DOM#67A
LOSTON, COLORADO
AD 1999
3:40 PM MONDAY
John weaved through the students milling in the halls of the school, and found himself smiling again.
It was unusual for him to be here at this hour. Usually he took off instantly, beating the students out of the school and hurrying home to be alone with his thoughts. But he’d awoken that morning with a sense of...something new. Something that he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Happiness.
The reason for it was easily apparent: Fran. Her cousin now walked beside him in the halls, having a harder time weaving his way through the crush of students trying to get to their lockers as quickly as possible so that they could vacate the premises.
"So it went good last night?" asked Gabe.
"Yeah."
"Mertyl said you didn’t get back before she went to bed. Must’ve been a doozy of a night."
John chuckled. "The best thing about small towns is the seventy year old woman that lives next to every house and works for the FBI," said Paul. They reached the door to the office.
"Don’t change the subject," said Gabe, frowning, though his eyes danced and John could tell he was already planning the reception and compiling a list of people he’d send announcements to in his head. "Have you seen her today?"
"Nope."
"But you waited for her in the break room didn’t you?"
John grinned - that felt good, to smile like that, completely happy - and opened the door to the office. "Sorry, Chief. No time to chat; gotta pick up my mail." He swept into the office, leaving Gabe behind.
Mertyl sat, as ever, in her customary spot guarding the front of the office. She smiled at John, and seeing her reminded him of why he was really in the office. His good mood evaporated like a drop of water in a bonfire.
Kaylie hadn’t been there that morning. Her desk stood empty.
"Hello, John," said Mertyl. "How was school today?"
"Great, Mertyl. How was your day?"
"Usual. Wally had a hangover when he came in, but that’s getting to be a pretty normal thing, I suppose."
Wally was the principal, the most tightly-buttoned person John had ever met. He and Mertyl liked to joke that at night he went home to a secret crackhouse where he spent the night boozing and doing all sorts of inventive drugs. John smiled at the joke, but the smile was a tight one. Nervousness fluttered in his stomach, though why he should feel this way, he had no idea. He was just asking about a student, and that was well within his rights.
So why was he so edgy?
"Mert, I wonder if you could help me out."
"Sure. What can I do you for?"
"One of my students didn’t come in today. Could you find out why?"
"Sure, John." Mertyl rifled through a pile on her desk. "Who was it?"
"Kaylie Devorough." Mertyl’s hands slipped on the papers for a moment. She recovered quickly, but John noted a fleeting expression dance across her features. Too fast to be made out, but something strange. Then Mertyl’s smile returned.
"That’s easy, John. Her father called in sick for her."
"What’s she sick with?"
"He didn’t say."
"Where do they live? I’d like to see her about some things."
Mertyl stilled, all movement suddenly ceasing and leaving John with the momentary impression that his friend had been stolen away and replaced in the blink of an eye with some sort of wax replica, or a marionette that perfectly resembled Mertyl in every way, lacking only a soul. Again, the strange look surfaced. This time it stayed, though, remaining on her features as she said, "We have no record of that yet."
John was a bit daunted by the forbiddingly emotionless look on the old woman’s face, but he pressed on. "Come on, Mertyl, how could that be? We don’t let them into school unless their records are here."
Her face grew cold and hard as a piece of flint laying on a frozen patch of ground. "We have no record. Leave it alone."
John frowned. Her speech disquieted him. Just as Gabriel’s had done several times in the last few days, Mertyl’s voice seemed as though it was hers, and yet at the same time somehow wasn’t.
"Hey, stranger."
John turned gratefully away from Mertyl, smiling as he came face to face with Fran. She smiled back at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mertyl abandon her post, going into the ladies’ room in the short hall off the side of the office. That was strange, too: in all the years he’d worked at the high school, John had never seen Mertyl go to the bathroom and leave her station during work hours.
"Hello?" said Fran, and John realized he had not responded to her salutation.
"Sorry, Fran. Thinking." He shrugged his shoulders in the universal code for "I’m an idiot sometimes."
"Thinking, eh? Don’t hurt yourself."
"How was your first day? How’s English 11A?"
"Well, they’re monsters, but at least there aren’t any drug runners here."
"No, not many of those in Loston. Not unless you count the kids who steal chemistry equipment every year to build stills in their parents’ barns."
"They do that?" She laughed, a mellifluous sound that tinkled through the air and seemed to brighten it. He smiled a bit wider, his momentary disquiet dissipating in her presence.
"I...that is...." Once more, his tongue seemed to thicken in his mouth as he struggled to find words to say to the lovely woman who stood before him. "Uh...thanks for last night. I had a good time."
"Me, too," said Fran. She gazed directly at him, no shy girl. He was again struck by her confidence and frank nature.
"Sorry I didn’t actually get to show you much of the town."
He was about to add "Maybe some other time" but before he could, Fran said, "That’s okay. You can do it tonight. I’ll be ready at seven." She touched his arm briefly, and then was gone in a cloud of vanilla.
John stood quietly for a time, still trying to come to grips with the conflicting emotions he felt. He wanted to be with Fran, he knew. But at the same time he still wondered if by being with her he was not somehow being unfaithful to Annie's memory. Intellectually, he knew that was ridiculous. Indeed, he suspected that if Annie could somehow speak to him now she would probably chide him for withdrawing from life so completely. But he couldn't completely shake the feeling in spite of that fact.
In the midst of his musings, John realized he was alone in the office. He could see the file cabinet that held names and information of all the students at Loston High, and actually took a step towards it.
Mertyl came out of the bathroom. "What are you doing?" she said, almost barking the words.
"Waiting to say goodbye to you, Mertyl," he answered. And then turned around and left the building.