July 16

A Chapter by Calypso

July 16

It’s still smoldering hot. I was finally able to call Dad today. I didn’t feel like talking to him in person so I called his office and as I predicted he was gone.

Holding the receiver close to my face I whispered “Hay Dad this is Aelge and umm… I need er… shorts. They’ve let up on the pants rule. And… er… the air conditioner is broken. And it’s 95 degrees outside. So… if you don’t mind could you bring me five pairs? Well thanks. Bye. I love you.”

I hate talking on phone so as soon as I could hang up I did. Behind me there was a line of about 20 people. I was sure they didn’t want to call home for shorts, but I still hurried up.

I basically crawled back into the hole I had come from. I’ve decided to make the left back corner of the children’s books my little hole. In reality it’s nothing more then a space but I feel protected by the soaring bookcases.

I had read all the books Dad gave me for my birthday so I was left to try to find a descent book to read. For the time being I’m reading the books of my childhood like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Peter Rabbit. Some people stopped to look, and they seemed to be amused to see me sitting in the floor with children’s book, but for the time being I’ve tried to put that out of my head.

I watched as a girl came near me. She looked healthy, but I knew she there was a reason why she here at Bryant’s. Her soft blond hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail. She looked like the frizz from the humidity had raged war in her hair.

In addition her clothes were clean and form fitting, something you rarely ever see here. On her face was a new looking pair of glasses.

Using my legs I pushed myself towards the bookcase. She seemed to think this was signaling for her to sit by me, but really I was just curling up into a ball.

“Can you read?” She asked saying the words slowly and loud. She was smiling widely. It was more cheesy and phony then a high school pep rally.

“I can hear.” I didn’t mean to sound cruel, but my tone made it seem like I felt that way.

Her smile fell. For a moment she looked crestfallen, but quickly recovered. “Do you like that book?”

This girl surly wasn’t pompous and her intentions were good, but I felt embarrassed.

“Sure I do. They used to read this to us in elementary school.”

“So you can read?”

I knew what she thought.

At Bryant’s there is a huge chunk of teens that are illiterate. They were born crack baby, lived among crank and ended up crack addicts and in the process they never learned how to read or write. There’s a program here to teach the teens how to read.

I know my teeth look terrible, my hair has fallen out and my check have sunken in, but do I look like an addict? Many it’s the bags under my eyes. The anxiety of not being able to purge has left me sleepless many nights.

“I learned to read when I was young. My mother taught me.”

There was a soft pause as the girl adjusted her glasses. “Have I seen you before?”

I nodded my head, but as soon as I did she exploded out with, “Are you Pastor Howard’s child? I’ve seen you around church. He didn’t tell us his daughter was here.”

To be frank I’ve never seen the girl as day in my life.

“Why are you here?” I asked quickly.

“Oh I’m from your church. Our college class will come coming here for once a week for the rest of summer.”

Then I suddenly remember who she was. She was one of the students in Dad’s college bible study.

“I didn’t know the youth group was volunteering here too.”

I felt frozen. I hadn’t thought anyone from church would be here. How could I ever explain why I was here with out telling them everything?
Thankfully before I could say anything the girl was call for and she left without much else said.

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