Macbeth comes out okay in the end. And neither is he. You’re right, by the way. A part of Macbeth does long for it all to be over. I’m just trying to say he reclaims a part of that noble man he used to be.”
“I just wonder if it’s possible for people who’ve done awful things to ever redeem themselves at all.”
“Of course it is,” she said. “It’s not easy, though, and it doesn’t happen often. And it depends on two things—someone really has to want to change, and the other people in their life have to be willing to let them.”
I nodded.
“But that’s not what Macbeth is about,” she added. “Shakespeare’s not writing about redemption. He’s writing a tragedy, which is only a part of life, not the whole story.”
“Good thing,” I said, and stood up to leave.
“So did you figure it out yet?” she asked.
“Figure what out?”
“You know, what we talked about before, about Banquo being killed and Lady Macbeth not stopping it? You wanted to know what someone should do in a situation where, well, someone was being hurt.”
“Oh yeah,” I said. I still wasn’t really sure about the situation in Macbeth, but I remembered what I’d told Echo in the basement last week.
“I guess sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands,” I said.
There was a knock. I looked over my shoulder to see Amber standing in the doorway.
“Hi, Ms. Simpson,” Amber said, smiling. Amber had Ms. Simpson for English too. Only she had her third period instead.
“Come in, Amber,” Ms. Simpson said.
Amber took a few steps into the classroom. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“That’s okay,” Ms. Simpson said, getting up from the desk. “We were just finishing anyway. Right, Chris?”
“Right,” I said, standing up and grabbing my books.
“What do you need?” Ms. Simpson asked.
“Nothing,” Amber said. “I was just looking for Chris. Stacy said he was here.”
“Well, he’s all yours now.”
I headed for the door. “Thanks, Ms. Simpson,” I said, looking over my shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,’” she replied, and winked at both of us. Amber laughed and we turned to leave together.
“Oh, and by the way,” Ms. Simpson said. Both of us stopped. “Better watch out, Amber—your boyfriend got a higher grade on a test than you did.”
Amber looked at me and raised her eyebrows. I just shrugged as we left the room together.
“Got lucky, I guess,” I said.
“Damn right you did,” she replied.
“So where are we going?” I asked, lifting my head to try and catch something through the speck of light showing along the bottom of the blindfold.
“It’s a surprise. Don’t worry; we’ll be there pretty soon. And no peeking.”
“Right,” I said. I had been distracted enough by my talk with Ms. Simpson that I hadn’t really noticed Amber was acting funny until we reached her car and she pulled out the blindfold. That’s when I realized how quiet she’d been as we left the school, just walking beside me with a sort of odd expression on her face that was almost a smile, but not quite.
We’d been driving now for quite some time, maybe twenty minutes. And fast, too. I kept feeling myself being tossed from one side to the other, just like that first time I’d ridden with her on the way to the party. Only this time, with the blindfold on, I had no chance to brace myself.
“You scared?” she asked at one point. Same as last time. But one thing was different.
“No,” I said, “just a little sick, that’s all.”
She laughed. “Do you trust me?”
“I guess I have to.”
“You don’t have to,” she replied.
“Then I will anyway,” I said.
“Good.”
A few minutes later we stopped. Amber helped me out of the car and removed the blindfold. We were at a lake. It was a nice day, and though many of the leaves had fallen, there was enough gold in the trees to make everything glow. And it was warm, warmer than it had been for a couple weeks, as if the sun had been holding on to one last day of summer and decided that today was the day to let it go.
There was only one other car in the parking lot—it belonged to some old couple at a picnic table down near the shore—so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We got out of the car and started walking down through the pines toward the water. The trees were far enough apart to be able to see all around. I could