Flash Of Life

Ms. Burke

Great! Just like Ms. Osgood. She's not here.

I let out a big sigh. Then I repeated what I did in Ms. Osgood's room. I sat in a desk across from hers and looked at the photos on her desk. Ms. Burke was what you would call older, but not old. Like mid to late forties, possibly early fifties. Yet she looks real good for her age. She had 2 framed photos of her family on her desk. One picture consisted of her 3 kids. Her 2 boys, Keegan who is 17, Landon who is 15 and her daughter Maxine who is 13. Her kids have unique names, but I find them fascinating. Then the other picture was of her entire family. Her husband, her, and their 3 kids. No pets.

So I continued to sit in the desk and glare around the room. Ms. Burke has so many posters in her room that revolve around English. Her favorite one hangs behind her desk. It says, "Reading... It's not a thing. It's a hobby!". Personally, I like it, but it's a little corny.

I'm still waitng. 6 minutes have gone by. Her stuff is still here, so like Ms. Osgood, she hasn't left the building. So without getting up, I look on her desk to see if there is some type of note on there for me. There wasn't. I waited another 4 more minutes to make it a total of 10 minutes. Still no Ms. Burke. I get up to go and just my luck, she walks in. I'm starting to think this was somehow planned. Same thing happened with Ms. Osgood. She looks at me standing. I'm staring back at her. Then she gives me that friendly smile that always warms me and says, "Mary, please, sit down.".

So I sat back down. I watched her as she sat down and put away some stuff and cleared off her desk. Once she was done, she leaned on her desk and stared at me, once again.

"What did you want to see me for?" I finally ask.

"I heard about your mom." She said.

"Way to sugarcoat it!". To be honest, I kinda liked that she blurted it right out, unlike Ms. Osgood. Maybe because she has had experience? I'm not totally sure.

"Did you want me to?" She asked.

"No!" I replied.

"I bet you're wondering how I heard about it.".

"Yeah. I was! But I know you heard it through Ms. Osgood. You two were chattin' in the teachers lounge and Mr. Grella heard you. He said something to me earlier today.".

"I didn't even know he was there." Ms. Burke said with kind of a shocked expression. I could tell she felt bad.

"It's not even that! It's the fact that you were talking about it with one of my teachers or vice versa or whatever! This is supposed to be confidential! Does that word even mean anything to you?!" I finally finished ranting.

She looked really hurt. And seeing her hurt is like seeing a mother deer limping. You want to help but you can't, she won't let you.

"Sorry!" I said.

"It's fine." She said with her voice slightly shaking. "I deserve it.".

"No you don't. I'm sorry I said that. I guess I have a lot on my mind and this was the last thing I wanted to deal with.".

"I'm sorry you have a lot on your mind. Anything you want to discuss?" She asked me. Usually I say yes and start ranting away, but this time I couldn't. I just couldn't.

"Nothing too serious!" I lied. "It'll blow over." I lied again. I hated lying to Ms. Burke. It felt awful.

"Alright. You know I'm always here." She said as a statement more than a question.

"So... What did you want to see me about?".

"Oh right. Back to your situation. I guess I just want to know what's going to happen. With you in particular.".

"Me? Oh, uh... Well my mom is going to jail, I don't really have any family left so I am going to be put in an orphanage. Ms. Osgood wants to adopt me though so maybe I won't go to an orphanage. I honestly don't know what's in store for me." I finished.

"Oh hun, I'm sorry you have to go through that. No child should ever have to deal with that kind of stuff. As a mom of 2 boys that are around your age, it hurts to see that this can happen to anybody at any age.".

"Well this was the life chosen for me. And I have to learn to like it because I'm stuck with it.".

"I can't say this enough Hun, I'm sorry!".

"Thanks, I guess.".

"Well you're free to go if you want. I'd stay and talk more with you but I have to get home before my kids tear the house apart. Haha!" She said kind of smiling and laughing.

"I'm good. Thank you!".

As I got up to leave, she got up too and came over and gave me one of her "warmth" hugs. Trust me when I say this, when you get a hug from her, the kind where she is holding you so close to her that you can hear her heart beating, it's one of the best hugs you can receive in the world. I love them more than anything.

After she let go, I smiled at her and left the room to go to my locker. My locker also happened to be the near the main entrance so I could see which teachers were leaving. I decided to go by Ms. Osgood's room to see if she left.

As I walk by her room, I see that she left.

"Yes!" I said to myself.

Then I proceeded back down to my locker. As I got there, I saw Ms. Burke walking out. Now I could do what I needed to. It was 3:30. I had to be out of here by 4. I opened my locker and took out 2 index cards. I wrote the same thing on both.
"Write a mini-eulogy for my funeral. I would like you to speak."

I went back to Ms. Osgood's room and slipped it under her door. I did the same thing for Ms. Burke. Regarding my friends, I have an email set up for them. I'll send it before I jump.

Now I need to get out of here. I have 3 places to be within the next hour and a half. I hope I can do it all in my now stretched time limit.

"Good bye Central High School!" I said as I walked out the front doors. "I'll miss some of you. Most of you, not so much!".

Then I got in my car, and headed over to the first of my 3 stops. St. Theresa's Cemetary.