This is part 15 of Todd’s story.

—
You think that you are complicated, deep mystery to all
Well it’s taken me a while to see, you’re not so special
All energy no meaning, with a lot of words
So paper thin that one real feeling, could knock you down

And I’ve seen, tonight, what I’d been warned about
I’m gonna leave, tonight, before I change my mind
– Dido, “See You When You’re 40”
—
“TODD!” He snapped awake, sitting upright and leaving a small puddle of drool on his English Literature book. His teacher, Dr. Kopf, was staring down at him through his spectacles. The skeletal man snorted. “Seriously, Todd, the least you could do is stay awake. It’s not like we’re memorizing sonnets, here.” Dr. Kopf was a little off, according to the other English teachers at his high school.

Todd looked down at his notepad. He’d drawn a crude archway and big top in the background. In the foreground was an amazing sketch of Sheila. She was wearing her work goth outfit, with her ID badge hanging from a Hello Kitty lanyard. His parents said that he should go to art school in college, but they had snooped his notebook after a parent/teacher conference. It’s not like they understood art.

Todd looked back up at Dr. Kopf, who was talking about English literary figures breaking down conventions, only to set up new ones that would later be broken down by writers across the globe. Maybe nobody understood art. Maybe artists didn’t get it either. They just did it, because it w as coming out of them, one way or another.

Todd dropped his head into his hands, pulling his hair between his fingers. He hadn’t slept in the two nights between finding the mason jar in the basement and today. The smell of oranges still enveloped him every time he began to drift off. He couldn’t even look at an orange without getting chills. “Now, as a sidebar, many bands of actors that actually spread the fame of the playwrights would wander the countryside, doing shows wherever the audience was available. After a while, they attached themselves to wandering carnivals and freak shows, because they also traveled, and already drew an audience.”

Todd stifled the scream that tried to bubble up his throat. He wiped up the puddle of drool with a few quick swipes of his hoodie’s sleeve. He flipped to a new page in his notebook, and began to sketch viciously. Inside the Big Top, Dr. Celestine stood. He leaned on his walking stick with one hand, and held a sheaf of papers aloft with the other. Disapproval and disappointment were evident on his face as he shook the papers. Yeah, it came out of them, one way or another. He added the finishing touches to the sketch, and he suddenly felt as though the cabling that held his life in place had snapped, whipping around and destroying what was in its path.

There was a knock at the door, and an office aide handed a note to Dr. Kopf. He glanced at Todd and nodded to the aide, who left. “Todd, you’re wanted at the office.” There was a general murmur that rose as Todd packed up his things. Dr. Kopf rolled his eyes at the students and handed the pass to him. “I’ll give your homework to Sheila next hour, if I don’t see you first.” Todd nodded, and took the pass out into the hall. He had the sensation of floating down a slow river in a boat. The current would take him where he needed to go, whether or not it was where he wanted to end up. He walked into the office, and was told to sit and wait. He set his bag on the floor between his feet, and rested his head on the hard, painted cinder-block wall.

He was surrounded by warm sunlight and the smell of oranges.

A hard kick to his shin woke him up, and he looked up into Thunk’s face. “Slacker.” Todd smirked as Thunk sat down next to him. “What’re you doing here?” Todd shrugged and showed him his pass. Thunk whipped out a pass as well. “Secretary told me to sit and wait. You too?” Todd nodded. “You talk too much.” Todd smiled and laid his head back against the wall.

“We’re going to be getting out of school early, I think. They’re going to forget we’re sitting here, forget they wrote the passes, and look the other way when we go past the hall monitors and security guards.” He could almost smell the oranges.

“No way, dude. What about Sheila?” Todd smirked again as Sheila walked into the office, loudly chewing gum. “No way.”

Sheila shot them a questioning look, and they both held up their passes. She held up hers, and then sat down on Todd’s other side. “So, what’s the deal?”

Todd closed his eyes again. “We wait. But not long.” Sheila gave Thunk another one of her worried looks, but all he did was shrug. After ten minutes of pure boredom, Todd stood up and hefted his backpack. “Ready?” They both shrugged and hefted their own bags. They walked right past the normally dour hall monitors – who smiled warmly at them – and then the security guards. They strolled unaccosted to Todd’s clunker and filed in. He coaxed it to life, and drove off of school property.

All three heaved a sigh of relief. Sheila eyed Todd from the passenger seat as they made a left onto the freeway on-ramp. “Where are we going?”

Todd smiled. Sheila was taken aback; she swore that she’d never seen such an honest expression of happiness on his face before. “Chicago.”

“Why?”

“We’re going to a carnival!”
—
A little blind spider took the wheel
Navigatin’ grass blades completely by feel
Got a sassy chassis, sparklin in the sun
All four small bald fat tires
rockin through the sand and burnin’ up
– The Presidents of the United States of America, “Dune Buggy”