Enfolding

“All I wanted you to do was to love me.  To fold me in your arms and never let me go.  You were the only place I feel safe and the only place I want to be for the rest of my life.”   

As June read the beginning lines of her short story to the class, I sat up straighter.  I didn’t want her to continue because I knew what and who her story was about and I knew she shouldn’t read it aloud.  I tried to catch her attention so I could shake my head, but she was too engrossed in her reading to pay attention. 

June often went from obsession to obsession and many of her obsessions were not what most high school juniors would consider to be normal.  In this case, her current obsession was Jack, the quarterback of the football team.  While Jack was not in our creative writing class, a few of his friends were, including Jeremiah.  Jeremiah had no limits on how cruel he could be.  There was no way he didn’t have trauma in his past to have made him act as he did.  I wished I could help him, but right now, I just wanted June to stop reading. With any luck, he wouldn’t pay close attention to June’s story and wouldn’t realize she was talking about Jack. I didn’t want to consider what hell she would go through if he did. 

As I paid close attention to June’s story, it took a quick left turn into something about a knight, a dragon, and maybe something about Prince Charming. Now I was just more confused than I was concerned, but also hoping she wasn’t going to reveal Jack as Prince Charming. The story came to an odd conclusion without her specifically naming who her Prince Charming was, but oddly smiling at our teacher all the way back to her seat. The way he looked made me realize this hadn’t been the first story she had written for him, but maybe (and hopefully) it would be the last.