The Rise of Rachel Stark (7 page)

"Umm," Rachel said, opening her
eyes.

"She's been sleeping," Holly said.

"That's good," Celeste said. "That's what we
want. Well, let's proceed then, shall we?"

Celeste reached into her leather case, which
was sitting on the floor next to the bed, and pulled out a long,
narrow cloth bag. She laid it on the bed, then reached back into
her case and brought out a small bottle, a cotton cloth and a pair
of plastic gloves, which she also laid on the bed.

"OK, Rachel, this is what is going to happen.
Are you listening?"

"Yes," Rachel whispered.

"Good. In this bag I have a common, ordinary
knitting needle. You might have used one just like it."

Celeste pulled the 12-inch needle out of the
cloth bag.

"You can see it is pointed on one end,"
Celeste said, showing Rachel the needle, "and it has a cap on the
other end. OK?

"In just a minute I am going to put on these
plastic gloves and then take this cloth and wipe the needle clean
with the alcohol in this bottle.

"Once I have it nice and clean, I then am
going to insert the pointed end into your – "

Suddenly the bedroom door flew open, and
Rodney burst into the room.

"Stop it!" he screamed.

He grabbed Celeste by the shoulders and yanked
her off the bed. The needle clattered onto the tile
floor.

She started to reach for her leather case, but
Rodney pushed her into the wall. At the same time, Benjamin grabbed
Rodney from behind.

"Rodney, stop it! You stop this right now!" he
yelled.

By this time, everybody was screaming at
everybody to stop. Rachel, now wide awake, was on all fours on the
bed screaming. Holly was hopping around the room screaming. Celeste
was screaming every obscenity she could think of.

Rodney broke loose from his father's grip.
"Dad," he yelled, his eyes blazing, "don't make me hit
you."

The women's screams grew louder. And now the
three young children were standing in the doorway, bawling and
screaming. Holly and Rachel grabbed them and hustled them back into
their bedroom.

"You're gonna hit me?" Benjamin said. "Go
ahead, hit your father, Rodney. C'mon, hit me!"

"You can't do this," Rodney said. Even he was
crying now. "Tell her to get out of here!"

"He won't have to," Celeste said. "I'm leaving
right now." She picked up the needle and started to gather her
stuff.

"Rodney, you either hit me, or you go right
back to that bedroom and stay there. You are not the man of the
house here. I am. Hit me or leave. Now which is it?"

"Dad … "

"Which is it?" Benjamin screamed.

Rodney turned and ran out of the
room.

Benjamin turned to Celeste. She was putting on
her coat.

"Celeste, no, wait, Celeste," he
said.

"No, you wait, mister," she said. "I gave you
one warning, and now you've used it up. Your time's up, and we're
done. I'm taking your money and getting the hell out of
here."

She snapped her case shut and started to leave
the room.

"Celeste … "

"Forget it!" She headed for the front door. He
went after her.

"Celeste! I'll give you more money," he said.
"Please."

She stopped.

She took a couple of steps toward
him.

"How much more money?"

"A hundred dollars," he said. "It's all I have
in the world."

"In cash?"

"Yes."

"Let's see it."

Benjamin walked over to the back door, which
was held shut by a five-gallon bucket full of his carpentry tools.
He had set it up against the door to keep it from blowing open. He
dug down into the bucket and pulled out a small paper
sack.

He handed it to Celeste. "It's a lot of little
bills, but it's all there. It's actually a hundred and two
dollars," he said.

Without a word, she started counting it. When
she was finished, she said:

"You're right. Here's your two
dollars."

Benjamin shrugged. But he took the
money.

"OK," she said. "I'll do this under one
condition – that you lock those kids in that room. I don't care how
you do it. You can nail it shut. You can put a piano in front of
it, I don't care. Just do it! Because this really is your last
chance, mister. Do I make myself clear?"

Benjamin nodded. "Yes."

Celeste put the bag of bills in her case and
snapped it shut.

"Now get Rachel and her mother back in here,
then do what you have to do to that door," she said. She turned and
walked into the bedroom.

Rachel and Holly were dabbing their eyes with
handkerchiefs when they came back into the bedroom, but they said
not a word.

Rachel climbed into bed. Celeste pulled a
couple of long straps out of her case.

"I'm going to strap your arms to the
bedposts," Celeste said. "It's standard procedure. It's for your
own protection. If you start flailing your arms about during the
procedure all sorts of bad things can happen."

Rachel's eyes darted about the room as Celeste
strapped her to the bedposts. When Celeste was done, she took the
knitting needle out of her case.

Then she took the blanket off the bed and
pulled Rachel's nightgown up above her waist.

"Mom, I want you to grab one foot and Dad you
grab the other. That's right. Now, pull her legs apart. Good. Now
put your other hand on her hip bone, that's right, and hold her
down. It's important that she doesn't start switching her hips and
moving around, struggling.

"OK, Rachel, we're going to start now. I'm
going to insert the needle in you."

"Aren't you going to sterilize it?" Benjamin
asked.

"I've lost all patience with you people,"
Celeste said. "The needle is clean enough. Now I'm going to talk
you through the entire procedure, Rachel, so you'll know exactly
what's going on. Everybody else, keep your mouth shut.

"Here we go."

Celeste poked and prodded for an
opening.

"She's as dry as a 90-year-old woman," Celeste
said. She reached into her case and brought out a small jar of
petroleum jelly. "Maybe this will help."

"OK, Rachel," Celeste said a minute later.
"You're lubricated now. Here we go."

Celeste leaned down to insert the needle – and
was rewarded with a stream of urine in her face.

She jumped back and nearly fell
down.

"Shit!" she cried. "Damn!"

Fifteen minutes later, after she
cleaned herself up, unstrapped Rachel and gave her
two
tranquillizer pills,
and after Rachel went to the bathroom, then helped her mother
change the bed sheets, a sullen Celeste sat in the living room with
Benjamin, waiting for the tranquilizer pills to work their
magic.

"This is the worst night of my life," Celeste
said.

Benjamin wanted to choke her. He wanted to
tell her what a hateful witch she was.

But he kept his hands at his side, and his
mouth shut.

Chapter Seven

The Bullies

Rachel went through the lunch line
at the Chante High cafeteria, then looked for a place to sit down.
She didn't see anybody she really knew, but she spotted a table
that had room for her.

"Hi," she said to the girls at the
table, "mind if I sit with y'all?"

"Y'all?" said a girl named Julia
Jackson. "You sound like a Tennessee hillbilly."

There was laughter all around.
Rachel went to look for another table.

"Y'all come back sometime,
y'heah?" Julia said as Rachel walked away. More giggles. "Trailer
trash," someone yelled.

●●●

Rachel sat down at her desk in the
assembly hall. She had just finished her biology class in Room 14,
and now she had an hour to review the homework she had done the
night before for her U.S. history class.

She lifted her desk top, which
doubled as the lid over a drawer that contained all her school
supplies, and sometimes books and other items.

The drawer was full of wadded up
toilet paper. She rummaged through the paper. Her pencils, pens,
erasers – all her school supplies – were gone.

But worst of all, her history
homework was missing.

●●●

The PE class that Thursday was
over, and most of the girls had already showered and gone home.
Rachel stayed late, waiting for everyone to clear out. She ran laps
around the gym, did some stretching exercises, ran some more laps.
Anything to kill time.

Tabby usually would be in the
class with Rachel, but Tabby had sprained an ankle earlier in the
week and was excused from PE that day. Nobody bothered Rachel when
she was with Tabby. Without her, Rachel wanted no part of the
girls' shower room. It was the prudent thing to do, considering how
things had been going lately.

Rachel waited till she was certain
she was alone before she headed for the showers. Sure enough, the
place was empty. She walked to her locker and opened it.

There were all her clothes,
sopping wet in a pile on the floor. They smelled of urine, as if
they had been dumped into the toilet, and the toilet was then
used.

She sat down on one of the wooden
benches in the locker room and began to cry.

Minutes later she walked down the
hall to the janitor's supply room, where she found a large plastic
bag. She tossed her wet clothes into the bag, slung the bag over
her shoulder and left the building.

It was a warm fall day. The
football team was still on the practice field. Their first game of
the season was Friday. Ordinarily she might have waited for Rodney
and caught a ride with Sheldon or maybe Jimmy up to the
cemetery.

But she was in no mood to talk to
anyone. She wanted to wait until she had thought things through.
Maybe she would talk with Tabby tomorrow, before the football game.
All she knew at that moment was that she needed someone to tell her
what to do. She didn't know what that might be, but something. And
talking it over with Tabby seemed like a good place to
start.

The bag of wet clothes was heavy.
But Rachel ran the five miles up Cemetery Road to her place without
stopping.

●●●

Her mother's mouth fell open when
Rachel walked in the door.

"What … what?"

Rachel told her what
happened.

"Oh, that's too bad, honey. I'm
sorry. People can be so mean," her mom said.

"Well, I might report this to
somebody. I'm not sure what I'll do," Rachel said.

"Now you're just upset, honey, and
I don't blame you. But you're new to this school, and to this town.
The kids will get used to having you around, you'll see. They'll be
fine. I wouldn't stir up no trouble."

"Mom, if was the first time I
might agree with you. But there has been other stuff, and I don't
.. it's just not fair."

"What stuff?"

"Just … stuff. Mean stuff. I don't
want to talk about it."

"Honey, let me wash those clothes
and hang them on the line for you. You'll feel better
tomorrow."

Rachel headed for her
room.

"Rachel?"

"What?"

"Sit down a minute, honey, and
have a talk with your mother. I can tell you're upset."

They went into the living room and
sat at the table.

"Honey, don't start no trouble.
Please. Back in Tennessee, where we lived, it was different. People
there were … were like us. They understood, you know, they
understood … us. There weren't no rich folks there. There wasn't
nobody who thought they was better than us. They were just folks,
like us.

"But it's different here. People
are different here. And it's going to take them awhile to get used
to us. And us to them. But we will. And they will. You'll see.
There's good people all over. And there's good people
here.

"Why, the way you talk about that
Tabby. And the way Rodney talks about that Sheldon, and Bull. And
who's that other one?"

"Jimmy," Rachel said.

"Yeah, Jimmy. Especially Jimmy.
Why, I never heard you kids talk about other kids the way you do
those kids, like they was the best friends you ever
had."

"They are, Mom, but – "

"See? There's good people
everywhere. You just gotta give 'em a chance."

Rachel rubbed her face with both
hands.

"OK, honey? What do you
think?"

"I'll sleep on it,
Mom."

"That's my girl."

"Right now I have to get out of
these gym clothes and take a shower," Rachel said.

"You do look a little sweaty," her
Mom said with a smile. "Toss those clothes out the bathroom door
and I'll wash them too."