Other Echoes

Charlotte was always the last one out of bed in the morning. On weekdays, it was Emi’s job to rouse her, a formidable task that often took three or four attempts at the least. And by the time Charlotte finally did shamble into the kitchen in her pajamas, everyone else was already dressed, fed and ready to go.

  But that Friday morning, Charlotte did not wake to the sound of Emi pounding relentlessly at her bedroom door. At six o’clock, Charlotte was still half-asleep, bobbing in and out of consciousness, when she sensed the presence of something or someone hovering nearby. Fear jolted her awake with a start.

  “Good morning.” Aunt Sheena brought back the window curtains with a vigorous snap of her wrist and sunlight shot through the room. Charlotte blinked through the blinding brightness, heart still pounding. The exuberance in her aunt’s voice was discombobulating. What was she doing here, anyway?

  “Looks like rain,” Aunt Sheena clucked. “I hope it clears up by tonight. You don’t want a wet luau.”

  Inwardly, Charlotte groaned. She’d forgotten about the school luau, and the reminder of it did little to improve her mood. She could do without another awkward social event in her life.

  Charlotte brought the covers over her head and burrowed deeper into her pillow. She could hear the clatter of hangers as Aunt Sheena explored the contents of her closet.

  “What are you going to wear today? It should be something Hawaiian print.”

  The mattress shifted under Charlotte’s body as Aunt Sheena sat down at the foot of the bed. Then something patted her leg through the blankets.

  “Sweetie, sit up. We need to chat.”

  Still hardly conscious, Charlotte obediently pushed down the sheets and looked blearily at her aunt, who was coiffed and fresh-faced as usual, in a no-nonsense cardigan and floral print dress. Her faded blond hair was pinned back in a barrette that coordinated perfectly with the rest of her outfit.

  “I was talking to Will last night,” Aunt Sheena said.

  It took Charlotte a moment to realize that she meant Mr. Kerrigan.

  “He was very concerned,” Aunt Sheena continued. “He seems to think that you’ve grown too attached to him over the past couple of weeks.”

  Panic mode. Charlotte’s sleep-muddled brain slowly started making sense of things. Mr. Kerrigan’s extreme reaction yesterday afternoon surfaced in her memory. She still didn’t know what she had done wrong, but she knew this must be about that. And now Aunt Sheena was getting involved.

  Aunt Sheena kept speaking in a calm, sensible voice. “Will says he appreciates all your help in the art room, but he thinks it would be best if you stopped coming by on your lunch breaks from now on.”

  Stop coming? A sick feeling of fear and shame began closing in on Charlotte. She always messed things up. Always. Now he was angry with her. He wanted her to go away. Why why why?

  “I’m sure he’ll want to speak to you personally, but I wanted to address this issue with you first. I don’t want you to feel he’s doing this to reject you. Will and I both agreed that it would be in your best interest if you branched out more at Staley.”

  “Did I do something wrong?” she managed to ask.

  Aunt Sheena’s face was full of pity. “Oh, sweetie, you did nothing wrong. Like I said, he’s not rejecting you. He simply thinks that you -- how do I put this? –you have to remember that he’s not your friend.”

  Charlotte must have looked lost and hurt, because Aunt Sheena continued with a somewhat more flustered edge in her voice. “Mr. K is a very warm, approachable person and I understand why you like to spend time with him. But he’s a teacher, not a peer. It’s time you focused on forming friendships with people your own age.”

  Very little of what her aunt was saying filtered through Charlotte’s brain. She dragged herself out of bed, tripping over her tangled mess of bed sheets along the way. The red and white dress Aunt Sheena had chosen for Charlotte to wear to the luau was laid over the back of her desk chair. For some reason the sight of it filled Charlotte with resentment.

  “Does this make sense?” Aunt Sheena asked.

  “Oh…yeah,” Charlotte managed to get out, though her voice was shrill. She knew it was better to act agreeable, if she wanted to be left alone, and that’s all she wanted right now. To be alone.

  Aunt Sheena knit her brow. “So you’re okay with this?”

  “Uh-huh,” Charlotte said with forced cheerfulness. She smiled fixedly, willing her aunt to leave. “I should get ready for school.”

  Needing to escape to the solitude of her bathroom, Charlotte opened the bedroom door and found Emi standing right outside, with her toothbrush to her mouth. She had obviously been eavesdropping.

  “What’s going on in there?” Emi asked through her toothpaste foam.

  “Never you mind,” Aunt Sheena said, stepping outside and shooing Emi away. “It’s not your place to ask.”