Aftermath by Scott Nadelson

Author:Scott Nadelson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hawthorne Books
Published: 2011-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

5.

WHENEVER AMANDA WATCHED the news clip – not just in the weeks after the accident but in the months and years that followed – she was always shocked to recognize the strange expression on her face, a look of pity and understanding that seemed beyond the grasp of her eleven years, her wide mouth sorrowful and dignified on the shaky recording, the tape’s poor quality making her skin look sallow. She tried not to watch very often, but sometimes, without understanding why, she was drawn to it, playing it only when no one else was in the house.

The clip had been recorded by a neighbor, the one other family on the block with a VCR – the only one after the Horensteins’ had been shattered by the Cadillac’s grill. The local anchor, a boyish, wavy-haired heartthrob from the station in Chatwin, locked eyes with the camera and said, “And now we have a special story this evening, the story of an eleven-year-old girl’s incredible courage.” A graphic, “ Young Heroine,” flashed across the screen, before the camera cut away to a pan of Crescent Ridge, of the house with its gaping hole, the tarp taken away for the sake of the news story.

The interview was shot the day after the accident, while Amanda’s mother was picking her grandfather up from the hospital. The reporter asked silly questions: “ Do you love your brother?” and “ How do the kids at school feel about having a bonafide hero in their class?” The Amanda on screen answered sincerely, ignoring the emaciated woman’s patronizing tone, while the one who watched thought, Give me a break. The Amanda on screen said, “ I feel bad for my grandpa. He didn’t mean it.” She sat in a wheelchair in front of the hole, her posture upright despite the sling around her neck. “ I hope my dog didn’t get too scared.”

This wasn’t Mandy, the undersized girl who was a loudmouth at school, pushy with other kids, always talking back to teachers, the one who didn’t do her homework, who once slapped another girl on the playground, bloodying her nose, because she wouldn’t give up her turn at jump rope. The Amanda who watched herself on screen couldn’t fit the two images together, and neither could her schoolmates, nor her teacher, Mrs. Travers, who up till now would have ignored any attempts she’d made at reforming. They spoke to her hesitantly, with a hint of reverence, while she wheeled around the hallways, and then hobbled on crutches. Her class gave her a standing ovation her first day back in school. Kids who’d never before had a kind word for her asked if they could sign her cast. Mrs. Travers’ way of talking to her changed from one of defeat and derision to a wary, uncertain respect.

The face of the girl on TV somehow overshadowed that of the girl who’d been loudmouthed and belligerent, even for Amanda – afterward she couldn’t go back to being Mandy, giving the nickname up at the beginning of the following school year.

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