The Mirrors of Fate (15 page)

•

“
The things you get yourself into, Maria.”

Maria said nothing.

“
So let me see if I’ve gotten this straight. First, you leapt onto the desk, snatched Ellie’s hair, pulled her from her seat, and then raked your fingernails down her face.”

“
No. That wasn’t what happened.”

“
Then do tell me again because maybe
I
got it wrong.”

Mr. Lohan’s countenance was austere and rigid, the first time she had ever seen him like that before. If looks could kill, he meant to send her home in a body bag. After school and in a deserted classroom, she had the undesirable chore of explaining her wild attack on Ellie, the attack that had landed Ellie with scratches, a black eye and potentially a bald spot. Maria was particularly proud of the bald spot.

“
I’m waiting to hear,” he said impatiently.

“
If you really want to know, I boxed—I mean, hit her,
then
I raked my fingernails down her face. You left something out.” She hid a smile behind her falling auburn locks, but the dumbfounded look on his face reminded her this was no laughing matter.

“
Well,” he began after taking a considerable time to gather his composure, “you’ve really outdone yourself this time. Do you realize what the repercussions may be for your actions?”

Maria absently glanced toward the floor. “No one seems to care about what they did to me,” she murmured. “Everyone just wants to point fingers.”

“
No one is pointing fingers. I’m not saying what they did was right, but as it stands, the only person with any injuries is Ellie.”

It should’ve been Gina too,
she wished she had the guts to say.

“
Well, I can only say one thing,” he began. She was expecting the worst but was surprised to hear him say, “It takes someone with a lot of skill to end up with not even a scratch.”

The chain she’d kept on her smile finally broke when she heard him say that. “Gina would’ve gotten it too, sir, but Ellie’s laugh is what really irritates me.”

He did not look amused at first, but soon an impressed grin cracked on his tanned, neatly bearded face. Delighted laughter burst out of him, his hand to his belly. “Ms. Jaghai, you are one in a million! If you let any of the teachers know I didn’t scold you over this, I’ll deny everything!”

Finally she felt more relaxed now. Mr. Lohan was just one of those people you could count on no matter what. If he wasn’t mad over the fight, then chances were he would ultimately defend her if the principal wanted to take drastic measures. She thought she was safe, but soon he became serious again.

“
Honestly though, Maria, you should have been smarter. You’re trying to up your grades, but now you’ve got this issue to deal with on your personal record. The principal is looking for any excuse to get you out of school because he hates...Well, I won’t say
hate
because it’s not very teacherly. The principal is particularly threatened by the power your father has.”

Yes, Maria knew her actions were stupid, but she couldn’t let Gina and Ellie get away with libel. Not this time. Call it her father’s spirit of anger residing in her, but she couldn’t make herself back down from what they did. For reasons not even she knew, Maria had always allowed them to belittle her or make her feel worthless, even though they were younger by a year. Maybe it was her futile attempt to hang on to the only two friends she had, but the battle line had been set and crossed.

Mr. Lohan left his seat and crossed to her. “The least I can do for your cause is keep reminding the principal they were the ones who aggravated the situation. And after that, I can request minimal punishment.”

“
Thank you, Mr. Lohan. I appreciate all the help you can give me.”

He rested a hand on her shoulder. “That’s what I’m here for. I care about you and the other students. I only want to see you do well, Maria. You’re a very smart, beautiful girl. Don’t let them push your buttons. You can’t escape mean kids in school, but you have to play with the cards you’re dealt. You may not get a great hand, but you might be able to do something with it if you bluff and play just right. In the end, only you determine your fate.”

“
How
deep
, sir,” she mocked him playfully.

His fingers idly played with a curl of her hair. She sat stiffly, saying nothing.
“You know they’re only troubling you because you look better than all of them. A cultural thing, maybe. You know that, right?...I didn’t realize your hair was so soft.”

Maria stood up. The action removed his hand. “I should go now, Mr. Lohan. It’s getting late.”

He smiled. “It’s usually done the other way around. You ask if you can go, then you stand up if you get the answer you’re looking for.”

An awkward silence passed over her. “School’s over, sir. It’s back to the prison I call home.”

His gaze barely touched the face of his watch when he agreed. “Yes, yes I guess so. I better be going as well. I promised my wife I’d be home early today.”

“
Say hello to Mrs. Lohan then for me.” Maria grabbed her bag from the floor and passed by him, refusing him the parting glance or smile that she knew he probably would’ve liked to receive. At the door though, he suddenly spoke again.

“
Oh, Maria.”

She turned.

“
I meant to speak to you about one of the choices you gave me to look at the other day. If memory serves me correctly, I think it was...the Bankman University of Fine and Applied Arts out in Illinois.”

Her lips parted in shock. “What about the Bankman University of Fine and Applied Arts out in Illinois?”

“
I called up the school and it turns out that the pamphlets you have are a little outdated. They’ve changed a couple application requirements that they haven’t put on their website or in any of the pamphlets yet.”

“
What does that mean?”

“
It means that based on what they tell me, based on the changes, we may be able to get you in if we get some things done.”

It couldn’t be true, could it? “You’re joking! Are you serious? Oh my God!”

He laughed at her spur of excitement. “Calm down, calm down. There’s still a lot I need to discuss with you.”

What the hell did that matter!?
her mind shouted. She heard the one thing she wanted to hear—hope! An actual possibility of being able to leave White Crest City. She was smiling from ear-to-ear.

“
So then should I just call the university for the information?”

“
No, no,” Mr. Lohan said quickly. “It took me over half an hour just to get through to them. It’s better if I tell you what they told me and give you some materials I think may help. Maybe we can meet on the weekend? I’ll be booked and busy with classes all throughout the week. How is this upcoming Saturday?”

“
Okay, then,” she said eagerly. “How about Jon’s Diner in the Square then, on Saturday?”

He was slow to respond. “Well, wouldn’t my house be more convenient? Then I wouldn’t have to bring all those heavy articles of information with me. They’re already at home.”

Maria smiled and said nothing. Already at the door, she opened it and stepped one foot outside. She looked over her shoulder at him. “It can’t be many articles. You said you called them, sir. Remember?”

“
Yes, yes, I know,” he said uncertainly, “but I have other things like handouts, guidelines and such, that may be of use to you.”

Maria nodded and batted her eyes a little in teasing. “Jon’s diner is best, sir. Before it gets dark. Goodbye. Oh, and don’t forget to say hello to Mrs. Lohan for me.”

She exited and closed the door, holding back an amused grin. She almost felt bad for stomping on his pitiable attempt to take advantage of the hopeful door that had opened for her through Bankman, but he should have been ashamed for letting his face become so downcast like that in her presence. All he was doing was giving away just how much of a perv he really was.

But then again, what did that make her for sometimes entertaining his behavior? To say she liked the attention would have been untrue, but to say that somehow, in some way, she didn’t always leave an interaction with him feeling more powerful than when she went into it would have been an outright lie.

Thankfully, at the end of the day, Mr. Lohan was ultimately harmless. Even if he often said or did things that were out of place, when it came to him, she was the one in control.

She would never allow things to go too far.

•

A woman doesn’t really need to go to university.

I only let your mother work because she begged me.

That’s just more wasted time in school.

You will marry someone who will take care of you.

He’ll help you become a woman.

That was the way my sister had to do it.

That is the way you’ll have to do it as well.

I know what’s best for you.

•

Those were the words she remembered all too well from her father when she had a conversation with him a while back. She had barely finished getting three sentences in about her desire to go to away to school before he started one of his lectures.

But he could lecture all he wanted to. It was her secret plan now to go ahead and pursue this aspiration of hers. University was her only way of escape.

When Mr. Lohan told her about Bankman earlier that day, she doubted he could really fathom how happy she was. So happy she even started working on her senior project on forensic science once she got home. She thought she’d never make it past reading about topics like cremation and decomposition of the body, but his confidence had given her the necessary boost in faith she needed. The information might have been vague, but at least now there was a twinkling glimmer of hope not there before. Damn, maybe this would actually work. Just the thought of getting out of here, leaving White Crest City for somewhere else where she could shape her own future seemed like a blessing.

Maria rolled over in her bed, slightly crushing a few scattered papers and flimsy books in the process. She looked up at the cat-shaped clock on her wall. Already nine-thirty. Her father had been home for over an hour now. She wondered at first why he hadn’t come in yet to cuss her out for the incident at school which he probably was called about, but then she realized scolding her would go against the plan to keep her happy and obedient until her meeting on the thirtieth with that suitor. That explained why she hadn’t been yelled at for the date with Alan yet. Her mother must have also played a hand as well in trying to keep him calm.

If anything went wrong, her parents’ reputations would be tainted, and her father could potentially drive himself into a nervous breakdown. Saying so was no exaggeration; her father’s health had been declining of late due to stress at work. Though he tried to pretend he was at the pinnacle of supreme wellness, nothing could erase her memories of hearing him cough at night, of him waking up on occasion and vomiting in his private bathroom. She had a memory of him arguing so much with her mother that his voice suddenly cut off, as if someone slammed a window shut. What followed was a long frightening session of him heaving and choking, claiming he could not breathe.

More than just making her parents happy depended on this.

But...despite all that...she couldn’t help thinking amusedly about what it would be like to completely disappear off the map and out of their hands. What if there was no Maria Jaghai? Undoubtedly her parents would malfunction and perish. Ha! How entertaining that would be.

Maria rolled over again like a lazy potato and smothered her face in the pillow. She could take care of things if she wanted to, just smother herself. But she remembered hearing somewhere it was impossible to die like that, just as it was impossible to die by holding your breath underwater because as long as you were physically capable of moving, your body would force you up to the surface to breathe anyway. You’d have to put rocks in your clothes like Virginia Woolf.

Why couldn’t she find an easier way out of her problems? She thought of Alan. She missed him. For some reason he had not been answering his phone. Maybe he was tired of her like everyone else was.

A knock came to her door.

“
Maria!”

Maria almost sprung up from her bed when she heard her father’s voice. He hadn’t been at her door for a long time. Any messages got sent to Maria through her mother. Whatever he had to say must have been important.

“
The door’s open, Dad,” she said loudly.

He came in hurriedly. The brighter hallway lights burst into the room and she winced from the sudden readjustment.

“
Get up, get up quickly. What are you, a vampire?”

Her father flipped on her overhead light, replacing the duller light of the small lamp near her bed. Maria caught a glimpse of the cordless phone in his hand.

“
You have a call,” he said.

“
A call?” A call brought him all the way to her room when he could have easily shouted her name from downstairs? As much as he tried to appear as if it was nothing, there was still urgency hidden behind his forced casual expression. Maria got up much too lazily from her soft bed sheets and crossed to him.