Science Fiction for Young Readers, grade 4 up
Story by Terry Gibson ©

     Tabitha and Greg were in trouble, and 
they knew it.  For fighting, of all stupid 
things, and it hadn't even done any good.  
"Not one of our most brilliant plans," Tab 
admitted.  It was so stupid!  "Absolutely 
nothing came of it."
     "Well, they'll all look at you real 
funny from now on."
     "That's not what I mean, Greggy."
     "That's not the half of it.  Wait till 
Mother gets home.  What are you going to tell 
her?"
     "Nothing?"
     "Ta-ab."
     "You're supposed to say 'Tabitha' for 
that tone of voice."  She thought about it.  
"I don't know what to do.  Imagine!  Writing 
500 lines!"
     "What happens when the kids go home and 
tell their parents about what they saw?"
     "Their parents will tell them they don't
believe it."  Greggy made a face.  In fact, 
I bet that's why Mrs. Meander and Mr. Striker 
were still in the office when we were sent 
home.  Nobody believed them either."

                        
     Tab and Greggy had no way of knowing,
but Jeremy Player left his car in the 
parking lot and took to the wilderness 
trails by the river.  The rain was over, but 
water stll dripped from fragrant leaves. The 
sound of running water was everywhere; even 
the air seemed cleaner here.
     As he strode along, he flowed with the
darkest waters, and there was no thought in 
it. Whipped by twigs, pulled by brambles, he 
paced the winding paths for several hours 
during which certain facts became clear.  
He could never teach again, point one.  Two, 
teaching wasn't the only thing that he could 
do.  His needs were small, living alone as 
he did.  As he walked, he hardly paid 
attention to where he went.  
     It was therefore with surprise, that he 
found himself within a few blocks of a 
particularly welcoming house.  
     Well, why not?

                         
     By supper, even though her mother had 
been home for over an hour, Tab had still 
not said a word about her crazy day.  The 
longer she put it off, the harder it got.  
Her mother would certainly ask why Tab 
hadn't told her right away.
     Tab was setting the table after making 
a salad when there was someone at the door.  
As he usually did, Greggy answered it.  
"Mom!" he called.  "It's Mr. Player!"
     Their surprise didn't slow their warm
welcome.  He apologized for his muddy shoes 
as he removed them at the door.  "I went 
for a long walk after the meeting," he said.  
"The park was a great place to clear my 
mind."
     Before he knew it, he had accepted 
their invitation to join them for supper.  
"Look, Greggy has already set you a place," 
Tab said.  How could he refuse?  They all 
sat down.  Before the "Help yourselves" 
turned into "Please passes," Mr. Player 
asked the blessing, giving his thanks for 
the food, and for the warmth of friends.
     "You've guessed, I suppose?" he said, 
"That I'm among the unemployed..."
     "You're NOT!"  Shock.  Tab started to 
cry, suddenly crushed by guilt.
     Jeremy Player was surprised at Tab's
reaction.  "I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have 
said--"
     "No, please," Mother reassured.  "That 
is awful.  It can't be true."  She heard a 
muffled sob from Tabitha.
     "I'm afraid so.  'Effective immediately,'
they said.  The Board insists, because of a 
great number of complaints.  You knew I 
hadn't been at school lately."
     "They said you were sick," Greggy said.  
"Mr. Dooley taught us gym."
     "And Math," Tab added, and burst into 
a new flood of tears.  "Oh, Mr. Player, I'm 
so sorry!"
     "Yeah.  Nobody likes him."  Greggy said.
     "I didn't mean that!"  Dinner 
forgotten, overcome with tears, Tab stood 
to leave the table.
     Mother stopped her.  "Please Tabitha, 
don't cry!  It's not your fault."
     "It IS!  It would not have happened 
except for me."  Tab sank back into her 
chair, while her mother covered Tab's hands 
with her own, and murmured, "No, no.  Don't 
think that."
     "But it's TRUE!"
     Gregory saw Mr. Player look across at 
his mother, his eyes begging for 
understanding.  He saw his mother nod.   
With a quick smile of sympathy, she said, 
"Later."  Some kind of code maybe, Greg 
thought.  Like they'd talk later?

     That's when Tab decided she had to 
come clean, with both of them.  "Mom, 
remember that day I told you I had no 
footprints?"
     "Like Peter Pan with no shadow... Yes."
     "No, like Tabitha with no weight!  Mr. 
Player, I did all kinds of stupid things in 
school today, floating, trying to get kids 
to believe it."  She closed her eyes.  
"Trying to get TEACHERS to believe it!"  
She wiped her wet cheeks with the back of 
her hand.  "They didn't. Teachers and kids 
saw me hanging in the air, and nobody 
believed it!"
     "Don't be too sure.  I believe it."
     Her mother looked oddly at Mr. Player.  
"I know we talked about all her adventures, 
and like that, but now, to me they are..."  
She paused.  "Just stories.  I confess I 
still have some problem with it."
     "Like everyone at school," Tab 
whispered.
     "You'd better believe it, Mom," Greg 
said.
     "Gregory, this is nothing to kid about."
     Greggy smiled at Tab, and the same plan
crossed their minds.  "Yes again, Tab, go on 
up."
     "See?" Tab asked.  "This is no STORY, 
Mom! It's real."
     He laughed.  "Go up higher."
     She did.  Even with his experience, 
Jeremy Player marvelled at how Tabitha could 
just float in the air, touching nothing.  
As for their mother, she stared at Tabitha 
silently.
     "Now, Mom, do you see?  I did this many 
times at school too."  Her eyes filled again.  
"But it did no good at all."
     "I don't believe my eyes anymore.  
It's-- It just can't be real.  You're not 
really floating up--good heavens, even 
higher..."  As Tab rose toward the kitchen 
ceiling, her mother slumped lower.  "I give 
up," she said.
     Tab was stuck to the ceiling by her 
mother's last words.  "Believe it, Mom," 
she said.
     "I'm seeing things.  They'll come in 
white coats to take me away."
     Tab figured that the teachers at school 
all thought so too.
     JP smiled at the thought.  "That's how 
I felt too," he said.  "And you want to hear 
something really strange?"
     "What could be stranger than this?"
     "Now, now, Alice--" (Mr. Player had 
called Mom, 'Alice!') "Take it from me, 
there are stranger things going on than you 
can even imagine!" 
     Both Tab and Greg said, "Like what?"
     "Can you imagine the cover-up they'll 
need when they send all those teachers at 
Birchdale School for psychiatric assessment?"
     This was altogether too much for their
mother.  She giggled.  "You mean to say--?"
     "I mean that the most astounding things 
came out at the end of that meeting--"  He 
looked at Tabitha and actually laughed.  
"I mean that she is Tabitha Highwalker in 
the schoolyard.  I mean that when she hangs 
around the doorway, she's really up there."
     It was painful to be crunched harder 
into the ceiling like that.  "May I come 
down now?" Tab asked, and descended so that 
she hung free.
     "Not until your mother accepts that it 
is true, if that suits you.  Okay?"
     "Okay."
     "Anyhow, when I said that I was only 
trying to keep her from falling up," (Tab 
hit the ceiling again.) "the officials were 
there to indict me, execute me, whatever... 
They thought I was crazy."
     "Sure sounds that way," mother said.
     "You have to hand it to Flo Meander, 
she's fair.  She didn't HAVE to tell them 
that with her own eyes, she had seen Tab
floating in the air, but she did.  She even
got Henry Striker to admit he had seen it
too, and gave other names. I mean, that got
her, and them, into heavy trouble.  She put
her principalship on the line.  Hey, she put
her TEACHING CAREER on the line.  For me!  
She came to my defense, told that many 
teachers in the school had seen the same 
kinds of things--"
     "They didn't, though, did they?"
     "I could swear they did.  No one could 
have invented so many versions of such a 
thing and to have so many independent 
reports at the office, I'd say they really 
did, yes."  Jeremy Player laughed.  
     "Hatchet Saxon didn't believe a word 
of it."
     "He thinks the whole staff is 
hallucinating?"
     "That's right. They'll all be meeting 
with the doctors up the hill, there."
     "Psychiatrists," Mom said.  "For saying 
they had seen--"  She flung out her hand 
toward Tab.  "This."
     "That's about it."
     "Well they might!  Tab, will you please 
get DOWN!"
     Tab dropped like a stone.  
     "I didn't mean, so suddenly."
     Grimacing, Tab picked herself up slowly, 
and rubbed her knees.
     "That's how she fell onto the nurse's 
cot too," he said.  "They're saying that I 
abused you, Tabitha."
     "But you didn't!  Is that why they 
fired you?  I'll go and tell them..."
     "No use.  Once they've made up their 
mind, it's like carved in stone."
     Their mother smiled sadly. "So now what 
will you do?"
     "Take a rest, expect arrest... Who 
knows?"
     "They have nothing to arrest you for."
     "All I know is that I have been 
terminated under suspicion of child abuse.  
No teacher can be retained if there is doubt.  
On principle, I agree with that, to keep 
schools safe for kids, but I know also that 
I have been wrongly accused."
     "Child abuse because Tab fell?"
     "No, there are allegations that I am 
unfit to be near children.  I can never 
teach again."
     "Mr. Player!"
     "It gets worse.  Would you believe that 
Tab clung onto me so tightly while I carried 
her in because I had seduced her?" Their 
mother had gone pale.
     "No!  It's not true!" Tab protested.  
"Mom, what does 'seduce' mean?"
     "To lead astray, among worse things."
     "What worse things?"
     There was a silence.  At last, her 
mother looked imploringly at Jeremy Player.
     He cleared his throat before he could 
speak.  "Tabitha, you had better discuss 
that with your mother."
     Tab knew what the word was.  In tears 
again, she kept saying "It's not true, you 
KNOW it's not true!"
     "It's what your dear little friends 
told their parents."
     "They're not my friends, and it's not 
true!"
     "We both know it's not true."  Such 
pain was in his voice that even their mother 
wept.  He said, "The whole thing is FOUL!"
     "Sick," Greggy agreed. He had said 
little.
     "Tabby disease," Tab said between sobs.
"They believe sick stuff nobody could have 
seen but not their eyes when I float."
     Their supper had long since grown cold.  
No one was hungry.  Tab didn't know if she'd 
ever be hungry again.  Because of her...
     "Jeremy, I want you to know that I 
believe Tabitha.  I will support you in this,  
no matter how far it goes."
     "Thank you.  I need that.  And Tabitha," 
he paused to let her blow her nose.  "We are 
the Red-eye Brigade.  We know what is true, 
and knowing that, their lies cannot hurt us."
     It would have been good to believe that.

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