Zombie Waltz (Book 2) Page 3

  “What a rip. Now I am going to be late for study hall.” Suzy says, rolling her eyes after Fattie is gone. Linda stands there for a moment staring after her and then walks off to class as well.

  Late night phone call

  A phone, sitting on a small round topped white stand, rings in a quiet hallway. Down the hall thereare 8 doors on either side. Nothing stirs. It is 12:30 at night. The phone rings again and a girl in a long pink sleep shirt with a cat on it comes out of her room nearby. She is wearing fuzzy yellow slippers and her long brown hair is frizzy and stuck out in every direction. The phone rings again as she quickly picks it up off the cradle. “Hello?”

  “Can I please…speak with Linda MacNemer? She is…in room 117.” A quiet sweet sounding voice on the other end asks. She is crying. “Um…yeah sure. Can I ask who’s calling, please?” The girl in the pink night shirt asks.

  “Tell her…” The line seems to go dead.

  “Hello. You there? Miss? Can you hear me?”

  “Yes, I am here. Tell her…it’s Faith.”

  “Alright gimme a sec.” The girl in the pink sits the phone down on the little round table and trots off with her shoulders hunched and her headdown in a sleepydaze.She knocks loudlyon room 117’s door.There is a shuffling sound from within and in a few seconds the door springs open and a blonde girl in a short sleeveless too tight tee shirt and pink panties jumps out.

  “Holy Shit! April, where is the fire?” The girl wide eyed and peering around looks back at the tired knocker.

  “No fire. It’s a phone call for Linda.”

  “What? Whoever the hell it is, tell them she is sleeping. Like all the rest of us would like to be doing at this hour.”

  “Trish calm down. It sounds important. Will you just get her?” The blonde disappears back into the room. There is more commotion and shuffling within followed by a loud springing sound. April can hear Trish rattling Linda’s bed.

  She hears, “Linda. Linda. Hey Linda. Come on wake up.” Then the commotion and springing sound stops.

  There is a quiet, “What?”

  “Someone is on the phone for you.”

  “What…what freaking time is it?”

  “It’s after midnight. April says it is important.”

  A moment later Linda comes out of the room already pulling her blue jeans up over her butt and has a swiftly chosen State sweater thrown over whatever tee shirt she was wearing in bed. She stomps past April. April just trots back to her room and closes the door. Linda picks up the phone and puts it to her ear, listening. All she can hear on the other end is a staticy sound.

  “Hello,” She says softly into the phone, “Who is this?”

  There is the sound of heavy breathing and a soft moan. Linda is almost convinced it is someone’s stupid idea of a joke when it sounds like someone clearing their throat. It is a girl’s voice. Linda doesn’t even need her to speak to be certain it is her but she waits silently anyway.

  A moment later Faith answers her, “It’s me…”

  Linda can think of plenty of things to ask Faith. Especially why in the hell she is calling at almost one in the morning. All she does ask is, “Where are you?”

  Linda listens on the phone long enough to get an address and directions, and then hangs it up. She runs back to her room, past Trish who is still standing in their doorway, wide eyed. “Who was that?” Trish asks turning and crossing her arms as Linda flicks on the light switch. She runs over to her bed and sits, reaching down, grabbing her shoes and slipping them onto her feet without socks. She turns to her nightstand. Linda digs through the contents of the overburdened little table that sits between the two girls’ beds and finally uncovers her car keys. She turns to leave when Trish steps in front of her. “Lin. Who was that?”

  “It was Faith.” Linda says and pushes past her.

  She runs into the hallway and straight for the elevator. When she gets downstairs there is an RA sitting at the desk in the lobby. She doesn’t really have time to explain. She just rushes by the girl shouting back over her shoulder, “Family emergency.” She had used the excuse before to go out and meet Brian, her most recent boyfriend, and the beauty of this method is that since she doesn’t give them time to ask questions they usually just end up being concerned for her and don’t report it.

  Linda gets into her car and fires it up. She backs out of her parking space mumbling, “Faith, sweetheart how do you get yourself into these situations?” She thinks about the first time she called Fatima ‘Faith.’

  They were seniors having a sleepover and staying up waytoo late. After watching horror movies and eating popcorn, they started talking about girl stuff. Eventually the subject shifted to boys.

  “Rick seems like a really nice guy.” Linda tries. She sits behind Fattie on the edge of her bed as the credits roll on the cheap slasher movie that just ended. She holds a brush in her hand and a lock of Fattie’s gorgeous blonde curls in her other.

  “I don’t know. He seems alright. But I think he is really more like friend material.” Fattie answers.

  “What are you talking about? He is totally sexy.”

  “You know looks don’t mean that much to me.”

  “Well what does?” Linda asks, as she yanks the brush too hard through Fattie’s hair.

  “Ouch! That hurt. And I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean ‘he seems alright.’ What does that mean?”

  “He’s nice.” Fattie turns back to look up at Linda. “I don’t really care for his looks as much as he and everyone else seems to, but he does look nice. He’s…I don’t know…fine. I just am not interested in him in that way.”

  “What way? Fattie seriously you should give someone a chance sometime. You needto live a little. Iam not saying fall in love with a guy. I’m just saying kiss one…you know maybe fuck one. Find out what it’s all about.”

  “Linda, don’t be gross.”

  “Fatima…you are 17. That is not gross. You are the only girl on the squad that is still a virgin. That includes the two freshmen sluts. Hell, you may be the only girl in school that’s a virgin.”

  Inexplicably Fattie starts to cry. Linda had talked openly with her about sex for over a year now. She knew Fatima was shy about stuff like that but it was starting to seem abnormal. She does feel bad for her friend, but that is just it; Fattie is her friend. This talk is for her own good, “I don’t want you to be afraid of it Fattie. It’s not bad at all. It can be nice, but it’s more than that. It can be…orgasmic.” Linda smiles big at Fattie and truly means what she says. Fattie looks and just starts to cry more. Linda frowns at her. “Fattie, what is it?”

  “Hurts…” Fattie says very quietly.

  “No. It doesn’t after a while…it really is bad the first time, but after that it gets better.” Fatima looks up at her and stops crying instantly. Her eyes are red and wide open. She sniffs.

  “Really?” She asks shyly, looking down and blushing.

  “Really. If they know what they’re doing, it doesn’t even hurt that bad the first time.” Linda says and smiles again at Fattie, “It really gets good pretty quick after that.”

  “I don’t know…it just seems so…” Fattie is looking at the wall. She sits with her mouth half way open like she is going to continue but doesn’t.

  “Fattie, are you okay?” Linda asks, almost certain that Fattie is going to start crying again.

  “I’m not…one.”

  “What? What do you mean? One what?”

  There is a long pause before Fattie mutters, “A virgin.”

  “Of course, you are. You have never been with any one. You would have told me.”

  Fattie sits frozen for a long time gazing at the wall. Linda moves off the bed and sits with her legs folded in front of her. Fattie looks over and tears are streaming down her face, “I couldn’t…I didn’t know how to tell you. He…” She breathes in and out deeplybut doesn’t seemto be able to continue.

  “Fattie…” Linda starts, and then
Fattie looks down at her body and rubs on her belly.

  “He…hurt me.”

  “Who?” Linda asks, but is afraid she already knows the answer. It all makes sense when she thinks about it. She knew that Fattie’s mom, Marie, had supposedly left them before Fattie and her father, Henri, moved to the States. They had been here for about 4 months when the police swarmed in and took him away. They accused him of murdering Marie. Linda never knew if he was found guilty or not. Fattie returned to school staying with foster parents. She never said why she wasn’t sent back to France with her father.

  Linda thought then that something had happened to Fatima, but she never said anything. Fattie is quiet and looking down for a long time. Finally, she looks back up at Linda. “You know that the worst part was thinking that it was my fault. He had touched me for years. My mother caught him touching my body when I was eleven. They fought terribly about that. He hurt her. I never said anything to him about it though. Iwas too afraid. On my twelfth birthday, my mother never came home. He told me she had grown jealous of my beauty. He said she left...he said she left because of me…” She breaks down and starts sobbing loudly again.

  “He…did more than touch you, didn’t he?”

  “Inever talkedto mymom about what he did. When we came here though…and she was gone…he got worse. He would sometimes crawl into my bed at night.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Linda asks and then unsure if she should have, she adds, “We never knew. We would have…”

  “It’s not your fault. I couldn’t say anything. I don’t know why I am even telling you now. I was so scared of what he would do if I told on him. But after they took him into custody, I told. I told the social worker. I was afraid they would send me back to France and he would get out and take me again. They wanted to send me back to France anyway. Not Mrs. Langston but her superiors. Theytold her it was unusual to keep a foreign national in the States if the parents were not here. They would have sent me back to France anyway. Despite the fact that the only family I had there was his mother, who I was more frightened of than him. She was a terrible woman. Thankfully they changed their minds and let me stay.”

  “Why?”

  “It was worked out as a kind of plea deal I guess. Mrs. Langston brought up charges against him. They made a deal. If he agreed to turn me overasa ward ofthe State of Florida and give up all his parental rights, then they would drop the aggravated sexual assault against a minor charge.” Fattie gets it all out but thenburstsinto tears and lungesfor Linda.

  Linda folds the poor girl in her arms. Her mouth is standing open. Even though it is very late and only minutes before she was on the verge of passing out, her eyes are wide open. She is stunned and has no idea what to say to Fattie. Fattie she thinks what a terrible person I am for calling her that, and she is so scared of men that she accepted it like a shield. “Fattie I…I’m so sorry.” She says as she holds her friend and they rock and cry together. Later they are calm and start talking again. “You know…I don’t want to use your nickname anymore. Fatima. That is your name. It is a pretty name.”

  “I hate it. Every time I hear it…I think of him.”

  “Well…yeah I…it’s just Fattie is so…”

  “I like it.”

  “No. It’s not good. We could call you Marie…it is your middle name.”

  “No!” Fatima says more harshly than she intended. “No…I love her name but I don’t want to be called that. Just call me Fattie. Everyone does.”

  That endedthe conversation for the night. It wasthenext daywhen the two girls were outside washing Fattie’s car and listening to the radio when Linda came up with it.

  A Faith Hill song comes on the radio. They both love her music. It sort of hits Linda and her arms immediately get goose bumps and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, “Faith…what about Faith?”

  “I don’t know…”

  “Yeah Faith I like that.”

  “I doubt anyone will call me that.”

  “Come on. I am Linda the Legs, captain of the cheer squad and the most popular girl in school. They will call you whatever I tell them to call you.” They both giggle. After a few weeks, everyone in school called her Faith. It seemed to fit her well.

  Linda smiles at the night thinking about that. Faith really started to do better after the name change. She seemed stronger. The two of them left high school together and both ended up in school in Tallahassee. Faith was in pre-med and Linda in nursing and they had stayed close. Spent

  Linda pulls into the dark parking lot of a 24-hour diner. There is a payphone out front and behind it there are booths lining the interior against large picture windows. The booth down on the end has a familiar head of blonde hair leaning over the table in it. Linda gets out of her car and goes into the diner. This is a seat yourself kind of place. She walks over to the table where Faith has her head laid over. Her eyes are closed but as Linda walks up to her, she opens them. Faith’s eyes are red and puffy again. She reaches out for Linda with both hands and she sits next to her and allows herto squeeze her and cry. Whenshe stops, Lindamoves around the booth so they can see each other.

  “What happened?”

  “I went out with a guy named Jace Matthews tonight. He seemed nice…” She starts, but then begins freshlycrying. She describes how they met. Faith had been studying quietly in the library when Jace stepped up to her.

  “Hello, It’s Faith, right?”

  “Yes…and you are?” Faith offers her hand and Jace takes it gently. “Jace. I play for the school. You might have heard them say my name at pep-rallies or at the games.”

  “Sorry. I don’t really care for football.”

  “You happened to end up at the wrong school with that attitude.”

  “Really? This school claims to have one of the best science programs in the state. I really wasn’t looking for a school with or without a football team. That didn’t matter to me at all.” Faith turns her head back to the passage she hadbeen studying. She hopesthe boywill just go away. He stands theresilentlyfor a while and then turns like he is goingto leave. Then he turns back.

  “I have seen you around. A lot.” He says. “I’ve seen you here in the library. I have seen you at the cafeteria. I have seen you in the quad.” “Stalker.”

  “No. I am just saying, I see you with that brunette sometimes. But I never see you with any guys.”

  “Is there a problem with that?”

  “No, Ijust have never seen you at anyparties or anything like that. I happen to be friends with a guy in your Calculus II class, otherwise I wouldn’t even know your name.”

  “What is your point?”

  “I was just wondering…do you not like guys?”

  “Oh, so I don’t hang all over boys so I must like girls? Or what?”

  “Um…this is going the wrong way.” Jacestands thereconsidering Faith for a while and then adds, “I just wondered if you had a boyfriend or something.”

  Faith looks in his dark eyes. He is tall with broad shoulders and muscles that ripple beneath his tee shirt almost too much. He also has a big cheesy smile. He seems nice, “No, I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “Would you like to go out this Friday with me?”

  “I can’t. I have plans.” Faith feels her cheeks growing flush.

  “Saturday?”

  “Sorry the ‘brunette’ and I are going to the beach in Panama City for the weekend.”

  “Will you be back on Sunday?”

  “Not until late.”

  “How about Monday?”

  “Big test on Tuesday. Sorry I have to study.” Faith turns her attention back to the book. She expects that will be the end of it. Then he clears his throat and she looks back at him.

  “You got a test on Wednesday?”

  “No…” She says shyly.

  “How about Tuesday night?”

  Faith considers him for a long time. He is very handsome. He seems too smart to be a football player. Since she had been out on
very few dates since high school Faith thinks it would be nice to go out at least occasionally. His smile spreads as Faith slowly opens her mouth.

  “Okay. We can go out on Tuesday.” Faith says and tears a small slip of paper from her notebook to scrawl on it. “This is the phone number for mydorm and hall. We have a strict 11 pm curfew.” All the dorms have curfews but most of the RA’s can be gotten around. Faith is probably the only girl in her dorm that hasn’t broken curfew.

  Jace takes the note and looks at it with a big smile on his face. “Alright, 11pm. Got it. Well, I can’t wait to see you on Tuesday.”

  “See you on Tuesday, Jace.” Faith says, smiling and a little embarrassed. She buries her nose in the big biology book she had been studying.

  After Linda moves across the booth from Faith a waitress comes and Linda orders coffee. There is a cup of coffee already sitting in front of Faith; it is black and looks untouched. Faith is clutching something cylindrical in her hand. Her thumb is pressed over the top of it. The girl is physically shaking. “Do you want to talk about it?” Linda finally asks, after the waitress returns with her coffee and leaves again. Faith shakes her head and looks out the window.

  Warm rain had started sprinkling while Faith was on the phone holding for Linda and thousands of little beads of water still cling to the diner’s windows. She tries to distract herself, looking at the dancing lights from the passing cars outside through the droplets. she can’t help but relive the whole thing.

  Jace had called on Monday and left a message. Faith called him back after class on Tuesday. She had every intention of breaking the date. She had a paper due in anatomy on Friday and she still hadn’t started writing it.

  She hopes he won’t answer the phone while it rings. Maybe it is a dorm phone and someone else will answer and she can just leave the message that the date is off. Someone picks up on the other end at the third ring and says, “Hello?”

  “Yes, may I speak to Jace…um…I don’t actually know his last name.”