Weird Girl, page 35
He sighed and slid her off of him, sitting up with his back against the headboard. Cleo felt like she was going to vomit, and started to scramble out of bed. He caught her and pulled her up beside him, positioning her so that she was resting in the crook of his arm. They sat together for a long time before he spoke, making her jump despite the softness of his voice.
“I want to learn something new about you every single day, until I know everything there is to know about you, and I want to show you something new every day, until there’s nothing else in the world for you to learn,” he said.
It was Cleo’s turn to be very still. “That’s potentially a lot of days, Jackson,” she said.
Tightening his arm around her ribcage, he said, “I know,” and kissed the top of her head, tensing against the moment that she would run away from him. Surprising them both, Cleo smiled and snuggled in a little more. “Okay,” she said.
45
Jackson and Cleo went into business together the following month, systematically removing the faculty and staff from the Harper Valley School for Girls until the place was a ghost town. Without teachers, the students had stopped coming back. Even Blue had jumped ship. Apparently, Virginia had become quite abusive since Jackson’s disappearance.
One morning, as Virginia Adams clipped briskly across campus and up the steps of Main Hall, she sensed a stillness that was so absolute, it was like a heart had stopped beating. Looking around, she realized that the campus was absolutely deserted. She rushed up the steps and unlocked the doors to her office, sliding them open so forcefully that one of them bounced back out of the slot.
“Hello, Virginia,” said Cleo, beaming at her from the leather office chair. “I heard you’ve been lonely lately, so I’ve brought you some company.”
Two men stepped away from the wall to her right. “Virginia Adams, we’re here to discuss a few…suspicious disappearances of former employees from this school. We can talk here, or you can come with us. Your choice,” said the one in the pale gray suit. The other man held a stack of folders with red lines drawn across the front. Virginia’s mouth moved, but no sound came out. Her eyes darted back to Cleo, who stood up and walked around the desk. “It’s always so nice to see you,” she said cheerfully as she patted the woman’s arm and walked out the door to the black Jaguar that sat idling at the curb. Cleo gave a little finger wave as she opened the rear door and got inside, and Virginia could have sworn she heard Etta James….
“Now what?” said Jackson as Cleo buckled herself in.
She sighed and looked out the window. “Show me something new, Jackson,” she said. “My pleasure,” he replied with a smile, and their eyes met in the rear view mirror. Within four hours, she was on a plane to China, joining the Mile High Club with enthusiasm and athleticism. As the sun began to set over the Pacific, she fell asleep and started drooling on his shoulder. Smiling, he tipped his hat down over his eyes and put his arms around her. “See you in the morning, Cleopatra,” he murmured.
“My name’s not fucking Cleopatra,” she whispered, drifting back to sleep to the sound of his low laughter.
Mae McCall, Weird Girl
