blood in her bed without remembering it.
Helen tried to eat a bowl of yogurt and berries for breakfast but
that didn?t work out very well so she didn?t even bother to take her
lunch box. If she got hungry she could try buying something more
tummy friendly like soup and crackers later.
Riding her bike to school, she noticed that it was unbearably hot
and humid for a second day in a row. The only wind was the breeze
created by her spinning wheels, and when she locked her bike up at
the rack she realized that not only was the air still, but it was also
lacking the usual insect and bird sounds. All was unnaturally
quiet?as though the entire island was nothing but a ship becalmed
in the middle of the vast ocean.
Helen arrived earlier than she had the day before, and the halls
were crowded. Claire saw her come in. When her face broke into a
smile, Helen knew she had been forgiven. Claire fought the flow of
traffic to double back and join her on the walk to homeroom.
As they made their way toward each other, Helen suddenly felt
like she was trying to trudge through oatmeal. She slowed to a
stop. It seemed to her that everyone in the hallway vanished. In the
suddenly empty school Helen heard the shuffling of bare feet and
the gasping sobs of inconsolable grief.
She spun around in time to see a dusty white figure, her
shoulders slumped and quivering, disappearing around a corner.
Helen realized that the sobbing woman had passed behind
someone?a real person staring back at her. She focused in on the
figure, a young girl with olive skin and a long, black braid trailing
over one shoulder. Her naturally bright red lips were drawn into an
O of surprise.
Then the sound switched back on and the corridor was full of
rushing students again. Helen was standing still, blocking traffic,