Science Fiction for Young Readers, grade 4 up
Story by Terry Gibson ©
Hatchet Saxon was not even a little bit pleased to see the way publicity was handled. It was not the regrettable fact of a missing schoolgirl, but the circus they had created. Oh he had noted the ringleaders all right. Mrs. Mallow-- Board policy had established long ago that teachers were not to give statements to the press without permission; it was part of the job of principal, not that Mrs. Meander was any better. To see the two of them with that reporter, Warren, was totally inappropriate! And Player. Saxon felt his blood pressure rise. Not only did he have his way with the young girl but he helped her get the flour bags. On his desk was a strong letter from the superintendent of the apartment house demanding $5000 damages for repair of roof and gutters! The girl knew how to control her ups and downs... this show-off stunt would cut no ice with him! But the last straw was this latest circus act. Mrs. Gunner grovelling in front of that pervert! Saxon spat in disgust, stalked off to his car. With a roar and clashing gears forward and back, he gunned out leaving two black tracks of rubber in the parking lot, ironically shaped like two lopsided hearts touching. The school custodian who feared for his car parked nearby, snapped a photo of the hearts and Saxon's car roaring off. The clear licence plate and caption: "School Official Shows his Pleasure" brought laughs in the next morning's BUGLE. Tabitha woke to a funny throbbing sound. It got slowly louder until it was a definite wop-wop-wop sound over to one side, where the wind came from. No, it was far, very far below her. A helicopter! They'd never see her! Down, down, down, down, she said, and felt herself falling. Too fast! Now the belt was whipping her face. No, she was alive all right, and the signals still worked. Up, she said. Up. It was enough to slow the flapping. She turned her head again, and studied green forest far below. If I go down, she thought, it won't be near the arena, maybe not even near the town. She turned her head the other way, and saw in the blue distance, a water tower, but not a familiar water tower, and some tiny specks that had to be rooftops. And the river, like a glinting golden cord! It caught the setting sun and there, a bright splash of lake, spilled between hills. Maybe she'd find a poem in there somewhere. She smiled at that. Out of that bloody mess of a face came the words, "Oh I am so glad to be back to normal!" Hatchet Saxon was not a happy man. Apparently this crowd of idiots actually bought into the hallucination. Some kind of group hypnosis... Bah! His e-mail told him they were the laughingstock of the whole world now! Somebody known only as "OWLET" had set up a website feeding all manner of nonsense in as if it were news! While there was nothing yet to see his lawyer about, he would be watching. He would never know that OWLET was Akim who, in memory of Tabitha, tended the website with devotion. Just by e-mail and word-of-mouth it was getting a lot of hits right from the start. The helicopter came into view to one side and far below her, but they didn't see her. She was too small, too high. "DOWN, DOWN, down," she shouted. Like a skydiver with her arms and legs spread, she dropped until she thought her ears would burst. She had to be seen! Swallowing didn't help; still her ears hurt. Would they ever see her at all? Teachers at her school alternated between belief and disbelief. Those who spent a lot of time near the arena had no doubts at all, but the others who were not involved knew beyond doubt that events like that were simply impossible. Contrary to Science, for one thing, the laws of action/reaction for another, laws of gravity yet another, even commom sense! Heated discussions had become the norm in their daily lives, and Ms Tempest's fear of the occult became more obsession than disbelief. No one was left untouched. Still in the afterglow of high sunshine, Tab watched for her best chance as the helicopter circled, and ignoring the knives in her ears, she dropped, stopped, dropped, down and down and then, knew from their sudden change in direction, that the chopper had seen her. No one would ever know how high she really had been. In the arena parking lot, Gregory and his mother saw the constable coming near, a relieved smile on his face. Before he even got close, he called out, "She's all right. They found her!" Greggy's joyous cheer was echoed by all who heard it. A miracle, everyone said. The policeman was instantly surrounded by a crowd of questions and excitement. The message on his radio had been, "They're on their way in now. Watch for the ambulance." "Where did she land?" a reporter asked. "She didn't. They plucked her out of the air." It had been a mid-air rescue, rather high, scooped into the warmth of the helicopter cabin nearly fifty kilometres out of town. "But she's all right?" "We think so. We'll take her to the hospital to be sure. What a sudden change! Noise and laughing. They saw the ambulance arrive and soon afterward, the helicopter as it settled down into a cloud of dust. How disconcerting it was! Streetlights were on, but all they all could see of Tabitha was bandages being carried out on a stretcher. Wrapped in blankets, she was whisked into the ambulance which wasted no time leaving. Tab hadn't said a word. The parade followed her to the hospital. "Parents only," the attendant said. Greggy saw his mother take Mr. Player by the hand and lead him in. "Parents only?" he asked. After a while, Mr. Player emerged and said, "She's had a rough trip, but she'll be okay. They took her to surgery..." He shook his head as if to clear it, "To surgery... Her head...." Mr. Player paused, wondering whether he should even say it. He couldn't be sure he had heard it right, like, In May? "They said they were treating her for exposure." "What's 'exposure'?" "Being chilled to a point where the body temperature falls to a critical level." "I heard of it when those two boys were in the news--their canoe tipped, and the ice hadn't cleared the lake yet, and they died--" Greggy stopped. "She'll be okay." Repairing her skull fracture was routine. Disentagling the mess of her scalp with its blood-matted hair and early adhesions was worse. They also feared infection in the open wound. Some evidence of inflammation was found, and it would be no wonder considering how long it had been exposed. A report of her condition was given to the group waiting outside. Concerned about time, they were told. "No, not the fracture, it's the scalp wound. All matted together starting to heal into a lump." Yuk. How disgusting! Television news on many channels had the story, including much of Mrs. Mallow's videotape. She told Mrs. Gray that she had not expected the large amount of money networks were willing to pay for her tape once they began to bid it up. No one knew yet that a local freelancer was about to sell a feature story of the event to a national magazine, using Greggy's notes and interviews. They would have wondered what new things could possibly be left to say. Two days of tests and treatment later, still bandaged, Tabitha was released from hospital. She found JP and her mother waiting to bring her home. Quickly they caught up with all the news before meeting with the reporters. Looking back on it, even Tabitha was amazed at what had happened. "I forgot that there was a lot of force still there. I shouldn't have--" Any chance to say more was gone. "The reporters are here," Mother announced. Meg Warren, who had been faithfully at their side through the ordeal of waiting, had assumed command of the group who had come to interview her. They asked all manner of questions, and sat quietly taking notes, the video cameras softly whirring as they spoke. They asked why she had not let the load down to the ground, and saved herself a lot of pain. "I wanted to convince them of my danger before," Tab said. "You mean, before, in the schoolyard." "Yes, the start of all this trouble, when you carried me in, Mr. P." JP and Tab shared smiles. "Well I guess you convinced the whole world, Tabitha. How do you feel?" "Like I was away on a long trip. Tired." "I meant the injuries...." "A bunch a bruises and cuts, that's all. Some stitches. They said there wouldn't be bad scars but I'll need plastic surgery on my forehead." Tab went on to describe her adventure. "I guess I passed out when I hurt my head--" "They didn't tell us about that." "It's why they kept me so long in hospital. They wanted be be sure everything was working right." She told of moving higher through a cloud, "I thought it was fog." She told of the cold and wind, "I guess I was up pretty high, but boy, was that wind strong!" "So THAT's why they found you so far from town!" Greggy said. "I guess so. I had nothing to steer with." "How long were you unconscious?" "I don't know. Mom? I don't remember. I guess I floated in and out." "Of what?" Greggy asked. "Sleep. I remember, I thought I had died. I was glad of the cold then, but no one had told me you needed mitts and a skisuit in Heaven!" "I'm not sure that you do," her mother laughed. "I know. But who was thinking straight? Anyhow," she added, "I should make a scrapbook of all the newspaper stories." "Did you watch the news on TV?" "Much of it, on that little screen above my bed. Couldn't see much really." "You're famous, Tab." Greg wasn't a bit jealous; she'd earned it the hard way. "And Mr. Player is vindicated," Tab added. "Innocent, too." "Oh, Greggy, that's what I meant!" The reporters asked a few more questions. Then they thanked them and left. At supper, Mother had been silent for some time. Now she turned to Jeremy Player, and asked, "Have you decided what to do?" "Live off my pension, such as it is after only twenty years, as I said. Write stories for sports and outdoor magazines. And do some guiding for a tourist outfitter..." He went on to describe his love of nature and his wish to share it with others. He did not mention teaching. "Kids don't know what harm they do when they tell lies," Jeremy Player continued. "Or even repeat what may not be true." "They should!" Tab was jabbing her potatoes like they were enemies. "I know, Tab," he said, "but it is a lesson that seems to be learned only the hard way, if it is to be learned at all." "Yeah, but only by the victim!" Tab said angrily. "Who else?" Mother brought in fruit salad for dessert. "Couldn't we TELL them?" Greggy asked. His meal sat forgotten. Softly, JP said, "You already did." A letter arrived, announcing that the winner of the grand prize at the science fair was Tabitha Gray. Her cash prize would be presented at a ceremony during a regular meeting of the Board on May 29. "I feel like refusing it," Tab said. Her mother paused before answering. "Please think about it before you do." In the days that followed, Jeremy Player was such a constant visitor that he offered to pay board. "ROOM and board would be good too," their mother said. She had such a twinkle in her eye that Greggy asked, "Are you guys trying to tell us something?" Their mother's grin lit up her rosy face and the happiness shone for all to see. "Yes, indeed we are." It was as sweet an announcement as anyone could have imagined, for Mr. Player took both Tab and Greg by the hand and said, "If you will all accept me, I'd be honoured to make this a complete family." "Oh wow! Wonderful!" Tab and Greggy hugged him the way people in families do. Greggy really did glow, and Tab was so happy she could have floated into the air, but kept a firm hold of his big warm hand. Her absolutely top favourite teacher, the man so many of the girls had a crush on, the super Phys-ed and Math teacher, would marry their mother! How neat it was, to be able at school to laugh at all the kids who had tormented them! Soon they could call him "Daddy!" To anyone who wondered what else could possibly be said about The Great Uprising, it soon appeared in the national news magazine's next issue. Apparently the freelance writer was a doubter. He had gone out of his way to interview people who had not attended the science fair but had their outraged opinions. Hatchet Saxon's mark was on most of the things attributed to an "official source, who did not get taken in by tricks," and suggested that Tabitha had merely come down and gone into hiding for several days. "What utter nonsense!" he said. "The whole town has gone mad!" It quoted certain unconvinced parents, and chose to end it with the cynical words, "Where there's smoke..." Jeremy Player's future would hold no teaching.. . . . . This completes all chapters of TABITHA'S SECRET
. . . . . . . . . . A sequel may follow, as sequels do!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Gibson
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