Feeling Very Strange - Site de Thomas - Free

the healer | 29
He was very rarely at school and he was a cutter. He cut things into his
skin with a razor blade. I saw once; some Saturday when everyone was
at a picnic and I was bored, I wandered into the boys’ bathroom and he
was in there and he showed me how he carved letters into his skin. He’d
spelled out ouch on his leg. Raised and white. I put out a hand and
touched it and then I walked directly home. It was hard to feel those
letters. They still felt like skin.
I don’t know exactly how the fire girl met Roy but they spent their
afternoons by the base of the mountains and she would burn him. A
fresh swatch of skin every day. I was on a long walk near Old Midge
after school, wondering if I’d ever actually cross it, when I passed the
two of them for the first time. I almost waved and called out Hi but
then I saw what was going on. Her back was to me, but still I could see
that she was leaning forward with one fire finger pressed against his
inner elbow and his eyes were shut and he was moaning. The flames
hissed and crisped on contact. She sucked in her breath, sss, and then
she pulled her hand away and they both crumpled back, breathing
hard. Roy had a new mark on his arm. This one did not form a letter. It
swirled into itself, black and detailed, a tiny whirlpool of lines.
I turned and walked away. My own hands were shaking. I had to
force myself to leave instead of going back and watching more. I kept
walking until I looped the entire town.
All during the next month, both Roy and the fire girl looked really
happy. She stopped bringing leaves into science class and started participating
and Roy smiled at me in the street which had never happened
before. I continued my mountain walks after school, and usually I’d see
them pressed into the shade, but I never again allowed myself to stop
and watch. I didn’t want to invade their privacy but it was more than
that; something about watching them reminded me of quicksand, slide
and pull in, as fast as that. I just took in what I could as I passed by.
It always smelled a bit like barbecue, where they were. This made me
hungry, which made me uncomfortable.
It was some family, off to the base of Old Midge to go camping, that
saw and told everyone.
The fire girl is hurting people! they announced, and Roy tried to
explain but his arms and thighs were pocked with fingerprint scars and