Wake Me When It's Over
Franklin's final words echoed through the empty cemetery long after he had left.
…
Winter break ended, and school resumed.
Mom returned to teaching. But she was no longer the strict, fiery head of discipline. She had been demoted to an ordinary language teacher.
Every day, she wore the same gray coat, her hair perpetually disheveled. As she walked through campus, students avoided her.
Everyone knew.
She was the teacher who had locked her own daughter in a spare classroom and left her to freeze to death.
On the first day of class, Mom stood at the podium, chalk in hand. She wrote "Cecelia Thorne" on the blackboard—then abruptly erased it, her movements frantic and erratic.