Malcolm looked out the window. "We have a lot more to talk about, but that will come later," he told me, "Right now, you're about seven hours late for school, if I'm right. You really wanted to go there today, didn't you?"
"Shit!" Of course! I needed to see Karyn! When I looked back, he was gone. I picked up the rock. "I wish I were dressed, had all of my school supplies and were standing just outside the building right now." There was a flash of light, and before I knew it, I was standing outside the school. I'd have words with Malcolm later, and I'd try to figure out a way to undo the damage I'd done. I knew I felt bad about it and all, but I also knew that Jon would have felt a hell of a lot worse, and that bothered me a little.
Not as much though, as the fact that I almost didn't recognize the outside of our school when I appeared there
It wasn't that the school had changed all that much. In fact, the building itself remained pretty much the same. It was really the little differences that caught my attention. I wasn't used to the police cars parked along the parking lot in front of the building, and I knew that sometimes I let my mind wander a little bit, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't remember the metal detectors in front of the main entrance. As I looked around, noticing that there didn't seem to be any other students outside right now, I noticed small security cameras hanging obtrusively from the outer walls of the building, and a couple, as I looked up and around, hanging from the lamp posts in the parking lot. A few thoughts creeped through my mind at that point. First and foremost, I'd been here yesterday, when Karyn and I had experimented with the twig, and she'd made her little wishing faux pas. I knew for a fact that security had been a little more lax yesterday, and things like this didn't crop up over night. Only a wish could have brought this about.
What the hell did you do? I asked myself. It was a question that I was becoming more and more familiar with lately. It seemed like every time I'd made a wish, something terrible had happened. Something terrible and unexpected. Once more I thought about Jill, and I thought about Jenny, and I even thought about Rick and Violet. *All the lives I've * I forced myself away from the word damaged. I found I didn't feel so bad if I simply thought about it as changed. Besides, who was I, or anybody else for that matter, to say which reality was better than which? I shook my head, trying to push these thoughts away.
And who the hell was Malcolm anyway? I wasn't sure why, maybe it was just a hunch, or maybe it was intuition, but there was something about him that I didn't trust. I knew he wasn't telling me everything, to be honest he hadn't really told me much of anything, and I wondered exactly what he was hiding. He always gets so quiet after he starts talking about Grandpa, I thought. When I looked up, I noticed an officer was walking toward me. He didn't look belligerent, just curious. At about that point, I also realized that although I was dressed and ready for school, I hadn't had a chance to shower so I probably smelled a lot like some terrible combination of sex, pot, and alcohol.
"I wish I'd showered this morning," I whispered, my fingers grazing the rock in my purse.
"Good afternoon," he said, nodding at me as he approached. He was probably about thirty, and he really wasn't bad looking. I pushed those thoughts away though. For the moment, I didn't want to have anything to do with thoughts of a sexual nature.
I nodded back. "Hello," I said rather meekly.
"Class doesn't get out for another twenty minutes," he said carefully, taking a casual look around. "Can I ask what you're doing out here?"
Shit! I really didn't have an answer. I knew I wasn't going to make class. I'd mainly come here to meet up with Karyn. I hadn't expected to have to explain myself to a police officer. I looked around for a moment, hoping he didn't find my hesitation suspicious. Then I had a thought. It was a long shot, and I wasn't sure if he'd believe it or not, but I decided to give it a try. I could just wish he didn't notice me. I thought. But what horrible way would the rock interpret that? I knew I was having only a short lived moment of clarity, and that soon I'd probably be wishing again, but for the moment, I was too worried to use it.
I reached down into my purse and pulled out one of the tampons I'd found there the other night. "Sorry officer," I said trying my best to sound a little embarrassed, rather than worried. "Bit of an emergency, and I had one out in the car and "
As I'd hoped, he didn't let me finish. He waved his hand. "Alright," he said, "Just be careful. After last year we have to keep an extremely close eye on everybody."
I put the tampon back in my purse, breathing a sigh of relief. I decided to press my luck. "What exactly happened last year?"
He looked at me with renewed suspicion. Wrong question, I thought, cursing my curiosity. I thought that he was going to start hounding me again, but instead he sighed. "You new here or something?"
I decided to go with it. I nodded.
"Even so, you'd think you'd of heard about it," He paused, scrutinizing me a little more. "You sure you're new here? You look kind of familiar." When I nodded, he seemed to back off a little. "Terrible tragedy," he began. "You never think it's gonna happen in your town." He shook his head, a kind of wistful look crossing his face. "An angry student came in, back in November. Brought a gun in and took our five students, and then shot themselves. Two girls, three guys and then the shooter themselves."
I couldn't hide the look of shock on my face, and he seemed to pick up on it. "You really didn't know, did you?"
I felt a dangerous twinge in the pit of my stomach. There was a question that I knew I didn't want to ask, but it was one I was going to have to ask all the same. I braced myself. How could this have happened? What wish did I make that could possibly have caused this? I released a breath that I didn't realize I'd been holding and finally forced the words out. "The girls that were killed " Long drawn out pause. I really didn't want to ask, "Was one of them Karyn Black?"
He looked at me strangely for a moment. "Karyn Black?" he asked, and the look on his face was almost incredulous, "Missy, Karyn Black was the shooter."
My knees finally buckled and I dropped to the ground
