Chapter 4
The following morning when Lily and Malaya approached their new lockers, there was no Slade in sight. They each breathed a sigh of relief and went to work organizing their new space. When it was time for class, Malaya crept off down the hall toward algebra mouthing the words, “good luck”. Lily responded with a silent, “you too”. With Malaya now gone, Lily was left alone to fend for herself. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle herself on her own, but she had never been particularly assertive. She wasn’t brave like her friend. Malaya had a strength and confidence that Lily didn’t naturally have. Lily had always been on the shy side, and she didn’t like conflict. She was easily bullied, as she had been in elementary school several times. She didn’t stand up for herself. She would just agree or say nothing and hope the bully would move on. Sometimes that had worked, but sometimes it didn’t.
Lily patiently waited for the hallway to clear up so there was more room to maneuver her wheel chair. She was about to start toward her English class when someone grasped the handles of the wheel chair and began pushing her from behind. Her stomach lurched in a primal anxiety that was only somewhat resolved when she turned to see who was pushing her. It was Slade Turner.
“Of course,” she thought, “who else?”
Lily grasped the armrests as Slade wheeled her slowly down the hall. Although he was pushing her much slower that she would have wheeled herself, she felt a sort of survival instinct kick in that told her to hold on.
“Good morning,” he said with a slight Texas drawl. He sounded almost pleasant. Could Slade be pleasant? She had never heard of it before.
“Um, hi,” Lily hesitantly responded, not sure what to make of this nice guy act. “What are you doing?”
“I’m pushing you fair lady.”
What?! Lily glanced backwards to make certain it was still the same Slade who dunked the glee club’s bake sale cookies in a giant vat of milk before anyone could buy them. Yep, it was the same guy. She was tongue tied and brain tied at the same time. She couldn’t think of a thing to say. Her brain was empty. Nothing. Zip. She was filled with a mixture of fear and curiosity. She wasn’t sure which emotion would win out. She checked around herself to see if Slade had back up.
“I see your thug-um-friends are elsewhere,” Lily blurted out.
She was a little proud of herself for spitting something out of her quivering lips.
“Yeah, I’m riding solo today,” Slade said with an odd smirk on his face. “Where to, fair maiden?”
Lily thought he must be insane. Maybe that has been his problem all this time. He was just plain crazy. What do you say to a crazy person? If he really is crazy, he may be even more dangerous that she had thought.
“Oh, um, Ms. Riley’s class please.”
“Did I just say ‘please’ to that jerk? This has got to end,” her thoughts screamed at her.
“I, uh, appreciate your help, but I really can manage on my own. I don’t need your help,” she squeaked out.
“Actually you do. You go about as fast as a centipede on your own and you’re blocking my path. I am willing to offer my knightly services to you for the remainder of your confinement to this wheeled contraption. Seriously, you need me. You go about a half a mile an hour.”
What was she supposed to think of this? What was she going to say? Her brain was too jumbled up to think clearly. Lily gave it her best, stumbling the whole way.
“I have friends to help me. I don’t need your help.”
“I see no friends,” he responded pointedly.
“Won’t it bother your girlfriend if you’re pushing me around all day,” she tried again.
“Nope, she and I broke up recently.”
“Recently, huh? How long ago is recently exactly,” she retorted bravely.
“Long enough for me to not care that my best friend already asked her out,” he answered, not seeming at all bothered by it. Even though he seemed in a good mood, she decided to not push the issue. Still highly suspicious of his motives, she pondered a moment at what they could possibly be. Was he doing it to look good for the teachers? Maybe he was just biding his time until just the right moment when he would unleash his fury and pull some horrible wheel chair prank. Maybe she was just an easy target for someone to irritate, although he wasn’t all that irritating. He was mostly just confusing her more than an algebra test. Then she remembered she had been slightly insulted.
“I’ll have you know I can go faster that a centipede. I can go much faster than this old lady pace you’re going at.”
That was the straw that broke crazy Slade’s back.
“Is that so?”
Suddenly, he sprinted down the nearly empty hallway. Lily’s long, chocolate brown hair whipped behind her as they rounded the first corner. Lily’s knuckles were white from grasping the wheel chair with all her might. She was yelling something like, “Slow down,” but he wasn’t listening. What had she gotten herself into? She should have kept quiet as her normal shy self would have. What had possessed her to challenge him like that? They were approaching the second turn, and he wasn’t slowing down. Lily was losing her grip. Her sweaty hands were beginning to slip. As they rounded the corner, horror filled her eyes and her breath caught in her throat. Less than five feet in front of them was the staircase to the cafeteria. Slade saw it at that same moment because she could hear him gasp sharply. If he was trying to slow the runaway wheelchair, he wasn’t doing a very good job. Lily continued to race forward.
“Boy this is going to hurt,” Lily thought. “Why? Why is this happening to me? I am almost finally out of my cast, and just watch, I’m going to break my legs all over again. Maybe my arms will break too. I might have to have a full body cast and live in the hospital for my entire senior year. I can forget about prom for sure. Or my nose, and then I’ll have to get a nose job, but that might not be so bad. Although I kind of like my nose, despite its quirks. I can’t go through this again, I just can’t.”
Lily couldn’t think anymore. She knew what was going to happen. It was inevitable. She would fall, be injured and then Slade should feel terrible. Maybe this would turn his behavior around. For the slightest moment she wondered if she should try to jump to the side, but it was too late to do anything by then. She was falling. First inside the chair, and then she was out of the chair and tumbling down the stairs. She pounded down on what seemed like every single step. Thud, thud, thud. It was as though giant piano keys were beating her to a pulp. Although it wasn’t as bad as she thought. It was painful, but not quite as bad as the car crash had been. No cracking or crushing of bones; at least not yet.
“Okay, I can handle this. Maybe I won’t get any breaks at all,” she thought as the steps were slowing her fall. She was reaching the bottom and she was starting to feel relief knowing it was almost over.
“Maybe I’ll escape with a few bruises and be back to normal in no time,” she hoped. As Lily approached the ground level, she was a little surprised when she was enveloped by darkness. She saw nothing. She felt nothing. She heard nothing, and it seemed she was nothing anymore. Nothingness was empty, and it wouldn’t go away. She seemed to still be thinking, but that was all. She was alone with her thoughts.