The Beginning: A Novel of Crossed Paths

Chapter 5: Name Tag - Mark

Chapter 5

Name Tag

Mark

I tried to contact Scarlett the day after the dance, but she never picked up the phone.  Jeanette always said she was out at the beach.  When I heard this, I went down to the beach myself, but it was clear that Scarlett had not been down to the beach in the last week.  I went to her house to see if she was avoiding me – Jeanette still claimed she was at the beach.  I could not tell Jeanette that she was lying because she clearly believed it herself.  Scarlett just was not anywhere to be found.

Trevor was worried about her, too.  He called me multiple times over the weekend to see if I had talked to her after Friday or not.  My answer was always the same – No I had not talked to her; yes, she seemed fine when I dropped her off on Friday; I was ninety-five percent sure she would be in school on Monday.

When I was not worrying about Scarlett that weekend, I was trying to think of a way to help her communicate more normally.  She was always confined to yes or no answers when she was not near a computer.  I admit I did have another motive to find her a more effective means of communication.  I wanted to learn all about her – her dreams, fears, likes, and dislikes.  The time in Microsoft Excel was not enough to even begin to satiate my thirst for knowledge.  I would have to find a way to spend more time with her and learn more to help me with my play list.

The Monday after the dance, I was going to see if Scarlett would like to sit with Trevor and me at lunchtime.  I would understand if she did not, of course.  It was reasonable to avoid most people after an embarrassing or frightening experience.

I was not that surprised to not see Scarlett in the lunchroom Monday.  I did not know that she was avoiding Jeanette, too, but it made sense with how she was not at home all weekend.  Even though I knew this, there was that nagging five percent in the back of my mind worrying me.

I asked Trevor, “Do you see Scarlett anywhere?”

“No, I haven’t really seen her all day,” he answered.  “She was in gym, so I know she’s here, but she seemed even more reserved than usual.  In any case, she did not try to talk to me at all.  Maybe she’s still mad.”

“She wasn’t mad to begin with,” I corrected him.  “She didn’t want you to worry about her last Friday.  Seems to me that even though her evening didn’t go as planned, she didn’t want anyone else to have a less than satisfactory night.”

“Why isn’t she with Jeanette then?” he asked me, frustrated.

“She wasn’t at home all weekend.  Maybe she just needed some alone time.”

“Well I wish she would talk to me.  I feel really bad about what happened Friday.”

“She knows that, too.  She probably thinks that you don’t want to talk to her since you weren’t trying to get everything settled after gym.”

“But I never talk to her in gym, there’s no time.”

“Who can understand the way girls think,” I told him.

“You got that right,” he agreed.

“I’m going to go ask Jeanette if she knows where Scarlett is.”  I was getting tired of Trevor’s constant distressing.  If Jeanette knew where Scarlett was, I would probably join her.

I stood and walked away from the table with my book bag in tow.  Behind me I heard Trevor ask another person who was at our table if they had talked to Scarlett today, forgetting that no one ever really talked to her.  Even if she did not mean to be, she was intimidating.