time when the bell signaling the end of first period rang. They
looked at each other and shrugged as if to say, ?Oh well, what can
you do??, and burst out laughing. Then Helen saw Lucas for the
first time.
The sky outside finally exhaled all of the wind that it had been
holding for two days. Gusts of stale, hot air pushed through every
open window into the sweltering school. It caught loose sheets of
paper, skirt hems, unbound hair, stray wrappers, and other odds
and ends, and tossed them all toward the ceiling like hats on
graduation day. For a moment it seemed to Helen that everything
stayed up there, frozen at the top of the arc, as weightless as space.
Lucas was standing in front of his locker about twenty feet away,
staring back at Helen while the world waited for gravity to switch
back on. He was tall, over six feet at least, and powerfully built, although
his muscles were long and lean instead of bulky. He had
short, black hair and a dark end-of-summer tan that brought out
his white smile and his swimming-pool blue eyes.
Meeting his eyes was an awakening. For the first time in Helen?s
life she knew what pure, heart-poisoning hatred was.
She was not aware of the fact that she was running toward him,
but she could hear the voices of the three sobbing sisters rise into a
keening wail, could see them standing behind the tall, dark boy she
knew was Lucas, and the smaller, brown-haired boy next to him.
The sisters were tearing at their hair until it came out of their
scalps in bloody hanks. They pointed accusing fingers at the two
boys while they screeched a series of names?the names of people
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murdered long ago. Helen suddenly understood what she had to
do.
In the split second it took for her to close the gap between them,