Secret Whispers Read online

  “Not arrested. My father handled that. As I said, he was working for us, and Cassie had promised him a promotion. My father liked him. It was a shock for my father to learn what my sister and he had done.”

  “I’ll bet. Your sister was quite a piece of work, I guess.”

  “She was very intelligent, always far ahead in her schoolwork.”

  “Lots of crazy people are intelligent,” Ethan said.

  I was afraid of his thinking Cassie was crazy. Most people believe that if there’s one mentally ill person in the family, there is the possibility of another or that the mental illness will poke its ugly head up sometime in the future. It makes you more self-conscious about everything you do, wondering always if it will cause people to think you, too, are showing signs of some psychological problem.

  Later, when we pulled onto the Collier campus, I asked him if he was still planning on coming to my graduation ceremony. He had said that he wanted to meet my father and my uncle Perry. I told him that I had told my father about him. There was no conflict with his own graduation ceremonies.

  “Sure,” he said. “You take it easy this week. I’ll call you during the week. I don’t think I can get over here, because I still have lots to do myself.”

  “Okay.” I held on to his hand. “I didn’t mean to keep it all a secret from you, Ethan. It’s not easy for me to tell anyone about it.”

  “I understand.”

  He leaned over to kiss me. It was already a different kiss, the sort of kiss a friend gives a friend or a relative gives a relative. There wasn’t even a trace of passion in it. His lips flicked on mine and were gone. I hardly had time to close my eyes and savor the taste of his love.

  I got out quickly. He waved and drove off. My heart felt like a brick of lead in my chest. With my head down, I walked into the dormitory and toward my and Ellie’s room. I was immediately surprised by laughter and loud music. When I paused at our doorway, I saw Pam Dorfman, Natalie Roberts, Ellie, and Cara Allen smoking what was clearly pot. Natalie was drinking something obviously alcoholic from a paper cup and dancing. Cara was standing on my bed, and Pam was wearing my beret.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Party time, Norma,” Natalie said, laughing.

  “My name’s not Norma. Ellie, what are you doing?”

  “Mrs. Hingle’s brother just died. She had to leave for Delaware, and Mrs. Hathaway has no one to assign. She was here an hour ago to tell us we had better behave and follow all the rules until Mrs. Hingle returns or she finds someone qualified. So . . .” She held out her arms. “We’re behaving.”

  They all laughed.

  “Are you crazy? Someone will tell Mrs. Hathaway what’s going on. Why are you doing this in my room?”

  “It’s my room, too. If you don’t want a joint, I’ve got some other good stuff,” she said showing me the two bottles of tequila. “It wasn’t difficult to get, if you know what I mean. How was your day with Ethan? You’re back early, aren’t you? Are you going out again? You’re Mrs. Hathaway’s new darling, so you’re on the honor system. Just sign the clipboard on the desk out front,” she said. “I’m still confined to the barracks but making the best of it.” They all laughed.

  “No. I’m not going out again, but I was hoping to do some studying. We have two finals on Monday, Ellie.”

  “What?”

  “Turn down the music.”

  “What did she say?” Pam asked Ellie, pretending not to hear me. “Something about Monday?”

  “Take off my hat!” I shouted at her. She shrugged and tossed it like a Frisbee at the closet. “I want my room back.”

  “Chill out,” Natalie said. “Or we’ll have to commit you. Where is the nearest psycho ward?” she asked Pam.

  “Ask her. She probably’s been there.”

  They all laughed again.

  “Get out!” I screamed.

  “Relax, Semantha,” Ellie said. “It’s the end of the year. We’re entitled to some fun.”

  I turned and started away.

  “You better not squeal on us, Semantha!” Ellie shouted after me.

  I had no intention of doing that, even though I was fuming. After I marched out of the dorm, I kept walking. Ethan’s reaction to my deep secret and now this wild party in my dorm room were too much. I felt like walking back to Kentucky. I didn’t realize I was crying, too, until I heard someone call my name and turned to see Mrs. Hathaway standing with Mr. Kasofsky, our history teacher. They were talking by his car. I had wandered all the way to the main building.

  Oh no, I thought as Mrs. Hathaway started toward me. I looked back at the dormitory.

  “What’s wrong, Semantha?”

  “Nothing,” I said, wiping my cheeks quickly.

  “Why are you crying?”

  “I’m not. Something got into my eye,” I said.

  She stood there looking at me. “Didn’t you sign out earlier?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She looked at Mr. Kasofsky and then back at the dormitory. “Is something going on that I should know about back there?” she asked.

  “No,” I said, too vehemently.

  She tightened her lips and walked back to Mr. Kasofsky. My heart began thumping. They got into his car and drove toward the dorms. They’re surely going to blame me, I thought. I started back slowly. By the time I arrived, Mrs. Hathaway and Mr. Kasofsky had obviously been to Ellie’s and my room. The hallway was dead quiet. I heard Mrs. Hingle’s office door open and Ellie and Natalie Roberts came out, both, as my father might say, looking like death warmed over. I could see the other girls were still in the office.

  “I didn’t tell her anything,” I told them.

  “Right,” Natalie said. “She just happened to come rushing back here after you left.”

  “How could you do this to us?” Ellie asked me.

  “I didn’t. She saw me walking and saw I was crying. I didn’t even know I was crying, but . . .”

  “You’re such a phony,” Ellie said. “I bet you made up that whole story about your mother and your sister. That whole candle thing in the bathroom was probably some kind of voodoo ceremony or something. You pretended to be such a wallflower, but you managed to steal away my boyfriend. Now you put on this act for Mrs. Hathaway and got us all expelled just before our graduation. We had to sit in there while she called our parents to tell them. Congratulations.”

  They started away.

  “None of that is true!” I screamed after them. They didn’t pause or turn around.

  I backed up and sat on the small sofa in the lobby. I was too frightened to return to our room. Minutes later, the other girls, looking just as devastated as Ellie and Natalie, emerged from Mrs. Hingle’s office. They glanced at me and continued down the hallway.

  Mrs. Hathaway came to the open office doorway and looked out at me.

  “Come in here, Semantha,” she said.

  As soon as I entered, she closed the door. Mr. Kasofsky was sitting on the settee, looking just as upset as she did.

  “Sit,” Mrs. Hathaway ordered, nodding at one of the chairs. “I’m happy you didn’t participate in their debauchery,” she began.

  “They think I turned them in,” I muttered.

  “So what? They’re certainly not good friends of yours. They said some nasty things about you in here,” she revealed. I looked at Mr. Kasofsky, who nodded. “I don’t imagine you’ll ever have anything to do with any of them again, either.”

  “But the rest of the student body . . .”

  “Are you running for president of the student council or something?”

  “No, but . . . they’ll blame me!” I cried.

  “They have only themselves to blame for what’s happened. However, I don’t imagine they’ll make things pleasant for you until they leave. I have arranged for taxicabs to pick them up in less than an hour. I’d like you to go to the library and wait there until I call for you. I can’t imagine you’d want to return to that room while Ellie
Patton is still here, and I want it fumigated anyway. It reeks of marijuana. They are lucky I didn’t call the police. That has been my standard procedure for such behavior. I’m calling your father, and I want you to be present while I speak with him.”

  “Why? I didn’t do anything.”

  “Whenever a student has any significant changes in her living or schooling here, we inform the parents immediately.”

  She picked up the phone and called my father. I sat and listened as she described the events, emphasizing how I had been made uncomfortable and placed in danger. I couldn’t help but wonder how he was really feeling and what he was really thinking about all of this. In my heart of hearts, I had always believed that he thought I would do something or something would happen that would make my graduating impossible. He had often said about other things Cassie and I had done, “I’m waiting for the second shoe to drop.”

  “Your father would like to speak with you,” she said, holding out the receiver. She stood. “Mr. Kasofsky and I will see to the girls and make sure they do not do any more damage, especially to your things.”

  I rose and took the phone. She and Mr. Kasofsky left the office, and I sat behind Mrs. Hingle’s desk.

  “Hi, Daddy,” I said.

  “Well, that does sound like quite a disaster there. I’m glad you’re on the right side of all this, Semantha.”

  “I didn’t tell on them,” I said. For some reason, I felt that was important for him to know. “Mrs. Hathaway just guessed something was wrong when she saw me. I was upset and had left the room.”

  “It doesn’t matter. None of that matters. What matters is your being comfortable and safe until your graduation. Perry and I will be there. Just listen to Mrs. Hathaway, and do whatever she tells you to do.”

  “Okay, Daddy. I’m sorry.”

  “There’s nothing for you to be sorry about, Semantha. What you can learn from this is how important it is to be careful about the friends you make, even mere acquaintances. Call me whenever you want,” he said.

  After I hung up, I saw Cassie standing in the doorway.

  “I didn’t tell on them,” she mimicked. “Don’t you realize how pathetic you sound, and to Daddy?”

  Everyone is going to hate me here, I thought. I didn’t have to say it aloud for her to hear me.

  “Hate you? Nobody here likes you anyway. Go home, and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Self-pity is unbecoming for a Heaven-stone.”

  The moment Mrs. Hathaway returned to the office, Cassie evaporated.

  “Follow me,” Mrs. Hathaway said. “I want you to get your books and notebooks to use in the library.”

  I got up quickly and walked back to my room with her. Ellie was putting her things in her suitcases and didn’t look at me at all until I started to gather my books.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “I don’t want you speaking to Semantha. What she does and doesn’t do is no longer your affair,” Mrs. Hathaway said. “I’m this close to changing my mind about the police,” she added, showing her right thumb and forefinger closing against each other. Then she went down the hallway to check on the other girls.

  Ellie continued to put her things together in silence. Suddenly, she crossed to my closet and took the black satin dress off the hanger, picked up the red shoes and the clutch, and stuffed it all in her suitcase. She closed one suitcase and stood there a moment, looking out the window.

  “You know, you really owe me a lot, Semantha. I never told the other girls how you talk to yourself. I heard you say your sister’s name, too. I know you talk to your dead sister. I ignored it because I felt sorry for you, but you’re crazy for sure, and you’ll really end up in some nuthouse.”

  She rushed to finish packing her other suitcase and bag when Mrs. Hathaway returned.

  “There seems to be an additional problem,” Mrs. Hathaway said. “Miss Patton, leave your things as they are and follow me to Mrs. Hingle’s office.”

  “Why?”

  Mrs. Hathaway didn’t reply. She turned and walked off. Ellie spun on me.

  “What else did you say?”

  “Nothing. I never said anything. Maybe one of your new best friends told her something,” I said. I could see the possibility lighting up her eyes.

  She went to the doorway and looked down the hall to her left. Then she looked to her right. I could hear the footsteps, too.

  I stepped up beside her. Down to the left, Pam Dorfman was talking to Mr. Kasofsky. Coming down the hallway from the lobby was one of the campus security men. Ellie’s eyes widened, and she rushed back to the suitcase she had closed and opened it to dig under the garments and bring out a gold necklace. She rushed into the bathroom. I heard her flush the toilet just as the security guard appeared. He went right to her suitcases and began to rifle through them.

  She stepped out of the bathroom.

  “What are you doing? Those are my things. You can’t do that. It’s against the law.”

  “We have the right to search any room and anyone’s things,” he told her. “It’s part of the agreement your parents signed when you were admitted. If I were you, I’d move along. Mrs. Hathaway is waiting for you.”

  She looked at me with such desperation my heart actually ached for her. The security guard began to pull things out of her suitcase. When he turned to her again, she hurried out of the room.

  “If you know where she’s hidden stuff that she has stolen, you’d better tell me,” he said. “Otherwise, you could be considered an accessory to a crime here, Miss.”

  “Tell him,” Cassie whispered. “For Daddy’s sake. Tell him!”

  “She brought these things to me once,” I said, and took the dress, shoes, and clutch out of her suitcase. I opened one of my dresser drawers and handed him the chandelier earrings.

  “What else?” he demanded. “There’s more,” he said. “I’m sure.”

  “I don’t know anything except . . .”

  “What?”

  “I think she threw a necklace down the toilet.”

  He went into the bathroom and then came out. “Don’t use it,” he said.

  I looked out the doorway into the hallway. Mr. Kasofsky was walking by with Pam Dorfman. She glanced at me with a look of satisfaction on her face. She had saved herself. It had become rats deserting a sinking ship.

  But who was I to talk? Look at what I had given the security guard. I was twisting up inside with all of my mixed feelings. They hadn’t liked me before; they’d hate me now.

  “Stop thinking about them. You don’t want to be on this ship anyway,” Cassie muttered. “Let it sink.”

  Sinking Ship

  LESS THAN AN hour later, I looked out my room window and saw the police car. I stood mesmerized by the sight of it. This was far more than just being expelled and having to face your parents. Ellie was going to be in very serious trouble now. This was no longer some silly prank her parents would eventually excuse. Moments later, the campus security guard and a patrolman escorted her out of the building with her hands behind her back in handcuffs and put her into the rear of the vehicle. I knew all of the girls were at their own windows, watching in shock. Mrs. Hathaway stood on the steps talking to another patrolman for a few minutes, and then he got into the car, and they drove Ellie off. I caught a brief glimpse of her face in the window. She looked like a little girl, really terrified. It brought tears to my eyes.

  “Stop that pity. Good riddance,” I heard Cassie whisper. “Just think of the trouble she could have gotten you in and what this might have done to Daddy.”

  “I’m not as hard as you are, Cassie,” I whispered back. “I don’t think I ever will be.”

  “Yes, you will,” she insisted. “Someday, you will be just like me.”

  Not long after the patrol car left, two taxicabs arrived. Natalie Roberts got into one, and Cara Allen got into the other. I watched them drive away as well. Then I went to my doorway and looked down the hall to see Pam talking softly with some other
girls. She glanced up at me and quickly turned her back. Despite what I knew Cassie thought of this, I couldn’t help but feel even more pity for Ellie. I felt sure that the biggest disappointment had been learning that her so-called good friend had turned her in to save her own neck. But to my surprise, Pam went into her room and came out with her suitcases, too. She marched down the hallway, where the security guard waited to take one of her bags and escort her out. I followed curiously and saw her stop to talk with Mrs. Hathaway before she went out to a third cab.

  I was confused. If she was being forced to leave, too, why had she turned on Ellie?

  “She’s letting her take her exams a week after graduation,” Amanda Crowley said, as if she could read my thoughts. She had come up beside me. “If she passes everything, she graduates. That was her deal.”

  “Oh.”

  “You’re getting away with a lot, too, aren’t you?”

  “Me? Why?”

  She smirked. “She stole things for you. Everyone knows it. She told some of the girls. You’re an accessory. You should have been in that police car sitting right beside her. But not Princess Heaven-stone.” She walked away.

  “Den of vipers,” Cassie muttered.

  When I returned to my room, I called Ethan.

  “Hey,” he said. “What’s up?”

  I described the events that occurred after he had dropped me off. He listened in silence and then said, “Wow. What a terrible scene. I’m sure you can’t wait to get out of there.”

  “Yes, but I can’t help feeling sorry for her, Ethan. You should have seen her in the police car.”

  “Well, I feel sorry for her, too, but I’m not surprised that something like this has happened to her,” he said. “Best we both concentrate on what we have to do to finish things up and not let any of this bother us.”

  I wondered how much he was including in “any of this.” Did it include what had happened at the motel?

  “Okay. Call me when you get an opportunity,” I said.

  He promised he would, and I hung up.

  Not a day passed when I didn’t wait for his call, but none came. On the Friday before graduation, I finally called him again. His roommate answered, sounding annoyed to be interrupted. He blurted something about Ethan going home on a family matter. He wasn’t sure when he’d return. He hung up before I could ask him to be sure to tell Ethan I had called.