“I’m the world champion upchucker,” Mark said. “Ask any of the nurses on this floor.”
“Be grateful,” Dr. Copeland said.
“You’re all jumping to conclusions,” Dr. Elliot said. “The idea that somebody at Windsor Academy would feed a student arsenic over the course of weeks is absolutely ridiculous. You’re blowing what’s probably a mistake into a first-rate scandal, and if you think that’s to Mark’s benefit, you’re quite wrong.”
Everybody ignored her. Liz went over to the bed and began stroking Mark’s hair again. When she didn’t look ready to kill him, she looked as if she adored him. Mark looked as if he knew it.
“You know,” Mark said, with beaming satisfaction, “thisis really awesome. I mean it. This is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me.”
3
It was nearly three quarters of an hour later before they were all ready to leave. Brenda Elliot waited until Dr. Copeland left and only then departed, shaking her head and muttering all the way. Her back was stiff with disapproval. Her face was a mask of anger. She was not a woman who took well to people questioning her authority, and she was not a woman who felt all that secure in what authority she had.
It was darkening in the outside world again. Gregor couldn’t get over how quickly the sun faded, even this close to spring. In the dimming light, he could see the start of an early March snow, random flakes floating downward lazily. It didn’t look like the start of a serious storm. One of the nurses had delivered a trayful of carefully bland foods. Mark had complained of being hungry again, but even Jimmy had rejected the idea of another run to McDonald’s. The tray had clear chicken broth, dry white toast, and what looked like vanilla pudding. Mark picked at it without much enthusiasm. Liz and Jimmy talked quietly by the window. Gregor sat in the green plastic upholstered chair, thinking.
“We’re going to go get something to eat,” Liz said finally. “We’ve got an idea we want to talk over. You’d be welcome to come with us, though, Gregor, if you’re hungry. Or you can stay and keep Mark company until we get back.”
“I’ll stay and keep Mark company,” Gregor said.
“Try to talk some sense into his head,” Liz said. “It never works when I do it, but I figure there’s always a chance.”
She went over to Mark’s bed and kissed him on the forehead, which he responded to mostly by ignoring it. Jimmy waved, without expecting Mark to wave back. Gregor waited until they were safely out in the hall.
“Well,” he said, “do you really think it’s ‘cool’ that somebody gave you arsenic?”
“Hell, yes,” Mark said.
“You could have died.”
“But I didn’t, did I?” Mark sat up a little straighter and pushed the tray table away. “Look, I’m not going to last at Windsor past the end of this year. If Mom has her way, I’m not going to last past the end of this week. But the thing is, even without all this crap, it was all wrong. I’m all wrong. I don’t fit, and they can’t stand it.”
“They? You mean the school?”
“Yeah,” Mark said. “I’ve been thinking about it. I mean, mostly, the last few months, I’ve just been depressed about it. The general consensus around here is that it was a fluke I ever got in. I’m not all that bright, and I’m a slacker. And maybe it’s true, but there are people like that here, and they don’t have any trouble. I have trouble. I don’t think like the people here. Well, I mean, the faculty and the administration. I just don’t. I think they pretty much decided back in November that they wanted to get rid of me. I could tell. I just couldn’t admit it.”
“You don’t mean that you think somebody at the school would poison you to get you to leave?” Gregor said. “That’s hardly sane, is it? All they’d have to do is trump up an excuse to expel you. I doubt if it would be that hard.”
“They wouldn’t even have to do that,” Mark said. “They don’t have to have any excuse at all. They just have to say that they think you’re ‘unsuitable’ and not ask you back for the next year. Everything is contingent here. There aren’t any standards, you know, regular ones like you’d have in a college, where if you had a C average you’d be okay and if you had a D you’d be flunking out. There’s a story that they got rid of a girl last year who had straight As and boards in the stratosphere, but who wanted to go to one of the service academies and wouldn’t change her mind and opt for the Ivy League. I don’t know if it’s true.”