Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld

Author:Curtis Sittenfeld [Sittenfeld, Curtis]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Coming of Age, Psychological Fiction, Teenage Girls, Self-Destructive Behavior, Bildungsromans, Preparatory School Students, General, Psychological, Massachusetts, Indiana, Fiction
ISBN: 1400062314
Google: AnA3rUFavNkC
Amazon: B000FC2QAA
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2005-01-11T08:00:00+00:00

6. Townie

JUNIOR WINTER

An ambulance took Sin-Jun to the ER in the early evening, right around when formal dinner started. In fact, when Tig Oltman and Daphne Cook found her—Tig and Daphne were sophomores who lived in Sin-Jun’s dorm—they were on their way to the dining hall. They opened the door of their room in time to see Sin-Jun appear on the threshold opposite theirs and crumple to the floor, mumbling unintelligibly, one arm pressed to her abdomen as if she’d folded up her shirt to carry a bunch of pebbles, or maybe corn kernels, and she was trying to prevent them from spilling.

It was a Wednesday, and after formal dinner there was an all-school lecture—it was by a black woman who was the choreographer of a dance troupe—and Martha and I were about to enter the auditorium when Mrs. Morino, Sin-Jun’s dorm head, stopped us. When I think of the whole incident, the whole rest of the winter even—it was late February then—this is the moment I remember. Martha and I were cheerfully talking about nothing and I was keeping track of Cross Sugarman, who was several feet ahead of us, watching to see where he and his friends sat so Martha and I could sit close by, but not so close that it would occur to him our proximity was intentional. And then Mrs. Morino was approaching us, and I thought maybe she was waving hello—why would she have been waving hello when we were just a few feet apart, when neither Martha nor I had ever had her as a teacher or coach and we therefore hardly knew her?—and I was startled when she stopped in front of us and reached out to take my hands.

“I have some difficult news,” she said.

Dread surged through me. Already I was scrolling back in my mind to identify any recent wrongdoing, and so I felt relief—relief that would soon seem shameful and cold-hearted—when Mrs. Morino said, “Sin-Jun is in the hospital. She took some pills. The doctors had to pump her stomach. And she’s stable now—I’ve just come from seeing her—but she’s still very fragile.”

“Is she sick?” I glanced through the double doorway. Cross had disappeared into the auditorium, nearly everyone was seated, and the lights were dimming. I looked back at Mrs. Morino, surprised she was making us late for the lecture; I didn’t yet understand that I wouldn’t be attending the lecture.

“She took pills,” Mrs. Morino said, and still I didn’t get it—I think this had more to do with my specific idea of Sin-Jun than with my general naÏveté, though maybe it was a little of both—and then Martha, who could tell I didn’t get it, said, “On purpose, Lee.”

“I want to drive you over to the hospital,” Mrs. Morino said. “She’s a little woozy, but it would be good for her to see another familiar face.”

Sin-Jun had taken pills on purpose? She had tried to kill herself? More than it seemed shocking, the idea seemed impossible. Sin-Jun wasn’t even unhappy; certainly she wasn’t suicidal.

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