Tales of the Blood Moon

Reading Comprehension

Alyson Parkerwithdraws her platinum card from the reader and begins pumping gasinto her Jaguar. A raven-haired woman with steel-gray eyes finishesfueling a black panel van, then hops inside it and quickly pullsaway. Alyson isn't sure, but it sounds as if pounding is coming fromwithin the van. She's suspicious, but doesn't want to make a sceneif there is no call for it, so she finishes pumping her gas and thendrives to Macard Private Academy, where she teaches third grade.

Once at school,she sits at her desk, opens her filing cabinet drawer and removes astack of homework papers. Most teachers wouldn't show up at schoolon a Saturday to grade papers, but Alyson once attended a lecturewhere a distinguished professor explained that work should be kept inthe workplace and personal business should be kept at home. Herhusband is playing racquetball with his friends, so she has plenty oftime to get some work done, although she is eager to get home and tryout the new recipe she learned in the gourmet cuisine cooking classshe attended last Wednesday night.

Alyson reads thename on the paper at the top of the stack: Abigail Griffin. Alysondoesn't know what it is about Abigail, but something about her getsunder Alyson's skin. Ever since Abigail transferred to Machard,Alyson has had a problem with Abigail. Something about the wayAbigail looks at Alyson is simply creepy. It's as if Abigail thinksshe knows something - something important - that Alyson doesn't,which Alyson finds completely absurd, but still hates.

Abigail wouldrather be called Abby, but Alyson still refers to her as Abigail andkeeps that written on the class name tags beside the blackboard. Itseems petty, even to Alyson, but it provides Alyson some smallmeasure of joy to know that she's making Abigail as uncomfortable asAbigail makes her. It also doesn't help that the principal, Dr.O'Malley, instructed Alyson to provide Abigail with the bare minimumof interaction necessary to adequately fulfill her professionalobligation. He wouldn't explain to Alyson why Abigail should betreated any differently, but insisted she follow his instructions onthe matter. As far as Alyson is concerned, that's terrible advice. Alyson has read, in a number of teaching journals from authors farmore respected in their field than Dr. O'Malley, that if students seeone child being treated differently than all the others, it creates anegative environment in the classroom. While Alyson doesn't have adoctorate herself, she's confident Dr. O'Malley doesn't know whathe's talking about and, for that matter, neither do Abigail'sparents. During a parent-teacher conference, Abigail's parentsreiterated what Dr. O'Malley said, claiming they were interested insafety. Alyson has seen her fair share of overprotective parents,always worried about safety. Although Alyson has no children of herown, she believes her educational background grants her more thansufficient knowledge of how best to help others raise their childrenproperly.

The homeworkconcerns itself with reading comprehension, an area Alyson feelsAbigail could use more work. Abigail certainly reads very well, butAlyson is not convinced Abigail fully understands what she's reading. The topic of the homework is "My Best Friend." The purpose ofthe assignment is for the student to read a book and then explain howhis/her best friend is both similar and dissimilar to the characterin the book. Abigail has chosen, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekylland Mr. Hyde." Alyson sighs, shaking her head and wondering whyany nine year old would choose to read that particular book.

"My bestfriend," Abigail begins, "is Mr. Splits. Mr. Splits is alot like Mr. Hyde because Mr. Hyde is kind of like the bad part ofDr. Jekyll. Mr. Splits is like the bad part of me."

"Wonderful," Alyson mutters. "The child's best friend isimaginary." Alyson has noticed Abigail hasn't yet made any friendsin school. Undoubtedly, Alyson assumes, it's because the kid is soodd.

"Mr. Hydealso became so powerful,"Abigail writes, "that he could appear even when Dr.Jekyll didn't want him to. Mr. Splits has started to do the samething."