Memory

Chapter 3
Ms. Mer

---

Chapter Description: There's always a special someone in your life, its just not always lovely.

---

The next morning, Marian woke Johnny up just as she did the day before, except pancakes were cooking instead of waffles and it was only seven-thirty in the morning. Johnny went to a Catholic School, so he needed to be up a little earlier then most children.

“Rise and shine, Johnny. School’s almost out. It will be over before you know it!” Downstairs, Johnny ate his breakfast like always and his father rushed downstairs like always, however this time he had his tie a little better this time.

“Papa, you tied your tie!”

“Well, its not perfect, but he is getting better,”

“See Johnny, you can do anything you set your mind to,” And with that, Nick tousled Johnny’s hair, just like always.

It was a typical breakfast experience for Johnny, except until Johnny was finishing his last bit of pancakes.

“I just remembered why I screamed last night, mama,”

“Why’s that, sugar?”

“Two people were holding me down and hurt me,” The room fell deafly silent at the conclusion of those words.

“Its ok though, the bad dream went away after the lights went on,”

“Did you, did you see anyone Johnny?”

“Huh, why mama?”

“Well, sometimes dreams have a bad tendency to come true, sugar,”

“Nope, I didn’t see anyone. Everything was black,” the air lightened considerably.

“Oh, then it must not be one of those dreams. They only come true if you can see the people,”

“Thats good, I was hurting a lot!”

“Why don’t you go outside and wait for your father to take you to school?”

“I’ll be out in only a minute,”

“Alrightie!” Johnny grabbed his schoolbag and went outside. After a few minutes, Johnny saw his father come out with a frustrated look on his face, but it vanished completely as he looked over to the car. Nick was greeted by a barrage of silly faces and sounds from Johnny. So Nick slipped into the car and drove Johnny off to school.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As Johnny walked into his second-grade classroom, he instantly became terrified. A woman unbeknownst to him was sitting in his teacher’s chair. Ms. Flurry was never absent, and neither was Johnny’s First-grade teacher. To see a new woman enter his life so soon was extremely frightening. As the bell rang, the class took its seats.

“Hello everyone, I’m Ms. Mer, M-E-R, Mer. Its very short so you shouldn’t have a problem remembering it. Yes, um, Johnathan?”

“Why are you here?” Johnny crudely asked.

“Didn’t your teacher tell you? She’s taking a special trip teachers take called a sabbatical. Its so teachers can learn new ways to teach,” Ms. Mer quickly responded.

“Oh,” The class laughed at Johnny’s amazing ability to forget things.

“Alright, since I’ll be filling in for Ms. Flurry, I’d like to get to know you all a little before we start anything. Everyone, get into a circle on the ground, alright?” Everyone obeyed the teacher, “Now, who wants to go first?” There were no volenteers.

“No one? Well, I’ll go first then to show you how to do it. All right, my full name is Ember Mer, as you can see I have blond hair and gray eyes. My favorite thing to do is teach, and my favorite game is Charades. Ok, now you all try,” All the children talked about themselves, a speech that they all had spoken before at the beginning of the year, but Ms. Mer was enjoying herself immensely. Finally, Johnny’s turn came up.

“My name is Johnathan Memoriaman, and I’m an only child. Mama says I have hair the color of straw and eyes like emeralds, see,” Johnny opened his eyes as wide as he could. Ms. Mer thought this was funny and chuckled.

“I like watching Mega Morphers and yesterday, Papa bought me a ’Spying Samuel’, wanna see?” The class ’oohed’ and ’ahhed’ as Johnny showed off Sam’s functions. Ms. Mer was only mildly interested. After Johnny was done, Ms. Mer began going over their math skills. She was just about to teach them double-digit subtraction when the second-grade lunch bell rang. The children all ran away to the cafeteria except for Johnny. He grabbed his lunch and started eating alone at his desk. Ms. Mer looked up from her desk and spoke quietly to Johnny.

“Why aren’t you eating with the others?”

“I don’t like to,”

“Why,”

“Because I don’t want to,”

“You’d rather eat with an old lady like me instead of your friends?”

“They’re not my friends, and you’re not old,” Ms. Mer was flattered by this comment coming from a little boy, since they seem to think anyone older then they are is extremely old.

“Why aren’t they your friends?”

“I’m older then they are,”

“You are? By how much?”

“A year, but some times to seems like more,”

“Like how much,”

“Like this much,” Johnny held up all ten of his fingers and his feet to show the number ’20’.

“Well honey, you’re not going to be that old for a while. When you’re that old, you’re probably going to wish you lost those 20 years,” Ms. Mer chuckled again.

“No, I don’t I’ll ever want to be this little ever again,”

“Well then, enjoy it while you can,” With that, Ms. Mer went back to placing her pictures onto her desk when she suddenly stopped.

“Johnny, could you come here for a minute?” Johnny obediently put down his sandwich and walked over, “Have you ever been to the ocean before?”

“Nope, papa thinks I’ll get bored and hit by buses, why?”

“Oh, nothing, you just look like, like an old friend?”

“On the picture?”

“Yeah,”

“Lemme see!” Johnny pulled the frame out of his teacher’s hands and stopped too. The picture was a close-up, and Johnny could have been looking into a mirror. The boy in the mirror had every little detail Johnny did. His hair had the same cowlicks, his had the same freckles, even the boy’s unclothed chest looked just like Johnny’s.

“He, he looks just like me,”

“Yeah, he does,”

“But papa told me I was special and unique,” Tears came to Johnny’s eyes at the thought of his father lying to him.

“Oh, Johnny, he didn’t lie to you, look at the little girl in the picture, thats me. That boy’s probably all grown-up now. I just thought you looked like him, thats all,” This calmed Johnny down quite a bit. Ms. Mer coddled Johnny up into her lap and was slowly stroking Johnny’s hair. Johnny stopped crying in less than thirty seconds.

“Don’t you feel better now?” Johnny nodded his head up and down.

“Good, why don’t you go back to your seat and finish your lunch,” And with that, Ms. Mer gave Johnny a small kiss on the check and slapped his tiny tushie into the direction of his desk.

However Johnny wasn’t thinking about his lunch, walking, or lying. He was thinking about the kiss, for the moment it touched his skin Johnny felt a tingling sensation and a warm, fluttery feeling filled his entire body. For the rest of the day, Johnny’s mind was on Cloud Mer.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Hello honey, how was school today?” Marian asked Johnny as he walked into the room.

“I’m great,” Johnny said as he dropped his book bag at its usual place beside the door.

“Oh really/ now. What’s so special that your day was better then, ’Nothing mama,’?”

“Ms. Mer.”

“Oh?”

“She’s a substitute teacher. She’s really sweet and pretty and she makes me feel happy,” Johnny said while gazing up at the celling.

“Well, you’re too young for her, dear. What are you gonna do, wear stilts?”

As his mother walked into the laundry room with her laundry basket, Johnny realized that she had a point. I have to be at least six years younger then her, Johnny thought to himself. There’s gotta be away for a student to get a teacher.

“I know! I’ll ask Dad!” Johnny exclaimed gleefully.

“What’s that dear?”

“Nothing mom!”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Johnny waited for what seemed like an eternity for his father to come home. It was more like three hours, but he was bubbling with mixed emotions of excitedness and dread over his father’s reaction and answer to Johnny’s question. Nick promptly entered the house at exactly six forty-nine, almost an hour late Johnny realized.

At seven the family ate dinner, so that was when Johnny decided to ask his question to Nick, although Johnny didn’t feel very comfortable asking this around his mother. It seemed more like a guy-to-guy sort of thing. At least, Marian called everyone to dinner. Johnny’s parents ate t-bone steak and string beans, while Johnny got macaroni and cheese; hot dogs unperticularly mixed into it. Johnny merely played with his food as his parents ate, trying to work up the courage to ask Nick his question. Unbeknownst to Johnny, Marian was observing Johnny’s behavior, and after five minutes, softly asked Johnny in a serious voice,

“Johnny, are you in love? You haven’t eaten a thing.” Johnny dropped his fork and looked straight up at his mother. His heart was racing at the thought of his eating habits giving away his carefully guarded secret.

“I, um,”

“Answer me, Johnny,” Marian spoke with even more command in her voice, “Are you in love Johnny?”

Johnny could tell this was a strange way to ask about something so happy, but regardless, he responded like a good boy, “Yes mom,”

“Johnny, what did you call me?” The same icy chill ran down Johnny’s deck. Antarctica must be at least 100 degrees warmer then Marian’s voice, Johnny though.

“M-m-mom?”

“Well, um, who wants ice cream after dinner?” Nick pleasantly interjected. Johnny could hear the worry in his voice.

“Finish your dinner and go to bed, Johnny.”

“Yes mother.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Hey, quit squirming, its not our fault you’re unlucky,”

“Yeah, you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

John was pinned down to the ground tightly. No, he wasn’t pinned down. He was strapped down. He could feel the icy metal chilling his skin. Why did this happen? Why won’t they let me go? Johnny’s mind raged with questions, but his body only cared about thrashing to and fro like a caged animal. Thats all I am to them, Johnny though. An animal. There was only a small glimpse of light, but something shiny reflected in it. Johnny didn’t know what it was, and that feeling filled him with dread . . .

 

---