Abe or The Goldfinch

Chapter 10

Earth-4076361

Rebecca and Amir walked steadily to an empty classroom, where its only occupants, Abe and Boris, were waiting for them, the older one leaning on a chair with his feet up on the desk, and the younger one hunched over the neighboring desk.

Both boys had visible bruises on their faces and Abe's hands were bandaged.

They both enter and Amir gives his wife a signal that implied "calm down" then announces - well... How are my brave warriors? –

Boris laughs nasally at the comment, but Abe absently comments -spare him... I know what you want to know, and I don't know-

Rebecca visibly upset asks -and what do you think we want to know?- Abe sighs and answers staring into space -I don't know what happened to me, it was... like an out-of-body experience, I saw that boy in that alley going completely crazy... and the boy was me-

Boris adds -it was great... I would do it again- which makes both parents stare at him with a "shhh" expression and the Slavic boy just turns his head in another direction.

Abe then turns to look at them and says -I'm not stupid, I understand what's going on... it's time to take the pills- with evident regret in his tone.

His parents wanted to say something else to console him, but they didn't want to break the understanding that Abe finally had of the situation, fortunately or unfortunately for them, at that moment a teacher came in and mentioned -excuse me Mrs. Solomon, Mr. Odeh... the principal is calling them again-

Amir and Rebecca ask for a minute and walk to the principal's office, where another 2 angry parents were already waiting for them.

The other woman asks angrily, "Did you give your little psycho his painkillers yet?"

Amir has to firmly hold Rebecca's shoulder to stop her from walking towards the other woman.

Amir then asks, "Did we watch the same video? Because the one I saw showed two thugs vandalizing school property, when our boys were innocently passing by and were attacked by..."

The other man asks angrily -Did you miss the part where your son almost destroyed my son's windpipe with his bare hands?-

Rebecca then intervenes and asks - now your son is a poor little angel?... Let's pretend that he hasn't been harassing Abe all year, there is NOT A SINGLE one of his videos in which your son doesn't comment nasty things about him, and only because the worst ones are blocked... and not to mention what happened in the bathroom at the Bar Mitzvah, if that's how his adulthood began...-

The other mother interrupts her and comments - and now you and your Moorish husband want to come and give us moral lessons, how funny...- with a very poisonous tone.

Rebecca answers - and I see where your son learned to behave... like that-

Both women seemed more than ready to jump on each other, when the principal, who had listened with amusement to the argument, finally intervenes and responds - well, since everyone has already told their truths, I'm next... I'm about to expel your children and leave this on their permanent records - while popping a wad of gum in her mouth.

That gains the attention of everyone present, and makes them sit down, the other parent then says - I don't think there's any need to go that far Ms. Halsey -

But she responds - well, as already mentioned Mr. Gold, Adam was vandalizing a wall, which you should be thankful for, because if you had crossed the street to do it, you would be in the police station and not in my office, and besides, it was clearly him and his friends who started the assaults... that being said –

She then turns to look at Amir and Rebecca and continues -while it can be argued that Abraham and his Russian friend acted in self-defense, it did go a little too far, plus the other boy doesn't even come to my school, so "technically" I should call the authorities-

She looks back at Mr. and Mrs. Gold and intervenes -also, anticipating this conversation I had the boys' lockers checked, we found some interesting things in Adam's... do I have to show them now?-

Which makes both of them give each other curious and angry looks and shake their heads, then the principal turns to look at the Solomon-Odehs and says -yours is a little angel, damn it... there were only cooking recipes and one or two racy books-

Then she says -besides the guy who recorded everything, "Tom Cable", his rich dad wants the matter settled, so as we can all see, it is best to leave this matter as it is... but his Christmas vacation starts right now and if when I get back I notice that there is still "tension" the first one to try something will be expelled, well, excuse me... I have to go shave- she put on her sunglasses and left the office, followed by the two sets of parents, who looked at each other dirtyly.

A few hours later, Abe was lying in his bed, his parents next to him, Amir holding a glass of water and Rebecca the pill, she asks -ready?- with a nervous smile.

Abe nods and takes it, putting it in his mouth and accepting the glass of water from Amir, his mother argues -with this everything will be resolved quickly- hoping to be right.

Then they both retreat and left the boy in the darkness of the room, staring at the hanging planets decorating his ceiling spinning and spinning, until his eyes finally closed.

The medication was designed to relax the nervous system, and allow him a restful night of sleepless rest... and that was the mistake, as "Abe" was asleep, "the others" took over, less than an hour later, the entire house was awakened by a very loud scream coming from the boy's room.

Okay, I know it was short, I'm aware of that, but I think I got to the climax I wanted to get to, I originally thought of showing the video about the fight, but the truth is I just had no idea how to handle it organically, it just didn't fit with my narrative, so I decided to leave the whole chapter as "Aftermath" and let their crazy imaginations fill in the rest.

The principal's character was originally going to be a generic, nameless principal, but that attitude I needed wouldn't be available to a respectable director, so that's when Elizabeth Halsey's character from "Bad Teacher" popped into my head and everything fell into place.

I warn you, we're getting close to the end, at least for this part.

Give me votes and add me to your libraries

Criticism and comments are welcome.