Read Online Ajar by Marianna Boncek - Free Book Online

I don’t know
if she knew anything about my brother, but if she did, she didn’t
say anything. I sort of got the idea that she was clueless, and I
certainly wasn’t going to fill her in.
    A few weeks after Mrs. O’Reilly started to
tutor me, my jaw was unwired. At the same time, all my casts came
off. I was finally able to talk. I was very stiff but I was able to
walk some by myself. The doctor said all this stiffness was normal
and when I got back to my life, things would just come naturally,
I’d start moving better. Really? Get back to my life? When was that
going to happen?
    Mrs. O’Reilly asked my mother if I could
come to the library in the mornings to be tutored. She had another
student who she met with there and she thought we could benefit
from studying together. I’m sure she wanted to kill two birds with
one stone but I desperately wanted to get out of the house. The
library was only two blocks away. I knew I would have to move
slowly but I could easily make two blocks. The doctor had said that
I could slowly start resuming regular activity. I begged my mother.
She relented because she no longer had the strength to fight.
    So, Monday morning, I headed to the Sawyer
Public Library. I was kind of fascinated at being out in the world
while other people were at school and work. I felt a little freer.
Most of the people on the street during the day didn’t know who I
was. It felt good to be outside in the fresh air. As sore as they
were, it felt good to move my legs, draw in fresh air. I was so
happy I wanted to bound up the library stairs, but the best I could
pull off was a stiff-legged hopping. Even then I had to stop and
catch my breath. Looking around inside the library I saw mostly
women with very young children and retired people. I finally found
Mrs. O’Reilly sitting at a table by the window.
    “Well, hello, Agustin,” she greeted me
cheerily. I could tell she had already started to nip. “I’d like
you to meet Melinda.”
    I look down at the girl sitting opposite
Mrs. O’Reilly. My entire body jolted and to this day I cannot
explain why. Melinda was not a pretty girl. She was thin, bone
thin. I had never seen anyone, ever, so thin except for pictures in
books. And those had been children in African refugee camps. She
looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over it. Her hair was
absolutely white and from my vantage point, I could see thinning
spots at the top of her head. Her skin was pocked and lumpy. Her
eyes were blue but they were rimmed in a pink lining. She seemed to
have a bluish cast to her skin and lips.
    “Hi,” I smiled. I smiled . Those
muscles on my face moved into a smile, those same muscles that I
had not used in months. I was glad the dentist had been able to fit
the teeth back in my mouth.
    “Hi.” She glanced up at me and then
immediately looked away.
    I pulled out the chair and sat down next to
her. Her long fingers were resting on a book. They were pale with
each joint articulated clearly. Her fingernails were chewed short
and deeply imbedded into the flesh at the ends of her fingers. Her
wrist was so thin her flesh hung between the radius and the ulna.
She saw me looking and pulled down the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
Her clothes were oversized and baggy; a gray sweatshirt with
matching pants.
    Mrs. O’Reilly handed us each a packet of
work. I flipped through it: some math, an essay in English about Macbeth and a worksheet in science.
    “I’m just going to go to the ladies’ room.”
Mrs. O’Reilly got up slowly. “You two keep working.”
    I watched her walk unsteadily away.
    “She sure is on the sauce this morning,” I
said out loud.
    Melinda giggled holding her hand over her
mouth.
    “What grade are you in?” I asked looking
over.
    “I think I’m in 11 th . I don’t
really know. I just do the work she brings me.”
    I thought it was odd. How could someone not
know what grade she was in?
    “I’m a senior,” I said. I then added, “My
friends call me Gus.