The Experiment Part 4

“This way, Mr. Myers.” The teacher jerked me forward through the crowd. “I will never understand why you instill such fear into your fellow students. I am not scared of you, you reprehensible cheat. Walk!” he ordered mercilessly. “You’re fine!”

My confusion began boiling over into fear. My vision became tunneled, and it was growing narrower by the minute as I limped through the hallway, which was now starting to clear. I somehow noticed a poster on the wall amid all this. It was a photo of a student with the caption: The Future Starts Now. Catchy phrase, I thought distantly. Narrower still. It was becoming difficult to hold my head up straight and maintain balance. But the face in the poster was fearful and confused. I know that face from somewhere, I thought sickly.

“Stop stalling,” the teacher boomed. I limped on but still looked at the poster. The student in the photo had moved! It was as if he were trapped in the poster, as if confined in a space behind a window. Some ghostlike memory spoke to me and told me I knew him, he needs my help.

            We ended up at an office. The principal’s office. The large man sat me down in front of his desk and went outside to speak to the teacher. It felt good to sit for a moment, but I could not gather my thoughts into any sort of coherent mass. The teacher outside was saying that he had been waiting for this moment for a long time. I heard the word “expulsion.” The principal came back into the office and sat down, grinning sinisterly. He leaned forward and brought his hands together, but just as he opened his mouth, the door opened. A stately older woman strode in.

            The principal looked up at her, dumbfounded. “Who are you?”

            The woman closed the door gently behind herself. “My name is Nancy Schwartz. I am with the school board of directors, Principal Hutchins. I have come to remind you that you are required by law and contract to offer an equal opportunity of education. You have no reason to expel this student.”

            Principal Hutchins stared at her in disbelief. She did not look at me, but leveled her sharp gaze at him and stood patiently with her arms crossed. I recognized her, but alas, did not know from where. I felt we had been intimate before. She glanced at me so briefly that I wondered afterwards if she really had. There had been a gleam in her eye. I swear she had smiled for a fraction of a second. To Be Continued...

The Experiment part 3

Class began. I remembered how much I had loved going to school, and this calmed me down a little. I had become a teacher for a reason, I told myself. Today was apparently the day of the big test. As the teacher began handing out exams, he lectured the evils of cheating.

“It will simply not be tolerated,” he said flatly. “When you cheat, you cheat yourself. Remember that.” He looked squarely at me. “I do not care what has gone on in the past, but I warn you, I strictly enforce the rule. Cheat, and you will be sorry.”

When I got my copy I quickly scanned it and thought, hell, this will be a piece of cake. I’ll have this done in minutes. But I jumped when the teacher’s hand suddenly ripped the exam from my hands and slammed it face down on my desk. “I said do not begin until I tell you,” he said loudly.

“S-Sorry,” I stuttered, blushing. I scolded myself, pay attention.

“Are we going to have problems, Mr. Myers?” he said, craning his head down at me, intimidating.

I shook my head. Myers. Shawn Myers. My name, I told myself, trying not to notice the other students leering at me. I could feel my neck growing hot.

The teacher clicked his timer and sat down at his desk. I couldn’t help but think he was staring right at me when he finally said “begin.” I hated that I had drawn so much attention to myself. I wanted to say, I am not who you think I am. I am a respected professor. I am a teacher myself. But then my thoughts drifted back to the idea of dreaming. Maybe that is just one of the premises of the dream, I thought skeptically. Maybe I am not a teacher at all. I asked myself, am I or am I not completely insane? A lump was growing in my throat. I felt I was on the brink of losing it, but then remembered the exam. Take the exam, go with it, hold it together.

I hunched over the test and concentrated on it. It seemed familiar. It was easy as long as I concentrated on it. But it was hard to concentrate. Every time I started wondering about dreams and where I was, my equilibrium would begin to swim again and again I could sense a distortion of time. What I initially thought would take ten minutes took me the entire class period. There were only two other students in the room when I finally finished. When I turned the exam over on my desk, the bell rang. I struggled to seem normal as I turned it in and walked out the door into the bustling hallway. I wanted to try and find out what was going on, to find out where I was, when I was.

There was an attractive red-headed girl waiting for me in the hallway. She was holding a handful of papers with red writing and had worried eyes. She stood gaping at me. “You didn’t already take the test, did you?” she asked loudly in panicked voice. She looked around nervously, and then stepped forward angrily. “Why the hell didn’t you meet me before class like you said you would?” She shoved the notes into my hand. “Ugh! maybe you can retake the test later on.” She stormed off just as the teacher came out of the classroom. I stood stunned at what had happened. The teacher snatched the notes from my hand.

“Well well well, Mr. Myers,” he said, glancing first at the red notes, and then at my hands stained red by the ink. “You must think I’m stupid. First you skip half of my classes, and now cheating on the final exam.”

My stomach lurched and the blood drained from my face. I could not speak.

“This way, Mr. Myers.” He grabbed my arm and began marching me through the crowded hallway. An opened locker spilled a pile of large textbooks out onto the hallway floor and several crashed onto my left foot. It hurt like hell. The pain screamed through any hope I might have had at that point that this was a dream. The boy who had opened the locker began to apologize, but went pale when he looked at my face.                   

To Be Continued....

The Experiment Part 2

“That can’t be,” I whispered to myself. I was standing just inside the door. I was the only one standing. Everybody was staring at me. I could hear them muttering under their breaths. I went to a seat quickly and plopped down as if dropped into it. Relax, I told myself. Just relax. The person behind me leaned forward and spoke into my ear.

“Finally figured out how to get to class on time, eh Shawny boy?”

            “Yeah,” I said, speaking for the first time. My voice sounded husky and foreign.

            “Everybody’s counting on you for this game tonight,” the voice behind me said. “Think you’re up to it?”

            I tried to focus on the teacher, who had begun writing on the chalk board and discussing the day’s lesson. “Sure,” I whispered back.

            “Not on drugs, are you there, Shawny boy?”

            “What?” I wished in vain for the person to stop.

            “Don’t play dumb with me, Shawny boy.” The voice chuckled loudly. He didn’t seem to care about the math lesson at all. “All those big-wig scouts in the stands and you here opening your third eye.”

            “Scouts?” I asked, recovering some distant memory, my stomach sinking.

            “Oh yeah, you should know, you arranged for them to be there,” the voice said, giggling. “Or don’t you remember, Shawny boy? Have those white powders scrubbed your mind clean?”

I was taken aback. What have I got myself into? How did I get here and how do I get back? I told the voice behind me that I was not doing drugs, but did not know what else to say. I felt sure that telling him that I was not who he thought I was would make matters worse, so I kept quiet. I could feel the students looking at me. This is all a dream, I told myself. I will wake up soon. I must simply let things run their course.  To be continued....