Page 30 of It's Me They Follow
The group looked at The Shopkeeper with a mix of shock and pity. How dare she mock The Good Doctor at a time like this? She was about to apologize when Lil Charlie said, “You don’t love anyone, do you?” and waved her off.I love people, she tried to convince herself.I love... and stayed there a minute, trying to think of someone. It made her miss ME.I love ME, she thought.Kind of.She tried to think of whoelse, but no one else came to mind. The Shopkeeper loved her sister and her grandmother, but it took her too long to think of them.
The others went back to searching their phones. The coughing continued. The thought of spittle landing on her skin was like a scratched chalkboard. The more she moved, the more her odor traveled, making the room less inhabitable—and everyone more irritable.
“Well, she’s not here yet,” said Rose. She turned up her nose at The Shopkeeper. “Would you sit still?” she scolded.
“The school site says—cough, cough, cough—if a professor doesn’t show—cough, cough, cough—after the first thirty minutes—cough, cough, cough—then the class is dismissed,” said the coughing man.
The Shopkeeper didn’t want class to be dismissed. She needed The Good Doctor. She only had two weeks before her shop was supposed to open. The envelope from ME was like a telltale heart beating in front of her. It was wrinkled from the oppression of her tight grip. Maybe it held the key to her destiny.
“We don’t want class to be dismissed. We want answers,” Ray said, rubbing his forehead.
The Shopkeeper agreed. Her head ping-ponged back and forth from person to person. She thought they were purposefully leaving her out. “Can someone tell me what’s going on?” she asked.
No one answered.
“Rumor is, The Good Doctor...” Lil Charlie started to explain.
“Is a fraud.” The Shopkeeper finished his sentence too soon. “I hope not.” She tried to soften her words after everyone looked at her in shock.
He rolled his eyes at The Shopkeeper and changed the subject. “Her daughter works across the street at the bookstore. Anybody know her?”
The teenybopper?The Shopkeeper thought.Was she The Good Doctor’s daughter?It was funny; she could immediately see the resemblance. She kinda knew the teenybopper, but not well.
She sighed. “Ask her what?” The Shopkeeper tried again.
“You think her daughter’s—cough, cough, cough—at work?”
“I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about all this.” Rose sprayed a musky perfume in The Shopkeeper’s direction, which, for some reason, made the group come undone.
“She’s never late.”
“First time for everything.”
“It’s been an hour.”
“Wouldn’t the university notify us?”
“Not if no one notified them.”
“The Good Doctor was pretty famous. Are you telling me nothing about THIS is posted online?”
“What is THIS?” The Shopkeeper asked, louder.
“I’m telling you...” Rose started.
“Tell me.”
“Wait,” Ray replied.
“Wait for what?” The Shopkeeper asked.
“Something just posted on—cough, cough, cough—on the university website.Cough, cough, cough.‘Friends and family...’” He went silent, reading to himself. His cough sounded far worse than asthma.
“‘We are deeply saddened to share the news... of our loss. She p-p-passed a-away,’” he stuttered. “‘She passed away on January 15 in Philadelphia. She was born on... A celebration of life will be held later this month.’”
Everyone spoke over one another.
“‘Mysterious illness.’”
