“Come up and you can see the proof for yourself.” O gestured toward the corner of the playground by the gym.
Mimi frowned, wondering what he meant but concerned she might see actual evidence that he was right. She couldn’t bear that. She had been best friends with Dee nearly all her life; she did not want to discover that she didn’t know her friend at all.
But curiosity, and the sense of Ian bearing down on her, made her climb. Mimi had only gotten six feet off the ground and was saying to O, “What am I looking for?” when she felt hands grab her ankle and then a sharp tug that dislodged her from the bars of the jungle gym. She was only in the air for a brief moment before landing hard on her neck, and the jolt of pain that flooded her body was so overwhelming she didn’t even feel her head bang against the asphalt. Stars burst and swam before her eyes like tadpoles, and she blacked out for a moment.
When Mimi came to, her head hurt, much worse and more focused than any headache. She lay still, barely breathing. The pain was so acute that she couldn’t even yell or cry, but hoped it would wash through her and recede like the tide. Then she opened her eyes and Ian was standing over her, his face flat, shaking his head with the tiniest of movements, a gesture meant just for her. Hanging over him like a dark moon, high above on the jungle gym, was Osei’s worried face. “Are you OK, Mimi?” he called.
Then Blanca was pushing Ian aside and kneeling by her, her backpack dropping off her shoulder and landing near Mimi. “Oh my God, Mimi!” she cried, cupping her cheeks. “Are you dead?” At the same time Casper was shoving Ian away and saying, “What the hell did you do that for?”
Mimi’s eyes slid to the backpack and the strawberry case stuffed in the outside pocket. She tuned out the buzzing and the yelling so that she could focus on those strawberries so close to her face. She was relieved to see them. They were not where they were meant to be, but she couldn’t remember where that was. She shut her eyes for a moment to think.
“She’s dead!” she heard Blanca scream. “She’s dying right here in front of me!” Mimi did not open her eyes to reassure them, or shut Blanca up, but lay in the darkness, riding the pulsing pain.
She heard Miss Lode’s voice then, shouting at the children to stand back, but she was drowned out by the boys arguing.
“How could you do that to Mimi?” Casper was yelling. “Look, you’ve hurt her!”
“Hands off, asshole,” Ian retorted. “What makes you the playground police? Besides, you should talk. Rod’s black eye is turning green.”
“Hey, man, we all saw you pull Mimi down. You’re in big trouble now.”
“More trouble than you’re in? Aren’t you suspended? If I recall, suspended students can’t be on school property. You’re not even supposed to be here. If the teachers see you, they’ll expel you. Your ass is grass, amigo, so do us all a favor and get the hell out of here.”
Anger. Disdain. Fear. Cunning. With her eyes shut, Mimi’s hearing became so heightened that she could monitor every shifting tone in Ian’s voice as he tried to move the focus onto Casper. And he was swearing, when he never swore. Why did I ever go with him? she thought. The most mismatched couple ever.
“Boys! Stop that! Blanca, move aside.” Miss Lode was kneeling now and patting Mimi’s cheek.
Her eyes blinked open. “She’s alive!” Blanca cried.
“Mimi, how do you feel? Does anything hurt?”
“My head hurts, but I can’t feel anything else.” Mimi tried to move her legs but couldn’t tell if she succeeded. She felt frozen.
“Rod, run and tell Mrs. Duke to call an ambulance.” Miss Lode kept her voice calm, but Mimi could hear the panic underneath. “Oh, where’s Richard? He’d know what to do!”
Rod was staring down at Mimi.
“Quickly, please.” Miss Lode raised her voice. “Go! And Blanca, run find Mr. Brabant and tell him to come out here.”
Blanca and Rod shook themselves, then ran toward the school entrance.
The flickering aura from earlier was returning to Mimi’s vision, and she knew she was heading for the mother of all headaches. She fixed her eyes on Osei, still atop the jungle gym. He looked terrible, his dark skin sporting a surprising gray sheen. She did not know black people could go pale.
King of the jungle, she thought. But he is a miserable king.
“Osei,” she called up to him, “is this what you were going to show me?” Mimi rolled her head toward the pencil case, though it hurt.
O nodded.
“Mimi, it’s best not to speak now,” Miss Lode interjected. “Just rest.” She raised her voice again. “All of you—time to go home. And Casper, what are you doing here? You’re suspended!”
But no one was paying any attention to her.
“How do you think Blanca got that case?” Mimi said.
O frowned. “Casper gave it to her, after Dee gave it to him. She is going with him too. He is a two-timer, just like Dee.”
Casper shook his head. “No, man, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not going with Dee. I never have. And Blanca kept saying that too about the case, and wouldn’t listen when I said I didn’t give it to her.”
Ian was also shaking his head. “Don’t,” he mouthed at Mimi.
Mimi ignored him. He had already hurt her. What more could he do? “Osei, I bet Blanca got that case from Ian, who told her it was from Casper.”
Miss Lode looked from one to the other. “What are you all talking about?” she pleaded.
Osei stared at Mimi. “How do you know?”
“Because I gave the case to Ian. Dee accidentally dropped it and I gave it to him rather than back to her.”
“But why? Why did you do that?”
“Do you want to know what Mimi did?” Ian began. “She’s a real little bitch.”
“Ian! Don’t use that language! Stop it, all of you! Oh, where is Richard? Where is Mrs. Duke? I don’t know what to do!” Miss Lode was crying now.
“I gave the case to Ian because he wanted it,” Mimi said, speaking only to Osei, “and I used it to get him to break up with me. Otherwise I would always be under his power, and I couldn’t stand that. I’m sorry,” she added. “I didn’t know he would use it against you.” Though even as she said it, Mimi knew she was dodging the truth. She had understood when she gave it to him that Ian would never have used the pencil case for anything other than evil.
Osei was staring at her. Can I not trust even you? his look said.
Mimi blinked away tears, overcome with remorse for playing her part, so against type. She was going to have to live with that.
Now Osei turned his attention to Ian. “Why have you done this thing?”
Ian shrugged. “Because I can.”
Miss Lode had been listening to the children as if she’d been given a math problem she couldn’t make sense of. “Mimi, whose fault is this?” she whispered.
“Ian,” Mimi replied. “It’s all Ian.”