Mimi sat in the darkened library, listening to the great clock quietly tick and tock. The smell of old paper filled her nostrils. She held a crystal paperweight in her hands, slowly passing it from her left hand to her right, and back again. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the cut crystal sphere.
Papers rustled on a table near her. She looked up and across the library, but saw no one. Mimi knew better. She peeped softly, sending a low sonic wavefront across the table. The sounds bounced back to her sensitive ears in fractions of a single second, and in an instant, she recognized the very solid form that stood at the table near her.
“Sam,” she said softly. “I really wanted to be alone.”
What are you doing? Sam’s voice filled her head, and Mimi reached up to rub her temple. Sam still had trouble sometimes gauging the strength of his telepathy. Sometimes, it was like carrying on a conversation with someone wearing headphones: the first few sentences were too sudden, and too loud.
“Trying to be alone,” Mimi replied, looking to anyone who might be watching as though she was talking to herself. She dropped her head to stare at the crystal ball.
You’re not being alone, Sam thought to her, you’re sulking.
“How could I miss it, Sam? The looks, the little notes? For God’s sake, the dress?”
You’re not the mind-reader in the room, Meem.
“Like that matters now?” Mimi looked up again.
She’ll be fine.
“Will she? I don’t know that. Do you?”
No voice filled her head.
“That’s what I thought. I didn’t see it, and I didn’t think about what it meant. And now she’s gone. Nobody seems to know where. No one’s seen her since the competition.”
No one thinks it’s your fault. Even Andrew didn’t see this coming, and he was her partner. Do you have any idea how upset he is?
Mimi hadn’t thought about Andrew in all this. All she had thought about was that terrible moment: Mimi announcing that Andrew and November had won the ‘best dressed couple’ award at the dance. The look on November’s face, her bursting into tears. November running from the stage, shoving past Mimi, going out the fire exit and into the street. And she was gone. The memory caused Mimi to wince in pain.
Mimi heard Sam come closer. She shrank away from his hand as he held it out. “Then maybe you should be comforting him instead of me.”
Sam couldn’t laugh. Not exactly. But his thoughts in her head betrayed him. Where do you think I’ve been for the last couple hours? Hedge got so sick of me that he shoved me out of his room.
Mimi smiled without meaning to. It must have been pretty serious for Sam to call Andrew Oliver ‘Hedge.’ He just didn’t do it, not like everyone else did. Sam had explained once that Andrew told him that he didn’t like the nickname. Sam had never called him ‘Hedge’ since. Mimi still did, but only because Andrew Oliver had never told her he didn’t like it. A childish kind of spite, she knew. But she wasn’t worried about that right now.
“I think she loves Moth,” Mimi said quietly, not exactly understanding what it meant, or why it caused feelings to stir in her.
You think? Came Sam’s reply, his tone sarcastic.
Mimi’s mouth twisted into a frown. “That helps. Thanks. And to think Hedge didn’t want you around.”
She heard him move away. Fine. Be alone. A book slid off the table violently, and the sound of it hitting the floor echoed through the library.
Mimi looked back down at the paperweight again. It was Czech lead crystal, a present Moth had given her. Mimi still wasn’t sure why she hadn’t given it to November, especially now.
Sam’s footsteps fell back to the arched doorway of the library, then stopped. But you know, he thought to her, I think we both know you’re the last person in this school to talk about what it means to be in love. And then he was gone, slipping through the door and down the hall.
Mimi’s breath caught in her throat. She felt her face grow hot. And she felt suddenly ashamed.
“You’re wrong,” she growled quietly.
But Sam was too far away to hear by now.
After the Ball Is Over
Melody & text - Charles K. Harris
A little maiden climbed an old man's knee
Begged for a story - "Do, uncle, please!"
Why are you single; why live alone?
Have you no babies; have you no home?"
"I had a sweetheart, years, years ago;
Where she is now, pet, you will soon know.
List to the story, I'll tell it all,
I believed her faithless, after the ball."
After the ball is over,
After the break of morn -
After the dancers' leaving;
After the stars are gone;
Many a heart is aching,
If you could read them all;
Many the hopes that have vanished
After the ball.
"Bright lights were flashing in the grand ballroom,
Softly the music, playing sweet tunes.
There came my sweetheart, my love, my own -
'I wish some water; leave me alone.'
When I returned, dear, there stood a man,
Kissing my sweetheart, as lovers can.
Down fell the glass, pet, broken, that's all.
Just as my heart was, after the ball."
After the ball is over,
After the break of morn -
After the dancers' leaving;
After the stars are gone;
Many a heart is aching,
If you could read them all;
Many the hopes that have vanished
After the ball.
"Long years have passed child, I've never wed
True to my lost love, though she is dead.
She tried to tell me, tried to explain;
I would not listen, pleadings were vain.
One day a letter came from that man,
He was her brother - the letter ran.
That's why I'm lonely, no home at all;
I broke her heart, pet, after the ball."
After the ball is over,
After the break of morn -
After the dancers' leaving;
After the stars are gone;
Many a heart is aching,
If you could read them all;
Many the hopes that have vanished
After the ball.
After the Ball
Moderator: Student Council
