Chapter 12

I dreamed that I could talk. I walked down the halls of Punkie's Hounds High and exchanged witticisms and greetings with the other seniors. People smiled at me and noticed me. Then I would smell smoke and start to cough. I coughed harder and harder until I could spit out a big chunk of phlegm. It was only when I glanced down that I realized that what I'd spit out was my larynx. Nobody seemed to notice, but it was like I went invisible. No one paid any attention to me. Nobody even knew I was gone.

At school, I put my coat and boots in my locker and checked that my tablet was in the pocket of my vest. I had been going through way too much pen and paper. A brief foray into whiteboards and erasable markers had ruined several of my favourite shirts. Now I was the height of sartorial splendor in a canvass vest with one large pocket designed to hold the tablet I was able to guilt my Dad into buying. Not enough guilt for an iPad sadly, but at least it wasn't a Playbook.

I was all set to communicate. It was really too bad that only Marilyn and the teachers thought I might be worth communicating with.

The tablet buzzed briefly and I glanced at it as I sat in Home Room.

Cn't mk mtg chrldr prtce It was an email from Chastity begging off yet another meeting to at least plan who would do what for our project.

Do you want a bigger p*nis? That was from John Wayne. He was having trouble with the idea of no spam. I think he thought it was funny. I don't know whether Marilyn or I was supposed to laugh harder. Chastity told me that she just blocked him after the first email.

Fortunately, with no voice it was too much work to ask her if she wanted a bigger p*nis.

My mark in Civics is high enough to pass even if I get zero on this project. I sent back to both of them. Is yours?

Marilyn walked into the room and winked at me. Ne didn't care what the other two did, ne was just happy to work with me.

My tablet buzzed a couple more times, but I ignored it through Mr. Hand's check in and announcements. After we had learned about the Christmas Dance and the bake sale to raise money for PETA and the car wash to raise money for the NRA we were sent off to our classes.

The morning passed as it usually did, slowly, and I walked to lunch with Marilyn.

"So I looked up where the whole corporate personhood thing started," Marilyn said. "I can't believe it was just somebody's note on a case and not a ruling that started it."

The corporations knew a good thing when they saw it. I wrote. Being persons means they can do all kinds of things that they couldn't do otherwise.

Chastity came by and sniffed at me which reminded me that I hadn't checked the latest emails.

im skng mr shdn 2 swtch m t nw grop I showed it to Marilyn.

Does she think vowels cost extra? I wrote.

"She probably watches too much Wheel of Fortune," Marilyn said.

I snorted with laughter.

"I thought you couldn't talk?" Chastity stood looming disapprovingly. I expect she heard the comment about Wheel of Fortune. She could read my writing on the tablet.

No vocal cords, I wrote, Don't need for laughter.

"So you can sound like a pig," she said, "but not like a human. How appropriate, Petunia." She snorted a couple of times then walked over to join her friends. I could see her talking to them and heard the laughter on cue.

Well, it wasn't like she liked me anyway. I clicked on John Wayne's email and immediately hit delete. That wasn't something that I needed to see. I went into the deleted folder and deleted it again. It was really too bad I couldn't remove that .... thing.... from my mind as quickly and efficiently. I took a moment to change the settings on the email from John Wayne. I wasn't opening any more pictures from him.

"What's wrong, Tuni?" Marilyn asked.

Nasty picture from JW. I wrote. It is gone, gone, gone.

"You should have shown it to a teacher."

I'm sure they've seen one before.

"That's not what I meant. It's harassment."

Too late now. I shrugged and tried to enjoy the rest of my lunch.