The Waking (The Upturned Hourglass) (5 page)

“My book is in my locker,” Valie blurted. 

The woman clenched her jaw for a moment before speaking in her severest tone. “How much time of my class are you willing to waste, Miss McRae? Sit
down
,” she commanded.

The “popular” kids at the other side of the room chuckled mirthfully at this encounter and Mrs. Ables was obliged to leave Valie alone to put down this new disruption.

Valie sat.

The rest of the period seemed to take an eternity to pass. Valie yawned uncontrollably and Mrs. Ables kept a sharp eye on her. More than once, the exhausted girl nodded off while leaning on her arms. Occasionally, the old shrew whacked a wooden pointer against her desk, scaring everyone to death, but especially targeting Valie.

A few minutes before the period ended, she couldn’t stand the boredom anymore and put her head down on the desk. The next thing she knew, Mrs. Ables was hissing a warning into her ear, “Valie McRae, if you fall asleep again in this class, I will personally see to it that you get a month’s detention—to be served cleaning my classroom every single morning before school. Now sit up!” 

Valie instinctually pulled away from the whispered threat. The old woman’s breath left the skin of Valie’s neck uncomfortably sticky. She hunched her shoulders forward defensively and pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head.
             

As soon as the bell rang, Valie was out the door before anyone else. Her second period math class was just around the corner and she was hoping to avoid anymore encounters, but this was
not
going to be her lucky day.

Candace Bingham, captain of the Anders High Cougar Cubs cheer team happened to exit Mrs. Ables class ahead of Valie and intentionally stepped into her path. Candace had
always been her nemesis, determined to make Valie’s life miserable.

Apparently, today was no exception.

“Get out of my way, Candace.”

“Late again, Valie?
Love the ensemble—is that the new style? The slept-in look?” Her entourage giggled on cue. Valie was pretty much invisible at school except to three people: Jonathan, Luci, and Candace. The latter made it her personal duty to antagonize Valie unmercifully. It had something to do with an eighth grade crush, shattered dreams, and ice cream. It was a
long
story.

Valie stared straight into the cheerleader’s amused eyes, refusing to back down, but determined not to demean herself by trading insults.

Candace’s voice was cloyingly condescending. “Did you have a late night? Big party at the apartment, maybe? Oh wait…you don’t have any friends. I forgot.” The vindictive smile was supposed to wither her; but she ignored the obnoxious girl and her snickering groupies and tried to step past her into the classroom. Valie had convinced herself a long time ago that most people her age were insensitive because they hadn’t gone through enough trials and pain to become sensitized to the world yet. She was not the same as most people her age. Candace was. 

Candace changed tactics, and more aggressively edged closer until she was literally in Valie’s face.

“What are you going to do? Kiss me?” Valie said sardonically.  “
Back up
, Candace.”

“You wish, McRae.”

Candace glared down at Valie through her side-cut bangs. Valie met her look with as much disinterest as possible. The belligerent girl was avoidable most of the time, but there were always those days when she was simply sadistic. 

Valie repeated herself with as much menace in her voice as she could muster, slowly drawing out each word through gritted teeth, “Get – out – of – my – way.”

One of the other cheerleaders whispered something in the background and Candace relaxed. “Gladly!” she said much too pleasantly, before she intentionally banged into Valie’s shoulder with her own, sending Valie’s armload of books crashing to the floor.

“Oops! Sorry,” offered the girl, flashing her most wicked smile as she turned to lead her Cougar Cubs away.

Ms. Bernadine’s calculus class always passed quickly. Valie forgot Candace entirely, enjoying the sweet logic of the subject. Even though the girl would never quite understand why this timid lady had become a teacher, she appreciated being in her class. Valie could use the time anyway she wanted; Ms. Bernadine always trusted her to do her work and, in an effort to maintain her freedoms, Valie never let her down. Today, she just tried to relax, laying her head on the desk, hoping to catch up a little on her sleep. But oblivion wouldn’t come; she was too keyed up. She sat there staring at the inside of her eyelids.

Sometimes Valie wished Luci really knew what she was talking about—all those weird paranormal things in which she believed so strongly. Luci had an explanation for everything—Valie only had questions. It would be nice to have some answers once in awhile. Last night she’d only slept for an hour. There was this
feeling
—some tugging at her insides, something yanking her brain around. Who knew? Maybe it
had
been a night demon stealing her dreams. 

It’s thoughts like
that
which will keep you up at night, if you don’t watch it,
she thought to herself bitterly.

No, she decided; her strange mood had set in before she’d tried to sleep. After-hours in the park was her special time and place. It usually relaxed her to be there, but last night had been odd. She’d felt uncomfortable the whole time—nervous, wary. And she hadn’t yet been able to shake that feeling, even now. 

The bell signaled the first break and the students poured into the halls. Valie managed to push her way through the sea of teenagers to reach the outdoor quad without hyperventilating. The old school had lots of windows, which was the only thing that saved Valie from her own natural claustrophobia, but after a couple of classes, she had to escape into the outdoors, if only for a few moments. Honestly, this had always been the most important issue in scheduling her classes each semester—where they were located in relation to each other and how fast could she reach a door.

Once outside, she easily spotted Luci rocking out to her music in the center of the quad, huge neon green headphones over her ears. The others in the area were giving her a wide berth, although she was totally oblivious.

Valie walked up to her friend, wearing the same amused expression she always had on her face when Luci was around. Eventually, those little bright eyes behind the purple glasses opened up again to find her best friend grinning at her. Valie knew that Luci had no idea what a spectacle she created sometimes. She wished she could be as uninhibited.

“How did you do on the test?” Valie asked.

“Eh, alright. I didn’t get as much studying done as I’d planned.”

“Gee I wonder why.”

Luci laughed nervously.

Valie smiled. “Did you want to get together tonight? I need some help on my Spanish essay.”

“¡Sí! A qué hora?”

“Um.
Let’s say seven-ish ‘cause I really need sleep.”

Jonathan walked up. “Hey!”

Immediately, Luci turned down the music blasting out of her headphones.

“I swear you should be deaf by now,” Jonathan laughed. “I think I’m partially deaf just by being around you all the time.”

She grinned. “You know you love me.”

He shrugged. “True that.”

Luci blushed and looked away. Valie just glanced at the two of them and kept silent as the three started to walk toward their usual spot by a small grouping of birch trees, far away from the crowds.

So
that was how it was going to be from now on
, she thought.
The usual friendliness and then BAM! Awkwardness.
Valie loved being with Luci and Jonathan, but recently, she felt the need for backup friends.  Where could she go when these two were flirty? She wanted to disappear right now and they weren’t even dating yet. Too bad she’d never found anyone else in this whole school worth talking to.

Valie had always been a sort of high-school outcast, though she doubted anyone felt differently. It was, after all, high-school. Valie just didn’t fit in. When she was little she was known as the girl who ran crying from the room when she got sent to the corner. When she’d gotten older she’d tried to make friends, but her backwards sleep schedule made it hard to maintain friendships outside of school. Only Luci and Jonathan, who’d known her since her tearful days of kindergarten were her friends and soon they would be too into themselves to care for Valie much anymore. . . .

The rest of the school day seemed to pass at a snail’s pace, but was otherwise uneventful. Finally, Valie dropped Luci off at her house, confirmed their plans for later in the evening, and walked home as quickly as she could, jealous of every minute of sleep that she was missing. By the time the tired girl arrived back at the apartment, she had to almost drag herself up the three flights of stairs.

The apartment was dim and musty; she dropped her backpack right by the front door. Her usual routine was to eat a snack before she lay down; but she was just too tired to think about food. She could hear her grandfather snoring from his bedroom; Valie peeked in. There he was, face down on the bed, an arm flung over the edge and a bottle that had once held a copious amount of alcohol sat emptied on the floor near his drooping hand.

She shut the door not too softly.

Once in her own room, Valie quickly shed her outer layers and snuggled under the blankets of her bed, pulling them up close to her chin. She tried to quiet her mind—to think of nothing—to let unconsciousness steal over her like a gentle mist, but her mind stubbornly refused to relinquish all the sights and sounds of the day.  Relentlessly, vivid images marched behind her eyelids unbidden.  Frustrated close to tears, Valie flung herself onto her back, crossed her arms defensively, and stared up at the cracked ceiling in despair.

Valie had never had trouble sleeping before. Well, she’d
never had trouble sleeping during the
day
. She had discovered very early on that sleeping at night just didn’t come naturally to her. Her grandfather had tried to force her to sleep on a normal schedule when she was younger. She could remember many nights of lying in her bed having to pretend to be asleep when in reality she was counting the ticking of the clock on her wall, seeing how accurate she could be in her estimations of when the hour would strike. Hour after hour, counting the ticking of the old clock in the hallway—1800 ticks until the half hour sounded; another 1800 ticks until the next gong of the hour. Eventually, she got so good at it that she didn’t have to count anymore. Her subconscious just knew when the hour would strike and she would test herself—counting down from ten to one—and the gong would sound right on cue. She was never wrong. Then, one night, she got up. Alden was dead drunk and she was free. Now her schedule, as odd as it was, worked. At least, it did when she could actually
sleep
.

Trying to find some comfortable position, Valie rolled over on her side and drew her knees up to her chest. Maybe she should just go on over to Luci’s house. The Whitworth’s wouldn’t care if she showed up for dinner. Luci would have a supernatural ball with Valie’s insomnia…night demons, ghosts—what would it be this time?

Valie could hear Alden’s snoring stutter through the open door to her room. She found herself wondering about the last time she’d spoken to him. It had definitely been a long time. It had been an even longer time since she’d seen him sober.

The glint of the sun caught the glass of a framed picture sitting on her bookcase across from the foot of her bed. The picture was of her mother, Elizabeth McRae. The woman was gorgeous by any standard with her wavy, auburn hair and pale ivory skin, both of which Valie had inherited. The girl, however, had not received her mother’s curved figure or shapely lips, or her bright green eyes. Valie was stuck being straight-hipped and athletic-looking with thin lips and the strange amber eyes everyone couldn’t help but comment on. Her eyes were unique, the color of dark yellow gold. Luci said every once in awhile they shone no matter what the light, but Valie had never noticed.
They just looked like her eyes. 

Beside the photograph was an old cigar box. The box had been given to her by Alden’s sister, Great Aunt Carrie. The old woman, who Valie always remembered for the long, French-braid she wore her gray hair in and the scent of lilac and honeysuckle that clung to her wherever she went. Aunt Carrie—who Alden (then, somewhat sober) had taken Valie to visit every summer for a few years, before the woman died—had given Valie the box for her keepsakes. It was where Valie had stored her mother’s picture before she was old enough to frame it herself along with a couple dried flowers from Aunt Carrie’s garden. It was also where Valie placed the bracelet she always wore if, for some reason, she had to take it off; her treasure box seemed to be the safest place.

Valie twisted and toyed with the silver-beaded bracelet around her wrist while she counted the ticking of the clock until, eventually, with memories of Aunt Carrie and her garden floating through Valie’s mind, the girl fell into an uneasy sleep.

She woke just as the sun began to set. Her ears perceived the sound of the cabinets in the kitchen opening with painful creaks only to slam shut moments later.