Stolen

Stolen

Twenty-seven is just too old to be a student, “wait, what, is he talking to me, or do I have it all wrong,” she thought? He twiddled the back of his hair as he continued to release his persistent side grin. Her heart pounded and she halted, “what.” Confused, perplexed, and in disbelief, the complete opposite of what she had come to know. Teachers didn't do that, school was a safe place, a place for peace, a place for learning, a place where all walks of life joined together in the pursuit of profound enlightenment. “Am I Trippin, or did he just rub up against me?”

“I’m totally Trippin, it was an accident, of course, I hope. Now I feel uncomfortable. Okay, okay, forget about it Sally, start new tomorrow.” Summer was hot gooey and a bit sweaty but Sally had a goal, she wasn't gonna let the heat stop her from placing. As the sweat dripped down the back of her thighs she continued ultimate nigga warrior, fast and set in the zone. Her hands moved like Tarzan, slanging and banging, high end, roping from tree to tree. Caught in the wind, gliding on air, dancing with every motion, she set everything in its rightful place. She made that surgery table faster than a cheetah pouncing an antelope. Swift and very much in control.

“Wooh, damn,” they all yelled as she finished, they ran to her with their hands high eager to congratulate. His grin never dissipated, he stood there glaring at her. The look in his eyes made her gulp, she put her head down and stood behind the red line. Rising heat escaped her surge mask fogging the lens of her glasses, she peeked through the top of them watching as her classmates mimicked her ninja style. Loving every minute of it her legs began to jiggle, first, they flinched a bit, then they dipped, five students later they began to dance all on their own. The beat was exuberating, as music poured from the tiny speaker hands and arms flew across the table like MC Hammer wearing his Hammer time Balloon pants, You Cain’t Touch This. They slapped five, cheered for one another, and shared ideas on how to improve their newly found skills. Laughter, excitement, and pure good times were short-lived as jealousy and competition began to surge.

It started with her, his wingman, his professional motherly accomplice, the woman that made the girls feel comfortable. It was her job, she had one mission, to break them apart making Sally an easy prey. Sally could feel it coming, every sly comment, every low-key jab, she knew something was up and wanted nothing more than to get to the bottom of it before her worst fears became a reality. “I’ll email him,” she thought, “after all he’s the director of the program and has no other choice but to take my concerns into account.”

“Hello, Mr. Guss, there have been some weird things going on in and out of class as of late, I decided to take it upon myself to tell you what I’ve been experiencing in case something happens. Nielly has been acting strange, she is your second in command and I’m not sure what she is up to.” Also, some of my other classmates have been asking strange questions…Do you know anything about this?.. I’m not trying to seem weird, Plz keep this on the low.”

The next day without notice they were suddenly mini demons, they wore red faces and bit their nails into sharp claws. Each had a point at the tip, glistening black bulges popped through their eye sockets. She looked deep and hoped to see a smudge of innocents, but none was found. Sally soon realized they were all gone, body-snatched by the enticing desire of doe. They announced it on the daily slowly pulling them deeper and deeper to the dark side, “I get my students jobs,” “Who wants to go to the top hospital?” Each day it seemed to draw them closer, as she looked to her left and to her right she could see their eyes becoming brighter and brighter, their hunger increasing. When their masks came off, she could see moist lips, the whole time they’d been sampling the taste of thirty-five dollars an hour. The small family she dared to say she found as they ate and studied together daily had all been plotting against her.

Suddenly it all made sense, in her mind at least. They must have been some sort of cult, she thought of the way they mentioned voodoo dolls like pencil sharpeners, there was nothing mind-boggling about it. It was completely normal, in fact, when Tina spoke of crazy old ladies microwaving babies everyone low key giggled as if it were some kind of insider. “He must have told them what I wrote in the email,” she whispered as her breath escaped her windpipe. While her thought process strived to connect the dots she stared at her reflection in the hanging mirror on the back of her bedroom door, she decided she had to do something, wanting nothing more than to put a stop to the bullying, teasing, and unjustified dirty looks. She planned to just lay across the table, arch her back and perk her butt, allowing him to have at it, if he wanted ass, that was exactly what he was gonna get.

5:00 am she stalked the parking lot, waiting for his truck to pull in, she was gonna get there before anyone else. Mr. Guss always arrived early, she remembered him eyeballing her and expressing how the roosters hadn’t even had a chance to roost before he made it to his office. She tucked her hair behind her ears, balled her fist as tight as she could, gulped then proceeded to knock. But nothing, not even the slightest inclination. The room was quiet, she said nothing, allowing him to do all the talking, shaking her head up and down for yes, and side to side for no. She left his office more confused than she was when she entered. She kept her head down as she opened the lab door as soon as she entered Nielly pulled her name from the bag, “Sally,” Nielly said as she placed her name on the bedside table face-side up. “Huuhuh,” she blew the last bit of confidence from her lungs. Everyone watched as she gathered her supplies, that was the first time she shook, her nervous hands rattled over her chest as she held her wrapped gown close.

“Mr. Guss, can I please go to the bathroom,” Sally asked as she hesitantly rose her hand. She sat over the toilet with her pants down to her ankles, red, smack dab in the center of her yellow and white Fashion Nova boy panties. “Fuck!” She wrapped four layers of toilet tissue around her palm, positioned it on the seat of her panties, pulled up her pants, and flushed the toilet. The sound of dripping water echoed through the drum of her ear, she paused as she peaked through the crack of the staw door. When she finished washing her hands she sternly pushed the faucet knob to the right ensuring it was off.

They watched her every move, eyeballing her at all turns, her flying hands froze in mid-motion, they stumbled to position surgical tools, towels, basins, and sutures like they never had before. Sally was on top of her game from day one, but now she was different. Four months in and her mind was beginning to spin. She peeked up for the first time, if she were glue they’d definitely be Tengujo, the thinnest paper in the world, easily attached with no sign of wilting. Finally, it was time to drape the surgical patient, Mr. Guss was the acting doctor and she had to ready the dummy for him. As she stood over the patient, trying to calm herself sweat seeped down the back of her neck, it was like the dummy was non-existent, he didn't even look down, instead, he caressed the back of her hands piercing his dark eyes directly through her soul. “Wou, would you like sutures now,” she asked fighting to speak. “Yes, I’ll take a Vicryl.”

As the acting first assistant released the back of her gown her arms shivered, It was freezing. Aaron was always kind to her, although everything seemed different now shock still plastered her face when she softly said “thank you,” and Aaron did nothing but flare her nostrils and glare her dark bulges into her view. That's when it happened, she pulled the rest of her gown down from the front of her body, and that's when she saw it. Dark red toilet tissue resting on top of her black and white tennis shoes. Her eyes popped from her forehead practically landing Iris first on the blood-stained paper. It took two seconds for her eyes to mimic the red spots, streams fell and humiliation stole her health, she began to limp as if she was sick with Ebola, slow coughs escaped her throat. Her palms moistened while blood began to pour from her nose.

Tears flowed as she made it back into her bedroom, she released them like the wild ocean allowing the currents to live all on their own. She sat face down with her face tucked in her arms over her private toilet. Ready to face the embarrassment and prepared to clean herself she almost fainted when she saw it, it was still there. Her tissue had never left the seat of her panties. Now that I’ve gotten you this far, let's go back to the beginning. Orientation.