Kevlar to My Vest

by Lani Lynn Vale

  I was the lead teacher of the special education department.

  I was also clearly disliked by the ladies of Benton High. They were not happy when the two schools merged. They were severely annoyed by the fact that I, just a measly lead teacher from West Benton High, got the job, and not the lead teacher of Benton High, Sandra.

  Sandra, of course, hated me before she even met me.

  She also had no problem letting everybody know it.

  Since I was the one with the most experience, as well as education, I was the obvious choice for the job. Sadly, Sandra didn’t care. I knew she thought I wasn’t fit for the duty due to my disability, but I’d never let my blindness stop me, and sure as hell wouldn’t let it stop me now. Especially when so many people wanted me to fail.

  “They’re searching the lockers with a K-9 officer. Looks like they found something.” Leona said.

  I loved Leona. She was inherently curious, and reminded me of my sister, Adeline.

  Of course, as soon as I’d introduced the two of them, Leona had fit in perfectly. We now had annual movie nights every other Thursday night where we splurged on pizza and beer and watched True Blood and The Game of Thrones re-runs.

  Adeline didn’t join us as much as she’d want to since she was thirteen months pregnant with a beast of a baby. Her husband, Kettle, didn’t like her going out. He’d rather us come over there, but it defeated the purpose since it was supposed to be a girl’s night. Kettle hovered when he wasn’t working.

  “Whose locker is it?” I asked.

  I was getting down to the finishing touches on my final report of the day, hurrying to finish before I left for the day.

  Once I was done, I had the JAWS program re-read it to me to make sure I didn’t have any misspellings, and then saved it to put in the student’s file.

  “I swear I don’t know how you type that fast. Shouldn’t I be able to-Oh, no! They found something in Falco’s locker. Oh, no.”

  I hadn’t realized I was out of my chair and out in the hallway until I’d already walked half the length. My cane was out in front of me, leading the way.

  Falco Pendragon, a senior, was one of my favorite students. He wasn’t in special education, but his little brother, Dustin, was. Dustin had CVI, just like I did. I’d met Falco when Dustin, a freshman, had started earlier in the year.

  Falco was protective of his little brother, and occasionally he’d slip in before going home or on bathroom breaks, just to check on Dustin.

  He was a good brother, and young man. There was no way on God’s green earth that he would have drugs in his locker. He abhorred them and everything they stood for.

  “Whose locker is this?” Trance’s deep melodious voice asked.

  God, the man really did it for me.

  Too bad he’d never give the poor blind woman the time of day.

  “Locker 343 belongs to...Falco Pendragon. Hmm. I never would’ve suspected him of that.”

  I knew that voice too. It belonged to our school resource officer. Lillian Monroe.

  She was a sweet woman, but she had a zero tolerance when it came to drugs and fighting; I knew it would be hard to convince her, but I was willing to try.

  “That’s because he didn’t.” I snapped as I came to a stop when I felt something hit the tip of my cane, indicating someone or something was within six feet of me.

  “Mizz Sheffield, if you could please return to your room during the search procedure, I will come talk to y...”

  I cut Officer Monroe off. “I will not go inside. I heard you say Falco’s name, and I know for certain it wasn’t him.”

  “Well then, how do you explain the drugs in his locker?” Sandra asked.

  Oh great, just what I needed was the lady luck and her harem.

  “Ladies,” Trance’s deep voice drawled. “If you would please return to your classrooms, I will be by to get your statements once I’m done.”

  His tone booked no room for argument, but there was no way I was letting Falco take the fall for something I knew for a fact he didn’t do.

  “Viddy,” Trance growled, enticing another shiver from me. Goosebumps pebbled on my skin at my name coming out of his mouth. “Get to your room.”

  Pulling my glasses from my face, I let my bottom lip drop until it was in a small downward curve. I didn’t pull any punches. I even let my eyes tear up a bit.

  “Do you promise you’ll come talk to me? Will you bring Falco to me and come? Let us explain, I promise there’s an explanation. Please?”

  I knew I would get his promise. With anybody else, I probably wouldn’t have, but with Trance, I knew he’d listen to me. He trusted me and knew I wouldn’t steer him wrong.

  “Yes, I promise. Now go back to your room. I’ll bring this Pendragon kid, too.” Trance swore.

  Knowing I could trust his word, I turned and walked back to the classroom, using the lockers as a guide instinctually until I got to my room.

  Although, lately I didn’t seem to need it.

  I was technically blind, although I’ve always been able to make out shadows or dark and light. For instance, if I was walking down the hallway of the school, I could make out shadowed shapes that were people, but I couldn’t make out fine details.

  High contrast items like a big black circle on a white background I could make out, as well.

  Then there was a narrow field out of my left peripheral vision that I could see nearly perfectly. Although, it was such a small field, that it would be practically useless to most people. To me, though, it was a miracle.

  Lately, though, that narrow field was becoming wider.

  From what was explained to me, normal eyes, combined, have about a 180-degree field of vision. Each eye seeing about 95 degrees.

  Before, it was a single tiny sliver. If a normal seeing person covered their eyes with their hands, and peeked out through their fingers, you’d see slices of whatever you were looking at. For me, it was as if I could see perfectly out of the left most slice, allowing me about a three-degree window.

  Lately, though, that window was getting bigger, and I knew it.

  Which was why I was heading to my doctor that I’ve been seeing for eleven years now. Maybe he could tell me if it was getting better. And maybe tell me why I was getting headaches from hell to go with it.

  Secretly, I thought I had a brain tumor or something, which was why I was putting the whole thing off.

  However, my sister had become increasingly adamant about me seeing the doctor.

  “How do you do that?” Sandra’s infuriated voice came from my left once I reached the suite of classrooms

  I turned towards where I heard her voice, tried to keep the annoyed look off my face, and failed.

  “How I do what...exactly?” I asked with barely contained patience.

  “Play that poor pitiful me act. You had that guy eating out of your fingers. I bet you’ve fucked him, haven’t you?” Sandra hissed quietly.

  Not quietly enough, though, for Trance not to hear.

  “I think that’s highly inappropriate of you to say, don’t you think, ma’am?” Trance’s steely voice said from behind me.

  I didn’t turn around, but I did turn my head until I could see him. It wasn’t much. Not nearly enough. But something inside of me settled.

  A cold, wet nose touched my dangling hand, bringing my attention to Radar who was at my side.

  I didn’t wait for permission to touch him as I usually did. Radar wouldn’t have touched me if he was still working.

  I dropped down to my haunches, burying my nose into Radar’s furry neck.

  “Hey, big boy,” I whispered to him.

  Radar’s tail thumped against the tiled floor, and a pang of sadness assaulted me as I thought of Hemi.

  It’d been one month since I called Trance to help me with Hemi, and one month since I’d been with him last.

  “Mrs....” Trance said, waiting for Sandra to tell him her last name.

  “Johnston.” Sandra said th
rough clenched teeth.

  “Mrs. Johnston. I suggest you keep your nose out of everybody else’s business. Especially Viddy’s.” Trance said coldly.

  There was no venom or rancor in his voice. No hesitation. No nothing. It was a statement, but somehow I knew that he meant every word. And that the threat to her was real.

  “Okay,” she whispered and then I heard her footsteps leave.

  “Fuckin’ bitch.” Trance growled low in his throat.

  I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up out of my throat.

  Giggling, I said, “I wish you would’ve said what you really meant.”

  “Believe me, if I wasn’t in uniform, and we weren’t at your school, I would’ve.”

  “Ms. Sheffield?” A hesitant voice said from behind the both of us, drawing what I would’ve said in reply to him up short.

  “Falco! Come here, please. Falco, this is Tr-I mean Officer Spurlock. Officer Spurlock, I’d like you to meet Falco Pendragon. Falco please have a seat at the table. We have some questions to ask you.”

  “Okay,” he said worriedly. “Is my brother okay? Did something happen to him?”

  “No, honey,” I said shaking my head. “Your brother is fine. Officer Spurlock, please tell Falco what you found.”

  As Trance explained what was going on, and what was about to happen, I took a seat at the table next to Falco and listened. Once he was finished, Falco, I could tell, was speechless.

  “But, sir, I didn’t do that. I’ve never even used my locker. I don’t even have a lock on it; anyone could’ve done it.” Falco explained quickly.

  “Officer Monroe, was the lock we unlocked from the locker assigned to Mr. Pendragon?” Trance asked.

  I hadn’t been aware that Officer Monroe was even in the room.

  Radar’s head worked its way into my lap, and I smiled slightly as I petted him.

  “I didn’t do it, Ms. Sheffield. I swear I didn’t do it.” Falco whispered to me urgently.

  “I know, honey. I know.” I whispered back, patting his hand.

  “It’s registered to a...Landon Smith. No, it’s not his lock.” Officer Monroe said.

  I didn’t know a Landon Smith, but that didn’t mean anything. There were over 800 kids in the school right at this very moment. It wasn’t too surprising.

  “Please follow me, Mr. Pendragon. We’re going to go look at your locker.” Trance sighed loudly.

  When I heard the chair next to me scoot out, I turned my head and watched as shadows danced in my field of vision until no movement was left in the room.

  Radar stayed at my side, though.

  We stayed that way for another ten minutes or so. All the while I was thinking how lucky Trance was that he had a dog. I hadn’t realized how much I’d depended on Hemi. The last month had been incredibly hard.

  I took a lot of things for granted.

  I now had to scrub my own plates, where before I just had to drop them on the floor for a pre-rinse. Then there was the fact that knocks on my apartment door startled me. Before, I had Hemi to let me know when someone was close to my apartment door, giving me about forty-five seconds of warning before I had to get to the door.

  I was startled out of my reverie as the alarm on my phone went off, reminding me of my appointment in an hour, and I sighed. Today had been extremely eventful, and it was only ten in the morning.

  As I went to my desk and removed my purse, I locked up my office behind me and started heading toward the sound of Trance’s voice.

  Radar’s claws clicked on the floor as we made our way to the lockers, and the closer we got, the more and more upset I got.

  “Sir, I’ve never even seen the bag before in my life. I don’t even carry a backpack. I can’t afford one. My little brother has mine.” Falco was explaining.

  “That’s true. He’s been without a bag since the beginning of the semester. His broke over Christmas vacation. His brother explained that he needed the bag, otherwise he couldn’t hold his cane.” I explained as I approached the gathering.

  Radar, who’d been at my side, leaned on me just as my cane bumped something. I stopped, and waited.

  Trance didn’t disappoint.

  “Officer Monroe, I’m inclined to agree with Falco and Ms. Sheffield. Pending review of the tapes, I think we should put this off until we know more about that. How long will it take you to get the surveillance feed?” Trance asked.

  “Twenty four to forty eight hours or so. The school is monitored through a third party. We’ll have to request the feed from them, and then review it ourselves before we can let you know anymore.” Officer Monroe explained.

  I heard Falco’s sigh of relief, and moments later a rough, strong palm cupped the back of my elbow.

  “Okay, I’ll check back with you tomorrow. Is there anything else you want Radar to check today?” Trance asked.

  “Nothing today, Officer Spurlock. Thank you for coming. Mr. Falco, please return to class.” Officer Monroe said firmly.

  I saw the movement of shadows disperse. All but one, that was.

  “You’re going to get yourself into trouble, Viddy.” Trance sighed. “Who was the chick who called you names?”

  “Sandra. I took over her job when we merged the schools. She doesn’t like me very much.” I admitted.

  Trance snorted. “Where are you headed to?”

  “Fuck! I need to go. My cab is here.” I said hurriedly, rushing towards the exit, and counting the steps out of habit.

  However, bright windows and doors were the easiest things for me to make out with the difference in not only light and shadows, but also the heat. I could hear the difference as well. The cars outside, or the mowers, the breeze through the trees. Everything together made the sound of outside different from the sound of inside.

  “Hey, Viddy. Wait up. Where are you going?” Trance asked at my side.

  “I have a doctor’s appointment. Why?” I said, hurrying out of the door.

  Once I made it down the steps, Trance pulled me up short. “Jesus Christ, you just scared the shit out of me.”

  I turned my head towards him, completely confused. “Why?”

  “You just practically threw yourself down the stairs. You know, they have ramps for a reason.” He growled, taking a hold of my hand and leading me towards...somewhere.

  “Step down.” Trance said, slowing slightly.

  I stepped down off the curb before being pulled to a stop.

  I heard a door being opened, and then my body was being gently positioned until I was pushed into Trance’s cruiser.

  “Watch your hands.” Trance said just before he closed the door.

  I rolled my eyes as I waited for my knight in shining armor to get Radar in the car, followed shortly by himself before he started the car up and drove out of the parking lot.

  He slowed, though, and I heard his window roll down. Then he said, “She doesn’t need a ride. Sorry about that.”

  I heard the zzzzzip of the window rolling up, and then silence as we exited the school.

  “Who usually takes you to school?” Trance asked after a few more long moments of silence.

  “Whoever’s in the area. Most of the time it’s Adeline, sometimes it’s Kettle. Other times it’s other girls at work. If nobody is available I call a cab.” I explained tiredly.

  “Where are we going?” He questioned.

  “There’s a doctor’s office on Main Street in Shreveport. The one in the Business District.” I told him.

  “That would’ve been a long cab ride. Cost a lot of money.” Trance observed as I felt the car slowly pick up speed.

  Trance’s acceleration was smooth, not jerky, as he merged into traffic.

  “You’re a good driver.” I told Trance. “All your movements are smooth and swift. They’re not jerky like some. I like driving with you.”

  Trance snorted. “Good thing you couldn’t see the 18-wheeler that I just cut off to merge into traffic.” He said dryly.

  I giggled. �
��That’s the good thing about not seeing. Sometimes it’s the fear of knowing what’s coming that scares you the most.”

  Trance made a sound low in his throat. “Can’t say I agree with you. I like knowing whether a man is going to hit me in the face so I can duck.”

  “Well, that would be unfortunate for me. I have to have hope that I don’t piss anybody off enough to do that to me. It wouldn’t work so well for you since you’re a police officer and all.” I agreed.

  “Yeah, God forbid that ever happened to me. I have high hopes that Radar or Kosher would protect me, though.” Trance said, switching lanes and accelerating slightly.

  “Kosher?” I asked as I tried my hardest to focus on him with my limited peripheral vision.

  It wasn’t easy to do, and most of the time it was just easier to ignore it completely because it always made me have a headache if I tried to focus for too long. However, it was hard to focus on someone and not turn your face to them. It was a thing that people who could see did to give the speaker their full attention.

  For a blind person, it wasn’t quite the same. We didn’t have to look at you to give you our full attention. We just had to focus our hearing.

  Trance liked it when my eyes were on him, regardless of whether they were actually seeing him or not. Which was why he turned my face to his every chance he got.

  “Kosher is my two year old German Shepherd. I’m actually starting him on the job next week to get him used to things, and in the process easing Radar into his retirement.” Trance replied, slowing slightly, before I felt the car easing off the road.

  Now that he’d mentioned it, I remembered, clearly, the dog in question. He was a sweetheart, I just hadn’t realized he was going to be a K-9 officer, too.

  His pace slowed exponentially until we came to a stop. Shortly after, we accelerated again.

  “You’re retiring Radar?” I asked in surprise. “Is something wrong with him?”

  He chuckled. “No, there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s just getting older. His hearing’s not as good. I just think it’s time. He needs a break just like most officers. I’ve been training with Kosher, and it’s time to see what he’s got.”

  ***

  Trance