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

TABITHA'S SECRET, Chapter 8

     During recess, Gregory watched the bigger
kids, but did not get involved.  The bullies 
were there, the ones who thought it was great 
sport to terrorize him on the way home from 
school, and Greg was no fool.  He knew how they 
hated being outwitted, and in his own way, 
enjoyed his own brand of sport outwitting them.  
For now, in a supervised area of schoolyard, 
it was safe enough just to keep his distance.
     Much of what the older kids did baffled
him.  They seemed so rowdy,  so hostile, and 
there was often no reason in it.  Now why would 
they be clustered around the doorway and why 
was there so much shoving and sniggering?  
He hoped it had nothing to do with his sister.  
She usually came out at recess; what if she 
was stuck somewhere with an attack?
     His questions were answered as he listened.

     "Bet she stays in all recess."  The chance
to make fun of Tab could not be missed.
     "Show off." 
     "Noser, noser, noser." Tom-Tom chanted,
starting it like a rap song.  "Goody-goody,"
someone else added.  Their music teacher would
have approved of the rhythmic syncopation, if 
not what motivated it.  The group repeated it 
with variations on Tabby Disease.
     Greg felt their contempt as if it had 
slapped him.                     

     Meanwhile in the classroom, poor Tabitha
was hurting.  The cramping in her hand and arm 
had reached exquisite heights of numbing and pain.
Who would have thought it possible to feel both
opposites?  The tension of her other hand on the
pen matched it in sympathy, and she had broken out
in sweat of distress.  Her legs felt paralysed, as
if glued to the desk.  She had given up hope of
ever being alone when she heard Miss Longshanks
say, "I'm sorry but--"
     The intercom cut her off with: "Telephone
Miss Longshanks, telephone, Line two please."
The intercom repeated its message.
     "I must go, Tabitha.  Put the lights off
behind you."
     Relieved of the need to write, Tab changed
hands.  Her left hand was stiff and useless until
she moved it and it burst into a cacophany of
sensation.  Boy did it prickle and burn!  Poor
Tabitha had never known anything so awful!  
Would it never end?
     But at last it did, of course, and recess
would soon be done.  She had to assemble her
things for transit.  "Aawgh!" she said as she
dropped her pen on the floor.  Alone with her
exasperation, she erupted, "How am I going to
bend down and ...?"  As fast as the attack had
come, it went.
     It was gone!  She could feel her weight
upon the seat, and with some effort, disentangled
her legs.  The attack was over.  With tremendous
relief, Tab relaxed and was stopped dead by the
intensity of "pins and needles" in her legs, past
any she had ever known.  As the circulation
returned, even the tiniest motion sent a new 
wave of discomfort all over her.
     And yes, after a while, it was fading.
     As she retrieved her pen, she smiled.  
Oh how great it was, how wonderful to be okay 
again, and no one had guessed!
     Maybe that's why it ends, she thought.  
As soon as the fear is gone, it goes away.  The
relief when the teacher left-- I'll bet that's
what it is!  Like when Gregory's rope was
working, and she could feel it working, there was
such a great relief that it just let go and she
fell.  That's got to be the clue I've been
looking for, she thought.  Next time it happens,
I'll have to remember this idea.
     With a smile, she walked stiffly out of
her room, closing the door.  Lights?
The door had locked behind her.                    

     Outside at recess, Gregory saw Maria
standing at the edge of the group.  "You guys 
are mean," she said at last.
     "What's that, Maria?  What d'ya mean,
'mean'?" Rolph asked.
     "Yeah, explain yourself.  You're Tabby's
friend, right?"
     "NOT," she denied.  Amid smirks, Gregory 
saw Maria pull back and stay quiet.

     Not that he blamed her.  From experience,
he knew how fast a victim could get bloody.  
"He falls down a lot," they'd say, or "Don't look 
at me; I wasn't even there."  They sure could lie.
     Later when Gregory asked Maria about what
she had said, she shrugged to show it was no big
deal.  "Uh-- Well you might as well know.  I don't
really want to be friends with Tabby anymore."

     "Why not?"
     "She's got so weird.  I don't know--  All 
the kids make fun of her."
     "She still likes you."
     Maria just smiled and walked away.

     Other kids chose sides too; not that they
were cowards, all of them, Greg decided.  It's
just that it is easier to be the teasers than 
the teased.
     As he walked toward Akim, a new kid in
Tab's class, he heard a someone say, "Well, I
don't care.  I LIKE her stories in class; 
they're fun."
     "Elsbeth, YOU got Tabby Disease too,"
Tom-Tom got them started.  Gregory didn't stick
around.  He and Akim went where they could hear
without being seen.
     The crowd laughed, ready to play the game
with a new victim.  "Tabby disease, Tabby
disease!"  As he pulled away from Elsbeth, Rolph
screamed, "Elsbeth's got it too!  Oo-oo, it's
catching!"
     "Not 'catching,' Rolph.  Con-tay-jus!"
Karl said.  "Con-tay-jus!"  He pretended to 
cringe in fear.  "Elsbeth is con-tay-jus!"
  	  "Now Elsbeth is con-tay-juice!  Drippy,
drippy con-tay-juice!"  Many had moved away, 
not wanting to be afflicted with Tabby disease.  
     Others took up the chant, "Elsbeth is
con-tay-juice, Elsbeth is con-tay-juice! Tabby
disease!  Drippy drippy Tabby disease!"  Many
kids didn't know why, but they chanted it anyway,
finding fun in being part of a game.  Who needs 
a reason when you're having fun?  "Elsbeth is
con-tay-juice!"  They bent over and held their
sides to laugh at Elsbeth's distress, and the 
mob grew.  Greg thought it was just more of the 
same.  Bigger kids often did strange things.

     Mrs. Kowalski, on yard duty, came along to
check out the commotion, and stayed to stop the
torment.                  

     In the afternoon, recess had excitement of
another sort.  It started peacefully enough.
The bullies were nowhere around, for one thing,
perhaps sitting out a detention.  The sun was
bright and warm, with a wall of soft white
cumulus rising rapidly in the west, but no one
was watching clouds.  Greg walked to the other
side of the school to find a quiet place with 
some shade.
     Hidden under the tree in the yard, Akim
was already reading his book when Greg found him.
The wind lifted the corner of his page, but Akim
didn't notice.  Greg plopped down beside him, but
did not interrupt, for he had things to think
about.
     That's when he noticed the traffic of ants
among the grass blades, travelling single file,
seemingly without hurry, pausing only to greet
friends who met them, returning.  They waved
their antennae for emphasis, and chatted in
ant-talk before moving on.  Many were going out,
few returned, but all of them high-fived each
other on the way.  Greg wondered whose lunch 
they had found to bring them out in such large
numbers.
     As he watched an ant dragging a morsel of
bread three times its own size, Greg missed the
rumble out of a sunny sky, but he shivered as 
it grew cooler.  Akim turned a page.  The ant
struggled up an impossible portage, up a 
vertical hill, and over immense obstacles of 
fallen straw-logs across the path.  Still the 
good-natured little fellow stopped to chat with
everyone who came along, wildly flinging the
arms of his antennae the story of his find.
No one helped him shoulder the burden, but 
hurried on to get his own trophy to bring home.  
And so, the pale package bobbed along, pausing 
often for smalltalk.  No one noticed how dark 
it had grown.
     A sudden missile landed beside the path,
flinging the traveller to one side with a puff 
of gray.  Another one!  Gamely he picked up his 
load and continued on his way.  Another bomb, and
another!  They were under attack, and the sounds
of war rumbled closer and closer, cannons
echoing, bombs falling steadily now.  The convoy
paused, ants taking shelter where they could.

     "AKIM!  Rain!  Run for it!" Greggy
screamed.  They scrambled to their feet and 
darted toward the corner of the school nearest 
the door.  A wall of sudden wind stopped them in 
their tracks.  Candy wrappers and sand flew into 
their faces horizontally.  
     The fierce wind forced them to hug the
wall.  "Oh wow!"  Around the corner, they saw it.
The school had hidden the blackest, ugliest,
tallest storm cloud they had ever seen.  Dark as
night it loomed over them like a nightmare
monster.
     They were alone.  "All the kids are in!"
Akim shouted over the roar.
     Lightning flashed.
     Noise!  "Run!"  They tried, but could not.
They leaned into the stinging load of wet wind
and struggled toward the door.  Somebody's bike
fell over and was pushed along the pavement.
Lightning flashed.  Huge drops of hard water
drummed faster and faster soaking them, bouncing
high around their feet, running downhill already.
Thunder.  Wind tore at their clothes, lifting,
slamming, sticking them to wet arms.
     "HAIL!"
     "Go for the door!"  Blindly, protecting
faces with arms, glad for the wall, they groped
along it as wind howled.  Rattling hail and
pounding rain and thunder made talk useless, 
and progress slow.  Akim's book was wet, but not 
lost even though he sheltered his smaller friend 
as much as he could.  At last there it was!  The
door!

     Locked?  No, the wind held it shut.
Greg and Akim pulled hard but it would not move.
How long they tried, they could not tell, but
suddenly it let go and they fell inside to the
floor.  Too tired to move, they heard their
custodian say it was lucky he had come along
when he did.
     They spent the next hour in the nurse's
room wrapped in blankets while their clothes
whirled around getting dry.

     After supper, Gregory followed Tab
upstairs.
     "I have homework tonight," Tab said, 
"but come in anyway.  Tell me what happened 
at recess."
     "The storm?"
     "No, morning."
     "Oh, the hyenas were howling by the door."
     "Hyenas?  Oh--okay.  You mean Rolph and
Tom-Tom, and their gang."
     "It was the Tabby Disease thing."  At her
shrug, he added, "Because you stayed in. Why 
did you stay in anyway?  Another attack?"
     "And how!  So what was the problem?"
     "You.  Showing off by staying in to work."
     "That's all?"
     "Well, they gave Elsbeth a hard time....
She stood up for you."  He chose not to say 
that Maria didn't.
     Tab told him about the attack, ending with
her idea to end one.  "I'm not going to bring 
on an attack just to test it out."
     "It does make sense though.  It's like
having faith, isn't it?  Trust in something,
like, that it will happen, and it does."  
Gregory got up to leave.  "I'd better let you 
get at that homework."
     "Thanks--  Were you always so thoughtful?"
     Gregory smiled happily, "Nope!  Good night."

     For quite a while, Tab just sat thinking.
They hadn't fought at all since the day he'd 
come home and found her floating near the ceiling.
And she didn't miss it one bit!  She shivered
with pleasure.  "I'm so lucky," she said.
     Then, instead of homework, Tab took out
her journal to record her thoughts.  Imagine!
With all the dirty tricks she had enjoyed playing,
all the nasty plots, it had been daily war!
     Poor Gregory.  It wasn't his fault that he
was born, and he hadn't asked for an older sister.
Especially, a sister who had to be top dog all 
the time.  Who'd have thought she'd feel ashamed 
of the way she had treated such a nice kid?  
Sure, he had fought back.  Why not?  Only a wimp 
wouldn't, but it had always been because of 
something she
had done first.  Some really rotten thing.  Greggy
didn't have to forgive her either, but he did!
Not only that, but he held no grudges!
     She smiled.  What a neat kid he had turned 
out to be!  She didn't deserve to be as happy as 
she was!  Tabitha found a fresh page, and as she
wrote, her new happiness flowed onto the paper.
She explored it, savoured it, and realized that
all the ill will and teasing at school didn't
matter at all.  If the kids at school had a
problem, tough.  It didn't bother her anymore.
She grinned, feeling free.
     Too bad she didn't get along as well with
her mother.  Tab sat back and thought about it.
Hadn't she given her mother half a chance either?
Or maybe it was her mother who hadn't tried.  
She shook her head, but she jotted the thought 
down anyway.  Something to think about.

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