GIRL, UNPLUGGED
YA Novel Chapter 10 | 10+ Minute Read
This is Chapter 10 of a YA novel. To see where the story began, check out the GIRL, UNPLUGGED table of contents post, or head to the GIRL, UNPLUGGED section of the Story Hoarder Substack page to see all the chapters.
This chapter is a 10 minute read. The supplemental “behind the scenes” text below it is a 3 minute read.
CHAPTER 10: The Fall
I decided I didn’t trust anyone that wasn’t on the trip with me. So, when Murph said, “Oh shit!” as he lead the way back to where our class had gathered on the sidewalk my eyes darted all around to every face I didn’t recognize, suspecting every single one of some sort of malice. Nothing registered until I saw Rose clutching both armrests of the wheelchair pushing herself into a standing position with her eyes locked on Mrs. Krimble in the street.
Mrs. Krimble had her energies locked on the dilapidated-looking van which still appeared to be the only operating vehicle on the street. “You’re going to need to move,” she yelled at the man with the BMW blocking the van’s way. She spun her head around whipping her hair behind her with the speed and focus of a high-end dancer in a hip-hop music video, facing the van again. “And you’re going to give me a ride! This is an emergency!”
Shut up shut up shut up! I wanted her to stop talking. I wanted her to get out the street and come back to us. The van didn’t look like a sweet escape to me, it looked like doom on wheels. Who was that man driving the van? Why would he help us? Why would he care? What was to stop him from letting us into the van only to drive us far away where no one could ever find us again? I was spiraling out of control. I knew that, but being slapped in the face by a perfect stranger can have that effect on a girl.
Mrs. Krimble stepped closer to the van and it inched closer to the space where she stood. The driver leaned on his horn. “No shit!” he yelled back. I hated this man. This was no time for sarcasm. Did he truly understand what was going on, or did he think this was just an ordinary blackout? I mean his car worked fine, maybe he thought everyone else was overreacting – especially Mrs. Krimble.
When the van’s horn quieted, the sound of the rumbling engine echoed off of the buildings across the street. It was loud. It was attention-getting. An easy to ignore, white-noise background effect of the city street only an hour ago, the van’s engine suddenly sounded foreign in this world void of mechanical, technological click-clacks, and revving parts. Mrs. Krimble wasn’t the only one who noticed. The human masses surrounding our area no longer moved in the familiar random nature of a group of individuals each with their own destination. Like a scene from a zombie film, the horn seemed to wake them from their stupor and turn them toward the noise that promised the power of automation they thirsted for.
“I can’t let her do this,” Rose winced as she spoke, but her words uttered the exact thoughts I was having at the moment. We had to find a way to stop Mrs. Krimble from making a huge mistake. “She’s trying to get me a ride.” Rose’s head dropped so that she was looking at the ground in front of her. “Shit.” She stomped a foot. “Shit.The goddamned flashes.”
Every new symptom Rose experienced freaked me out. What the hell did she mean by “flashes”? Was it pain? Was it sound? I squeezed Murph’s hand hoping to convey my worry without uttering it aloud.
Daria grabbed her left arm. “What flashes? What does that mean?”
“Got up too fast. Tiny blackout.” Her knuckles were white from the tight grip on the chair. “Can’t see yet. Give me a sec.”
Daria looked wide-eyed at me and I felt her panic, I mean when Rose said, “Can’t see yet” what exactly did that mean? I don’t know what kind of condition just decides to sporadically take vision away or give “tiny blackouts” for standing up, but I was beginning to understand why Rose was incapable of participating in a normal school schedule. I was also beginning to see why Mrs. Krimble might be nervous about being responsible for someone like Rose in the middle of this nightmare of a school trip. Most of all, I was beginning to understand how important it was to get Rose home, or to a doctor, but I was still pretty sure Mrs. Krimble’s miracle van was not the path to our salvation.
I pulled away from Murph. “We have to get out of here.”
Dustin said, “I’m pretty sure that’s what Mrs. K’s working on, Nat.” He was trying to be his typical joke-in-any-situation self, but I saw the worry in his eyes when he looked at the back of Rose. Stella elbowed him in the ribs.
“Not sure that’s going to work, though,” Brenda said, continuing to be a constant voice of reason in this mess.
I wanted to say something more – to agree with Brenda, to expand upon my reasons for distrust. I wanted to rant away about how all these people were in a panic – how I might be seconds away from the same – and how all I wanted to do was get Mrs. Krimble and get off of the street. But I didn’t say anything, I just walked away.
“Nat!” Murph called.
“What is she doing?” I heard Princess ask.
“I dunno,” said Colin. And maybe I didn’t know either, but my gut was telling me to get to Mrs. Krimble.
Murph came up beside me and grabbed my hand, spinning me around, unintentionally turning our world upside down. I lost my footing and fell into the guy standing next to his BMW.
“What the ff--?” he said, spitting on my neck as he pushed me up and off of him and right back into Murph who stumbled backwards.
I tried to steady myself to turn to apologize when Mrs. Krimble yelled, “You keep your hands off of my students, you asshole!” She swung her big arm bag right into his head, which the man grabbed with both hands and then pushed back on. At the same time, the van lurched forward filling in the space Mrs. Krimble had left behind when she swung her bag.
I heard the screams from all around us before I processed what happened right in front of me. I guess that’s why the police came. A couple of officers on horseback came from the direction of the park behind the museum, another group – maybe five officers – came from out from one of the cross-streets, looking pretty on edge, running toward the screams. The BMW guy took off running, but didn’t get far. One officer had him, and three officers surrounded the van that was finding it difficult to weave between the stalled vehicles all around. Two of the other officers found me and Murph trying to hold up Mrs. Krimble.
Mrs. Krimble had been shoved right into the moving van. She fell back over the the side of the hood, but due to the momentum, her head kept moving backward and smacked real hard off the rear view mirror hanging on the side of the passenger side door. She looked at me and said, “Doctor,” in a cracked voice. She looked like someone who had just been woken up in the middle of dream, not a woman who had just been screaming and swinging in the middle of the street. It was terrifying. There was no question that she needed a doctor now, too. I was so happy the police had arrived to help.
One of the officers put his arms around Mrs. Krimble, taking most of her weight away from Murph and me. The other held her head. “Ma’am, let’s lay you down nice and slow for a minute.” He was looking right into her face, but her eyes hadn’t left mine. I tried to follow the officers down to the ground with her, but it was awkward, so I stayed standing, but staring, while they, and Murph, cradled her like a small wounded animal to be cared for. I grabbed Murph’s bag strap as it slipped off of his shoulder. Mrs. Krimble winced as they reached the ground.
“Docto--” she started to say again, interrupted by another wince brought on by something I couldn’t identify. How bad does an injury have to be if the first words the person utters are to get them a doctor? When the wince passed Mrs. Krimble was still staring at me. I couldn’t move. “Davies,” she continued. “Doctor Davies,” she said again, and she was talking to me.
“Oh,” I said as the cloud of confusion lifted from my brain and I realized Mrs. Krimble was not requesting a medical doctor at all. “Oh… Davies... O...K. Yeah. I’m on it,” I said, and I took off running for the museum.
I didn’t know why Mrs. Krimble wanted Doctor Davies. I didn’t know how he could help, but I knew that was what she asked me to do and since it was basically my damn fault that she was laid out in the middle of a Manhattan street I decided I needed to light a fire under my ass to go get him.
Running was awkward for me on a normal day, adding my backpack and Murph’s bag that I unintentionally dragged along with me, and I was sure I was going to fall on my face long before I reached the museum’s entrance. I hoisted Murph’s bag onto one shoulder and slowed my pace as it began to bang on the back of my thigh. I tried to think of what I would say to Doctor Davies when I got to him. What if he didn’t want to come outside? What if he decided he didn’t care what happened to any of us once we left?
I got to the door and pushed when I should have pulled, feeling sparks of panic as I was convinced he locked us out. I banged on the door screaming, “Doctor Davies!” before I remembered to try pulling the door instead. When it opened in my direction I heard a voice behind me that I slowly realized had been screaming my name a couple of times already. The door was pulled out of my hands, opening even wider when Russ said, “Natalie, what is going on?”
I looked quickly over my shoulder to see worry in his eyes before saying, “She wants me to get Doctor Davies.” I wish I didn’t see Russ’ eyes. He was right to worry. Rose was in trouble, now Mrs. Krimble, too. Maybe we all were. I know I didn’t cause the whole solar storm, but I was making things worse by the second. I wished Russ would get away from me before I did something to him too. I just wanted to do something right, do what my teacher told me, and help. I turned back to the next set of doors, opened them and ran toward the stairwell, wiping tears out of my eyes, with Russ right next to me. His long legs looked like they could move so much faster.
Russ grabbed my shoulder, stopping me as he asked, “Why?”
I looked up at Russ. “I have no idea, Russ. It’s what she said. It’s what she needs. I need to help her.” I shook my shoulder free of his grip and turned saying, “I need to fix this.” I took two stairs at a time – a risky venture in my clumsy body – but Russ had slowed me down. “Doctor Davies!” I shouted into the dim. “Doctor Davies!” I was panting. Murph’s bag was getting heavier and heavier by the second. Doctor Davies met me at the top of the stairs.
“You’re back?” his hand, still clutching his pen, was pushing his hair back away from his face. His other hand held a bunch of papers. He looked almost as dazed as Mrs. Krimble did. He must have been neck-deep in some intense research or something when this random teenager came bursting back into his life.
“Mrs. Krimble – our teacher – she’s hurt. She needs you,” I barely finished the last sentence when he pushed me and Russ aside, shoving his papers into Russ’s hands as he ran down the stairs. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting that. He didn’t even know her, or us. What did he care?
Doctor Davies’ footsteps faded in the distance and it was just Russ and me standing there, and I don’t know how long that was. “Are you okay?” Russ asked. It echoed in the stairwell. It was so quiet. I kind of didn’t move after Doctor Davies pushed me aside. I had let Murph’s bag slide off my shoulder and sit, leaning up against my shin and then – what? – I just stood there? “Natalie?” Russ asked again.
“Huh?” I said. Finally. Not knowing what I was thinking about, or what I was doing, or what I was supposed to do next.
“Um… Are you alright?” he spoke so low, as if he was trying to keep my weirdness a secret from the world around us.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I mean… yeah?” I looked at him, not needing to look up because he was standing a couple of steps below me and already eye to eye. “Right? I mean, I should be alright, shouldn’t I?” I grabbed the railing I was unconsciously leaning on. “It’s not like it was my head that just got smashed open on the street.” I saw a vision of Mrs. Krimble’s head jerk back into the mirror and the far off look in her eyes the second it happened. That was a bad, bad hit. And it was my fault. I didn’t want to cry in front of Russ, but I didn’t know how to stop it either. “I just –” Nope. Words were not helping. I choked back a sob, took a deep breath, and – no – that wasn’t working either. I tried to speak again, “It should have been me, you know?” Every word quavered. I wasn’t crying, but any fool could tell that’s what my psyche wanted.
Russ stepped up and hugged me. I froze, my arm still on the railing of the stairs. His jacket smelt smoky and felt rough on my cheek, Doctor Davies’ papers crinkled at the back of my head. The only good thing about the gesture was that it was so out of left field it shocked me straight out of the crying fit that was about to take me over. He pulled back and then said, “It should not have been you. Please don’t think that, okay?”
“Okay,” I said nodding, slipping out of his reach while reaching down to grab Murph’s bag to put back on my shoulder. “So I think I should get this back to Murph, you know?”
Russ cleared his throat. “No. Yeah. Of course,” he said as he started to walk into the hallway of the second floor. “I should probably put these papers back in Doctor Davies’ office, too. That’s probably why he gave them to me. I’ll catch up to you.” He disappeared into the darkness and I turned to walk back down the stairs where I was about to be greeted by another surprise – my classmates shuffling back into the building.
“They want us to wait here,” Stella said to me, putting one hand on each arm of mine like she was trying to hold me steady for this news.”I think it’s a wonderful idea,” she said, sounding like my mom whenever she’s trying extra hard to convince me of how good something will be for me even when it sounds like crap. “It’s getting a little crazy out there and there’s going to be a curfew.”
“And they took Mrs. K,” Princess added, though not nearly as calmly as Stella.
“Took her?” I whispered to no one in particular. “She’s gone?”
Then Daria came storming up to me with tears in her eyes. “But they won’t take Rose, Nat,” she spoke quietly, through gritted teeth. “Why didn’t Murph make them, Nat?”
I looked around. Why was she asking me? I wanted Murph to answer her question – for her and for me. He was right there, in the middle of it all, Daria was right to think he could’ve said something, but maybe he overheard something, or was given a reason why Rose was left behind. Maybe they were coming back for her, or getting a doctor to come to her. Maybe Murph could make sense of why we got pushed back into the museum, why we were moving backward on this trip home. Maybe Murph could answer any of these questions if I could find him. “Where is Murph?”
“With Mrs. Krimble,” Colin said.
I shook my head. “No, Princess said they already took Mrs. Krimble.”
“Yeah, they did. He helped,” Colin said.
I looked at Brenda who was standing next to Rose in her wheelchair right at the museum entrance. “He’s gone, Natalie.” She held the bent elbow of my arm holding Murph’s bag. “He went with them in that van. I guess to the hospital or something. That damn knucklehead just left.”
My arm dropped along with Murph’s bag and my heart. I looked through the glass doors, out into the street. It was too far to see who was and wasn’t there, but Brenda had no reason to lie to me. I couldn’t believe it. Murph was gone. Murph left... me.
A Little Bit About Rose…
Thanks for continuing to read the GIRL, UNPLUGGED novel here on the Story Hoarder Substack page. If you have been following along with this story, you may have begun to wonder, as our protagonist Natalie has begun to,
What the heck is wrong with Rose?
Click that link for the answer and why it was so important for me to include it in this story.
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