Killing Mr. Griffin by Duncan Lois

Author:Duncan, Lois [Duncan, Lois]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Juvenile, Thriller
ISBN: 9780316182645
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 1978-10-15T03:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

“Susan McConnell—come to the office, please!”

The loudspeaker in the ceiling over the door blared the words throughout the room, and Susan, sitting hunched over her history notebook, felt her heart drop into her stomach with a sickening thud. It was the moment she had been anticipating ever since she had arrived at school that morning to see Dolly Luna, bright-faced and cheerful, perched on the corner of Mr.Griffin’s desk.

“Mr. Griffin isn’t here this morning,” she had explained. “So I’m subbing for him. I haven’t been able to find his notes for today’s class, so we’ll just have to play it by ear, I guess. You’ll have to tell me where you are in the book, and maybe we can read aloud or something.”

She had smiled brightly.

“My name’s Miss Luna, but if you promise not to tell anybody, I’ll let you call me Dolly.”

And so they had read—or, rather, Dolly had read, her lilting voice carrying Ophelia gaily through her tunnels of madness to her ultimate watery end—and Susan had thought, this can’t be real. It’s a cartoon—a dream—a nightmare. That’s it—it’s a nightmare. Soon I will wake up and I’ll be at home in my bed with one of the twins banging at the door to tell me I’ve overslept, and I’ll open my eyes, and the sun will be pouring through the window onto the rug and outside in the elm tree birds will be singing.

But she had already awakened to that scene an hour before, and one could not wake up twice. Actually, she could not believe that she had slept at all. When she had gone to bed the night before, she had thought, I will never sleep, and then exhaustion had rolled upon her in a gigantic, smothering wave, and she had sunk gratefully beneath it. A moment later, it seemed, Alex had been at the door, calling in to her, “Sue! Are you alive in there? Mom wants to know if you’re feeling good enough to go to school this morning.”

“Yes—I am—I’ll be right down,” Susan had mumbled, opening her eyes to the sunlight and the birdsong and the terrible realization that tomorrow had arrived. She had gotten up and gone into the bathroom and washed her face, pressing the cold washcloth for long moments against her swollen eyelids and puffy cheeks. I must have cried in my sleep, she thought. I must have cried all night.

When she entered the kitchen the whole family was at the breakfast table. Her mother glanced up worriedly.

“Your cold must be worse, Sue. You look just awful. Are you sure you want to go to school?”

“I feel fine,” Susan told her. “You don’t miss school, just for a little cold.”

“I would,” Kevin said. “I’d miss school for anything. Huh, Alex?”

“Me too,” Alex said. “Even for nothing, I’d miss school.”

“Well, your sister isn’t like you two,” Mr. McConnell said approvingly. “She takes her education seriously. If you boys would straighten up and follow her example, we’d have a happier household around here at grading time.

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