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Old Mr. Dodds took the wraps off his English History course the last two weeks before
finals and gave his-students enough details about the Regency Period to arouse a burning
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love for scatology in the breasts of students who had never cared for history at all. He also
gave the class a blanket "A." He was promptly suspended for conduct unbecoming a
teacher and went chortling into retirement.
"I've been wanting to do that for thirty years," he chuck- led as he made his way through a
crowd of admiring students after his last session with the School Board. "For thirty years I've
taught emasculated pap for children and I finally got tired of it. This time I gave them the
facts."
"What do you intend to do now?" a reporter asked. "The Board can't allow you to continue
teaching. They've got you labeled as a menace to society. In Socrates' rime they'd have fed
you a hemlock cocktail."
"I couldn't care less," Dodds said. '*It makes no differ- ence what they do. I'm six months
past retirement, so they can't take away my pension. That was my last class. I stayed on only
because I was asked." Mr. Dodds chuckled. "I guess I have finally become too old to be
worried about anything. I was tired of distorting the truth. Put it down to senile dementia if
you wish."
"Your diagnosis may be correct," the reporter said, "but I doubt it."
"You might be right," Dodds replied. "That could have been the only sane act of my entire
Hfe."
And while this was going on and the staid order of John Tyier High School was being
destroyed, things were happen- ing to Lenny. His shoelaces came untied. His books disap-
peared. Drinks spilled on him. He stumbled and fell in empty corridors, and suffered
embarrassing rips in his trousers. Things were constantly getting in his way. Accidents ciung
to him as though he was their patron saint. He developed alert- ness and a sixth sense of
impending disaster that enabled him
106
J.F.Bone
to dodge things like falling fire axes and flower pots. Lcnny was certain that Mary Ellen was
behind the trouble. He was always conscious of her presence. And gradually, his feeling of
resentment and persecution turned from fear to a growing anger. Enough was enough. He
had no desire to become a statistic, but he was damned if he'd spend the rest of
year looking over his shoulder or listening for things that went bump in the dark. He was
damned if he was going to duck every time a bird flew over his head. He'd see Mary Ellen
alone and settle this once and for all.
It took two days to comer her in a deserted corridor.
"I've taken all I'm going to," Lenny told her fiercely. "Now get off my back and stay off."
"You just think you have, Lenny Stone," Mary .Ellen replied. "1 haven't even started on you!"
Her eyes widened and her slim body tensed. "You're going to regret the day you jilted me!"
"I never " Lcnny began.
"Don't lie! You kissed me last summer, and then went
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right over to Sue Campbell."
"Good grief did you think I me&nt anything? That was just common courtesy. You giris
expect to be kissed. I've
known that from junior high."
"No boy ever kissed me before. You lied to me and you'll
pay for it."
"The way you're overreacting, a guy would think we made out," Lenny said. "I wouldn't touch
you with tongs- You're a weirdo of the worst kind. And if you're worrying about me kissing
you don't. It won't happen again. Just lay off, that's all 1 ask. I don't want any part of you,
anytime. Get out of my life and stay out of it. I don't give a damn what you do to anyone else,
even though I know you're responsible for everything that's wrong around here. I don't know
how you do it. but so help me, if you try to put the whammy on me again I'll "
"You'll what?"
"1 don't know but it'll be something drastic." '
Mary's body tensed and Lenny felt an overwhelming weight settle on his shoulders. His
knees buckled under the strain and his body sagged as it was forced toward the floor. "I'd
TWEEN 107
love to see you crawl!" Mary Ellen gritted. "You snake!" and he was a snake, complete
with skin and scales. He wanted to slither away from here. An empty high school corridor
was no place for a snake. He shivered and straight- ened. This was wrong! He wasn't a
snake; he was a man! Sweat poured from his face as he forced his sagging body erect,
hands clawing at the air for support. One hand struck Mary Ellen's shoulder, and as it did, a
sharp gasp came from the girl. The weight on his back was gone, his scales van- ished.
Volition rushed back to his muscles and Mary Ellen writhed on her back on the corridor
floor looking up at him with hate-filled eyes. "You pushed me!" she gasped. "You knocked
me down!"
"I told you I'd do something if you tried any more fancy tricks,'* Lenny said heavily. "So long
Mary see you around." He turned from her and walked away, slowly at first. Then he began
to run. He skidded around a comer and disappeared.
Mary Ellen rose to her feet. Rage radiated from her. He had made a fool of her again. The
window beside her exploded in a burst of flying glass. Two girls coming down the corridor
were slammed against the wall. Mary stood in the center of a whirlpool of fury- The floor
heaved, a crack appeared in the ceiling, chunks of plaster fell, and a rain of fine gray dust
drifted down in crazy patterns through the tortured air.
Mary gasped at the ruin surrounding her. Was she doing this? The thought that Lenny might
be right crossed her mind, followed by a wave of terror. For if he was right, she'd be
expelled maybe even sent to jail! But on the heels of her terror came another thought. If
Lenny was right, and she did have this kind of power, there must be a way of controlling
it Mary Ellen's lips curled in a peculiar half smile that was hard and unpleasant. Lenny
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Stone would whistle a different tune when she got through with him! Meantime, she'd better
do something about those two girls. They had seen her and the wreckage that surrounded [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]