THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF HER LIFE DIDN’T START DECAYING, until the day her behavior got so outrageous our school counselors had to quarantine her. One afternoon around 2 pm during our physical education class, I saw someone in the distance wrapped from the waist down in what looked like a long white fabric, walking up the hilly road that led to our school. Our class was outside on the netball court watching the female netball team practice. The netball court was on a hill which gave us a perfect view of all the foot and vehicle traffic entering the school. I looked carefully at the approaching figure, then I noticed a distinct walk and made the person out to be Sara before anyone else noticed it was her. As she got closer to the school grounds, I saw she was carrying her school bag on her left shoulder, while holding the white fabric in place with her right hand. It was a very odd sight as she was still wearing the traditional white short-sleeve blouse with our customary plaid necktie. Instead of the usual burgundy pleated school skirt, she had a long white fabric wrapped around her waist. This fabric was very long dragging behind her like Princess Diana on her wedding day to Charles. Her face was stern as she moved past the grassy pathway towards the main faculty building.

At this point, everyone noticed what was going on and was beginning to focus their attention on her. As she passed by the classrooms, there was a growing madness turning into pulsing energy that slowly erupted into chaos. Sara walked by everyone that afternoon as if they were invisible. Then she got onto the corridor, and two boys grabbed at the white fabric, trying to pull it away from her. I got a look at what she was wearing and noted that it was an old white tarpaulin that looked as if it was left out in the elements for years. I could also see that she was trying to hold it around her body with care, so I assumed she was naked from the waist down.

What I was confronted with that afternoon left me baffled, but I couldn’t help but discern her sense of dignity as she ignored all the students who choose to point at her while calling her crazy Sara. Once the teachers got her close to the door, they quickly pushed her out of sight to return some normalcy to the school. This incident was the talk of two towns and many people officially concluded that she was crazy.

Once again, I had to find time after this episode to see how she was doing. This time she explained this incident to me. She said that during the lunch break, she walked to the nearest cafe for lunch. While she was at the cafe she met Conner. They sat and had lunch; then Conner convinced her to walk down towards the beach. It is important to know that Conner didn’t go to our school, he graduated three years early.

The beach wasn’t far from the school; it was a walk down the hill towards the main road. After crossing the main road, you had to walk through thick bush to get to Coco Beach. It wasn’t much of a beach, and hardly anyone went there because of the overgrown foliage and the fact that shore was littered with trash and large rocks. Conner somehow persuaded her to go to the beach, where he further encouraged her to have sex with him. While at the beach, she took her clothes off from the waist down and placed them in a dry spot with her bag. The problem arose after the act was over when she couldn’t find her skirt. It was an unbelievable story, but I knew she wasn’t lying. She said someone might have taken her school skirt as a joke, so she stayed on the beach with Conner looking for it.

Conner decided to leave her after they exhausted their search, which made me believe that he had something to do with the missing skirt. I wanted to judge her for this, but I couldn’t because the entire school and village had already done it for me. Instead I told her I believed her, and asked her never to see him again because he left her alone in a bad situation. Then I asked her why she didn’t go home and she told me that she didn’t have money to take the bus. She stayed at the beach for a while looking for something to wear, but the only thing she found was a white tarp. Sara then said she waited until after 2 pm because she knew everyone would be in class by then. This was a good idea, but she forgot that the netball team was practicing outside. If it wasn’t for the girls on the netball court, she could have made it to the main office unnoticed.

A few days after the incident, she tried to approach Conner, but he brushed her off. She told me that when she finally saw him alone, he was nice to her and tried to encourage her to go to an abandoned house with him. But, once he was around his friends, his tune changed as he would ignore her. I would say that she was a foolish girl, but it was hard to pass judgement on her because I didn’t think she fully understood what she was doing. At the end of our conversation, I asked her if she told the teachers what happened at the beach and she said no. She claimed that she would rather let them believed what they wanted to believe, rather than tell the truth.

To Be Continued…