SARA, BOOK 2 (9 page)

CHAPTER
17

Are These Good Kids?

S
ara lay in her bed thinking about Mr. Marchant. She had a knot in her stomach, and a very strong feeling of fear was pulsing
through her.

“I’d give anything if I didn’t have to go to school today,” she said, right out loud.

If your thought feels good, then good things are coming
to you.
Sara remembered Solomon’s words.

It was hard to find a thought that felt good.

Worrisome images about why Seth hadn’t been at the tree house, what Mr. Marchant must be thinking of her, and what her parents
would do if they found out seemed to dominate Sara’s thoughts.

Solomon’s words came into Sara’s mind:
Sara,
it’s never too late to find a good-feeling place about
anything—things will constantly change to match the
feeling you have inside.

Sara sat up in bed and took a pen and notebook from the table beside her bed. She began to make a list of things that always
made her feel good. And in big letters at the top of her page she wrote: TREE HOUSE

She smiled. Thinking of the tree house always made Sara feel good. Then she wrote more:

THE LADDER TO THE HOUSE

THE SWINGING ROPE

SETH’S PULLEYS AND THE BUCKET

Sara thought of how excited Seth had been to show her the tree house, and how thrilled she had been to discover it. She remembered
how exhilarating her first swing out over the river had been, and she laughed as she remembered her first muddy dismount from
the rope. And as she thought of the day Seth showed her the pulleys and the bucket and of the night they swung in the darkness
while the football game played on without them, her discomfort vanished completely. She sat in her bed filled with a renewed
feeling of well-being.

She thought of Mr. Marchant and how he always had a nice smile and a pleasant word whenever he passed her in the hallway.
She thought of how he usually had a twinkle in his eye while he was pretending to be gruff as he disciplined someone. She
remembered seeing him on the front lawn, picking up candy bar wrappers, and in the hallway closing an occasional locker that
some student had unthinkingly left open. She thought about the long hours he worked, and how sometimes on Saturdays his car
would be the only car in the parking lot.
He must like being our principal,
Sara thought.

Sara decided to take the long way to school by way of a winding trail through the woods that came out onto the school grounds
at the back side of the administration building.

Suddenly she heard a rustling in the bushes.

Someone was coming, fast! She stopped and wheeled around, eager, and at the same time not eager, to discover what was rushing
toward her. For a brief moment she felt like Little Red Riding Hood skipping through the forest; and she thought for a moment
that something scary, like maybe the big bad wolf, might be romping through the bushes ready to eat her alive. And before
she could laugh at her silly fantasy, Seth sprang from the bushes and into her full view.

“Seth!” she exclaimed gleefully. “Am I ever glad to see you! What happened to you yesterday?

Why didn’t you come to the tree house?”

“Because Mr. Marchant saw me cutting across the school yard. I had planned on blending in with the other students, but instead,
I ran right into him. I was running across the front lawn when he came out of the administration building. It was only lucky
that I didn’t knock him right down.”

Sara began to laugh. She couldn’t stop laughing.

Seth laughed, too. He wasn’t sure
why
he was laughing, but he was enjoying Sara’s laughing so much that he couldn’t help but laugh right along with her.

Finally, Sara caught her breath and managed to get a few words out. “Seth, you’re not going to believe this: Mr. Marchant
saw me, too!”

“No. You’re making that up.” Seth laughed.

“No, really. I came around the building, and he looked right at me. I know he saw me.”

“What did he say?”

“Nothing. He just looked at me, waved, and got in his car.”

“Oh, man!
Sara, can you believe it? What are the odds? What do you think is going to happen to us?”

“Well, they probably won’t kill us,” Sara said, trying to make light of the situation.

“They
probably won’t, but my parents will,” Seth said.

Sara wanted to tell Seth everything that she had learned from Solomon about finding a better feeling place and about the
Law of Attraction.
But there was no time for all of that now.

They approached the school grounds, and as they came through a hedge row on the back side of the administration building,
Sara dropped her book bag on the ground and sat on it while she took off a shoe and shook it, and a small rock tumbled out
into the grass.

Seth stopped and waited for her. As he stood there in the shadow of the huge building, he could hear voices from the open
window over their heads. “Shush,” he whispered to Sara, holding his finger to his lips.

“What?”
Sara whispered back.

As she stood up, she could hear Mr. Marchant and another teacher talking, then laughing.

“I think I just heard Mr. Marchant say my name. And your name!”

“No way!”
Sara blurted.

“Shush. Listen.”

Sara and Seth crouched down close to the building and listened as hard as they could. Sara’s heart was pounding so hard she
thought it would jump right into her mouth. She wasn’t sure which was worse—that the principal of the school was talking about
them, or that they were eavesdropping below his window.

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Mr. Jorgensen asked.

“I’ve given it a lot of thought. In fact, most of last night I was thinking about it. And I’ve gotta tell you, my gut tells
me to do nothing.”

“I see.”

Sara and Seth looked at each other. They could barely believe what they were hearing, or even that they were there beneath
the window to hear it.

“You know, Chuck,” Mr. Marchant continued, “I’ve been thinking about kids today. Their lives are so different from when we
were boys. They barely have an unscheduled moment to themselves. It seems to me that when we were kids—even though we had
plenty of work to do—we had more time to ourselves. I remember lying out in the old apple orchard, seemed like for hours at
a time, just watching the clouds floating by. And the biggest thing I had to worry about was not getting trampled by the horse
eating apples from the tree over my head.

“I don’t know where we got the time, and I don’t remember anybody officially granting it to me, but
I
had time to think and daydream and plan. Time to explore and

And I just don’t see that many kids today enjoying being kids. We’ve got ’em so damn scheduled.

Seems like we’ve decided that they’ve got no common sense of their own, so we’d better make every decision for them. So we
schedule their school time
and
their after-school time. I don’t know how they stand it. I gotta tell you, Chuck, if I were a kid today, I think I’d go nuts.
And I’d probably run away every now and again,
too.”

“I know what you mean.”

“These are good kids. I’ve known Sara all of her life. I’ve seen her go out of her way, over and over, to help out, or to
make someone else feel better.

And this new kid, Seth, that’s his name, isn’t it?

I’m hearing good things about him, too. These are special kids, Chuck. I’m not going to make an issue of this one. I don’t
think they’ll make a habit of this. I mean, what’s so terrible about wanting some time to be kids?”

The first bell rang, and Sara and Seth jumped so hard they bumped heads. They clamped their hands over their mouths to muffle
the giggles that came next, and then they held their breaths, hoping to continue to be undetected.

“I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t mention this to anyone, Chuck. I don’t want word getting out that I’m going soft or anything.
And I don’t want any precedents started here. Tomorrow I might think differently about all of this. It’s just the way I’m
gonna handle
this
one, ya know?”

“I do, Keith, and I agree with you. Hey, have a good day.”

“Yeah, you, too.”

Sara and Seth looked at each other in amazement. “I’ll see you at the tree house,” Seth whispered. “Yeah,” Sara whispered
back. “See ya.”

CHAPTER
18

T
hey had agreed to meet at the swinging tree every day after school, but for some reason Sara felt compelled to wait by the
flagpole instead.
No one will notice if we walk together now and then.
There are lots of kids who walk home together, or partway
home,
Sara justified.

The big door banged closed, and Seth bounded down the front steps. He broke into a broad smile when he saw Sara waiting there.

“Sara, I’m glad you waited. I’ve got . . . ” “Hey, weirdo.” Sara heard Len’s mocking voice from behind them.

Sara wheeled around to see Len and Tommy, the two most obnoxious boys in town, no, in the whole world, standing behind them.
They had never targeted
her
with their belittling remarks, but Sara had witnessed their hurtful teasing on many occasions, and with Solomon’s help she
had finally managed to pretty much tune them out. But she’d seen them bring many a classmate to tears, or close to it, with
their rudeness. They weren’t smart; they didn’t get good grades; they didn’t come from well-to-do families. Sara never understood
how they had become so powerful.

“Sara, who’s your new weird friend?” Tommy taunted.

“Hey, my name is Seth. Me, I’ve
always
been weird. At least for as long as I can remember. I got used to it a long time ago. Give it a while,
you’ll
get used to it, too. Who are
you?”
Seth reached out quickly taking Tommy’s hand and vigorously shaking it.

“Tom,” Tom said flatly.

Seth shook his hand heartily; in fact, he shook it and shook it and shook it. Sara stifled a laugh. Seth had donned the attitude
of some sort of weird comedic character as he continued to yank on Tommy’s hand in a goofy, friendly gesture. Seth finally
released Tommy’s hand.

“And
your
name would be?” Seth questioned, now reaching for Len’s hand.

Len jumped back as if Seth were a lion about to eat him. Holding both hands up and back as if someone had shouted, “Put ’em
up!” he walked backward blubbering something like, “No, that’s okay.”

Len and Tommy ran off as if that lion were now chasing
them.

Sara laughed and laughed.

“What?”
Seth grinned.

“You are a genius, Seth Morris. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Seth grinned.

“Yeah,
right!”
Sara laughed.

“Hey, Seth!
All right!”
someone yelled from a passing car.

Seth stopped smiling.

“What?” Sara asked. She didn’t understand why Seth wasn’t pleased with the praise he had attracted.

“Sara, I don’t want to make enemies of those two, and I don’t want anybody rallying behind me and using me as the front guy
to fight their battles. But I’ve seen plenty of guys like those two. They feel so bad about themselves that the only way they
can feel better is to put everyone else down. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t make them feel better, so they just get worse and
worse. All I wanted to do is let them know that I’m not a good target for their fun. I wanted them to leave
me
alone. It’s not my job to save the school from them. Everybody else can take care of themselves.”

Sara was surprised to see Seth feeling so strongly about this. It was obvious that this wasn’t a new experience for him and
that he’d given all of this a great deal of thought. As Sara listened to Seth’s logic, she couldn’t help but notice that it
was similar in some ways to things Solomon had told her. But Sara could see that he was still troubled about this.

Seth,
Sara thought,
I’ve just got to tell you about
Solomon!

Sara remembered that Seth had begun to tell her something before Len and Tommy so rudely interrupted them. “Hey, what were
you going to tell me?”

Sara could see Seth sifting back through his thoughts, reaching for whatever it was he seemed excited to tell her.

“Oh, nothin’. Nothin’ that can’t wait. Sara, I’d better go. I’ll catch you tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Sara could tell that this wasn’t a good time to push, but she was baffled. Seth seemed so happy when he came out of
the building. He seemed strong and confident and in control, even jubilant as he dealt so perfectly with Len and Tommy, but
his mood had abruptly changed as the kids shouted their approval from the passing cars.
Why had this bothered Seth so much?

Seth had never told her about the miserable bus rides and obnoxious boys from his last school.He had pretty much put all of
that out of his mind—until today, that is.

“Bummer,” Sara said, under her breath, feeling sort of depressed that Seth wouldn’t go to the swinging tree with her. She
made her way there anyway and silently climbed the ladder up to the platform that Seth had built, and she stretched out on
the bench using her book bag as a pillow.

“Solomon,” Sara said out loud, “can you hear me? I need to talk with you about something.”

No response from Solomon.

Sara remembered Solomon’s words to her when he made his transition from her physical feathered friend to her nonphysical,
nonfeathered friend:
Sara, our friendship is forever. And that means
that anytime you would like a chat with Solomon, all
you have to do is identify what you want to talk about
and focus upon it, bring yourself to a place of feeling very
good—and I’ll be right here with you.

She smiled as she thought about her dear feathered friend. She closed her eyes, basking in the warmth of the sunbeams filtering
through the trees and warming her legs, and fell asleep.