Walter

HAVE YOU SEEN MY LAB PARTNER?

Michael sat in class as he stared out the window. The sky had darkened and the rain had come so quickly that it had awoken him from the daze and doldrums that school brought. He wasn't paying attention to what was going on in class, but had focused his attention to the torrent that was happening outside the window.

This was one of the reasons he'd picked a seat at the back of the class nearest to the windows. When class started to bore him he'd look out into the world. It also gave him a sense of when the weather changed.

He was glad he'd already had gym class for the day. He didn't envy his classmates who would be running outside in the afternoon. If the rain didn't stop after lunch, they would have to play in the gym and no one liked it as Mr. Welch's usual fallback to a rainout was dodge ball. Everyone hated having to play dodge ball.

The rain seemed to fall in huge sheets. Sometimes coming straight down and other times when the wind picked up in huge gusts, it was almost horizontal.

Facing forward, he whispered to the seat next to him.

"Hey Walter, it's a good thing you're not outside right now or the wind would pick you up and send you for a kite ride, he he..." he snickered a little under his breath at this last thought. He knew that every time a good gust of wind came about, it sent Walter back a foot or two before he'd regain his footing.

He was waiting for Walter to respond but when only silence greeted him he looked over at the seat next to him.

"Walter?" he whispered again. "Hello? Where are you?"

Michael looked around himself, under the desk, around the classroom, but could see no Walter.

"Did you lose something?" whispered Steven, who sat across from Michael.

"Oh, ummm... no. I just thought I did," replied Michael.

"Uhuh, sure. Always knew you were weird," Steven shot back.

"Ya, I know."

Michael ignored Steven's comment for the time being. He was trying to remember the last time he'd seen Walter. He didn't recall seeing him in the last class. But Walter was always fairly quiet to start with, so he was not surprised that he didn't remember seeing him.

On the bus perhaps, thought Michael. He wasn't sure. His older brother had decided to wrestle with him during the bus ride and then teased him about some girl he thought Michael liked.

He couldn't remember if Walter had been on the bus. Things had been pretty rambunctious. The driver had yelled at them several times to sit down and shut up. But he always said such things and never did anything about it. He guessed that they never got too out of hand.

The last time he remembered seeing Walter was when they had left the house to catch the bus. He was sure Walter had gotten on as he'd never missed it before. With all the commotion and hurrying the morning had brought, he figured he'd just hadn't noticed Walter at all.

"I wonder where he is and what he's up to, not like him to miss class." he said.

"Who are you talking to?" whispered Steven.

"Huh? Oh... no one."

"Uhuh. Nothing new there, weirdo."

"Ya ya. Whatever," replied Michael.

He turned his attention back to looking out the window. "I just hope you're in school, Walter."