing.” Merly was confident in what she was doing so Natalie decided to go with the flow.
Mr. Stevenson was silently looking at the exchange that took place between Natalie and Merly, and although the girls were talking in a very muffled tone, he could hear them clearly. The girls realized it and stopped to hear what he had to say about the matter.
“What are you two getting at here? And what makes you think that I will answer your questions?”
“Not now,” was all Mr. Stevenson said.
“Not now? Mr. Stevenson we skipped our classes just to be here and to talk to you, and you are saying not now? Then when is the right time?” Natalie predictably lost her temper, and her words came out harshly, which set Mr. Stevenson off.
“I never asked you girls to skip your classes, and why are you even here? I know nothing and there is also nothing I have to say, so go now!” Mr. Stevenson said angrily. He seemed to hate Natalie’s guts and turned his face away from them. Natalie didn’t get up from the chair and relaxed back on the chair.
Merly looked at Natalie and her expression said that she was not pleased with the way that the incident went. “It won’t work this way,” she mouthed when she was sure that Mr. Stevenson was not looking at them.
“And you know what will make him answer?” Natalie asked back.
“At least let’s try, you are only ruining our chance,” Merly replied back.
“He is senile,” Natalie angrily muttered and slouched back in the chair.
“Natalie, don’t say it like that, he might hear you. Now just leave this to me, all right?” Merly wanted Natalie to follow what she said.
“All right, just go ahead.” Natalie waved her hand.
“Mr. Stevenson I apologize on behalf of Natalie. She didn’t mean any of it, and you know us. Please, I am in much distress and there is no one else I could go to, and it our stress that is showing. We even skipped our classes to come and meet you, so please don’t turn us down,” Merly requested with pleading eyes.
An array of emotions passed through Mr. Stevenson’s face. It was as if he wanted to say many things, but couldn’t. He liked Merly, she could tell, and made it evident that he couldn’t refuse her anymore. Natalie saw that it worked.
“But you girls better hurry up, and tell me what you want to know?” Mr. Stevenson asked.
Books of the Dead Page 19
