F*** Cancer, This One Did Us All In.

4

One hour and thirty seven minutes.

That was how long I had been sitting, bored, at the desk right in front of Mrs Hobkins'. She was like a robot, spent her entire time either staring at me, typing terrorist emails to the government on her computer or violently coughing. I had just sat there the entire time and felt every single second pass by like aeons slowly ending. Every time I made the slightest sounds, Mrs Hobkins would give me a hard look. I never knew silence could be so deafening. But it was like a thick blanket that wrapped itself around me and suffocated me. I was so nervous and edgy. I wanted to shift around in my chair but I also didn't want to run the risk of making noise. The only noises heard in her classroom were the violent coughs she produced and the slight tapping noises of her typing.

One hour and thirty eight minutes.

Mrs Hobkins looked at me and smiled. "Theodore, do you know what I love most about staying at this school until four o'clock, especially on a Friday?"

I didn't answer. Not because I didn't have an answer because, let's face it, I had dozens of answer to that question all of which would have only landed me in another detention. I just didn't think she was looking for me to answer.

"The silence. You children are such chatterboxes. You never shut up. It's constant noise with you children. That's why I always strive to eradicate as much noise as possible in my classrooms." She coughed violently and looked at me. "Complete and utter silence, Theodore that is what you will one day learn to cherish." Doubt it, I thought as she coughed violently again. "Because in silence, Theodore you will find peace. Serenity." In the past hour and forty minutes of silence serenity was the last thing I felt. "Noise is messy and chaotic. Noise is loud and destructive." She coughed. Again. "The whole world could learn to live without noise. Maybe then our government could make some good decisions for once!" as she coughed again I wondered if she had just made a joke. "Theodore, remember the advice I'm giving you today," pfft, like that's going to happen.

"Silence is where you gather your thoughts," she coughed again, a long cough that almost got me worried for her. "And noise is where you throw them out."

I wondered why Mrs Hobkins was saying that stuff to me. It wasn't like I asked for the talk, although it did swallow up five more minutes of my time left. But then I saw how pale Mrs Hobkins' skin was. Her eyes had dark rings around them and she looked incredibly tired. I didn't say anything, though. Don't speak out, don't react. I guess you could call that my motto. Mrs Hobkins coughed again and this cough didn't stop, it went on and on and on and she now had both her hands over her mouth and her eye were watering, I was getting to my feet and I could see her entire body shook from her coughing.

"Mam, are you okay?"

Idiot. Of course she's not. But then her coughing receded and she was breathing heavily. She kept her hands on her cheeks as if she was checking her pulse – and if her pulse was on her cheeks – and she closed her eyes. I gave her that moment to compose herself and she looked at me with wet eyes.

"I am fine, Theodore."

She moved her hands away from her cheeks and I screamed. I'm sorry, but I did. Like a little girl. I was screaming and I was screaming loud. I stumbled backwards fast. And fell over a table. My ass hurt. My back hurt. And I still screamed at what I saw. At that sight.