Copyright 2000

There it was again. That ringing. That horrible, consistent ringing. It was driving her nuts. Or maybe she was already nuts. After all, sane people didn't hear constant ringing in their ears. Maybe she had been crazy all along and simply not known it.

It was almost Christmas, for Heaven's sake. She couldn't be going mad now. She'd made it through fifteen years, she could go through another. And another. She wasn't crazy; she wasn't.

Maybe if she tried hard enough, she wouldn't hear them.

She covered her ears to block out the noise. No, it wasn't working. If anything, the ringing was becoming louder, seeming to echo and vibrate off the sides of her skull. It was becoming rhythmic, louder. Ding, ding, ding.

She breathed. Calm down, she told herself. You aren't crazy. Think about something else. You'll forget- you have to forget. Take your mind off of the ringing and it will go away. That's it.

Trying to calm herself down, she looked around the classroom. The girl behind her was obviously tired. She kept playing with her ear, deep in thought. Throughout the classroom, no one seemed to notice the consistent ringing. A bunch of the basketball players were talking about their next basketball game against St. James. The girls were gossiping and brushing each other's hair. No one seemed to hear those bells.

Yes, that was what it sounded like. iThey/i sounded like. Like bells. Like those small, glass bells that were hanging on her Christmas tree at home at that moment.

Home. That was where she wanted to be. Home. Home was safety. She had to get through today. That was all. One more class. Just one. She could make it through one more class; she would. And then, as soon as school was out, she'd run home and tell her mom, and her mom would arrange for her to go to the hospital. Have some sort of checkup. Maybe she'd even get one of those CAT scans. That was it. They'd find out if something was wrong with her or not.

One more class.

But she couldn't be crazy, she just couldn't be. She'd only heard the bells this period. Crazy people couldn't tell exactly iwhen/i they heard bells ringing in their heads, could they? Crazy people didn't even know they were crazy. Crazy people thought that everyone was like them; everyone had the same problems they did. Crazy people- Crazy people...

Maybe she wasn't crazy at all. Maybe she was just imagining it all. Yeah, that was it. Imagining it. Which meant that if she tried hard enough, she would be able to forget them. Simply forget them and not ever think about them again. She tried concentrating on something else again, but the bells rang louder, intent on not being ignored.

No, she couldn't last another class. There was no way. She had to get out of here. Now. Would the teacher let her go to the office? Would the teacher even believe her if she said she heard ringing in her head? And if the teacher did let her go to the office, would the people there believe her? People had already checked out. They might think she was trying to get out of school early so she could go to Hawaii or something like that.

No, they'd think she was crazy. iShe/i thought she was crazy.

Maybe she should at least pretend to be okay. One more period. That was all it took. Just one. That was no problem. She'd pretend that she was so excited about Christmas that she hadn't heard people the first time they spoke to her. And then she'd try to read lips or guess what they were saying. She wouldn't be able to hear them with that obsessive ringing going on. All she had to say was "Yes." Say "Yes" to everything, and she would be just fine. No one would ever know any better.

The bell rang. She could just barely hear it. The glass bells immediately faded. The girl behind her, along with everyone else, stood up.

"Merry Christmas," the girl said to her.

The light glinted off of something. The girl's earrings. She looked a bit closer.

"Nice earrings."

The girl grinned and gave them a quick shove with a finger. Instantly, she heard the glass bells again. Except these were small, brass earrings.

She sighed with relief. She wasn't crazy after all. "Merry Christmas."