Pictures on the Wall

OOPS! I was in such a hurry to post this on Friday so I could get a few critiques by Monday that I didn't realize that I posted the old un-edited and grammatically incorrect one! Here is the newer one, with some of Myth's suggestions. So, my biggest concern is that the ending is to aburpt and I need help with that, please.

Whenever Ashlyn had to sit in the office, she always tried to find the people on the wall. The old, yellowing wallpaper portrayed a series of twisting, climbing vines and flowers. Sometimes Ashlyn saw pictures in the shape of the vines and the petals of the flowers. There was a cute little dog that looked like Toto from the Wizard of Oz, and a boy with a pointed hat like an elf, and a woman cradling a small, smiling baby.

She once pointed these sneaky visitors out to Mrs. Douglas, but the old, gray secretary had just given her a funny look and turned back to her computer. Even her teacher, Miss Green, hadn’t been able to see them. The young woman had squinted and strained and finally informed Ashlyn that she could see them, but the lie was in her voice and her eyes.

Ashlyn wondered if maybe you lost the ability to see the hidden people as you got older. When other kids came to the office with her she watched them intensely to see if they also sought out the vine spies, but always they looked at the ground, avoiding everyone’s gaze. She could ask if they saw them, like she had Miss Green, but if they didn’t, or even if they did, they’d probably give her the same funny look as Mrs. Douglas and then scoot away. Or they’d laugh and tell the other kids, who’d laugh too. So she didn’t ask.

But she saw them.

Today the leaves outside the window were bathing, soaking up and dancing in the hard, fast rain. The vines inside the office seemed to mirror their real counterparts, as if they felt they couldn’t be left behind. They somehow seemed more green, more vibrant, more real. They appeared to be ready to leap off the walls and begin a rain dance of their own at a moments notice. But Ashlyn was sure that she was the only one that had spotted this difference in attitude.

Miss Green came back from Mrs. Douglas’s small desk area and knelt down in front of Ashlyn. The flowers on the wall seemed to follow her as she moved through the office. Ashlyn suspected that the teacher was the closest thing that the flowers had ever had to a sun. She placed a delicate hand on Ashlyn’s knee.

“Ashlyn, we called your house but there was no answer,” Miss Green informed her. Ashlyn nodded, like she had every time that Miss Green had relayed this fact to her. “But we got a hold of your brother. He says he’s on his way.” Ashlyn nodded again, but didn’t say anything.

“Do you need anything?” Ashlyn shook her head no. “Are you sure?” She nodded, then leaned back in the stiff, wooden chair, as if to say ‘Go away’. Miss Green understood. With a final pat on the knee, she lifted herself up and made her way to the office door. The flowers followed her. On her way out she stopped by Mrs. Douglas’s desk. The two whispered in voices obviously not meant for Ashlyn to hear, and then Miss Green left.

Ashlyn sat. She calculated in her head how long it would take Sean to get here. If he was at school; ten minutes. If he’d was at one of his friend’s houses; fifteen to twenty five minutes. It would take him a half of hour to get from work to her school, but she knew that he wasn’t at work at 3:30 on a Thursday. She watched the clock.

One minute. She watched the rain outside.

Two minutes. She looked for the elf on the wall.

A boy from her class and his mother entered the office and walked straight up to Mrs. Douglas. The woman demanded to speak to Miss Green. Mrs. Douglas gave the woman the look that she gave to the rowdy children when she was forced to fill in as a lunchroom monitor. The woman didn’t blink. The boy saw Ashlyn and stuck his tongue out at her. Ashlyn pretended not to see him.

Four minutes. Ashlyn looked for the dog in the flowers, but he seemed to have run away.

Miss Green came into the office and greeted the woman with her sunny smile and all the flowers congregated around her. The woman demanded to know why her son, her baby, had been made to sit out yesterday at recess. Miss Green calmly asked the woman to take a seat. Her son sat two seats down from Ashlyn, but the woman remained standing.

“Mrs. Jones, I hope you understand that everything I do, I do for the good of the children…”

“What are you doing here?” The boy hissed. His nose looked like pig’s snout when he sneered. “Did you get in trouble?” He stretched out the last word, as if he were trying to stretch it out long enough to make a noose for her to stick her head in.

Ashlyn ignored him. She was no hangman.

The sixth minute had passed and they were onto the seventh. While his mother raged against Miss Green’s immovable wall of sunshine, the boy pulled out bits of foliage from the fake plant that sat at the end of the row of chairs in the office. He threw them at her.

“You’re in trouble!” He sang under his breath, rolling the false dirt between his thumb and index finger and then flicking it at her. It hit Ashlyn on the temple and then fell down to accumulate with the rest of the dirt wads he’d already sent her way. Ashlyn didn’t move.

Eight minutes, dirt. Nine minutes, dirt.

The boy’s mother grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the office. Ashlyn watched them out of the corner of her eye. Miss Green noticed the small lumps of fake dirt next to her leg and sighed. Ashlyn pretended that she was in a deep cave underwater, holding her breath. Miss Green left the office with a nod to Mrs. Douglas.

Eleven minutes. Ashlyn breathed. Still no dog in the flowers.

Ashlyn looked out the window and hoped that the rain would stop and that Mrs. Douglas would drink enough black coffee that she would have to relieve herself and then Ashlyn could sneak out like a spy and sneak all the way home.

Thirteen minutes. Mrs. Douglas finished her coffee without needing a bathroom break. The rain raged on.

Ashlyn scooped up all the dirt that the boy had thrown and at her and softly padded it back into place in the pot. There was a buzz at the door and Mrs. Douglas leaned down so close to the intercom that Ashlyn wondered if the person on the other end could feel her hot breath.

“Westenberg Elementary School,” she barked.

“Hey Mrs. Douglas,” A soft, out-of-breath voice rang from the intercom. Ashlyn perked up and straightened in her chair. Mrs. Douglas harrumphed and pressed a button off to the side of her desk that opened the door. Ashlyn could hear the buzz over the intercom and from the door outside the office.

“Thanks Mrs. Douglas,” the voice said. The intercom clicked off, cutting of the voice and the pounding drum of the rain. The door outside the office opened and closed. Ashlyn scooted to the back of her chair and glanced at the clock. Fifteen minutes.

The office door opened.

“Hello Mrs. Douglas,” Sean said. Mrs. Douglas peered at Sean over her glasses.

“No umbrella Mr. O’Malley?”

“Nope, danced all the way here,” Sean informed her. With a smile like that you’d almost believe him.

The parents in the office that were talking to other teachers glanced at Sean out of the corner of their eyes and scooted away. Ashlyn knew she should be mad at them, but she was. But she understood. Sean was all black and metal. He was hair like fire and eyes like forests. He was all smiles and bruises.

He sat next to Ashlyn.

“Hey Ashie,” he cooed, pushing strawberry hair from her eyes.

“Hey…” Ashlyn murmured.

“Mr. O’Malley,” Mrs. Douglas called. “Miss Green would like to speak with you.” Sean smiled and nodded.

“Alright,” he said. Mrs. Douglas pressed a button on the intercom and waited for the beep. There was none. She frowned and tried again. Nothing happened. She made sound that could have been a lion’s sigh and her chair clawed the ground as she heaved her body out of her desk cave.

“I’ll be right back,” she informed them as she headed out the door. She didn’t bother giving Sean the look. She knew that he would behave himself. Sean was good at behaving, whatever the parents thought. He drew Ashlyn’s teeny-tiny doll body up and pulled her onto her lap with an ‘umph’.

“How ya doing sweetie?” He whispered, brushing down her fine hair and rubbing her shoulders.

“Fine,” she breathed, snuggling back into her brother’s embrace.

“Ya wanna tell me why I’m here Ashie?”

“Hm…”

“Ashie?”

“No,” she whispered, burying her face in his shoulder.

“Ashie…” He said, patting her back and smoothing her clothes.

“No,” She said again, stronger now.

“…Okay,” He whispered. They sat in silence for a second.

“Mommy’s drinking again…” Ashlyn whispered to Sean’s shoulder. He pulled her closer.

“Now, what makes you think that?” He asked. His words, she knew were supposed to be silly, but his voice broke them. Ashlyn didn’t answer. They both knew she was right, anyways.

“Where’s Dad?” She whispered.

“In Wisconsin, I think. Working,” Sean said.

“When will he be back?”

“Tonight.”

“Oh,” Ashlyn was sad when Sean lifted her off his lap and placed her gently on the floor when Miss Green came in, but a little glad because she didn’t know what to say anymore.

“Hello Miss Green,” Sean said, holding his hand out. Miss Green took it without hesitation.

“Hello Sean,” she said. “Thanks for coming.”

“No problem,” he smiled softly. “What did you need to speak to me about?” Miss Green glanced at Ashlyn worriedly, but decided not to leave the room anyways.

“Well, it’s about Ashlyn…”

“I figured.”

“She’s not really participating in class. She sits alone at lunch and recess and doesn’t try to socialize,” Miss Green’s voice was high and higher as she spoke. “Sometimes…Some days she refuses to speak to…well, to anyone.”

Sean stood for a second. Ashlyn bite her lip. She could see the worry and pain and the disappointment on his face.

“I see…” He whispered, not knowing what else to say.

“I was wondering…is anything…Well, it everything okay at home?” Ashlyn’s straightened and she could almost make out Sean’s fear.

Tell her, Ashlyn thought. Tell her what it’s like. She wished and wished that Sean would just open his mouth and say that word, that simple word, that would let Miss Green know that, no, everything was not alright.

But he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. He never, never would.

“Everything’s fine,” Sean lied. Ashlyn slumped back and felt like crying because tonight, like every other night before and every other night forward, would be a hellish picture show for her and a hell for Sean.

Miss Green looked Sean in the eye, sunshine and all, and waited to see if he’d amend his previous statement. He didn’t and she sighed and adjusted her glasses.

Miss Green said, “Good. Also, she hasn’t turned in her field trip form yet. It was due today, but I’ll let it slide if she can get it in by tomorrow.”

“Alright, I’ll make sure that’s taken care of,” Sean reassured her.

“I lost it,” Ashlyn said. They turned to her. “I lost the permission slip…”

“I see…” said Miss Green, “Alright, I’ll go get another. Can you wait here?”

“Sure thing,” Sean said, placing a hand on Ashlyn’s shoulder. Miss Green nodded and headed to her classroom. Sean sat down and pulled Ashlyn close.

“Not talking in class?” he questioned. “You okay?” Ashlyn nodded. Sean gave her shoulder a little squeeze. “Alright…” He whispered.

They were sitting there, listening to the tick-tock of the clock and tap-tap-tapping of Mrs. Douglas’s keyboard for only a minute before Sean squeezed her shoulder again.

“Hey,” he said, “Look there.” He pointed to the wall. “Don’t those three flowers there look like a little terrier? You know, like Dorothy’s dog?” Ashlyn blinked. She looked where he was pointing, to a cluster of three flowers. The dog in the flowers. She smiled.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “Yeah, it does.”