In the Image of Grace (23 page)

“May I speak with one of your students in here,” I
politely asked.

At first the teacher didn’t respond. He just waved a
bony finger at me. Then blurted, “You’re one of them!”

Maybe I really was an alien and just didn’t know it
because that’s what he made it sound like, them, the other people.
The invaders. I looked over at Jeremy who regained consciousness
and was getting out of his seat.

“Hey,” he said walking up to me. “How’s
everything?”

“I don’t know,” I answered glancing in the direction
of the teacher. He was just watching me. It seemed the teacher
didn’t know quite what to say to me, besides the short sentence he
had already muttered. “May I talk to Jeremy here for a moment in
the hall?”

The teacher bit his lip and looked up as if pondering
my request. “You have exactly one minute.”

“Thank you so much.” I grabbed Jeremy’s hand leading
him towards the classroom door. I dragged him into the hall where I
immediately gave him a kiss.

“Your sisters told me what happened,” Jeremy avowed
after our kiss with his mouth drawn into a frown. I was so pissed I
didn’t know what to do.”

“There was nothing you could have done,” I said
looking into Jeremy’s eyes and grabbing his hands in mine.

“I was just so worried.”

“Don’t worry, I’m okay. Whatever he stuck me with is
wearing off even though my neck is still kind of sore.”

Jeremy reached up and brushed my hair over my
shoulder, so he could look at my neck. “Yeah, there’s a red
puncture wound here and there’s a bruise around it. That’s prolly
why it still kinda hurts ya,” Jeremy concluded giving my neck a
gentle kiss.

“How you feeling,” I asked noticing that his wounds
looked like they had gotten worse and not better.

He shrugged as the classroom door opened.

“Minute is up,” asserted the teacher from the
classroom.

“Meet me by my locker after school,” I told Jeremy
thinking how quick a minute passes.

“Of course,” he replied flashing me a smile.

I turned, went down the hall and actually then did go
to the library to use up the rest of my study hall time. The rest
of the school day passed with quite whispers and stares in my
direction. I tried to ignore them, but it was still annoying. After
school Jeremy met me at my locker and we embraced in a hug that I
wanted to last forever, but it was interrupted by my sisters who
informed me that we had a car waiting out back.

I interlaced my fingers into the ones on his left
hand. “Come with us.”

Clarissa answered instead of Jeremy. “I think it’s
just taking us home.”

“That’s fine with me,” I told Clarissa studying
Jeremy for an answer.

“Won’t you get in trouble again?” Jeremy asked.

“What are they going to do, stick me again,” I said
raising my eyebrows up and down.

I was surprised to see that it wasn’t Mr. Carl taking
us home. It was actually Pastor Dave and he seemed none the wiser
on if Jeremy was able to come with us or not. When we got to our
house Pastor Dave and Jeremy shielded us from the awaiting sharks.
Once buzzed in and past the gate, Pastor Dave left and Ms.
Dunderfeltz opened the door. She held up a hand as to stop Jeremy,
but I told her if Jeremy didn’t come inside with us there would be
severe consequences. I used pretty much the same wording Reginald
used on us. She didn’t put up a fight and we all entered the house.
Jeremy went straight up to my room with me, so I could fill him in
on the evening before and the morning.

We laid in the middle of my floor on our backs
perpendicular to each other with my head on his stomach.

“How come nobody ever mentions Elizabeth?” I
queried.

Jeremy ran his fingers through my hair. “I honestly
don’t know.”

“Is it because she was flawed? She didn’t turn out
right. She wasn’t a freakish inhuman copy of perfection?”

“You’re not freakish or inhuman,” Jeremy stated
trying to console me.

“If I had some major flaw would I be ignored too? Why
did something have to be wrong with her?”

“It only shows that she was human Charlotte, as you
are too. You’re not human unless you’re flawed. Your father or
Reginald and whoever just want to maintain the image of perfection
as they call it. They’re just trying to keep secret the fact that
you’re totally normal human teenage girls. I’m sure it’s all for
the sake of publicity.”

“Am I flawed?” I asked fully aware that I totally was
and probably beyond repair.

“You’re totally flawed. You’re way too polite. When
you’re a teenager sometimes you just have to be a jerk.”

“That’s all that you could think of?” I asked rolling
over to my stomach and resting my chin on his chest. “What about
anxiety ridden?”

“That’s pretty normal for some teenagers,” Jeremy
said while playing with some of my hair.

“Really, what about neurotic?”

“You’re not neurotic.”

“You sure about that? I don’t know what I’m supposed
to feel half the time.”

“Does anybody really?” Jeremy took the hair he was
playing with and tucked it behind my ear.

“You’re just trying to make me feel better.”

“No, I’m totally genuine.”

“Well, what about Elizabeth?” I pondered rolling onto
my back laying next to Jeremy.

“What about her?” He asked turning onto his side and
propping his head up with his hand.

“Well, she was never happy, what went wrong? Does she
count as an average teenage girl? Is what she did average?”

“Well, from my understanding she was a teenage case
under totally different circumstances. She was never set free like
you and your sisters were.”

“What if I meet her same fate?”

“I won’t let it happen and besides you’re a totally
different person,” Jeremy said softly rubbing my cheek with his
thumb.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Ignore what everybody is saying. There is nothing
wrong with you. You, Clarissa and Isabelle are all totally unique
individuals that have as much right being here as anybody else.
Don’t let anyone let you think else wise.”

“I’m so glad you came along,” I told Jeremy as I
rolled to my side, then giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Well, I’m glad to be here,” Jeremy replied with his
whole face lighting up.

“Sing me a song?”

“Really?”

“Yes, please.”

Jeremy lay flat on his back, looked up at the ceiling
and started singing. He sang a song about a boy on a bridge with
his brothers and mother. It sounded so beautiful and comforting in
his soothing voice.

………………………………………………..……..

Jeremy stayed quite late into the evening. We spent
our time talking and pretending to do homework. It was mostly
talking and well, some kissing. When he left the alarm went off,
but Reginald didn’t call right away or even at all. We were unaware
that he even came home. We just woke up in the morning and were
informed by Ms. Dunderfeltz that we could not leave the house the
whole weekend, which somehow included Friday.

As Friday and the weekend passed the news spread. Our
faces continued popping up everywhere. We were on the cover of
every newspaper and magazine that you could think of. One magazine
cover had a picture of my face and said, “The Image of Perfection”
above it. My face was even on the side of a bus. We were on every
news show that was out there. On certain channels it seemed the
topic of discussion all day long was my sisters and I. The media
and people in general all seemed to have a range of feelings about
our being. Many were in awe of Reginald for creating such a
scientific breakthrough. Many were thrilled what it meant for the
cure of certain diseases, being able to clone embryos for the stem
cells, which was also a large part of the debate. Many religious
groups were angered at Reginald. Dr. Reginald Schlobohm was the
devil himself according to them and anything he created was an
abomination.

We received a lot of mail from those who did not feel
positive about the way we came into the world. Mr. Carl handled all
the mail, but I saw the look on his face when he read a couple of
the letters when he came and checked in on us over the weekend. But
supposedly our existence did give hope to many who could not have
children the traditional way some stories said and gave hope to
people who had lost loved ones, which I myself found extra creepy.
The thought of cloning somebody you lost to have a new version
seemed too off the charts for me. I had even lost a loved one and I
still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Emotions were flying high
for everybody, so when the month of November gave us another
unseasonably warm day that Monday morning it seemed to offer some
hope.

When I awoke that morning after our weekend of being
trapped in the house I was quite pleased to see the sun streaming
through my window. Even though I had my awful nightmare with
intensely loud screaming that seemed to be coming from our house
itself, the sun helped lift my spirits and suppressed any anxiety I
might have felt that morning. Jeremy was supposed to meet me at the
house and I couldn’t wait to see him. I quickly got dressed and met
my sisters downstairs for the start of our day. We were all dressed
for a spring day as opposed to what should have been a normal cold
late fall day. As we were set to leave I wore a sweater for a
jacket. Clarissa wore a cardigan with frou frou decorations on it
over her shirt and Isabelle wore a light weight pea coat. Mr. Carl
was there that morning waiting for us in the foyer talking to Ms.
Dunderfeltz about the abnormal weather. I heard the gate buzz and
before anybody could react I buzzed in Jeremy.

Mr. Carl looked at me with his lips tightly pressed
together. “He’s not riding with us.”

“Yes he is,” I snapped back. “I’m tired of you people
trying to run our lives. I myself can easily get and have my own
little press conference.”

Mr. Carl scratched the back of his neck and looked at
the ground letting out a deep breath. Before he could respond I
opened up the front door to leave. As soon as the door opened the
sharks started their attack. The cameras started clicking and the
questions started flying. Then in the quickest second ever I heard
feet running across the front porch as Isabelle and I stepped out
the door and there were these loud noises kind of like when a car
backfires. Then Isabelle and I were flying backwards towards the
ground as Jeremy flew through the air careening with our bodies.
Before I knew it I was on the porch sliding backwards, where I
slide all the way to the railing. My head made a cracking sound as
they collided.

I was totally confused and dazed by what happened. I
laid on the porch staring up at the white bead board that was on
the underside of the porch roof. I reached up and felt the top part
of the back of my head. I didn’t feel any blood or anything. I
cautiously sat up. Isabelle was sitting on her butt next to me
patting herself to check for any wounds. There was a whole bunch of
noise, mainly screaming. I was pretty sure I wasn’t screaming and I
looked at Isabelle again, her mouth was hanging open, but no
screaming was coming out. I then focused my attention in front of
me where Jeremy was on his hands and knees breathing heavily and
staring at me through his new glasses. I studied him as he started
to make his way in our direction. I could tell he was wincing. He
most obviously seemed in pain.

“Are you two okay?” He asked Isabelle and me.

I didn’t answer at first. I was still totally
confused. Then all of a sudden it seemed like the porch was full of
people. Then the question was asked again, but by a different
voice. It was Mr. Carl. He squat down next to Isabelle and was
checking her out.

“What’s going on,” I managed to sputter out.

Jeremy finished his slow crawl over to us, sat down
next to me and leant up against the railing. “You okay?” He asked
again.

“Yeah, what about you? Somebody tell me what has
happened.”

Mr. Carl looked up after his inspection of Isabelle.
“Somebody shot at you girls.”

“What!” I screamed. “Is that why…” I started to say
realizing that Jeremy saved us. “Oh God, are you okay?” I asked
Jeremy, my heart filled with panic.

“Yeah, I think it’s just a flesh wound or whatever
you call it,” he said softly.

“You appear in pain,” I cried scanning him and
sitting up straight tucking my feet under me. “Your neck,” I gasped
reaching up and gently touching his neck.

“Did I get hit there to?” Jeremy spoke softly,
reaching up with his right hand, touching the back of his neck. He
pulled his hand down and studied the blood on his fingers.

“You mean you got shot somewhere else? Somebody
actually shot you!” My heart was ready to jump out of my chest. I
couldn’t believe somebody shot my boyfriend. I looked him up and
down and saw that the upper part of his left hoodie sleeve was
covered in blood, a lot of blood, so much that it seemed to be
dripping down his arm inside his hoodie and was collecting in a
pool on the porch. There was one other time when I saw blood
collect like that. “Oh my God. I think they hit an artery.”

“That bad?” Jeremy asked in a whisper.

“Mr. Carl,” I yelled. “Mr. Carl!”

Mr. Carl’s head shot up and he said something to
Isabelle and came over.

“He’s going to bleed to death!” I shouted. “Do
something!”

He took one look at Jeremy and said, “Oh.”

“Can’t you do something?”

I then heard Ms. Dundefeltz scream from somewhere,
“Apply pressure.”

Mr. Carl looked like he was going to vomit. I took in
a deep breath because I wasn’t exactly sure if I was capable of
applying pressure because I was so dumbfounded. Then some guy with
bushy black hair rushed in and did exactly what Ms. Dunderfeltz
said to do. I looked at Jeremy while I was bouncing up and down,
flailing my hands like a mad person. He looked like he did that day
he got sick, but his eyes looked like they were somewhere else.