Chapter 16

16

Another funeral. It had seemed only yesterday that she was at Bethany’s funeral and now she stood in black with hundreds of others, mourning the loss of Michael. His parents stood weeping in the front of the church, and all Jordan could think about was what if. Her mother stood beside her, since her father had to be in Seattle and now seeing the look on Jordan’s face, her mother reached over and gripped her hand with a warm squeeze. Jordan looked around the church and saw many of her classmates including Teresa, who seemed to take a sudden interest in Jordan lately. Maybe when she had stopped her attempted suicide, Teresa felt she owed Jordan; maybe it was something else. Something that Jordan didn’t really want to contemplate. Her eyes roved across the church and settled on Stacey who offered a small smile from across the aisles.

     The music stopped and the preacher stood to make his address. “We cannot predict the future. None of us know when our days on this Earth will end. It is not ours to know but only God’s.”  Jordan stifled a sob at this. If only he knew how wrong he was. The preacher droned on, followed by more music and then everyone lined up to pay their respects to the family and to view the body. Unable to face them, Jordan quietly excused herself and left the church to wait in the side yard. The day was warm and sunny, the grass still emerald green and the trees fully clothed, yet it seemed like the coldest winter day to Jordan. She heard someone clear their throat behind her and she turned to see Teresa standing there. She was wearing a long black dress with black beads. Her hair was pulled back into a long pony tail and she seemed to tower over Jordan in both height and width.

“Did you know?” Teresa asked. She peered at Jordan with some sense of knowing herself, but Jordan just stared at her blankly.

“Know? Know what?” Jordan asked, trying to keep her eyes level and her voice even.

“About Michael,” Teresa went on, smiling now as if this could be their little secret. “Did you know he was going to die?”

“No!” Jordan nearly shouted. “What makes you think I could know something like that?”

“You seem to know everything else, the video arcade, me. I just figured..”

“Well, you figured wrong!” Jordan spat and was thankful to see her mother and Stacey walking across the lawn toward them. Without a pause, she sprinted in their direction, leaving Teresa standing there.

Later that evening, Jordan lay in bed tossing from side to side, trying to get some sleep. Guilt welled up in her and fear. Guilt over Michael’s death- something she could have stopped if she had reacted to the mirror’s calling, and fear over Teresa and how she seemed to be following her everywhere she went. As far as Jordan knew, Teresa didn’t even know Michael, not enough to go to his funeral anyway. However, she was there, just as she seemed to be everywhere she turned in school, at the mall, even on her street a couple times. Did she know? How could she?

And the mirror. It was like a rock tied around Jordan’s neck as she strained to keep her head above water. What had Bethany done to her? Did she realize what a burden this would be? But then how could she. She had ignored the mirror most of her life and really had life been so bad for her? Maybe ignoring the mirror was the smartest thing to do. To stay sane.

But Jordan’s thoughts went to the kid in the arcade and how she’d saved his life. How she had stopped Teresa from inflicting harm upon herself and how good it had felt to save life. The power she felt at having made a difference. So she had to weigh both the dread and the power to conclude the worth in all this. Is this how all superheroes felt? The weight of the responsibility- did it balance out the sense of good? Jordan wasn’t sure, but she finally slipped into a deep sleep that left her searching in her dreams.

The next morning she awoke for school and spent the better part of the morning in a daze. Monday’s were always the toughest day and most everyone else seemed to be tired and bleary-eyed, so Jordan went unnoticed. Lunch-time came and she settled into her seat only to stare at her salad and iced tea with little interest. She was startled into awareness when she felt several plop down around her. She glanced across the table to see two of the school’s goth girls across from her and Teresa sitting right beside her.

“How’s it goin?” the girl across from Jordan smiled, slowly eating her sandwich, eyes wide, staring at Jordan as if she were glowing or something.

Teresa, no lunch for her, leaned in toward Jordan, sipping on an iced tea. “We want in.” Is all she stated.

Jordan looked from one girl to another, perplexed and a bit annoyed. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” She simply stated. “You want in… what?”

“We don’t really know,” Teresa stated, fishing for some information, “but you can obviously see into the future or something. We want to know how so we can too.” About that time, Stacey sat on the other side of Jordan, listening to the conversation. She burst out laughing.

“See in the future? Jordan? You all are insane!”

“She knew,” Teresa said. “She knew about the kid in the arcade. About me. I heard what she said about Michael in the bathroom. She said she could’ve stopped it from happening.”

“You are deranged!” Stacey laughed again. “I am her best friend. If Jordan could see into the future, don’t you think I would know?” This hit Jordan in the gut like a fist. Stacey was her best friend, and yet she didn’t know. However, not knowing may have saved Jordan from continued cross-examination. Her incredulous outburst clearly seemed to convince the other girls and reluctantly Teresa too. They gathered their things and left without another word.

“Seriously?” Stacey chuckled as she began to eat. “What are they on?”

“No idea,” Jordan mumbled then made up an excuse that she had to take a make-up quiz during lunch and scooted out of the lunchroom herself. More shame – more lies- and there was no doubt about two things. Teresa was on to her and Jordan was going to have to tell Stacey the truth.