Falling From Grace (24 page)

I thought back to when I had been lying on the road, when I had seen the faces of all the people I cared about pass before my eyes, and I remembered that she had been there among them.
 
It had surprised me then, but I understood that she was a part of my life that had made me happy.
 
It brought a little normalcy to the life that I had always felt was so dismally abnormal, I’d never find a place for myself in it other than as the freakish oddity.

I gave her a genuine smile.
 
“Thank you for coming, Stacy.
 
It means a lot.
 
Really.”

She smiled back and then gave me an awkward hug; awkward not only because I wasn’t expecting it, and because I hugged her back, but because she wasn’t expecting me to.
 
If the huge grin on her face was any indication, I’d have to say that she was very pleased.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased as well.

Sitting at home after Dad had gone to work, and with Janice upstairs cleaning out the spare room left me with a lot of time to think about what had happened these past days.
 
In an instant, my life had changed.
 
I went from being whole yet wholly missing to being broken, and completely found.
 
The hit and run had altered my world again, shifted everything and this time, the world was upside down and I was right side up.

I was now someone worth fighting for, someone worth saving.
 
The feeling was incredible.
 
I had the overwhelming urge to burst into song, some cheesy musical number that included my off-beat dancing; I settled for the Time Warp.

That was how Janice found me; hysterical in my newfound joy, putting my hands on my hips
—
completely unabashed
—
pulling my knees in tight, and absolutely not showing any signs of a broken right leg or injured left one.
 
I froze, seeing her face, the reaction, and knowing that I’d have to think of an explanation really quickly before she started suspecting me of faking my injuries.

I started to speak, the words ready to leave my mouth, when she began laughing at me.
 
“Oh my goodness, those must be fantastic pain killers they have you on, Grace.
 
Your dancing was hilarious!”
 
She was laughing so hysterically, I almost felt offended.
 
Almost.
 
It’s hard to feel offended when you know you look absolutely ridiculous.

I knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I agreed with her on the pain killers comment and then sat down, still feeling giddy but cautious now that I knew I had an audience who wasn’t quite willing to remain upstairs.
 
I was feeling like my old self, just…happier.
 
There was no other way to describe it.
 
I was actually happier after being mowed down by a car than I was when I had been sitting on top of one, ready to spill my guts.
 
The irony nearly sent me into another round of laughter because who really thinks it’s better to have been in a hit and run?

I looked at the casts on my leg and arm.
 
I knew that underneath them, my limbs were perfectly fine.
 
But what if they weren’t?
 
What if Robert didn’t have the ability to heal anyone?
 
What if he didn’t have the acute hearing he did?
 
Where would I be now?

The answer was simple.
 
I’d be dead.

It was a reality that was difficult to accept.
 
Even if someone had found me on the road shortly after being hit, I knew that the injures that Robert had healed before help arrived were not so easily repaired after as long a wait as we’d had for the ambulance.
 
Time would have been my death sentence just as easily as the hit and run would have.

But Robert had heard me.
 
He had heard my cry for help, as weak as it was, and came for me.
 
I hadn’t questioned why…and really hadn’t gotten much of an explanation on the how.
 
I had been so relieved, so incredibly happy that he had found me, and that he was there, talking to me and holding my hand that I didn’t think about what his reasons were for coming in the first place.
 
I knew he trusted me.
 
I knew that more than I knew anything else at the moment, and that helped me to push aside any other thought that was nagging in my mind.

I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep until I heard the doorbell ring.
 
I sat up, noticing that I had been sleeping on the couch, covered by some hideous looking blanket, and made an attempt to stand.
 
I was incredibly dizzy for some reason and nearly toppled over onto the coffee table.
 
Janice, who had been on her way to answer the door saw me and rushed to help me back to a sitting position, calling out “Come in!!” to whomever it was standing on the other side of that damn bell.

Janice was putting my feet back up onto the couch and covering them with that ugly blanket when a small cough alerted us to the guest who had allowed himself into the house at her request.
 
It was Mr. Branke, the Octopus.
 
He had a manila envelope in one hand, a bunch of flowers in the other.

“Good afternoon, Miss Shelley.
 
I came by to drop off your class assignments and bring you these.”
 
He handed both the flowers and the envelope to me, smiling widely, causing him to resemble a hyena circling what it thought was a wounded calf.
 
I took the envelope and the flowers as quickly as I could, snatching them out of his hands so fast, flower petals showered onto the floor.

“Um.
 
Thank you,” I said, trying
—
but failing miserably
—
to smile.
 
Showing any type of affection was the wrong thing to do because as soon as he saw the corners of my mouth twitch up, even in strained measure, Mr. Branke sat down next to my feet and started to pat them beneath the blanket.
 
My attempt to be polite had been received as an invitation of familiarity that was far too intimate for anyone…especially between a teacher and a student.
 
I cringed, looking at those chubby, sausage like fingers fiddle over the blanket on my feet.

Janice
—
thank God for Janice
—
seemed to notice my discomfort.
 
“Excuse me, Mr…” she paused for him to tell her his name.

“Branke.
 
August Branke.
 
I’m Grace’s biology teacher,” he replied, smiling.
 
Like a crocodile.

“Yes, well, Mr. Branke, Grace has been through a great deal, as you know, and she needs her rest.
 
I will tell her father that you stopped by with her homework, and-” she looked at the quivering pile of weeds in my hands “-the
lovely
flowers.
 
So if you don’t mind, let me see you out.”
 
She waved her arm towards the door, in case he needed a visual as well as verbal cue that it was time for him to leave.

He stood up, taking the hint as well as anyone would, and nodded at me.
 
“I hope to see you back in school soon, Grace.”

I nodded back, but couldn’t muster up enough to smile.

Janice walked with him towards the door, and I threw the flowers he had brought me onto the ground.
 
The manila envelope
—
now
that
I opened.
 
Inside were assignments from all of my classes:
 
those that I had missed, and those that I would miss for the next two weeks that I had been ordered to stay home.

The assignments from French class were typical translation and description worksheets.
 
Mrs. Hoppbaker from Calculus had us working on polar coordinates, while Mr. Branke wanted me to study up on the cellular structure of the human pituitary gland for a test we were having that Friday I’d be returning.
 
Well sure thing, Mr. Branke, I’ll just whip out my trusty ol’ Guide to the Pituitary Gland right now!

Mrs. Muniz in English Lit had chosen Edgar Alan Poe as the author of the semester and required us to choose a few poems to dissect in essay form, in no less than twenty pages, to be turned in at the end of the semester.
 
I hadn’t expected Poe.
 
Last year’s copy of the fourth year syllabus hadn’t really contained any poetry in the book list, and I had never been a fan of Poe’s woeful and dreary prose about love lost.
 
But then again, that was before I had lost love myself.

I had a new perspective on things, on life.
 
I made a mental note to check out a few of Poe’s collective works from the library as soon as I could.
 

Sixth period theatre was going to pose a problem for me with regards to the class assignments because I wasn’t able to be there;
 
I couldn’t rehearse any lines, which also meant I couldn’t act them out either, not that I was complaining about such a thing, of course.
 
But, when I looked for the sixth period assignment list, there was none.

I held the manila envelope upside down and shook it.
 
A little slip of paper the same color as the envelope fell out and floated onto the floor.
 
I bent to pick it up and saw that it was a note.
 
It read, “
Your study partner for sixth period Dramatic Arts has been randomly chosen and will be by later this afternoon to provide you with your study material and assignment requirements.
”

I tried to remember who was in sixth period to see what the odds were that I’d be paired up with someone who couldn’t stand me.
 
I knew that Erica was in my class, as well as a few of her blondemates.
 
I wouldn’t have much of a problem with the pimply boys, whose names I somehow remembered as Chad, Dwayne, and Shawn, or Chips, Dip, and Salsa as they preferred to call themselves.
 
I did enjoy being in their group the previous week.
 
They weren’t as critical as I had feared, and Friday’s performance had earned us a solid B+.

There were a few other people I couldn’t quite remember who seemed innocuous, and then there was Robert.
 
Who would his partner be?
 
Surely I wouldn’t be so fortunate that I’d get him as my partner.
 
Besides, he’d said he’d be gone for a few days, which meant there was no way he’d be coming over today.

I sighed and hoped that I’d be partnered with either Chips, Dip, or Salsa.
 
When Janice went to answer the doorbell that rang again fifteen minutes later, I swore never to hope for anything again; I’d just be let down.

Following Janice into the living room was Erica.
 
Janice had no idea who she was, so she seemed cheerful that more people were coming to visit me.
 
I could see that Erica was also very glad to be visiting me, wrapped up on our old, ugly couch in an even uglier and probably older blanket.
 

“Would you like something to drink, Erica?” Janice asked, looking very happy that I had another girl come to visit.
 
“I have to get started on dinner, so it’s no problem for me to get you anything.
 
What about you, Grace?
 
Are you hungry?”

Erica and I glared at each other as we both responded “No thank you.”

Janice shrugged her shoulders and left, still beaming that, by all appearances, my social life was starting to look more and more normal.

Erica was the first to speak as soon as Janice was out of earshot.
 
“I see the rumors are true, you did go and get yourself hit by some car.
 
Honestly though, if you think this little plan is going to get Graham back into your life, you’re sadly mistaken.”

I fought the urge to deny her hidden accusation.
 
She wouldn’t have believed it anyway.
 
“Why are you here, Erica?”

She looked around the living room, taking in the sparse furnishings and smirked.
 
“You and I were partnered up to write and perform a solilo-something, and since I’m too busy with Graham to really have anything to do with it, I brought it over for you to write up.
 
I’ll just pick up my lines later and then we’ll perform them next Friday if you show up.
 
If you don’t, I’ll still get an A, so please…take your time.”

She removed a bunch of papers from an obnoxiously large purse and tossed them onto the coffee table.
 
“Those are the requirements.
 
I don’t know what it says, just that I sure as hell wasn’t going to be writing that stuff out.
 
I
have
a life.”
 
She put her hands on her hips, her tapping left foot sticking out from beneath a very impractical September-in-Ohio full length slip dress, and waited for me to pick up what looked like half a ream of paper.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I hefted it onto my lap and started going over the requirements and the examples given, which made up the bulk of the packet.
 
It seemed pretty cut and dry with the exception of one thing: the soliloquy I would read would be written by Erica, while she would read one that I had written especially for her.
 
The part that made my stomach churn with apprehension and doubt however was that we weren’t allowed to see the other’s work until the day of our recital next week.
 
As if it couldn’t get any worse…