Page 23 of For Your Own Good
As it turned out, the seating chart was only for the first week of class, until Crutcher learned their names. After that, they were allowed to sit wherever they wanted. Zach took his original seat, in the center of class.
Ever since then, Crutcher has hated him. Okay, maybe because of what had happened on the first day, it was wrong of Zach to take the same seat again, but he likes sitting in the middle of the room. Not too close, not too far, a view of the window and of the door. It’s perfect, and so that’s where he sat. Crutcher didn’t have to punish him for it.
Never underestimate the power of a good first impression.
Maybe that Ward-ism is right. Maybe Zach had screwed up from the beginning.
TEDDY DOESN’T HEARabout Sonia until lunchtime. His students may or may not have been talking about it after his last class, but he wasn’t really listening. He was too busy reading Zach’s paper. It had arrived in his inbox first thing this morning.
To prepare for the paper, Teddy had watched the entireBleak HouseTV series. Two episodes a night, every night, for the past week. Just in case Zach’s paper was based on that instead of the book. There are far more characters in the novel than there are in the series, and he thoughtit would be interesting to see if Zach mentions anyone who didn’t make the TV cut.
Given this preoccupation, he doesn’t know what’s going on when he walks into the teachers’ lounge at lunch. The conversation is animated and loud, words likevomitandupchuckare being thrown around, like it’s fine to talk about such things while people are eating.
Frank is the one who finally explains the whole story, starting in Sonia’s classroom and ending in the ladies’ room on the first floor.
“And, no, it’s not COVID,” he says to Teddy. “Contrary to the rumors.”
“COVID? Good God.”
Frank purses his lips, but at least he doesn’t mention taking the Lord’s name in vain. “And don’t believe what they’re saying about an ambulance, either,” he says. “Her husband picked her up.”
No, there was definitely no ambulance. Teddy would have heard the sirens if an emergency vehicle had come to the school.
“So she just got sick in class?” he says.
“Yes,” Frank says. “All over her desk.”
“How horrible.”
“Horrible for Joe,” Frank says. “He’s the one who has to clean it up.”
Teddy nods, but he’s not thinking about the school custodian. He’s thinking about Sonia becoming so ill. “I wonder if it’s food poisoning,” he says.
“That or the stomach flu, I bet.”
Teddy doesn’t get a cup of coffee. Instead, he goes back downstairs and walks by Sonia’s classroom. The door is shut, but he peeks in. Everything has been cleaned, the window on the far side of the room is open, and he can smell the bleach.
He goes back to his own classroom to eat his usual lunch: bologna on white bread and an apple. While eating, he returns to Zach’s paper. The topic Zach chose is about the legal system, which isn’t a surprise. His mother, Pamela, is a lawyer. Teddy learned that when he looked her up online.
But he didn’t just get a paper. Zach also sent along a letter, thanking him profusely for giving him a chance to improve his grade. A lesser teacher would’ve bought into it.
Not Teddy. Sucking up is desperate, and he has no respect for students who try it.
He continues reading the paper until lunch ends. Sonia and the events of the morning are long gone. He doesn’t think about them again until Frank pops his head in at the end of the day.
“Sonia’s husband called,” he says. “Looks like she’s got a bug. Probably the stomach flu.”
“Good to know,” Teddy says.
IN THE EVENING,when he’s alone at home, he heads into the basement. Three test tubes are on his worktable, each one half-filled and capped. He picks up the first, which has a sticker with anSon it. ForSonia.
The substance he put in Sonia’s coffee was a new formula, something he’s been researching and playing around with for a while. Having never tested it before, he wasn’t sure if the amount was correct or what it would do, but he had to find out sometime. With a green pen, he marks the tube with a plus sign.
That done, he goes upstairs to pour himself an ice-cold glass of milk.
15
WRAPPED IN BLANKETS,her head sunken into the pillows, Sonia feels like she wants to die. In the moments when she doesn’t want to die, she is very pissed off.
