Redemption

9/9/031

“The two women were alone in the London flat,” said the narrator in the tones usually reserved for observing lions in their natural habitat. Carrie changed the channel, not even looking at the television set flickering in the corner. It was late, too late for Carrie to go to school and be awake – not that she wouldn’t sleep through class anyway. She’d been flipping through channels for an hour and a half, because there’s nothing but dating hotlines on after four a.m. 2

As the clock hit four twenty-three, all of the channels went dead, loud snowstorms interrupting Carrie’s daze. She stood up, carrying the Cheezy-Curlz with her, and slowly padded over to the TV. Wiggling around the antennae, she played with the dials for a bit to no avail. Irritated, she slammed the top of the television. Harder and harder she pounded, faster and faster, until it fell off its table onto the floor. Crying, Carrie threw her bowl of snacks at the now black screen. 3

* * *4

The sun was shining weakly through Carrie’s bedroom window as she awoke to a blaring alarm clock and someone shaking her violently. “Wake up, Fattie. Your alarm clock has been going off for an hour.”5

Wincing and cracking open her eyes slowly, Carrie quickly shut them again, not wanting to believe that not only was it morning, but her little sister was leaning over her with an evil grin on her bucktoothed face. Muttering expletives and incoherent threats, Carrie heaved herself out of bed and plodded towards her bedroom door. Angelina bounded beside her asking stupid questions like an overly energetic puppy at 6:30 in the morning. 6

“Are you playing hooky, sis?”7

“No, I’m calling in sick. Lemme alone.”8

“Isn’t that a lie? Isn’t that breaking the rules? Oooooh, I’m telling Mooooooom…”9

Carrie whirled, and her sister stopped spinning in circles, arms spread wide. “What, you going to hurt me? You’ll have to catch me first!” Angelina danced off, giggling madly. ‘Works every time,’ thought Carrie. ‘That deals with - ’ 10

A small, very insistent finger poked her in the back. 11

Carrie turned again, and caught her sister by the shoulders. “Remember what you said about me hurting you?” she snarled.12

Angelina looked at her older sister with fear in her eyes, and ran. Carrie stared after her in shock at her own actions. 13

* * *14

Remembering the look on her sister’s face that morning (and not wanting to be home for another one) meant that Carrie got her twenty- seventh tardy mark of the semester, and headed off to English class, rudely awoken from her slumbers at her desk by a test being stuffed under her nose. Promptly falling back asleep, she got a zero and a ‘see me after class,’ not to mention the indentation of her pencil on her cheek. By the end of the morning, she had calculator keys, the marks from the raised lettering on her Spanish textbook, and compass grooved there as well. A meeting was called for by the counselor to discuss her life – he generally grabbed at any opportunity to talk to her because she rarely showed up for school.15

Carrie didn’t think twice about the meeting. She never showed up for them anyway, why should she start now? He would only ask probing questions about her diet and her love life, and then tell her to start showing up for school more. What was the point?16

She walked into the cafeteria – if the food was horrible, at least there were unlimited supplies of it – and grabbed two trays from the stack. Heaping on all of the slop that was misidentified as creamed corn, mashed potatoes, sloppy joes, and pudding, Carrie went to the register to pay for her towering piles of what now looked like sloppy corn potato casserole. Finishing her pudding first like she always did, she moved on to the slowly coagulating mass on her plates. As her fork was about to dive into the mush, a pudgy finger took the edge of her tray and pulled it away.  17

“What the - ”18

She realized she was about to cuss out a unfamiliar teacher who was closely inspecting Carrie’s lunch. “Let me see… Mashed potatoes, sloppy joe and… corn muffin?”19

“…Creamed corn…”20

“Ah. Well, in any case, I think you’ll find this better.” A marshmallow fluff and peanut butter sandwich was pushed over to the dumbfounded teenager, along with a jumbo bag of potato chips and a frosted cupcake. The teacher picked up her own cupcake and made a ‘Cheers’ motion with it. “From fatso to fatso.” She took a bite. Carrie picked up her sandwich, scrutinized it, and said “Why?”21

“Because everyone needs someone to accept them and their flaws.”22

Carrie nodded slowly. “I like that.” 23

Giving the sandwich one final look, she bit in.24