Emily's Eraser

The expression ‘to rub somebody out’ takes on a whole new meaning and one that has dire consequences.

“I hate him! I hate him! I hate him!”

“Who is it you hate so much, dear Emily?” asked Emily’s best friend, Rowena.

“You know who. Brock, that’s who. He won’t leave me alone. He’s constantly hanging around like a bad smell.”

“More like a hungry dog, it seems to me.”

“Yeah well, that too.”

“He’s probably just madly in love with you, girl.”

“Oh please...if there is a God, let it not be true!”

Rowena laughed, grabbed Emily by the arm and started dragging her along the school corridor towards the exit. “Let’s forget all about Brock and Arnie Flynn and just...”

Emily stopped in her tracks and stared at her friend.

“Arnie Flynn? Does he have a crush on you, Rowsy?” Emily stood with her arms on her hips and stared at Rowena.

“C’mon...out with it. Do I know Arnie? No, I think I would definitely remember a geeky name like that!”

“Nah, he’s just a pain in the butt, that’s all. Keeps wanting to borrow my homework ...asking me biology questions...you know the type.”

“Yeah, but at least he doesn’t grab you in between classes or knock your books on the floor and laugh about it.”

“He’d get a swift kick where it hurts the most if he ever did that to me. Maybe you should let Brock have one of those.”

“Hmmm. Maybe I should. Okay, let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough of this place for today. You, too?”

“You’ve got that right”, Rowena quipped as she pushed open the door and they leaped out into the bright afternoon sun and the intoxicating fresh air. Emily twirled around, enjoying the warmth of the sunshine.

“Oh, it is so good to get away from the stuffy school and breathe in some clean air.

“Hey, want to invade the mall?”

“Nah, more stuffy air. You go. I’ve got to go home and watch my little brother. Mom has to go out and Dad won’t be home till after 6:00 o’clock.”

“Okay, Em. See you tomorrow.”

Rowena turned right as Emily turned left and headed up towards Birchtree St. where she stopped and waited for the traffic light to change. She considered dashing across on the red light but decided against it. Bad habit, she said to herself, remembering one of her friends a couple years ago who had done that. A car had come out of nowhere and hit her. Now she was in a wheelchair and her future changed in an instant.

The light changed. Emily forced herself to look both ways and then walked quickly across Birchtree; turned left again and headed towards her home. She had resisted the urge to pull out her smart phone although she was thinking about a couple things she was waiting for or wanted to check on.

“What’s that?’ Stopping, she looked down. An eraser was on the sidewalk right in front of her. At least she figured it was an eraser.

She had never seen that type before but the shape suggested that it was likely an eraser. She stooped down and picked it up. It was lightweight and kind of cute. She turned it over a couple times and then put it in her jacket pocket, promptly forgetting all about it.

At home, she said ‘Hi’ to her mom who smiled at her, gave her a hug, and dashed out the door and into her car. She was off to a Yoga class. Her Yoga mat was rolled up and the strap was slung across her left shoulder. Yoga, Tai-Chi, Watercolors...her mom was into everything. “Have fun, Mom!”

Emily went upstairs to her room. She flung her jacket onto a chair and turned instantly to her desk where she opened her laptop. Because she turned so quickly, she failed to notice that the eraser she had found had somehow popped out of her pocket and bounced a couple of times across the floor. It came to rest not far from her desk.

Despite her focus on opening the computer, her eye caught the small movement. She swung her head around.

“How did that get there?’ she wondered to herself. She picked it up and put it beside her on the desk. Almost immediately, she thought of how Brock had bothered her earlier in the day. He had seen her standing by her locker and ‘accidentally’ bumped into her as he was walking past.

“Sorry, Em!” he had said, turning his head and smiling, as she tried unsuccessfully to juggle a couple of books, a container of juice and her notebooks. The juice spilled, the books and notebooks fell to the floor and there was laughter in the school corridor as other students noted her disaster.

Emily suddenly thought about her stack of yearbooks on the shelf above her computer. Unsure why she did it, Emily reached up and took down last year’s volume. Her other hand was still on the computer and the yearbook fell on the desktop, opening as it did. Emily looked down at the open page. There was Brock’s smiling face.

‘He’s haunting me!’ she said to herself. ‘I wish I could erase him from my life!’

‘Why don’t you?’ said a voice in her head. She turned to where the eraser was resting on the desk. It was right next to the yearbook.

Before she knew what was happening, Emily picked up the eraser and started rubbing it over Brock’s picture. To her surprise, Brock’s image completely disappeared in a few seconds. She dropped the eraser and rubbed her eyes. In fact, she went to the bathroom and splashed water on her face.

When she came back, space where Brock’s picture had been was gone. Somehow, the page had reformatted itself so that all the other students were there, including her own picture but the one of Brock was completely missing. It was as though he had never been there.

‘What just happened here?’

That was when her little brother burst into her room.

Emily turned to the door and yelled at him, “Get out of here, Wart! You know you aren’t allowed in my room!”

“I’m not in your room,” said Billy, crossing his arms and standing in the doorway. “I’m hungry. Make me a sandwich so I can concentrate on my homework, okay, Em? Thanks.”

He slammed the door and disappeared before she could refuse. The door opened a crack and a voice said, “Peanut butter and jam would be nice.” Then it closed again, and Emily heard him going down the stairs.

“UGGGHHH!” Emily said out loud. “Well, he can wait.” She completely forgot about Brock.

“Nah, I’d better make Wart a sandwich or he’ll be back to terrorize me again!” Then, to herself she said, ‘Maybe I’ll make him a peanut butter, sardine and jalapeno sandwich. That’ll fix him! Hmm...nah, better not. I’d hear about it from mom and dad.’

Emily went downstairs, made her brother a sandwich and a glass of milk which she left on the table. She went back upstairs and called it, “It’s on the table!” as she passed her brother’s closed door. Then she went back to her computer.

The next day, Emily seemed happier than she had been in a long time and she had no idea why.

“Hey Em! You’re here early today,” said her best friend Rowena whose locker was just a couple down from hers.

“Yeah. Wide awake and ready for another exciting day at school. Say, Rowsy...have you seen Brock? He’s usually hanging around waiting to torment me.”

Rowena gave her a puzzled look. “Brock? Brock who?”

“You know who I mean. The Neanderthal who dumped my books and drink on the floor yesterday.”

“Am I missing something here? I don’t know anybody in school named Brock. I didn’t think you did either. Did you take any strange meds last night?”

Genuine concern showed on Rowena’s face. “Are you all right, Em?”

“Listen, I...” then Emily remembered the eraser. She reached in her jacket pocket. It wasn’t there. She was sure she had put it back in the pocket when she had hung up her jacket last night.

“You really don’t know who I’m talking about?”

“No, I don’t. Nobody. None. Zilch. Negative on any Brocks.”

“Okay then. Let’s get on with our day.”

But it kept bothering her. At lunchtime, she remembered that Brock has a younger brother when she saw him in the cafeteria. She went over to where he was sitting with two other boys.

“Hey, Brent. Where’s your brother today? Is he sick?”

Brent looked up quizzically at her and said, “I don’t have any brothers. Only sisters...two of them. Do you want one?”

Emily said, “Sorry. My mistake.” and walked away. She sat at a table by herself. ‘What had happened? That silly trick with the eraser was funny but she hadn’t believed it at all. But then Brock’s brother had just said he didn’t have a brother.’

Emily got up and walked around to the library. There, she took out the yearbook from the year before. There was no picture of Brock in the book. That was impossible!

“What is going on? I couldn’t really have erased Brock from the planet, could I?’

This is weird. ‘What did I do with that crazy eraser?’ She went to her locker, keeping an eye out for Brock coming up behind her. But he didn’t. She opened her locker, checked her jacket pockets, checked the floor of her locker, looked on top of the locker, and everywhere else she could think of. She didn’t find it.

At home, her brother Billy, who generally got home from school a little while before his sister did, happened to peek into Emily’s room on the way to his own room. His eye immediately spotted the eraser on the floor just inside the door.

“Hey, I need a new eraser!’ Billy said to himself. He picked up the eraser and tucked it in his pocket as he walked along to his own room.

The next day in school, Rowena stood at her locker. She had a strange feeling that she was missing something. Brittany Edwards had the locker next to Emily’s and she was looking into her locker.

“Hey, Britt! Have you seen Emily this morning?”

“Who’s Emily?” asked Brittany, as she bent down to pick up an eraser she had never seen before!

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©2019 Robert W. F. Taylor

I wrote this story in 2019 and it appeared in my book of short stories 24 Twistful Tales, self-published on Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions. ASIN # 1076405754.