See Through by Nelly Reifler

Author:Nelly Reifler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2006-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Starting the new term at school, David pretended to try harder. He’d put a look of concentration on his face in class. He’d write reports with long, complicated sentences using three-syllable words from books in his father’s library But he had no idea what he was doing. He felt as if he had forgotten how to read and write. When teachers talked, they sounded like they were underwater—David couldn’t distinguish their voices from all the other noises, the footsteps in the hall, doors opening and slamming shut, birds outside the classroom windows, cars starting in the parking lot, lawn mowers, the gym teacher’s distant whistle, and the breathing in and out of all his thirty classmates who knew something that he didn’t.

In history class, they were studying ancient Greece. They looked at maps that resembled irregular quilts where places with crazy-sounding names were represented by colored patches, and the teacher talked about things that had happened thousands of years ago. David stared out the window, rubbing his eyes, or doodled with his erasable ballpoint pen. On the day they made yogurt ancient Greek style, David found himself claiming to be allergic to dairy, and he spent the class collating and stapling mimeos instead. Before they moved on to Rome, the teacher gave the class an assignment to write a report on the voyage of Odysseus over midwinter break, which was really just a long weekend, a Friday and a Monday off.

David’s father had a couple of days free from teaching, and announced to David over breakfast on Friday that he’d decided it was finally time to paint the upstairs bathroom and hallway. Wouldn’t David like to help? he asked. It would be fun.

“No thank you,” David said, looking into his bowl of granóla.

“How about you, kid?” David’s father asked Michelle, who was already zipping up her parka near the door. Michelle just rolled her eyes.

When they were done eating, David’s father dragged the big ladder up from the basement. David watched him while he put a drop cloth down on the floor in David and Michelle’s bathroom.

David went into his room and lay on his bed. He intended to do well on this history report. He was the smart kid—he thought—didn’t anyone remember that? He’d show them all how precocious and clever he was. After hours of doing other things (he organized his comic books; he called his mother), he sat down at his desk and opened his heavy textbook to the page the teacher had marked:

“The Voyage of Odysseus.”

David tried to read, but couldn’t concentrate. He couldn’t get involved in the story. He started flipping the pages, ignoring the words, glancing at the pictures. But then he saw something that made him stop: an illustration of a creature standing on a small island in the middle of a frothy sea. This creature was built like a man with no neck, it was wearing a tattered fur poncho, and in the middle of its forehead was a huge, raging, bloodshot eye.

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