As The Mill Grinds

DISLOCATED Chapter 2

" Tré,"

"Here,"

"Victor,"

"Here,"

"Wallace,"

"Here," Mr. Henri took the morning's attendance.

"Zack,...Zack!" Mr. Henri was becoming very weary of Zack's unusual zoning out. What is wrong with this kid? He's a role model student, but this zoning lately is really getting on my nerves.

Zack was staring out the window as his mind wondered on what his mom told him the day in front after she caught him reading an old letter. He stumbled across it written to her while he was looking for his Lacrosse gear. He hadn't played since last summer when he fell and broke his arm, but now healed, he decided to head back out to his practice sessions. He examined the stamp which had a strange emblem on it with the country Barbados written in the watermark and addressed from a Nadine Henderson. It was dated ten years ago, she was asking to see her son. Strange, why was she asking my mom to see her son? He rummaged through the box and found more letters. This one is from twelve years, nine years, wait... even two years ago? What is all this about? Zack muttered to himself. It was all too confusing. After his mom caught him she snatched the box and letters from him. When he asked about the boy this woman Nadine was asking to see, she said that in her days as a social worker in Barbados she helped a little girl with her son's adoption, but that was a long time ago.

"But, how did she find you in Canada? It's not like we are anywhere close to her in the world." She walked out of the room but he followed her keeping up the pace and still interrogating, "Mr. Laurent, my Geography teacher mentioned countries in the Americas, and Barbados was one of them. Maybe she was..."

"Zack," Mrs. Wellington turned around quickly catching him off guard. She looked into her son's confused but curious eyes and pain gripped her chest, but she quickly ignored it and snapped, "Zack! This is my personal business, which you have no right to be snooping around!"

"Look mom, I'm sorry. I was just looking for my gear and thought I left them in your room and that you put them in this box. I know you hate me playing contact sports, so I just figured you put them away here. Trust me I wasn't intentionally looking." Zack leaned back against the wall and lowered his head.

Seeing how sincere he was, she drop her defences, "Hey, I am sorry I snapped ok? This was a long time ago and has nothing to do with you," she gently stroked his face, he looked at her, "Look this my past and it should be put away as the past should and not be interfered with. Ok?" Zack nod his head, but, he still wasn't satisfied, he decided to let it go, for now.

* * *

"Psssst... Zack, Zack!" Charlie Yang, Zack's best friend tried to get his attention before Mr. Henri started yelling. One wrong move and he would be yelling at the whole class. Charlie was an exchange student from South Korea and became friends with Zack almost instantly when he enrolled at Burnaby Secondary School District to be a part of the Performance Arts Programme. He was really good at playing almost any instrument, it was like he was a whole orchestra in one. There was the language barrier that was a problem at first, but the more English Charlie learnt the closer the two became. Zack felt they had something in common. "Pssst..."

"Huh? What is it?" Zack stared at his friend oblivious to roll call.

"Answer your name dude,"

"Zack Wellington! Are you with us this morning, or were you beamed up by aliens?" Mr. Henri usually had a few sarcastic puns that he threw at his class

Zack jumped up knocking over the table in front of him, which caused an eruption of laughter and pointed fingers. Charlie stood up and yell something in Korean at them, which made the class laugh even harder.