Gravity Brings Me Down by Natale Ghent

Author:Natale Ghent [Ghent, Natale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-37234-5
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: 2009-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Stuffing it in my purse, I resurface in the kitchen. Mom is there, setting the table for breakfast.

“You know your sister has practice in the morning,” she says.

“Maybe I have practice, too.”

“Why were you in the basement?”

“Looking for something.”

“Did you find it?”

“Yeah.”

Mom looks at me like she’s trying to read my mind. I take a bowl and fill it with Gorilla Munch, eating it dry.

“Don’t you want milk?”

“Better this way.”

When I finish the Munch, I put my bowl in the sink. Mom is still eyeing me so I give her a kiss before I leave the kitchen. It renders her speechless.

I’d love to skip Chocko’s class but that would just raise his suspicions. Stashing my purse with the wine in my locker, I grab Great Thinkers and prepare myself for battle. I just know Chocko will be on the warpath.

It’s too early for class but I don’t know what else to do so I go in. To my surprise, Steve Ryan is already there, sitting at his desk. He looks up when I walk in and actually smiles before hiding behind his book. I take my seat, staring straight ahead until the bell rings. The school is suddenly filled with loud voices, laughter and lockers crashing. People push their way into class, far too boisterous for this time of day. Eventually Sharon arrives, collapsing into the seat next to mine. She looks like the living dead.

“I didn’t bother sleeping,” she says. “I’m never going to make it through the day.”

“Chocko will suspect if we skip.”

She points to the bags under her eyes. “He’ll take one look at these and know it was us.”

I wave her off, catching a glimpse of my marker-streaked hands. I hide them in my sleeves just as Chocko stumbles into the room. He doesn’t look happy. In fact, he looks totally crazy. He’s unshaven, and for the first time ever, he’s not wearing shades. His eyes roll like boiled marbles behind the thick lenses of his new weird glasses. He announces himself, dropping his books on the desk the way he did before, only this time, a whole lot harder. He doesn’t play music to begin the class the way he usually does. Instead, he picks up an eraser and begins slowly cleaning the board while everyone shifts in their seats and coughs nervously, waiting for the bomb to drop.

When he’s finished with the board, Chocko replaces the eraser carefully and turns around. He doesn’t look at us. He stands there, staring at the ceiling, his hands folded like an undertaker’s. Sharon glances over at me. We both know what’s coming next.

Chocko pauses, pushing his pop-bottle-bottom glasses up on the bridge of his nose for full theatrical effect.

“Someone destroyed my personal property,” he finally says.

The entire class exchanges surprised looks.

“Someone ruined… years of hard work, despoiling something that was sacred to me. Who would do a thing like that?”

His boiled marbles are still trained on the ceiling, like he’s having a heart-to-heart with the Big Guy, although I’m sure God could care less about his naked lady pictures.

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