The Magic at the End of the World (Do You Remember, Book 5)

Friday, February 16, 2001

A week passes. I'm now in a brand-new classroom, where everyone I know is either confused or angry about having to leave their friends behind and attending some new classes. Very few people are happy to be in the tenth grade, and one of those people was Chelsea May.

Speaking of which, Chelsea said to me:

Chelsea: I'm just GLAD to finally be out of the ninth grade!

Jed: How could you say that?

Chelsea: Because, well, I'm tired of people looking at me funny for being 15 years old and in the ninth grade. Plus, now that I'm in the tenth grade, my cousins can finally get off my back!

Jed: Wow, your cousins must be real jerks if they get all on your case for not being like them.

Chelsea; Yeah, I know! It's not like someone on TV has been saying some dumb things like teenage girls born out of wedlock should be pregnant, and people are eating it all up like it's candy...

Jed: You're right, Chelsea. That is a pretty dumb thing to say. It's just as dumb as someone on TV saying that autistic people should kill people who they believed were holding them back...

Chelsea: Yeah, that's funny! (Then something hits her.) What did you just say?

Jed: What did I say?

Chelsea: You just said something about autistic people and being told to kill people who pissed them off...

Jed: Chelsea, what are you talking about?

Chelsea: You said that someone must have told a bunch of autistic people that they should kill people because people hate them and want to get rid of them...

Jed: Do you think that's why Lucas Harrison and JoLee Griffin killed those people?

Chelsea: Why not? I'm beginning to wonder if those deaths are because of some secret conspiracy that's floating around here...

Just then, it hit me.

I knew that something had to be going on around here, especially during the month of January, where scores of people were killed for no reason. Was there some secret group of people living in the United States that wanted to use autistic people to carry out attacks on innocent people? If so, then why didn't anyone know about it?

I then said, "We need to have an emergency meeting tomorrow so we can talk about this. Joanna needs to know about this right away."

"Or why don't we tell her about what we know now?" said Chelsea. "What else do we have left to lose? The longer we remain silent, the more often another innocent person dies because they are murdered by a person who is unaware of what they have. We can't afford to have another tragedy."

Well, I don't know about that part, but all I know is that I'm not about to sit there and allow another autistic person to suffer, nor will I let another normal person suffer or die because they decided to intimidate an autistic person.

To be honest, though, I had no idea about what awful things that are happening to disabled people behind closed doors and hidden deep in the closets and back rooms of those rich and powerful families. I'm quite sure that the Hamilton family has had such dealings like that when it came to Uncle Zach. And not just him, but Cousin Franklin must have had autism, because why else would he do what he had done to Jimmy?

Anyway, I'm sitting at my desk going over the homework assignment, which was to write about how and why I chose to be smarter than almost everyone in the school. I'm sure that this is the school's way of punishing us for choosing to be boring and average instead of being better than everyone else. I'm also sure that no matter what, Jem's going to be very angry with me because I'm better than her, and even Adeline is going to hate me because I'm a grade higher than what I should be.

Just then, Claire pokes me in the back, saying, "I heard what you said to Chelsea regarding Lucas Harrison and JoLee Griffin. Is that true?"

"You bet it is," I said. "Can you believe it? I'm sure that someone out there is trying to terrorize this city by sending its handicapped citizens with instructions to inflict pain and terror upon unsuspecting citizens. I don't know if it's Franklin Hamilton, but if it is..."

"Are you sure about that?" said Claire. "Do you really want to expose something like that to the city?"

"I'm sure we're going to cross that bridge when we get to it," I said, but even then I had my doubts. I already knew that Franklin had tormented the special ed students during his time at Lochland Middle School, even sending Jimmy to the House of Nightmares when Jimmy attempted to stand up to him, but this was the icing on the cake. If I found out that Franklin was somehow behind the murders of so many innocent people, I would not hesitate to kill him, cousin or no.

-----

At lunchtime, Clay saw me and said, "I heard that Milton's coming back to school tomorrow."

At this, I frowned. As far as I knew, Milton was recovering from all the abuses that his sister Barbara saw fit to hand him. He had been hospitalized so many times, mom had to force social services to remove him from his family; she might have bribed a judge to deny Mr. and Mrs. Holt their visitation rights as well as an order for them to surrender custody of Barbara to a hospital. (I'm pretty sure that's going to backfire.)

Clay then said, "I also heard a rumor that there's going to be a community meeting at city hall this weekend."

"And what's it about?" I said, curious about why the mayor would call for a meeting this early in the year. Would they be discussing the recent tragedies that have been affecting the city since Day One?

"Well, everyone, especially the African-American community, has been asking some very tough questions about autism, especially regarding the cases of Jakobe Garrett and the Griffin family; to be honest, though, no one knows for sure what is really going on here. All we can say is that no matter what, the life we all know is over," said Clay.

I frowned as I took into account what Clay had just said. For a long time, I didn't take into account how much the world of disabled people was hurting normal, able-bodied people, but here we are. Close to 60 people are now dead because two autistic people went on a rampage and began beating up random strangers for no reason. (Well, JoLee killed almost every member of her entire family save for a younger sister, but still.) Most of the people living in Charleston are fearful of their lives; I had overheard several teachers talking about buying a gun to protect themselves and their families, and I don't blame them for that. I"m sure that either mom or dad should have at least considered buying a gun shortly after this madness began.

Speaking of which, I chanced to overhear Chelsea telling several girls about how she had to take some self-defense lessons shortly after her essay regarding Declan Caesar was featured in the city's newspaper. (I'm quite sure that Chelsea's magic, as how else did she know to write the stories that exposed the ugly truth about people?) At the same time, though, I had spent the last week attempting to go over the story about Dr. Carlsen that Kaprice and Emilia had told me while we were in lockdown. Something clearly didn't add up, because how the hell does an abused 15-year-old girl convince her doctor to help her destroy a grown man's marriage to another woman, and then sleep with that same grown man, having three of his children? (And one of those children was me, by the way.)

I know I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to recruit Chelsea to write some very nasty things about Dr. Carlsen and the Williams family. I already know that the Caesar family's reputation is on the line, no thanks to Chelsea, but once the world finds out just how rotten the Williams family really is, it's game over for them. (Do you remember when she had destroyed Kenneth and Mabel Roberts because of their failure to scold their son Anthony for leaving his wife and daughter to hook up with another man?)

Clay then said to me, "Don't worry too much, Jed, it's not going to last forever. Some of us around here are saying that someone is out there starting stuff, but they are going to stop if they know what's good for them."

I hope he means that Kelsey Davis and her League of Mean will stop spreading hate around the city. If they don't, there will be carnage, and someone will get hurt.

Preferably them.