Helen chuckles. ‘Do you remember the egg you brought in? That totally reeked!’
I’d found a delicate blue egg nestled at the bottom of the tree in my back garden. I had housed it for a week in a matchbox filled with cotton, for protection. By the time I opened it in class, it had leaked some substance that glued to the cotton – turning it yellow – and stunk like old cheese.
I allow a thin smile.
Helen scans my empty desk.
‘So…did you bring something in today?’
‘Yep.’
‘Where is it then?’
I swallow. ‘On me.’
‘What do you mean – ?
‘Class. Attention.’ Mr. Farley is scouring the room. It’s 10:30 a.m. Math is over and everyone is more relaxed and chatty, ready for Show and Tell. Most of us think we’re too old for that now, but our oddball teacher loves it. Anyway, it’s the last one we’ll ever have. Next term we’re moving up to high school, up and out like helium balloons. The building used to seem miles away but stands just across the courtyard, looming large and all grown up.
Grown up; that’s what Mr. Farley said to me the first time he pinched me. ‘Well, Anne, you’re looking all grown up these days – ears pierced. Pretty. Can I have a look?’
‘Earth to Anne?’
‘Space to Helen?’ This is our inside joke, I live in the clouds, Helen in the ground. We connect somewhere in the middle.
‘What are you hiding?’ Helen whispers.
Instinctively, I place my hand on my neck and cup it, inching up the collar on my blouse.
Mr. Farley’s still trying to round us up. Under his booming voice, I replay the images, the words. The images: In the music room. Behind the Theatre. During detention. The words: ‘It’s only light pinching. Tickling really.’
Helen’s given up trying to talk to me. She probably thinks I’m floating again, but I feel as heavy as lead. It’s the last Show and Tell and so everyone has to participate. I wait my turn. I want to go last. The room finally grows quiet as Mr. Farley asks who would like to go first. He roams the room for hands and as his eyes lock onto mine, my arm flies up.
‘Anne? Ok, your turn.’
Am I breathing? I find myself getting up from my desk and walking to the front of the classroom. All eyes are on me, including his. I shudder, and without another thought, I pull down the neckline of my blouse. I show. I then take the mini tape recorder out of my jeans pocket and press “play.” I tell.
