The Girl Who Sat in the Corner

Chapter 9 - Bus

It was Friday and Wesley was looking forward to escaping the crowds, noise and general stupidity of school for two days. He made a mental list of books he wanted to read, some engineering and physics texts he recently discovered that his father had saved from college. He knew he should get back to the game he was coding and seeing if he could force another time slip routine (or at least figure out how the one he had stumbled on actually worked). He organized his mental plans like he would straighten out his desk at home before settling down to a new project, pencils sharpened, a fresh sheet of note paper in front of him.

But there was part of his mind that just laughed. It knew that she would keep creeping into his thoughts like smoke from a fire through the crack under a door. He had become an expert at protecting himself from almost any outside emotional force, but there was never anything like this. The fire would break through and the dark and painful depression would burn, choke and eventually consume him.

The bus home was Friday-loud. The day's rain made the air inside close, foul-smelling and dankly humid. Wesley was late getting on and couldn't find a seat near a window. He sat on the aisle, a loud, foul-mouthed junior beside him who was alternately exchanging rude insults with two friends behind him while whispering things in the ear of a girl in the next row who just giggled and gave him light, make-believe slaps on his cheek with totally different intentions in her heavily made up eyes. As soon as the bus started, the driver yelled, "Hey! Quiet down!" and of course the riders just got louder.

Later, stopped at a long traffic light, Wesley heard Rima's shrill voice a couple of rows behind him, "Oh look, she's writing love poems on her tablet again! C'mon! We all want to hear it!" She walked up and yanked the device away from Kai, "Let's see who my ugly little sister has the hots for now!" Her eyes opened wide with a mock sense of shock when she glanced at the screen.

"Give it back!" Kai shouted, with mingled anger and fear. Wesley looked back and saw Rima bringing Kai's tablet above her head, standing to keep it out of reach. Kai struggled to get it back but the girl in the seat behind her grabbed her arm hard and yanked her back down.

"You have a good voice, Doug-ey, you read it!" She casually tossed the tablet across the aisle to Doug Pratt who held it up and wiggled it just out of Kai's reach before walking forward to where he could have a larger audience.

He walked by Wesley, looking down at him with a look that spoke of his complete confidence that Wes would never dare to interfere and at the same time threatened the violence that was in store if he did. Their eyes locked for just a flash. Wesley knew what he should do at that moment. He even visualized himself jumping up, grabbing the tablet and taking whatever punishment resulted. Every cell in his body knew that was what he should do. But for an instant, he hesitated.

At that moment, the tablet tumbled from Doug Pratt's fingers.

Kai screamed, short, shrill and sharp. Then she looked on helplessly as it arced down and saw the glowing screen hit the metal hand-hold on the corner of the bus seat, flashing blue-white before going black. The sound of shattering glass cut through the noise in the bus and almost immediately silenced it.

No one spoke when Kai came forward and picked up her tablet, the screen now black, a few remaining shards of glass falling to the floor as she walked back to her seat. The shock and grief in her eyes silently cried out the enormousness of her loss, her lips were parted as if she still didn't quite believe what had just happened.

She didn't look at Wesley--or anyone for that matter. Just down at the wreckage of her tablet. She took her seat, holding the wrecked tablet to her chest and stared down at her lap.

At that moment, Wesley began hating himself more than he hated anyone or anything ever before. He had the chance to help, the tablet could have been safely in his hands, but his fear make him hesitate for just a moment, but long enough for him to fail. He had let Kai down and he felt a regret and shame more intense than he had ever known.

At that moment, he thought he knew what she felt about in the hallway, trying to help after it was too late: his weakness, his uselessness, his absolute worthlessness as protector and friend. This time, his failure to act stole from her the gateway to the one world that she loved and that loved her.