On the edge of everything

Part 8

The morning of the walk out, I get to school at seven. Jessie, Sara and I dash throughout the school before the sun is even up, making sure that the teachers are ready, the announcement is written and, in my case, ensuring that the posters are ready to go. In each of our pockets we hold a list of the seven names we will speak into the microphones, on the minute every minute.

As the clock nears 10, I ask to be excused from AP Calc. Rose gives me a sad smile and squeezes my hand before I leave the room and head down toward the front office where Sara and Jessie are waiting for me. We don't say anything, a solemn air having stifled the school, making it difficult to breathe clearly.

At exactly 10, rather than the bell that typically ends fifth block, I pick up the phone that will allow my voice to project throughout every hall and classroom in the school.

"Hello, Saint Catherine's. We ask that everyone please settle themselves and sit silently in each others' presence."

Jessie: Please open your hearts and your minds to our words.

Sara: Remember the love and the community that surrounds you, today and everyday.

Pause.

Me: Exactly one month ago at 1:17 PM a shooter started firing at Evans' Charter High School in Beaverton, Oregon.

Jessie: Between 1:17 and 1:19, twenty students, three teachers and one security guard were hit with bullets from his weapon: an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

Sara: Seven of those that were hit were killed. Six students, one teacher, lost to senseless violence.

Me: One of those students was holding the door open for students to escape. Two of those students were trying to take down the shooter. The teacher was attempting to block the shooter's entrance into a classroom of twenty-nine freshmen, all of whom survived uninjured.

Pause. We take in a heavy breath in unison.

Jessie: There were three seniors, two freshmen and one sophomore killed.

Sara: four sisters, 3 brothers, one twin, 7 cousins, 7 children, one parent, two uncles.

Me: Two basketball players, one soccer player, two thespians, one dancer, two singers, one painter, two poets, one environmental activist.

Jessie: seven beautiful people who should be alive today.

Pause.

Sara: We now ask you to quietly leave your classrooms and make your way to the front hall and out the school. Wrap around the block so that everyone can participate.

Me: If for any reason you cannot walk out or don't want to, please head to the library.

Jessie: Once again, please hold this time in silence. Thank you.

Jessie quickly puts the phone on its stand and we all run towards the front hall. Samantha, Loise, Elena, Margot and Rose are waiting for us- all of my recruits for handing out the signs. I pass out the signs that we painted yesterday and instruct them to hand them out to as many students as possible as they make their way outside. At the front door and scattered around the block are faculty, helping to keep the silence for the short time that we hold it.

The hundreds of students and teachers and staff slowly and reverently make their way down the steps and around the building. I thought that we were going to have to instruct them to be silent, but everyone is incredibly quiet as they move over the brick and around the school. Motions are slow, as if carried out in water. I see no phones, only signs held in the air: