How To Save A Life

Mrs. Turner

And since that time, the breakfast routine hasn’t changed. The table is filled with hot and cold food that’s all equally tasteless: hot oatmeal, burnt scrambled eggs, grits (Mike’s least favorite of all), toast and bagels, fruit, and milk.

                The system works like a conveyer belt; along the whole table is the food. It’s a crazy commotion as kids arms flail everywhere trying to get what they want.

                Mike stayed clear of the grits, and ever since that day, the oatmeal. He settled for a rather piece of dry toast loaded with jelly.

                “So, ready to tell me?” Randy said with a mouth full of eggs. That boy would eat anything; it disgusted most of him friends.

                “Tell him what?” Maci interjected as she eyed the usual food she would never eat.

                “Mac, stay out of it.” He said forcefully.

                “Why do you have to be so mean?” She retorted loudly. Mike rolled his eyes and turned to Randy.

                “That’s just how siblings are.” Tiffany said, eyeing the boys.

                Mike made sure to retell his story quietly so no one would hear. Basically then everyone would know his getaway. Plus, he didn’t want Maci to hear because she would have something very opinionated and mother like to say.  The girls continued to talk as Mike recounted everything: being on the roof and falling asleep, waking up to find he wasn’t alone, Fiona trying to kill herself, him basically saving her, and his dream.

                Randy was silent as he took every word his friend said in and eating more breakfast.

                “She can’t be one us, right?” He asked when he knew Mike had finished.

                “No, she definitely wasn’t one of us…” he took a pause, looking up and down the seemingly endless table just to make sure. “She had parents.”

                They were silent; there was an overall buzz in the air from the other conversations and eating. Randy looked at Mike.

                Oh was all he said.

                Mike was about to say more when Mrs. Turner entered in a dirty housecoat with an empty liquor bottle in her hands.

                “Drunk before nine again.” Tiffany muttered as everyone around stood up on que. Everyone was too timid to say something to her about her… bad habits. They were asking for trouble if they spoke out of term.

                It’s always an endless wonder with Mrs. Turner. Will she make it up and down the table to examine everyone, or will she stick her hand in the oatmeal to “sample it” and merely walk out?

                They weren’t getting off so easily today. She began by giving a little girl, Chloe Mike only knew because of Maci, her empty bottle as she “sampled” the fruit. Why did it have to be the fruit, mike wanted to scream. His head was pounding. It was the only thing on the table he liked.

                Mrs. Turner then proceeded down the table, showing what she believed to be caring gestures to the kids. Mike saw some of them flinch and hesitate at her touch, and some stand completely still, like she wasn’t getting in their face. Still there were those who stood there, holding their breath in and their tears back and praying their chance to leave would come soon. Some kids just don’t have the stamina.

                Mike still wonders if he does. He felt like he did seven years ago… 

                What he thought was just seconds, actually had been minutes and Mrs. Turner made her way all the way down one side of the table. She was getting closer and closer to Mike and his friends. The memory of this morning loomed over him like a rain cloud. It was about to burst. And Mrs. Turner was the rain.

                Tiffany was the first victim. Mrs. Turner gave her a once over and frowned at her hair. She tried to smooth it out with her fingers. Mike could see it on Tiffany’s face how she wanted to swat Mrs. Turner’s hands away and the reassurance in Randy’s eyes not to.

                Finally she moved on to Maci. Mike’s gut tightened. He heard Mrs. Turner tell his sister to stand up straighter and that was it. He loosened a little.

                Then it was Randy. She gave him what she would argue was a love tap on the back of the head. At least in her times it was a love tap. But she, and everyone else, knows that today it would be abuse. Her actions didn’t shock just Mike, but everyone.  Of course some kids had the worse end of the deal, and everyone knows that, yet never once before had Mrs. Turner done something bad in front of everyone.

                That’s how Mike and his close friends around him knew she was really drunk.

                In the midst of everything, Mike had missed what Mrs. Turner had said to Randy and had moved onto him. He didn’t even notice she was in his face. He only did when she gave him a tap like she gave Randy.

                “What?” he blurted out. There was a unanimous gasp through the dining room. Did Mike just talk back to Mrs. Turner?

                Every inch of his body turned ice cold. He had a blank stare as he embraced what was coming: a slap, a hair pull, anything. But nothing came. Nothing. There was a louder gasp from the kids as Mrs. Turner turned and walked down the rest of the table, not stopping at anyone else and to the doors. Her footsteps echoed the whole time.

                “Get to school.” She said emotionless, walking away to her private office.

                All at once all eyes her on Mike. He did his best not to blush; the heat returning to his body. He slowly sat back down and ate more breakfast. Randy followed after a glance around at everyone. Maci and Tiffany sat down at the same time. Then like a domino effect everyone sat down and carried on like everything was normal.