Do You Think This Is Strange? by Aaron Cully Drake Read Free Book Online Page A

“GoodBYE, Freddy!” she shouted at me. “I’ll see you LATER.”
    On that last day, we parted like it was any other day, the only difference being that I had shown her where I lost my front tooth, and she tried to touch the gap between my teeth.
    â€œYour TOOTH!” she shouted. “What happened to your TOOTH!”
    That was the only thing different. There was no final reckoning.
    She didn’t know that she would not see me later. She hadn’t heard her mother talking to my father earlier, like I had, and she didn’t see that they both acted angry. Speaking in low sharp whispers, that rose louder and louder. Saskia didn’t see when her mother said goodbye to my father, and my father said good riddance to her, and then she said he needed to go somewhere and cool off. And he said she needed to go somewhere and fuck off, and neither of them said, “I’ll see you later.”
    Instead, Saskia Stiles stood at the door, hopping up and down, waving as she quoted her forehead, and said “GoodBYE, Freddy!”
    Ten years later, Saskia didn’t say goodbye to me when I left the lunch table.
    â€”
    I folded the paper carefully and put it in my pocket. Then I stopped thinking about it. It was now time to have a discussion with Jim Worley and agree that his chair had magic powers. Then it was time to read my book.
    Then it was time for chemistry class.

CHEMISTRY CLASS WITH A FROTHY MIND
    Mr. Pringle, my chemistry teacher, looked at me for more than ten seconds. My cut-off point is five seconds. He looked at me for twice as long as he should have. Then he looked away and said nothing, and I was left to wonder why he was looking at me. And argue with the threads that burst into my mind.
    Are you about to be expelled again?
    No. There has to be a compelling reason to expel me.
    Did you insult him?
    I don’t talk to him.
    Like that makes any difference. You find ways to insult silently.
    Ignore. I am going to ignore this.
    No, you aren’t.
    â€”
    Everyone refers to Mr. Pringle as Mr. Chips behind his back. He is a grumpy man who doesn’t like talking to students. As a result, we usually got along fine. I sat at the back; I did my homework, took notes, and didn’t ask questions. In return, he left me alone. That was the unspoken deal.
    But at 1:35 PM , halfway through my chemistry class, Mr. Pringle looked up from his desk and stared at me. People do this to me often, and I am adept at ignoring them. But it wasn’t to be the case this time. My mind was already troubled. Threads already elbowed through the door, asking questions, making guesses, explaining themselves.
    I found myself reading the same page in my textbook over and over again. I wanted to lose myself in the monotony of balancing equations, but the threads were too loud.
    Whither Saskia? they said, in summary.
    Why didn’t she smile?
    Does she remember you?
    In the maelstrom of these questions, Mr. Pringle chose to look at me, and I was perturbed. His face was inscrutable. There were no telltale signs of anger, fear, happiness. His expression was unreadable.
    You’re not an expert on interpreting facial expressions.
    I’m observing that I can’t interpret his facial expression. If I could, this would be a less notable incident. Should we forget what happened the last time we ignored facial expressions we didn’t recognize?
    We don’t forget those things.
    Therefore—
    Therefore, you’re talking about an incident where there was a specific look on their faces. You’re referring to an incident where they had expressions and you didn’t interpret them.
    How is this different?
    Mr. Pringle had an expression that you recognized. It’s an expression you’ve seen over and over again.
    Where?
    Every time you look in the mirror.
    Possibly.
    Indifference. You saw indifference.
    I may have seen indifference. I may have seen something else.
    You’re not