"My Weird Friend" Part 2 "New Start"
The week after her mom got the job was the best Eleanor had in a long time. Until Monday. The minute she woke up, she was saddened because today was the day.
The first day of school. Eleanor could never tell her mother the truth. Mom worked so hard to get her daughter into these great schools that Eleanor felt guilty for even thinking it. But the truth was she hated school.ย
She didnโt mind not meeting anyone. She was used to that. But there was another part of her that made her nervous about going to a new school. She might have been a pleasure to have in class, but she always struggled. Even when she brought home her failed attempts, she always heard the same thing.
โDonโt worry. Keep trying. Youโll get it.โ
But Eleanor did worry. Because she didnโt get it. And she knew she never would. Especially at a new school.
"Hey. We're going to be late for your first day. Finish your breakfast."
As Eleanor finished her Coco Puffs, she tried to practice reading the back of the box. Danger Dog was the cartoon on it. Danger Dog was the most funniest cartoon on Saturday mornings. Even in this cereal box version, he was hilarious.
But this morning, Eleanor was too nervous to laugh at the cartoon. So, she immediately looked for other things to distract herself. Her eyes found the carton of milk. There was a picture of a missing girl. She was smiling with a face sprayed with freckles. Her name was Juliette Bliss.ย
"We're late. Let's go, honey," Mom said.
Eleanor drank the little bit of sugar milk left in the bowl for courage, then zipped up her pink sweater.
As they drove to school, Eleanor listened to how her mother explained how โtechnicallyโ they didnโt live in the school district, so she kind of lied that her work address was their residence. โSo, donโt tell anyone we live in the motel, okay?โ said Eleanorโs mother.
โOkay,โ Eleanor promised.
As the car drove by the hills, Eleanor looked at the different sections of town. Houses with chipped and missing shingles. Cars in the front lawns on blocks.Then, they moved to the nicer sections of town. Big stoned houses, manicured lawns, shiny cars in the driveways.
As they drove, Eleanor searched for the sky for clouds. They were gone, but she did see something she liked. No matter the neighborhood, it is always close by. Big and beautiful with tons of trees. All colorful and pretty.
For a moment, she thought she saw something run into it. Fast as lightning. She wasnโt sure what. Maybe a deer. โMom, what is that?โ Eleanor asked.
โThe Blue Mist Woods,โ her mother said.
When they arrived at school, Eleanorโs mother gave her a quick kiss. โWait for me after school. No strangers. If you need me, call the number of my workplace. The number is sewed into your clothes. I love you, sweetheart.โ
Eleanor nodded and kissed her mother back. She got out of the car and approached the school entrance. Dozens of kids were already running around and screaming, saying hello after their summer vacations. These twin brothers were pushing and shoving each other. One kid who had a lazy-eye patch was playing tricks with a yo-yo. A couple of girls stood with their new school clothes.ย
When the kids saw Eleanor, they stopped and looked at her like they always did in new places. She was the shiny new thing in the store window. And they nodded the way the kids always did. Quiet and mistrusting at first. Like any animal pack.ย
Eleanor quickly walked into her classroom and took a seat near the back. She knew not to sit up front because itโs a sign of weakness. Her mother said,โNever mistake being nice for being weak.โ Eleanor thought maybe that worked in the grown-up world. Not the kid-world.
Eleanor looked up and saw a second grader with a designer sweater and pigtails. She would soon know Jenny Hansen by name. But right now, she was just this kid who was mad that Eleanor didnโt know the rules.
โWhat?โ Eleanor asked timidly.
โYouโre in my seat, get off.โย
โOh. Okay. Sorry.โ Eleanor quickly knew the drill. When the teacher took roll later, Eleanor quickly moved to the only open seat left. Right in front of the teacherโs desk.ย
ย The teacher was older like a mom, but she dressed like she was still a teenager.
She quickly put her thermos down on the desk with a thunk and wrote her name on the whiteboard with perfect penmanship.
As school went on, Eleanor learned remedial reading from the sweet old librarian, Mrs. Henderson, and her hand puppet, Dewey the Dolphin.
Eleanor didn't actually know what CCD stood for, but she had learned a long time ago never to complain about it. There was one time that back in Michigan, Eleanor hid in the bushes so she didn't have to go. Her mother called her name over and over, but she didn't say anything.ย
Then, finally, mom got really mad and said, "Eleanor Judith Evans, you get out here... NOW."
Mom used her three names. And when she did that, there was no choice. You went. That's it. Game over. With a stone face, mom told her that Eleanorโs father was Catholic. And she had promised herself that his daughter would be raised Catholic, too. So Eleanor would have some connection to her father besides one picture at Christmas.
When they were driving home that night, Eleanor thought of her dad reading the Bible. Eleanor's dad probably didn't scramble his letters like Eleanor did. He was probably much smarter because that's what dads were supposed to be. Much smarter.ย
So, Eleanor promised that she would learn to read and know what the Bible words meant, so she could have another way to be close to her dad besides the memory of the tobacco smell on his shirt.
As for going to a church, Eleanorโs mother's own faith died in the bathroom next to her husband. Of course, when she looked at her daughter, she understood why people still believe in God.ย
But when she sat in church, she didn't hear Godโs word. All she heard were whispers and gossip from all the good Catholic women who regarded her as that working-class mother (aka "trash").
Especially Mrs. Hansen. Everything about Laura Hansen was perfect. From her tight brown hair to her elegant suit to her polite contempt for "those people" Jesus would have actually loved.ย
The Hansen family always sat up front. The Hansen family was always first in line for Holy Communion. And if her husband's hair slipped out of place, her finger would be there instantly to put it right back, like a raven's claw with a tasteful manicure.
As for their daughter, Jenny, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.
If Sara Evans only had to deal with Mrs. Hansen on Sundays, it would have been tolerable. But Mr. Hansen was a real estate developer who owned half of Trail Grove, including Shady Pines, the retirement home where Sara worked. He put his wife in charge of the place.ย
Mrs. Hansen claimed that she took the position to "give back to the community." What it really meant was that it allowed Mrs. Hansen to yell at the staff and the volunteers to make damn sure that her own elderly mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's, got the finest care possible. The best room. The best food. The best of everything.
Sara has traveled enough to know that Damascus was a very small pond. But to the Hansen family, it may as well have been the Pacific Ocean.
โMom, what are you thinking about?โ Eleanor whispered.ย
โNothing, honey. Pay attention,โ she said.ย
Right before Father Tom turned the wine into blood with a few well-chosen words, he told the flock that Jesus loved everyone, beginning with Adam and Eve.
"First Holy Communion is going to be awesome," A kid said in the parking lot after church. "We get money. And we even get to drink wine."
"Really?" Eleanor asked. "Is that true, Mom?"
"It's part of Communion. But it'll be grape juice," she said.
On the drive home, Eleanor thought about mass. How Jesus loved everyone, even terrible people. Like Jenny Hansen and Larry. Eleanor thought that was amazing because she could never love someone like Larry. But she would try because thatโs what you were supposed to do.ย
When they got back to the motel, Eleanor held the door open for her mother, and mom smiled and called her a lady. And when she looked up before going inside, she saw it. Drifting. A shooting star looked like a twinkle in its eye. The cloud face.ย
Normally, Eleanor wouldnโt have thought much about it. Clouds were normal. But every day when her mother drove her to school, every time they drove past the Blue Mist Woods. Every sunset when they drove to church. The cloud face was always there.
Sometimes big. Sometimes small. Once it was even hidden among the other shapes in the clouds. A banana or a snail or an ink blot like the ones the doctor showed her after her father accidentally drowned in the bathtub. It was always there. Not a man. Not a woman. Just a handsome pretty face made of clouds.The face was always there.ย
And Eleanor could have sworn it was watching her. She would have told her mother that, but her mom had enough worries about her daughter already. She could stand her mother thinking she was being silly. But she didnโt dare risk her mother thinking that her daughter was crazy. Not like her dad.
The rain began on Friday. The sudden thunder woke Eleanor from a nightmare. The dream was too real that she couldnโt instantly forget. She couldnโt forget the feeling. Like someone was jabbing at her throat.
She looked around the motel room. The neon light from the laundromat outside turned on and off like a blink. But there was no one there. She looked at the clock next to her mother sleeping in the other twin bed. It flashed 2:17 a.m.ย
She tried to go back to sleep. But she couldnโt for some reason. So, she just lay down with her eyes closed and her mind going. And listened to the pouring rain.ย
There was so much rain, Eleanor thought it would overflow the whole ocean. Eleanorโs stomach tied itself into knots. She would be going to school in a few hours.ย
School meant class. And class meant teasing. Every time, it waited for her. Being called names, rocks being thrown at her, bruises being collected on her skin.ย
She once went to ask Ms. Mara if she could stay in her classroom for lunch. But Ms. Maraโs eyes were a little bloodshot and her breath smelled similar to Larryโs after a night at the bar. So, Eleanor waited until the end of the class, and went to the library.ย
It was nice to see sweet old Mrs. Henderson.
Mrs. Henderson was mouse-quiet. Even for a librarian. She was married to the science teacher, Mr. Henderson. His first name was Henry. Eleanor thought it was so weird for teachers to have first names, but she went with it.
Henry Henderson. So many e's.
Eleanor asked her mom for new pants, but when she saw in her momโs face that she couldn't afford them, Eleanor pretended that she was kidding.
Then, during lunch, he told the cafeteria lady that she didn't want milk, so she could save her fifty cents every day and buy pants on her own. Eleanor had already saved up $3.50. She just wasn't sure how much pants cost.
When Eleanor asked Mrs. Henderson how much pants cost, she said they could use the computer to look it up. Eleanor's mom didn't have her own computer, so this was a real treat. They went online and searched the word "pants". They looked at all these stores. And she saw that things were a lot of money. $18.15 for pants at JPenney.
"So, how many fifty cents is that?" she asked Mrs. Henderson.
"I don't know. How many?โ she asked.
Eleanor was almost as bad at math as she was at reading. But like a good teacher, instead of giving her the answer, Mrs. Henderson gave a pencil and a piece of paper and told her to figure it out. She'd be back in a bit to check.ย
So, Eleanor sat there, adding up 50 cents at a time. Two days is 100 cents.
That's a dollar. Three days is 150 cents. That's a dollar and fifty cents. With the seven dollars in her piggy bank, that meant she could...
Eleanor looked at the computer. It made a little sound. And there was a little box in the left-hand corner. It said INSTANT MESSAGE.ย
Someone was writing to her.
Eleanor turned to look for Mrs. Henderson, but she was gone. Eleanor was all alone. She looked back at the screen. The cursor blinked and blinked. She knew she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers. But this wasn't talking, exactly.
So, she pecked with the pointer on her right hand. Peck peck.
"Hi," Eleanor typed back.
hi, eleanor. it's so nice to meet you. where are you right now?
you have trouble with letters, huh? which library?
which school do you go to? don't tell me. trail grove elementary, right?
lucky guess. are you liking school?
when are you leaving for the day?
Eleanor stopped. Something felt wrong to her. She typed.
There was silence. The cursor blinked
"Who are you?" Eleanor typed again.
Silence again. Eleanor watched the cursor blink and blink. The air was still and quiet. But she could feel something. A tightness in the air. Like staying under the covers too long.ย
"Hello?" Eleanor asked the empty library.
Eleanor looked around the stacks. She thought someone might be hiding.
She started to get a panicked feeling. Like back in Michigan when Larry would come home from the bar in a bad mood.
"Hello?" she called out again. "Who's there?"
She felt this prickle on the back of her neck. Like when her mom used to kiss her good night. A whisper without words. She heard the computer beep. She looked over.ย
She saw the person's reply.
When Mrs. Henderson came back, the screen went blank. She looked at the math work and told Eleanor that she should ask Ms. Mara for help.ย
In the meantime, she gave Eleanor three books for the weekend to help with her reading. There was an old book with a lot of words. Then, there were two fun books. Danger Dog Eats the Letter Z and a Snoopy. Snoopy was great. Especially with his cousin Spike from Needles. That word. Needles. So many e's.
When the bell rang, Mrs. Henderson walked Eleanor to the parking lot. Eleanor waved goodbye as she and her husband got in their old mini-van.
ย Today was being flooded by the unstopping rain, Eleanor walked to the parking lot to get picked up by her mom.
Ms. Mara got in her red minivan, then one by one the students left. And the teachers. Then, the last buses left. When everyone was gone, Eleanor looked around for the security guard. But there wasnโt one. Eleanor was alone.
She sat down on the little bench and waited in the parking lot for her mother to come to pick her up for movie Friday. She tried to think about that instead of the bad feeling she was having. The feeling of being all alone.ย
She picked up the first book. A Child's Garden of Verses.
It was old. Kind of dusty. Eleanor could feel the spine creak a little. The leather cover smelled a little like cotton. There was a name in the front cover. Written in pencil.
Eleanor turned the pages until she found a picture she liked. Then, she settled in and started reading. She was nervous waiting outside of school. And she just wanted her mom to get there early today. Where was she?
The thunder rumbled in the distance.
Eleanor closed the book. The birds went silent. And the air got chilly.
Even for September. She looked around to see if anyone was watching. But the security guard was still nowhere to be seen. So, Eleanor turned back to the cloud face.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" she asked.
There was a low rumble in the distance. A thunderclap.
Eleanor knew it could be a coincidence. She may have been a poor student, but she was a smart kid. "If you can hear me, blink your left eye."ย
Slowly, the cloud blinked its left eye.
Eleanor went quiet. Scared for a moment. She knew it wasn't right. It wasn't normal. But it was amazing. A plane flew overhead, shifting the cloud face and making it smile like the Cheshire Cat.
"Can you make it rain when I ask you to?"
Before she got out the last word, sheets of rain began to pour over the parking lot.
The rain stopped. Eleanor smiled. She thought it was funny. The cloud face must have understood she was laughing, because it started to rain. And then stop. And rain.ย
Eleanor laughed. "Stop. You'll ruin my school clothes!"
The rain stopped. But when Eleanor looked up, the cloud started to drift away. Leaving her all alone again.
"Wait!" Eleanor called out. "Come back!"
The cloud drifted over the hills. Eleanor knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't help herself. She started walking after it. "Wait! Where are you going!"
There was no sound. Just sheets of rain. But somehow, it didn't touch Eleanor. She was protected by the eye of the storm. Even if her sneakers got soaked from the wet street. Her pink sweater remained dry.
"Please, don't leave!" she yelled out.
But the cloud face kept drifting. Down the road. To the baseball field. The rain trickling on the clay-caked dirt. Dust like tears. Down the highway where cars honked and skidded in the rain. Into another neighborhood with streets and houses he didn't recognize. Hays Road. Casa. Monterey.
The cloud face drifted over a fence and above a grass field. Eleanor finally stopped at a large metal sign on the fence near a streetlight.
GRIMIR CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
"I can't follow you anymore. I'll get in trouble!" Eleanor called out.
The cloud face hovered for a moment, then drifted away. Off the road. Behind the fence. Eleanor didn't know what to do. She looked around. She saw that no one was watching. She knew it was wrong. She knew she wasn't supposed to. But Eleanor climbed under the construction site's fence. Snagging her little pink sweater. Once she untangled herself, she stood on the field, covered in wet grass and mud and rain.ย
She looked up in awe. The cloud was HUGE. The smile was TEETH. A happy SMILE.
Eleanor smiled as the thunder clapped. And she followed the cloud face.
Off the cul-de-sac. Down the path. And into the Blue Mist Woods.