“Riley?”
It was a Friday night. Riley had gotten a call from someone whose name was saved in their phone, but whom they could not immediately recall.
“It’s me, Shaun. Shaun Juneau—from middle school.”
They took a second or two of silence before they could recognise her voice.
“Right, right. Shaun. Hi, what’s up?”
“Hi. How have you been? It’s been a while, hasn’t it? We haven’t seen each other since graduation. How’s your life been?”
“Good, good. I’ve been doing well. After graduation, I didn’t go to high school—I took a sort of break, and now I’m in college majoring in literature. It’s been good—yeah, I like it.”
Riley looked back over the previous few days—the mornings, the afternoons, the nights—and nothing in particular stood out. To them, that was good enough.
“Good to hear. Do you remember Mr Bloomfield?”
The prolonged silence spoke for Riley that they did not remember him.
“Mr Bloomfield, our teacher—the one we had in the last year of middle school?”
Riley could recall having a terrible teacher that year, but seemed to have forgotten his name.
“Yes, yes, I do remember him.”
“I need your testimony. Can you please help me with that?”
“My testimony?”
“I’m filing a lawsuit against him, just like we said back then. I’ve never done anything like this, but I’m figuring it out—we can figure it out. We’re going to fuck him over, like we said we would. He said—he said that we couldn’t do anything, and we couldn’t back then—but now we can make him pay the price. I’ve already contacted Alex, and she’s in. Can you please help me with that?”
Riley could recall it—or rather, recall enough about the three of them to figure that envisioning Mr Bloomfield’s downfall kept them sane.
“How?”
“Remember when we were singled out and ridiculed in front of the whole class because we dared to speak against him?”
Shaun spoke fast as if she had expected a quick yes to the question, but what followed immediately was a silence just a little too long.
“…No, I don’t believe I do.”
Shaun paused and continued with confidence.
“Do you remember when my parents were called, and we were put in a room to talk about how we were treated?”
“No.”
“You wrote to the school counsellor that he was the cause of your mental distress—that’s why you were singled out in the first place. Do you remember that?”
“No, I’m sorry.”
“Seriously? You were the one who got the worst out of it—you were half fucking dead every morning. You were physically punished—multiple times! Do you really not remember any of it?”
“I do—I do remember that things like that happened, but not anything more specific than that. I’m sorry.”
“Riley, Riley—you have to help me. I need your help; I need you to testify.”
Riley could hear her voice falter, but they knew they could not do it.
“Shaun, can I be honest about this?”
“Go ahead,” replied Shaun with slight suspicion.
“I don’t think this is right. I don’t think Mr Bloomfield did this to us because he is uniquely a bad person. I don’t think filing a lawsuit against him is going to fix him or us, for that matter. I’m not saying he wasn’t awful to us—he was. I just think that he’s just a symptom of a much larger issue. I’m going to be entirely honest with you, Shaun—I don’t think I want to do this. I’m doing quite well—despite everything.”
Shaun paused again before continuing with a quieter voice.
“Good for you, Riley. Good for you. I’m glad that you could forget about it all. Can I tell you something as well? After graduation, I also didn’t go to high school. I was in therapy for four years because of what he had done to me. I’m taking pills every day. I still get nightmares. I don’t have a normal life; do you get that? I wish I could forget about him, but I can’t. Can you just try? Can you just try to remember?”
“I’m… I’m sorry, Shaun, but I don’t remember anything.”
And then there was silence. Riley stood still there with their phone—ice cold against their ear.
“It’s alright. I’ll try to figure out something with Alex. Thank you for your help.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Shaun. I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. I’ll see you next time.”
The call ended before Riley could apologise once more.