The English Descendants

26

1993. Eddie hates middle school. Rose, four years older, was her protection for her first few years of elementary school, and when she graduated to middle school, she always met her on the way home. But now, Rose is in high school. Eddie has to fend for herself. And it is not going well.

Her teachers try to engage her, hoping that keeping her busy will keep the other girls from picking on her. She is an awkward child, her messy black hair always tied back in a bun, her clothes dated. It is not that she doesn't have the means to go shopping, but rather that she is infinitely practical. Rose has clothes she can no longer wear, therefore there is no need to go buy new things. And she hates trying on clothes. But even the efforts of her teachers fall short. When they read about steam engines, she is fascinated. She seeks out new books on the subject and is often caught reading her library books instead of her classroom assignments. She explains, in great detail, the importance of this technology in her book report on a technical manual for a steam powered train. This becomes the fuel for teasing. But Eddie does not want to only read about steam powered things, she wants to build them. When she tells Thomas this, he takes her to the basement to a watchmaker's cabinet, a tool box, and a black lacquered trunk marked "Enola" that contains the most fascinating things made of turning cogs and gears that Eddie has ever seen. She is even more in awe of them when he lets slip that he made them.

But the fact that she has no friends and her closest living companions are her family members adds to her problems at school. There is another girl in her grade who believes in ghosts. She finds this out during English class when her classmate blurts out that maybe the ghosts in their stories aren't metaphors, maybe they are just ghosts. She becomes a target- the vicious nature of some of the other girls shines as they taunt her, their bullying escalating. Eddie thinks she may be able to reach her, and so, when she thinks it is safe, she confides in her that she, too, believes in ghosts. But her plan backfires. Soon she is the new favourite victim, the other girl spared by her willingness to turn on Eddie.

She knows her presentation on steam engines will only make things worse, but it is her approved science fair project and she cannot change it. She has rebuilt Thomas' miniature mining machine and, when she stokes the little firebox, the boiler puffs to life and it chugs along, moving the sand she has placed it in. She wins the fair, and carefully packs it in its box and hands it over to her teacher for safekeeping until Daisy can pick it up. On her way home, her tormentors knock her books from her hands, steal her backpack, empty it on the sidewalk, tear her sketchbook of steam powered machines, and beat her up. The principal happens to glance out his window at just the right time. He makes a list of names as he runs out the door. There will be some suspensions. Perhaps a few expulsions, if he can convince the school board.

They see him coming and they run. Eddie sits up and huddles against the fence, crying. Her sketchbook pages flutter by her.

"My god, Edith, are you OK?"

"No."

"What happened?"

"I'm the weird kid, that's what."

"Have they done this before? You act like you expect this." He starts picking up her pages.

"Not this bad, but yeah. It's not like this is the first time."

"Why didn't you tell me? I can't do something about it if you never say anything."

"Don't. It'll just make it worse. Then I'll be Eddie the crazy girl and a crybaby."

"This isn't how things should be."

"Well it's how they are. Nobody likes me. Can I go check on my steam engine? I want to make sure they didn't get it somehow. It was my great great grandma's- her friend made it."