Ten Thousand Miles in the Wrong Direction
Chapter One: The
Big Opps:
What do you do
when you lose your job and your home in the same day? I had to find that one out
firsthand. I was an English teacher at this fancy private school. Everything was
going great for me. I was living on my own with a nice apartment with a great
job. I had good friends in the Boston area. Everything was going well.
That was until a
scandal at my school derailed everything. I wasn’t involved, mind you. It’s all
no thanks to my headmaster. I don’t think he liked me from the start. I was
fired before the scandals broke out. Why was I fired? You tell me and we’ll both
know. However, there is some sweet karma to this. There were two scandals that
hit the news. The first one is a cheating scandal. Someone had tipped the press
that several students were cheating their way to better grades. This wasn’t news
to us. I think every one of us knew that some of them were cheating. Did some of
us try to stop it? Of course not. I did try to dissuade my students with mirrors
around the classroom.
But here’s where
things get messy.
Now, I didn’t
hear about this until I was on my way back home on my phone. (I will get into
that later.) Let me back up for a bit.
My day started
out normal. This was on a Friday too. I hadn’t planned to do much for the
weekend. Just grade some papers and watch something on Netflix. Before that, I
was going to get a haircut. Yesterday was supposed to be nice and normal.
When I got to
school, something didn’t seem right. At the time, I didn’t really notice it. My
coworkers looked like they were going to a funeral. That’s how they usually are,
though. I bid them good morning. Some of them didn’t even want to talk to me. I
should’ve expected as much. But then, I got to Kate near her classroom. I tilted
my head.
“Something
wrong, Kate?” I asked. She looked down at her feet.
“Kate?” I asked.
She shook her head. That’s when I looked around.
“Wow, did
somebody die?” I asked.
“It’s all over,”
I heard next to me. I turned my head. Kate stared at me.
“Excuse me?” I
asked. I shook my head.
“I’m so sorry,”
she said.
“Huh?” I asked.
“What are you talking about?” Kate turned and walked into her classroom. I stood
there, blinking. Hm. What was that all about? I headed down to my own classroom.
The morning
started out as normal as it could. We were in the middle of my favorite book,
Ulysses. From what I could tell, I was the only one really enjoying it.
“Wow, I have a
tough crowd,” I said to them one day. I didn’t get a response. I think a couple
of them were asleep at one point. I shrugged and carried on with the lesson.
Today, the students looked a little more alert. Some of them were still alive. I
walked over to Georgie and tapped her on the arm.
“Come on, Snow
White,” I said. “I know we’re on a boring part of the book. But you have to get
through this for the quiz Monday.” The class groaned. I shook Georgie harder on
the arm.
“Hey, hey!” I
said louder. I gave her one more shake and she bolted awake. I gave her a little
smile.
“You ready to
join us?” I asked. She sat blinking at me.
“How?” she
asked. The rest of the class laughed.
“Come on, guys,”
I said. “Back to the book.” The rest of the morning was fine.
It all fell
apart during my planning period. A knock came on my door.
“Come in,” I
said. I turned to see Rosie standing in the doorway. A puzzled look came over my
face.
“Rosie? What are
you doing here?” I asked. She shuffled in place as she cleared her throat.
“Mr. Garret
wants to see you,” she said.
“The boss wants
to see me?” I asked. I noticed how worried she looked.
“Is something
wrong?” I asked.
“Please,” she
said. “Can you just go see him?” Rosie turned and walked away. I stood up
looking confused. Huh? What’s going on? Did I do something wrong?
I could feel the
eyes of my coworkers and the students on me. Why was everyone looking at me like
I walking up to an execution? Was someone whispering about me? I didn’t like
this. Maybe it’s not as bad as I thought. I knocked on Mr. Garret’s door.
“Enter,” I heard
him say. I pulled myself together and opened the door. That old bastard sat at
his desk. He didn’t even look up at me.
“Mr. Garret?” I
asked.
“Take a seat,”
he said. I sat down in front of his desk. I squirmed into place.
“Is something
wrong, sir?” I asked. He looked up at me with a stern look on his face. I swear,
that’s the only facial expression that he can make. I have never seen that man
smile. Does he even have a heart at all?
As you can guess
what came next. The conversation didn’t last long. Twenty minutes later and I
was fired. He didn’t give me a reason why. Or rather, his reasons were vague and
didn’t make any sense. I don’t know, something about budget or some crap like
that. It doesn’t matter. My asshole of a boss fired me without warning or
reason. I didn’t even get to my afternoon class.
“Can I at least
finish the day?” I asked.
“No,” Mr. Garret
growled at me. “Now get out of here or I will call security on you!” I put up my
hands.
“Okay, okay,” I
said. “I will go. Geez.” I turned and walked out of the office. I couldn’t help
but wonder if I was going to be the only one. Were others going to be laid off
too? If so, who? I ran through the staff list in my head as I packed up my
classroom. My poor afternoon class. They won’t know what’s going on. I shook my
head to myself. The eyes never left me as I walked out of the building for the
last time.
My day wasn’t
done getting worse, though.
When I got back
to my apartment, I saw a sheet of paper tacked to the door. A confused look came
over my face. Huh? What the hell is this? I set down my box and took down the
paper. My jaw just dropped. First, I was laid off and now I’m getting evited?
But why? I have been paying rent on time. There has to be a mistake. I turned
and walked down the stairs.
I made it down
to the main office to see it surrounded by cop cars. A group gathered around,
watching. I walked over with a confused look on my face. A police officer was
writing down something on his notepad.
“Excuse me,” I
spoke up. The square-jawed cop looked up.
“Um… what’s
going on?” I asked.
“Your landlord
has done a runner,” he said.
“What?!” I
asked.
“Yeah,” he said.
“He’s wanted for fraud.” I didn’t know what to say. I struggled but words
failed.
“Is that why we
all got evited?” I asked.
“Yes, we believe
so,” he said.
“So, what
happens to all of us?” I asked. “Where are we supposed to go?” The cop just
shrugged at me and turned back to his notes. I stood, dumbfounded. What the hell
was going on? Was the universe conspiring against me? What did I do wrong? Did I
piss off someone?
“Can I at least
get my stuff?” I asked. The cop turned to me. The look on his face took me I
wasn’t going to enjoy what he was going to say.
“Here’s the
thing,” he began.
“What?” I asked.
I could feel the color drain from my face. To add insult to injury, some of our
things were stolen. That bastard was breaking into our apartments while we were
out and stealing from us. The police were sorting out who’s possessions were
whose. I felt like I wanted to scream.
So yeah, that’s
where I am now.
I have no job. I
have no home. I could stay with my friend, Joe, but he’s getting married. I felt
like I was going to be the third wheel in that situation. His fiancée took pity
on me and wrote me a check for a thousand dollars. I stared at her at the dinner
table.
“You can’t be
serious,” I said.
“You really need
this,” she said. “Just take it. It’s the least that we can do.” I looked over at
Joe. He just shrugged. I reluctantly took the check.
“Thank you,” I
mumbled. The rest of dinner was just as awkward. I couldn’t even make eye
contact with them.
So here I am. I had no choice but to go back home. Back to Wellfleet. By the evening, I got in the car and started the trip home.