Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I went through the rest of the week in a daze. There was no word from Max.
I did not try calling him.
I did go to the seafront and fling into the ocean the pearl necklace he gave me, though. As soon as the milky beads touched the water, I was full of unbelievable regret. I dived in, fully clothed, after it, but it was gone forever.
The way Max was gone forever from me.
1
SAVANNAH
(Four years later)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7KNmW9a75Y
-flowers-
Twenty-three pairs of eyes were fixed on my face as the bell rang. I could hear a pin drop. I could feel them squirming at the silence that ensued. Finally, I opened my mouth, and the class seemed to draw a collective breath in anticipation.
“You may go to lunch.”
“Thank you, Miss Maitland!” they chorused happily as they dashed out of their seats.
I began to count to ten. Even before I got to seven, the door was already closing behind the last child. Smiling to myself at their incredible zest for life, I turned towards my desk. I loved my job as a middle-school teacher, but there were days when I needed a break and today was one such day.
I could feel a headache starting behind my eyes.
Quickly, I packed my things and headed towards the teacher’s lounge, making sure to lock the door behind me as I did. Mid-semesters were coming up in a few weeks and I did not want to run the risk of any mischief with tampered tests. I knew my eleven-year-olds well enough to know how sneaky they could be.
I entered the lounge, sank into the closest chair, and slipped my shoes off. I pulled out the pins that had tightly held my thick hair in a bun all morning and allowed it to fall down my back. Some of the pressure behind my eyes eased. I leaned back and closed my eyes.
“Rough morning?”
My eyes opened and my gaze found Stacey standing over me, a cup of coffee in her outstretched hand. I smiled thankfully and took the hot beverage from her. Cupping it in my palms I took a sip.
“I’ve had worse, but it could have been better. I just don’t know what’s gotten into them this morning. I had to reprimand them at least five times, and only when I threatened to call their parents, did they settle down a bit.”
She waved her hand in front of her face. “I swear, it’s that time of year. I don’t know what it is about March, but it just drives them all so giddy and feral. My crew is the same.”
I laughed. “You sound like you’re talking about a field of wild ponies.”
“It’s the spring thaw that’s doing it. All winter they’ve been frozen and now that it’s warming up, they’re getting feeling in their little bodies again.”
I considered Stacey’s theory as I took another sip of coffee.
“You might be onto something there, Stacey.”
“What else could it be?” Dayton, another teacher, looked at her over my head as he plopped himself on the arm of the chair I was sitting in. Automatically I leaned forward out of his reach while pretending to reach down and massage my feet. Dayton had this annoying habit of encroaching on other people’s personal space. At first, I took it personally, but then I realized that was just the way he was with everyone.
“I just hope they will settle down soon before I lose it completely,” I said as I stood and stretched. I could feel the kinks in my back straighten out a bit and the relief was heavenly.
“Want a back massage? I’m really good,” Stacey offered.
“Thanks, but that would put me to sleep for a week. I need to wake up,” I said, as I slipped my shoes back on and made a beeline for the pantry to find myself a snack. I came back with a bag of chips and went to stand by the window overlooking the parking lot.
I thought about when I started teaching at Dunrobin Middle School. I’d been fresh out of college and getting this job had been the only bright spark in my life. In fact, that summer had been the worst one of my life and one I wished I could wipe away forever from my memories. But now and then old images, three dimensional, moving, complete with color, sounds, and smells, encroached into the peace of my mind.
Almost as if I had conjured them, I felt them begin to come up before me. That terrible birthday… me standing by the ocean, the feel of the wind in my hair as I flung my beautiful pearl necklace into the relentless waves. The glint of the milky beads as they disappeared from view. He gave that necklace to me. I remembered again, how divinely sublime and vast the sky had seemed, and how small, fragile, and broken I’d felt then.