Slob - Ellen Potter [52]
All I did was not move.
“MOVE!” Wooly screamed it in my ear so loud it hurt.
Something popped into my head at that moment. It was like Wooly’s scream had shaken loose a thought that had been hiding in my brain, tucked beneath all the other thoughts:
I am a boulder. Boulders don’t move.
Something in my expression must have changed then too. All of a sudden Wooly looked at me, really looked at me. He pushed his glasses up on his nose.
There was a noise from inside the locker room, a heavy clunking sound.
“Is that young man having a seizure?” he asked, his voice turning very teacherly all of a sudden. “Is that what’s going on in there?”
I have to admit, this pulled me up short. Was that what it was? Did Mason have seizures? It was possible that Wooly was lying to me in order to get past me. On the other hand, it made sense. It would explain why Mason had run away from me so frantically in the hallway. I had once seen a person have a seizure on the street. It was horrible-looking. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her legs and arms thrashed around. She drooled all over herself.
“Get out of my way!” Wooly screamed. The kids crowded up behind him now, ready to storm in the locker room and see the infamous Mason Ragg having a seizure.
I am a boulder. Boulders don’t move.
For a moment I thought Mr. Wooly might try and shove me out of the way. He might even hit me—he certainly looked angry enough to. I braced myself for a blow. For a second my eyes glanced up at Sybil, who was still holding up her camera, capturing the whole scene and part of me thought, Yes, do it, Wooly. Hit me. Then everyone can see what a maniac you are on The Universe According to Sybil.
But though he was a maniac, he wasn’t a total moron. He knew he couldn’t touch me without getting tossed out of the school.
“Andre!” Mr. Wooly screamed without taking his eyes off of me.
“Yes?” Andre said. He was right behind Wooly.
“Go get security.”
Security! Not the principal?! Security!
We had one security guard, a big guy with a bald head and perennial sweat marks under his armpits who sat by the front door and looked bored. He was going to love this. I wondered if, unlike Wooly, he had permission to use force against me.
Mr. Wooly stuck his face close to mine. I could smell old coffee on his breath and could see the tiny red veins on the creases of his nostrils, that’s how close he was.
“If that kid is having a seizure in there,” Wooly said, “and he injures himself, or drops dead, then it will be your fault, Birnbaum. You hear me?”
If he had known the truth about me and my parents, he couldn’t have said anything more perfectly designed to tear my heart out.
I am a boulder. Boulders don’t move.
I felt tears burning my eyes, and my throat was swelling and every muscle in my body was begging me to let it move, but I had promised Mason not to let them see, and I would not let them see. Jeremy was with him. If things got too bad, she would get help.
I am a boulder, I am a boulder, I will not move.
I felt a cold tap on my back. The locker room door had opened. Jeremy appeared by my side.
“It’s over,” she said.
“Over?” I couldn’t wrap my mind around the words. They had come so close on the heels of Wooly’s comment about Mason dying that I felt a rush of fear.
“The seizure is over,” Jeremy explained quickly. “He’s okay. He’s just resting.”
Wooly made his move then, pushing past me into the locker room. I let my body be pushed aside. It didn’t matter anymore. As the cops like to say, “The show is over, folks. Nothing interesting to see here.”
My mind let my body have its way. I slipped down to the floor and sat there with my knees up and my head on my knees, eyes closed. I felt overwhelmed