Visions

To keep from getting a ride home to the end of the peninsula and the village and his house, Noah turned away from passing cars. He was known and people liked him and he wanted no interruptions. He was still seeing the glowing tent of her golden hair as it lowered over him, and hearing her ask him if he was all right.

And then he would start it all over again. His resistance to going. The very word party sparked an unpleasant feeling that he was sure would turn into a bonfire at the thing itself. So even putting on clothes that he thought would please Betty took hellishly long. So at the part where he had to choose between his favourite shirt that had ink on the pocket and a cleaner shirt that would never stay tucked in, he skipped on in his mind to the bonfire. That had flared up immediately. Because Ellis was there. Ellis who was always dogging Betty, between classes, at pep rallies, with incessant texts. Ellis who had on a striped shirt like the convicts in old cartoons and who was standing holding court in the middle of the room between him and Betty. Ellis whom he approached rather than sidestepped because why? Because of something in him that was reckless and would not be put down.

Ellis who might have been waiting for him. Because when he stopped right in front of him and said, “Well, if it isn't Ellis the stalker!”, Ellis replied, “Well, look who’s here, Mr. Better Than Everybody. Gents, start your engines.” And that must have been when someone knelt behind him, so when Ellis pushed him he fell and was grabbed and pinned and a cloth was pressed over his nose. And he heard Ellis crowing, “You may be smart, but I got someone smarter. Somebody who does what I tell him. Somebody in chemistry who can make chloroform right there in the classroom with the teacher watching.” There was more but the words drifted off in a distance and then there was nothing.

***

Betty knew she had to make the bed soon. Her parents were due home anytime. And the house was still wrecked and her bed was still just as she left it, with the covers thrown back and Noah’s glasses lying there. Because why? Because she wanted to remember, in a way she would never forget, their first night together.

She went immediately, in her own reruns, to Noah lying there on the floor and Ellis and his gang swarming like ants on a butterfly. And to herself, in a rage beyond any she had ever felt, grabbing a broom and swatting them, swatting and swatting and screaming and swatting, till they were all out the door. And then chasing everyone else out the door, even her bestest best friends. And then kneeling by him so her hair fell down around him and made sure that they were all alone and he was safe.

***

And she had helped him up. And she had led him to her bed. And later she was in there too. And all the day after the morning they parted, they were with - although not with - each other, and their visions glowed brightly like sunlight through storm clouds and their thoughts for the most part were missing in action.

7 December 2025
Texas Jim
Prospect, Nova Scotia