Moments and Impacts

Moments of Sight

This chapter is in past tense! It happened before the car crash.

Moments of Sight

The first time I ever saw Genesis was my first day at my new school. Now I don't remember why I had to move, something with moving in with my brother, but the true reasons are hazy to me.

"Hi," I said walking up to the teacher, "I'm Brently Laker. I'm new here."

He nods, pointing towards a chair and handing me a book for the class, "Record your book number in that notebook."

I did as I was told and sat in the chair he had pointed to. The boy sitting in front of me turned to me and said that there was absolutely no talking unless you wanted to be put into detention for the next two weeks. I listened and the people around me seemed to get the memo, not one person said a word.

Except for one boy, "Hi Mr. Evans," he walked with a limp and when he waved he didn't move his elbow from his side.

Mr. Evans gave him a stretched out smile, "Good morning Malachi, how are you today?' the teacher's voice sounds like he's trying to be nice, but I don't think it's in his nature.

"Genny gave me peanut butter and jelly for lunch!" he smiles like this is the best news in the world.

"That's good Malachi, can you sit down so we can start class?" his voice keeps getting softer and softer as he talks. Almost like he has to transfer from talking to the rest of us, and talking to him.

A boy on the other side of the room leans over to the girl next to him and whispers something in her ear.

Malachi's eyes switch to him faster than I can blink. Tears are coloring his eyes in a shiny haze, "I'm not stupid!" he yells. He grabs the desk in front of him and flips it over, the girl in the next seat barely has enough time to jump out of her desk to avoid being hit in the side.

The boy freaked out, throwing various objects around the room. Mr. Evans tried to calm him down, placing his hands on his shoulders as he yelled to nobody in particular, "Somebody call Ms. Hanson, get Genesis to come down here."

A girl ran over to the phone, pressing numbers like she'd done it a thousand time previously. She talked quickly asking for a Genesis. She took the phone from her ear and placed a hand over the mouthpiece, speaking to Mr. Evans, "She's out sick today."

"Well then call her cellphone," he snapped still trying to calm down the angry boy, "Just get her to come down here."

The girl typed in a different number and basically screamed into the phone for Genesis to get down the school.

"She's coming," the girl said and walked up to Malachi speaking softly to him with her hands up in front of him, "Malachi? Genesis is coming down here. Do you think that you could calm down for her?"

The anger in the boys face grows, "I'm not stupid."

Ten minutes later Malachi was still throwing around pencils, pens, and other various objects. The door opened to reveal an obviously sick teenage girl.

"Oh thank you Genesis," Mr. Evans sighed.

I didn't expect Genesis to be a teenager. I thought it would be some social worker for Malachi, but instead a girl around my age walked up to Malachi. She spoke softly, her voice like a melody, "Malachi, what's wrong?"

Malachi spun around, arm ready to throw what looked like a stapler from the other side of the room, but when he sees who it is he stops and lowers his arm, "They were whispering about me," his face was sad and hurt.

The stapler is pointed in the general direction of the boy and girl who had been whispering, and the girl, Genesis, turns towards them. She wasn't breath taking. At least not in the way a supermodel is. It was more subtle. Like a symphony playing during a movie. Just a tickle in the background.

Her green eyes were what gained my attention. Even with the obvious sickness floating in their depths they were still, not striking, but refreshing. Like stepping out into a farm and breathing a breath of fresh air, after a long winter stuck inside. Like setting sail with the sea breeze filling every part of your body. They were nothing I had ever seen before. Nothing like the ones I see in the mirror everyday, or the ones I see on my brother. They were new, and exciting, and I just wanted to see more of them.

Her hands were placed on her hips as she stared down at the boy and the girl. She didn't have to say anything, her eyes said it all.

"Come on Malachi," she turned back around and placed a hand on Malachi's shoulder, "we're going to bring you home."

"But I don't want to."

"I'll give you a chocolate bar," she taunted.

The boy's eyes lit up like it was Christmas and his birthday rolled into one. He nods his head vigorously and Genesis grabbed his binder that he had brought in to the class. Setting the big black and red zip-up binder on her, not so tiny, but not huge, hip she grabbed the boy's hand and pulled him from the classroom.

By the time that they left there was only five minutes left of class. Mr. Evans didn't even bother to start the lesson, but instead informed us that it would be a jampacked class the next day. The bell rang and we left.

"Is that an everyday thing?" I asked the boy the had been sitting in front of me as we made our way out of the classroom.

He looked at me as if I was crazy. As if the answer was an obvious one. When he realized that I was seriously asking he sighed, "If it was do you really think that they would let him in a class?"

I shook my head. And that was that. Malachi only made a few interruptions throughout the year. As long as nobody whispered something to someone else we were okay.

I talked to him a few times and he seemed cool. He was actually very smart, and didn't like it when somebody assumed that he was stupid just because he had aspergers. I never thought about saying that just because somebody had a mental illness he/she was stupid.

They are just a person, no matter who they were. They deserve a life just like the rest of us. One without people calling them names just because of an illness that they have.

Maybe it was just how I was raised. Maybe because I was around my grandmother so often. But I don't believe that just because somebody is sick they should be treated differently. They are people too. People with feelings, and nobody likes to be cut off from society to some degree all because of their genetics. It just doesn't seem fair.