Speak No Evil

CHAPTER TWELVE

IN THE GIFTED CLASS, Ken ran in at the last minute so Amanda didn’t get a chance to talk to him before Madame called for everyone’s attention.

But before Madame had even said ‘good afternoon’, Ken’s hand shot up. Madame looked at him in surprise.

‘Yes, Ken?’

‘Madame, could I ask the class something? There’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.’

‘Of course, Ken. What’s on your mind?’

His classmates turned to look at him.

Ken was clearly uncomfortable at being the centre of attention, but he persevered. ‘I want to know. . If you could get rid of your gift, would you? I mean, most of you guys know how I don’t like hearing these voices. And I was just wondering if I was the only one who doesn’t like having a gift.’

‘It’s not always comfortable having a gift, Ken,’ Madame said.

‘Yeah, yeah, I know that,’ Ken interrupted. ‘I’m sorry, Madame, but I’m not talking about getting used to the gift. I want to know if anyone else wants to get rid of their gift.’

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room. Amanda hastened to break it. ‘I’d like to get rid of my gift. I know there’s no way I can,’ she added hastily, ‘but if I could, I would.’

‘Sometimes I wish I didn’t have my gift,’ Emily offered. ‘When I get these images of terrible things about to happen. .’ She shuddered.

‘You just have to learn to control it,’ Jenna declared, ‘so you don’t see the future unless you want to. That’s what I do. I mean, if I had to hear everyone’s thoughts all the time, I’d go crazy. But I’m OK with it now.’

Tracey agreed. ‘It’s like Madame says — we need to figure out ways to use our gifts well.’

‘That’s right,’ Madame said.

‘No,’ came a quiet voice from the back.

Everyone turned to look at Sarah.

‘I’d give anything to lose my gift,’ Sarah said.

Amanda thought Madame looked very upset. The teacher’s lips tightened, and she folded her arms across her chest. She seemed to be gathering her thoughts and choosing her next words carefully.

‘Class. . I want you to listen to me. I know there are many times when your gifts may seem like burdens — or curses, even. But they’re not, you know. Each one of your gifts is a blessing.’

‘Yeah, that’s what I think,’ Charles said. ‘It makes my life a lot easier.’

‘It’s not just that, Charles,’ Madame continued. ‘You were given these gifts for a reason, and we don’t really know what that reason is. But they’re not to be wished away! They have a purpose, and our goal is to discover the purpose. You’re here to learn, not to give up.’

‘It’s not like you have a choice, anyway,’ Martin commented. ‘You can’t lose your gift.’

‘But if we could—’ Ken began.

‘No!’ Madame interrupted, and Amanda was startled by the tone of her voice. This was unusual. She always let the students have their say. And her voice was almost shrill. ‘You can’t! It would be like losing your heart — your brain. This gift is part of who you are. You must cherish it, even if you can’t understand it! Ken, I know you care about people, and with your gift you can help them. Amanda. .’ She practically glared at her. ‘Amanda, if you could stop thinking about your gift as a personal inconvenience, maybe you could help people too!’

Amanda couldn’t remember ever hearing Madame sound so emotional. It was weird. And how dare she pick on Amanda like that! Strong, conflicting emotions filled her, and she didn’t know which was stronger — her pity for Madame’s distress or her anger at being singled out.

Pity must have been the stronger one, because suddenly she was looking at the class through Madame’s eyes.

‘Madame, are you OK?’ Jenna asked.

Quickly, Amanda blocked her thoughts so Jenna couldn’t read them. Not that Jenna would even try — Madame was an expert at blocking Jenna.

‘I’m fine,’ she said. She glanced at robot-Amanda, who had taken out her make-up bag and was now examining her face in a mirror. Sometimes she wondered why others were so easily fooled by the robot version of herself. She wasn’t that vain.

The whole class was watching her expectantly. Amanda-Madame pulled her shoulders back, held her head high, and hoped she was doing a good imitation of Madame’s erect posture. It was time to have some fun!

‘Now, class, we’re going to test the level of control we have over our gifts. We will begin with Tracey. Tracey, make yourself invisible right now.’

‘Um, I can try,’ Tracey said. ‘It doesn’t always work.’

‘Just do it!’ Amanda-Madame snapped.

Tracey didn’t seem very happy about the order, but she obediently closed her eyes and scrunched up her face, as if she was concentrating very hard. Seconds later, she vanished.

‘Very good,’ Amanda-Madame pronounced. ‘Now come back.’

Nothing happened.

Jenna spoke. ‘She doesn’t have as much control coming back as she has disappearing.’

‘Obviously,’ Amanda-Madame said. ‘Emily. . Look into the future and tell us when Tracey will reappear.’

Emily stared at Tracey’s empty desk for a moment. ‘Tracey will be back before the bell rings,’ she predicted.

‘All right.’ The fake teacher turned to Charles. ‘Charles, we know you can make things move. I want to know how precise your gift is. Please move my desk fifteen centimetres to the left.’

Charles looked at the desk and shrugged. ‘Sure.’ The heavy wooden desk rose slightly and moved to the left.

‘Does anyone have a ruler or measuring tape?’ Amanda-Madame asked.

‘I think there’s a tape in your top drawer,’ Emily said.

For a second, Amanda-Madame was confused and looked at the desk in which the robot was sitting. She recovered quickly. ‘Yes, of course, that’s right.’ She went into the drawer of the teacher’s desk and took out a measuring tape.

‘Hmm. . You seem to have only moved the desk ten centimetres, Charles. You must improve.’

‘Five centimetres, big deal,’ Charles protested.

‘Charles! We aim for perfection here!’

Charles shrank back in his wheelchair. ‘Yes, Madame,’ he murmured.

It was getting very hard for Amanda not to burst out laughing. This was fun!

‘Now we’ll test Jenna. Class, do not block her. Jenna, what is Ken thinking about right now?’

‘Wait a minute,’ Ken said quickly, but Jenna was too fast for him. She grinned.

‘He’s thinking about Amanda.’

Amanda could only hope her face didn’t reveal the pleasure she felt. Fortunately, Tracey chose that moment to reappear and distracted the class’s attention.

‘I’m back,’ she announced unnecessarily.

Amanda-Madame frowned. ‘It took too long. You need to work on that.’

‘My prediction was correct,’ Emily pointed out.

‘Yes, yes, very good.’ She moved on. ‘Martin, let’s test your strength.’ She looked around the room. The heaviest thing was the desk, but they’d already used that. She needed something more original.

Inspiration didn’t fail her. ‘Martin, pick up Sarah and hold her over your head.’

Martin was startled. ‘Really?’

‘Yes,’ Amanda-Madame stated.

‘That’s not much of a test,’ Jenna protested. ‘Sarah’s not very heavy.’

Amanda-Madame looked at her sternly. ‘He can’t just lift her, he has to hold her over his head. That would be impossible for a normal person his size.’

Martin got up and went to the back of the room. Sarah watched him apprehensively as he approached her.

‘Madame, is this really necessary?’ she asked.

‘Don’t worry, Martin won’t drop you,’ Amanda-Madame assured her.

Martin didn’t look all that confident. He stood very still for a moment, as if he was summoning his gift. Then he lifted Sarah out of her chair. The whole class watched as he raised her higher and higher, until his arms were stretched out straight and she was way over his head.

Sarah had gone as stiff as a board and she did not look happy. ‘OK, he’s done it,’ she said. ‘Put me down now, Martin.’

Amanda-Madame shook her head. ‘Martin, don’t put her down. Sarah, you have to make Martin put you down. Use your gift.’

‘No!’ Sarah cried out.

Amanda-Madame pretended to be shocked. ‘Sarah, are you disobeying your teacher? Make Martin put you down, now!’

‘No, no, I don’t want to do that!’

‘Wait a minute!’ Jenna suddenly shouted. ‘I can read your mind! You’re not Madame, you’re Amanda!’

Amanda wanted to kick herself. She’d let her guard down. ‘I am not,’ she said, but the denial sounded feeble, even to her ears.

Martin placed Sarah back in her chair. ‘Sorry about that,’ he mumbled. But he looked at Amanda-Madame with admiration in his eyes. ‘That was pretty cool,’ he said.

Ken was grinning too. Clearly, he wasn’t too displeased with having had his thoughts revealed. And Charles was laughing.

‘Hey, before you let Madame come back, can you dismiss us early?’

‘And don’t give us any homework,’ Martin added.

‘Amanda, you get out of Madame right now!’ Jenna yelled.

‘I’ll leave her when I’m ready,’ Amanda retorted.

The voice from the back of the room was tremulous. ‘No, you’ll leave her now,’ Sarah said.

Amanda felt something she’d never felt before. It was like her mind, her consciousness, her spirit was forcibly pulled out of the body she’d taken over. And it hurt.

Then she was herself again, in her own body, in her own chair. She looked at Sarah in wonderment. ‘You did that.’

Sarah didn’t reply. She stared down at her desk, and her expression was grim. Amanda couldn’t stop looking at her. She’d known about Sarah’s gift, but now she’d felt it. It was so powerful. And for the first time she had a clue as to why the girl was so afraid to use it.

No one else was looking at Sarah though. They were watching Madame. The teacher had put her hand to her head.

‘Madame?’ Tracey asked worriedly. ‘Do you feel OK?’

‘Did I. . Did I faint?’ Madame asked.

‘Yes,’ Amanda said quickly. Too quickly. Madame’s eyes became steely, and they were fixed on Amanda.

‘You took over my body.’

Amanda opened her mouth to deny it, but no words came out. What was it about Madame that made it so hard to lie to her?

So she took the other route. ‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured. ‘I was fooling around, and. . I’m sorry.’

Madame’s voice could have cut glass. ‘You will never, never do that again, Amanda. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, Madame.’

At least the teacher didn’t go on and on about it. She gave them a reading assignment, the bell rang, and she dismissed them.

Amanda turned to Ken. ‘We have to talk,’ she said urgently. She glanced at the door, which someone had already opened. Nina wasn’t there — not yet, at least. ‘And we have to talk alone!

Ken got the message. He got up and followed Amanda out. She led him down the corridor and into the first empty classroom they came to.

She knew there was a security guard who came round to make sure rooms were empty, so she didn’t waste any time, even if it meant coming off as a little pushy.

‘I don’t care what Madame says,’ she declared flatly. ‘If someone like this Doctor Paley can get rid of our gifts, I’m totally up for it.’

‘Me too,’ Ken agreed. ‘Though I have to say that was pretty funny, what you pulled back in class.’

‘I guess it was kind of mean, what I did to Sarah,’ she confessed.

‘Not really,’ Ken said thoughtfully. ‘She needed a push. She has big problems dealing with her gift. She has to confront it sooner or later. I think you did her a good deed.’

Amanda preened. ‘I just thought I’d have one last crazy fling before giving up this gift for good. Do you want a long last talk with any ghosts?’

Ken’s smile faded.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘I’m thinking about Jack.’

‘Oh.’ She knew who Ken was referring to. Jack Farrell had been Ken’s best buddy, and he’d died in that accident on the field. His was the first voice from beyond the grave that Ken had heard. ‘You still talk to him?’

‘Not that much,’ Ken admitted. ‘Not like before. I guess he’s comfortable now, wherever he is. He doesn’t need me like he used to.’

‘So if you lost your gift and Jack couldn’t reach you any more, that would be OK?’

‘Yeah, I guess so.’

She wished he sounded more sure of himself. ‘Just think about it, Ken. No more ghosts asking you to check on their grandsons or watch soap operas.’

‘And no more gifted class,’ Ken added.

‘Exactly. We could be normal, Ken. Wouldn’t that be nice?’

He looked at her and smiled. ‘Yeah. Really nice. But we don’t know for sure if Doctor Paley can do this.’

‘No, not for sure,’ Amanda admitted. ‘But we can try. I feel like this is right for us. Don’t you?’

‘Yeah.’ Then he fell silent, but Amanda didn’t mind at all, because he was looking deeply into her eyes.

The caretaker came in. ‘Out,’ he said.

They left the room, and ran right into Britney.

‘There you are!’ Britney exclaimed. ‘Nina was looking for you. And so was I. Guess what? It worked!’

Amanda looked at her blankly. ‘What worked?’

‘What you made me do at lunch. Tommy just asked me to meet him at the mall! It happened, just like you said it would.’

‘Great,’ Amanda replied.

‘It’s funny, though,’ Britney went on. ‘I still can’t remember actually talking to him in the canteen.’

‘You were nervous,’ Amanda told her.

Britney grinned. ‘I guess. But I’m not nervous now! I gotta go and meet Tommy, I’ll call you tonight and tell you what happened.’

She took off, and Ken turned to Amanda. ‘You did it, didn’t you? You took over her body and came on to Tommy.’

Amanda lowered her eyes modestly. ‘I kind of had to. She’d never do it on her own.’

Ken smiled. ‘That was nice of you.’

She loved the way he was looking at her. It occurred to her that she had a connection with him that Nina could never have. And when they lost their gifts together. . it would link them in a way that could last forever.