Stealing Snow

FIVE

“aren’t you supposed to take me back to my room” I raised my eyebrows as Vern led me into the common room.

“just because you went all Hannibal on magpie doesn’t mean I have to miss out on what happened to Kayla blue” Vern explained, as she plopped us down onto the plastic chairs in front of the common room TV. She was referring to Rebecca Gershons daughter, on our favourite show the end of almost.

On-screen, Kayla blue was crying her eyes out. She had just told river that she wasn’t the woman he thought she was. His angular face registered confusion as she explained her complicated past to him. But within minutes, he was back on one knee proposing to her. The speed of his understanding and forgiveness was kinda beautiful. The certainty of his love was something to be envied even if it was just a story. I found myself leaning in.

All of us at Whittaker learned things from television, because that was the closest thing we had to school, and boys, and prom, and friends. But we didn’t know what happened during commercial breaks or when everything fades to black. I knew there was a difference between reel life and real life, but the television taught me everything I knew about kisses and dates, and broken hearts, and family dramas—sometimes all wrapped up in a box within half an hour of hourly segments.

Kayla blue had just said “yes” when Vern got a message on her phone, I couldn’t read her expression. Was it about magpie.

“is she….” I asked, not quite sure how I felt about hearing the answer. I had wanted to hurt her, but not badly, and I certainly didn’t want her dead.

“now you care, Yardley?”

I didn’t have a defense exactly, so I shrugged. I was a master at shrugging.

“looks like magpie is going to make a full recovery, she was paralyzed temporarily. But she seems to gained full control of her extremities, toes wiggling, eyes rolling, she’s back to herself.”

I can’t say that I felt relief, but a wave of something came over me just the same.

“child, I know magpie has a way of starting things, and I’m not saying you should ignore it. I’m just saying sometimes you have fight a little quieter, pretend a little”

“you’re not going to tell me not to fight?”

“don’t quote me on this, or I’ll deny it. But I’d be a little worried if you stopped fighting. That isn’t to say you should go around pulling magpie by the hair, even if she said something that made her deserve it.”

Vern took me back to my room after that. Tomorrow would be filled with recriminations, probably a new drug protocol and another visit from my mother. If my parents thought this was serious enough, maybe even father too. But since magpie still breathes in and out and she has gained control over all of her limbs, there would be no real consequence. Vern knew it, and I knew it. But for the hour that we had watched the end of almost Vern thought that my anger had taken another victim, and that I had changed everything.