the school honor code. We can do it by following the lead of other communities and installing metal detectors at the entrance to each educational facility. And we can do it with periodic random locker searches. Students may complain about lack of privacy with these new measures, but who knows what tragedies may be averted? The life that is saved may be your own.
Cecilia Martin is an instructor of English at Hawthorne High School.
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66
Malcolm sets his phone ID to “unavailable.” He says he’s calling from an organization that finds missing children.
“Is Dani Solomon staying there? You can tell me. I’m asking because I may be able to help. Well then, do you know where she might be? Did she reveal any plans to you before she left? Has she been in touch with you since Sunday?”
But Shelley’s parents don’t let her come to the phone, and the rest of the kids he calls don’t know any more than what they read on the Internet. No one has seen her since the day her picture came out in the paper. But Malcolm imitated his dad’s tone in order to sound older, and he’s pleased that no one recognizes his voice.
67
Text messages, Meghan and Shelley:
“You looked distracted today, chiquita.”
“Thinking about Dani. I got calls from a newspaper and a missing-persons bureau last night, asking me if I knew where she was. It’s all so weird, isn’t it?”
“Just as well that she’s gone. Think of the danger you were in.
She’s crazy. She could have hurt YOU!”
“That would have bothered you?”
“Absolutely. Don’t you think you matter to me? Sometimes I think it would have been so easy to let this school year go by without getting to know you. I’m really glad that didn’t happen.”
68
Voice mail on Dani’s phone:
Beth: I don’t know why I’m leaving a message here since I have your phone, but I need to know where you are.
Sean: She can’t hear you, Beth. Why don’t you give me the phone?
Beth: I wish I hadn’t taken your phone. I only wanted to make sure you didn’t get in more trouble than you already got yourself in. Now I don’t even know whether you’re alive.
Sean: Beth, she can’t hear you. Come on, give me the phone and let’s go to bed.
Beth: I wish I hadn’t taken your phone. Why did I do that?
69
“I wish Dani didn’t move away,” Alex says Tuesday morning, while Mrs. Alex helps him dress for school.
“But she did,” replies Mrs. Alex.
“Can we send a letter to Dani and ask her to move back?”
“We don’t need Dani. We have April now.”
“April doesn’t like me.”
“Of course she does.”
“She said I was a brat.”
“Try not to make April mad and she won’t call you names.”
Alex knew Dani didn’t always do everything right. Sometimes she looked worried and didn’t pay enough attention to Alex, and sometimes she talked to her friend Shelley on the phone. A couple of times he couldn’t fall asleep and he called for her and it took a long while for Dani to come up because she was doing her homework.
Mrs. Alex told Alex he had to let Dani do her homework.
“Stop being selfish, Alex” was exactly what she said. Maybe that was the reason Dani moved away, because he was too selfish.
70
When Dani wakes she’s cold. A pink glow underlies the blue-gray sky. She brushes something from her lower leg. The short dress makes her feel vulnerable, like a snake, lizard, or weasel might slink underneath it. She pulls the blanket up to her neck and tries to sleep some more.
Blanket. Where has this blanket come from? It’s not a sleeping bag, but a definite indoor blanket. Ivory material with little flowers and gold trim, like something a mom or grandmom would have on her bed. It’s already dirty. She hadn’t heard a sound. Who got close enough to wrap a blanket around her?
She gets up and finds a cloth supermarket bag. Inside are a ground sheet, a two-liter bottle of water, a plastic cup, a spoon, trail mix and cereal bars, a jar of peanut butter, and three apples.
She looks for a note but finds none.
Dani washes her crotch and armpits with her bottle of water.
She thinks of Alex, who, despite Dani’s watchfulness, saw part of a movie in which someone was stabbed in the bathroom—was it Psycho? Or A Nightmare on Elm Street? After that he asked her to stand in the hallway and talk to him anytime he peed. He thought she was his protector.