What Has Become of You by Jan Elizabeth Watson

Author:Jan Elizabeth Watson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Vera spent the remainder of the weekend in an unusual frame of mind. She kept seeing Jensen Willard as she’d left her: relieved and almost restored, as though she’d made peace with something. A different girl, practically. She kept seeing the lightness in Jensen’s step as she retreated down the hill to her house, the back of her neck pale and straight in the moonlight. She almost felt she could trust what she’d seen—that she could have full faith in the girl for the first time since she’d first read her journals.

Vera, too, felt lighter—freed from the heavy sadness that usually clouded her mood. She attributed this to a sense of fulfilled purpose. She had had a hand in circumventing disaster, had reached the girl in some meaningful way; it was not often that she felt her actions had any meaning or import. It did not counteract the irrational sense of responsibility and guilt she had felt ever since finding Sufia’s body, but it made her at least feel she had done something good and right by somebody for a change.

Returning to school on Monday morning, she had planned an introduction of the girls’ next required reading: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Her original plan had been to teach Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but she had changed her mind over the weekend, remembering how Jensen had said she’d liked Plath’s novel. She was prepared to begin class by telling the girls a little bit about Sylvia Plath, the all-American, overachieving college girl, and how her one novel thinly fictionalized her nervous breakdown and subsequent stay at the famous McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, years before her suicide.

Her intended focus was usurped, however, when Loo Garippa, of all people, came to class champing at the bit, wanting to share something that couldn’t wait. As soon as attendance was taken, she asked Vera, “Did you grade our Catcher in the Rye essays yet?”

“I haven’t. I’ve fallen a bit behind on the grading, but I’ll be catching up in the next day or two.” Vera gave Harmony Phelps a preemptive look—Harmony, who always gave Vera the stink-eye when work wasn’t returned fast enough for her liking.

“Well, you ought to read mine first. I think you’ll like my topic.” Looking exceedingly proud of herself, Loo said, “I came up with a really good theory of why serial killers like The Catcher in the Rye.”

Vera decided not to correct her once again on her misuse of the term serial killer. She glanced anxiously at the classroom door, hoping to see Jensen Willard making a late arrival. Her seat stood empty.

Stop looking at the door, Vera told herself. Aloud, she said: “All right, Loo. What’ve you got?”

Harmony Phelps raised her hand and began speaking before Vera called on her. “Is it okay if we don’t talk about this? I don’t think it’s right after what happened to Sufia.”

“This has nothing to do with Sufia,” Loo shot back.

“It’s in poor taste to talk about stuff like that now.

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