Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Author:Francisco X. Stork
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Published: 2010-01-31T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

I am gathering my things from my desk, getting ready to move. The only good thing about getting reassigned to Wendell is that it will be easier for me to go through the Vidromek boxes and gather more information about the girl. I don’t know what I will find out. I am afraid of what I may discover. But last night, or rather early this morning, I decided that I had to follow this uncomfortable need to know more about the girl regardless of where it takes me.

“Hey.” I hear Jasmine’s voice in the distance. Then she sees me putting my things in a box. “What’s going on?” She sounds worried.

“I have been assigned to work with Wendell full-time,” I say. I am afraid to look at her.

“What the…When? How?”

“Yesterday. After I finished helping Wendell. Arturo decided. He was going to make sure you had help. Maybe Jasmine can still get Belinda.” Then I see amongst my things the list that Jasmine made for me that very first morning, and my eyes well up again.

“I cannot believe this!” I have never seen Jasmine so upset. “Wait. Stay here. Is your father in yet?”

“Yes.”

She walks out of the mailroom determined. She is going to fight for me to work with her. A warm glow fills me.

Ten minutes later Jasmine is back, a look of dejection on her face. “I guess you’ll be working with Wendell from now on,” she says. She plops down on her chair.

“What did Arturo say?”

“You can help me part-time until I find someone else. I’ll work out a schedule with Queen Juliet, don’t worry. This is all very strange. Did anything unusual happen yesterday when you were working on Wendell’s assignment?”

“No. Yes. Not with Arturo. Something else happened.”

“What?”

I think about it for a while and then I take out the picture of the girl. “I found this in the box marked ‘Trash.’”

She wheels her chair so that it is directly in front of mine and takes the picture from my hand. “Oh.”

I can tell it is hard for Jasmine to look at the picture.

“I don’t understand. What does the picture have to do with you being assigned to Wendell?”

“I need to find out more about the girl in the picture.”

“You found it in a box marked ‘Trash’?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t know who she is?”

“No.”

“Wait. We can try to figure out who the girl is later. Right now I have to figure out why I lost my help. Did you ask to work with Wendell?”

“No. Wendell asked Arturo.”

“Why?”

The boat ride. I suddenly remember it. “He wants to help me succeed at the law firm so that I can go to Paterson next year.” I am not sure whether this is a lie or not.

“Yeah, sure he does.”

I can barely look at Jasmine’s face. I don’t know if I should tell her about the boat ride—that Wendell thinks he and I have an agreement and that is why he is doing all of this. But Wendell is wrong. There is no agreement between us.

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