CALVIN

forty: the spring show

"What are you going to do?"

"I dunno," I said. "I think I'm going to write an article. Send it to the Südkurier."

"In English?" Ana looked at me disbelieving. "This region is full of a bunch of Catholic German Boomers who think a Chinese person opening a restaurant is an attack on their basic human rights. They'll see one English word and turn the page."

"You can write it."

She shook her head. "I don't know how to write. And I wouldn't know what to say."

"You know how to speak. Just say something, and turn it into words."

"My German isn't the best."

Suddenly, Maddy plunked a bowl down on the dining hall table me and Ana were sitting at. With a screech of a chair she sat down.

Ana and I stared at her.

"Why're you so sweaty?" asked Ana.

Maddy huffed out a breath. "I just ran a kilometre."

"You ran one kilometre?"

She shoveled yogurt into her mouth and nodded her head. She looked like she was in pain. "I'm training for the Stüttgarter marathon."

"And when's that?"

"March 20th."

"So... less than a month."

Maddy was already scraping the sides of her bowl clean. Nodded. "It's been on my bucket list for ages. Anyways. You guys are writing an article for the Südkurier?"

I didn't think anyone was listening to us. "It's just a thought."

"What about?"

"I... mmmm..." I looked at Ana, unsure. She picked up and pulled back her shoulders. Said, "Just some injustice that's been happening at this school. And how Mr Taylor will go to great ends to protect the injustice's ass."

"Oooo." Maddy was intrigued. She leaned in across the table. "Who's ass?" Suddenly recognition on her face. "Oh! Neal, right?" laughed. "I remember what you did to him on Valentine's."

Ana pursed her lips. "Yeah. Him."

"I think that's really good." Maddy pulled a clementine out from her coat pocket and started peeling it. "He actually, uh, raped me too."

"What?"

"Neal. It was the night of the Halloween dance. After I left Elias's." She popped a crescent of clementine into her mouth and looked at us nonchalantly as she chewed. "Want some?"

Ana and I were both a bit caught off-guard, a bit thunderstruck. The air in the dining hall had suddenly become colder, angrier. Shivers were going up my spine and at the same time I was sweating. Ana pushed back her chair and stood. "Maddy, come with me."

"What?"

"Now." Ana pulled her to her feet and they left the hall together.

I sat there for a while. No clear thoughts were forming in my head. Just a building feeling of sickness and unease, confusion and intensity.

...

There was something about Mr Taylor's non-promising response to the news about the Bona Fide club, and Maddy's casual declaration at breakfast, that sent me straight back to my bedroom that day. I bunkered down in bed and tried to fall asleep, but there was too much going on in the world - too much injustice, too much worry, too much pain - for me to relax. I was convinced my words to Mr Taylor fell on deaf ears - maybe he was just as corrupt as those faceless executives in some Stüttgart office building. Maybe he knew all about the club - maybe he'd known all along - and maybe, maybe, Calvin knew as well.