Ringworm by Angela K. Knight

 

Before first period starts, your classmate Adriane will ask you a question you should not answer. She isn’t really interested in why you have been absent from school. If you insist on answering her, say you had the flu or a cold or a sinus infection—then you can manage eighth and ninth grade. Whatever lie you decide to tell, do not tell her you had ringworm.

* * *

Ringworm is a skin infection caused by a fungus.

* * *

If you do tell her you had ringworm, you should definitely not tell her your brothers and sisters caught it and also passed the fungus on to your friend Sandra’s youngest sister. She lost a lot of hair in a short amount of time.

* * *

Ringworm is contagious.

* * *

If you decide to tell Adriane the truth, you should explain to her that ringworm is a fungus. If you do not explain what ringworm is, carefully and succinctly, I cannot help you. Everything will turn out the same.

* * *

Jock itch is a form of ringworm with a sporty-sounding name. It causes a rash in the groin. It itches. Ringworm also itches. It likes hair and warm folds of skin, but any skin will do, really. Jock itch may be caused by athlete’s foot that has spread.

* * *

You will tell Adriane you had to miss school because you had ringworm. You’ll say the word ringworm and watch her thick face change. You’ll watch her eyes, behind dark-framed glasses, transform from nosy disinterest to rabid interest. She’ll scuttle over to her friends Janet and Renee and whisper something in their ears. Three heads and three pairs of eyes will turn to where you stand at the front of the class. I heard you had ringworm, Renee will say. You will hear the inflection in her voice.

* * *

Cats can transmit ringworm to humans, but this form of transmission is not common.

* * *

After first period, you’ll walk down the hallway, with its dull brown floors and dark wood walls lined with Army green lockers. Ringworm, Janet will whisper as you struggle to remember your locker’s combination. You’ll pretend to ignore her, but your face will turn a telltale red as your hand reaches for the lock.

* * *

Your mom decided you didn’t have enough animals (you will eventually have two dogs, a Nubian goat, a flock of Rhode Island Reds, and a calf), so she adopted a pair of kittens. They may have been intended as a birthday present for your sister. The kittens were supposed to be Siamese, but they looked scraggly and unkempt. Your mom trusted they were healthy. The kittens came from your doctor’s wife.

Your family’s doctor had cold hands, bushy black brows, and a face filled with dark freckles; it was rumored he was having an affair with his nurse and was addicted to painkillers. Gossip spreads fast in a small town.

* * *

The next morning you’ll walk through the double doors, and they will be waiting for you, sitting on the school’s aging radiators or lined up along the walls. This time the voices will be louder; they’ve gathered reinforcements. They’ll chant ringworm, ringworm, ringworm. Your friends Gayle and Mimi will place a lot of distance between your shoulders and theirs when you hurry past the chanters. They won’t look at you when you turn to them with anxiety in your eyes.

* * *

Ringworm gets its name from the distinctive ring-shaped rash it leaves on the skin. It looks like a pink bullseye. You will develop a bullseye on your right shoulder. You will put antifungal cream on it.

* * *

You’ll spend a lot of eighth and ninth grade in the nurse’s office. Adriane, Janet, Renee, and, now, Amy will walk by the door where you’re lying on an itchy, blanketed cot and say ringworm loud enough for you to hear. Your stomach will hurt worse. The days you’ll be absent from school will be more than the days you’ll be present. Adriane will lose interest in the game, so the list of chanters will shrink by one. It won’t be enough.

* * *

Within weeks, the kittens died underneath the house, their bodies huddled close together. No one knew why.

* * *

One morning, someone, an anonymous young voice, will call your mother at home and tell her you have died. Your mother will call the school to verify that you are indeed alive. She will panic and insist that she talk to you. It will be one of those rare days when you attend school. You’ll be pulled out of class to talk to your grief-stricken mother and then summoned to the vice principal’s office. He will ask you to look at a list of absent students. Do you know anyone on this list?

* * *

Ringworm can form blisters and ooze pus.

* * *

You will be summoned to the vice principal’s office again. You’ll sit in his office with Janet or Renee or Amy, you will forget which one. The vice principal will tell you that you need to get along. You will explain that they, Janet and Renee and Amy, aren’t interested in getting along. The vice principal won’t listen. Janet or Renee or Amy will threaten to kick your ass when you’re safely outside the office in the vast free fall of junior high.

* * *

After her bout with ringworm, Sandra’s sister looks like an old woman with her pink scalp showing through the bald spots.

* * *

You will barely pass ninth grade, getting your first and only failing grade, because you cannot concentrate when you hear the word ringworm. You will be given the option to repeat. It won’t work. Instead you will choose to attend an alternative high school with other misfits: a brilliant 16-year-old girl who will marry a much older man (a distant cousin); the scary-looking but harmless long-haired hippie boys who like to smoke pot and play hacky sack; and your new best friend Penny. You’ll relax in the laid-back atmosphere.

* * *

Surprisingly, a worm does not cause ringworm.

* * *

A couple of years after junior high, you’ll tell Amy you hope she chokes on her salad as she sits with her dad eating a late lunch at the counter of the restaurant where you work. You’ll hope she says something in response. She won’t. Many years later, you will attend her bridal shower, which will be held at the bowling alley.

* * *

Amy’s dad will end up on the registered sex offenders list.

* * *

Many years after that, you will see Amy’s GoFundMe request, asking for money to pay her mortgage so she and her husband can keep their home, dog, and three cats. You will think about donating.

* * *

Renee will move away from town, but not before you pull her hair so hard you make her cry in a record store on Laurel Street. She will promise through tears not to call you ringworm again. Don’t believe her. A man in the store will call you a bully. Don’t argue with him.

* * *

After graduation, Janet will ask for your approval in order to work in the same place you do—a combination health food store, produce stand, and deli. You will grant permission, but you won’t trust her. Your first husband will smoke dope with her occasionally.

* * *

Years later, you will see Adriane at the county fair. Your teenage daughter will be there with you. Adriane will be standing next to a scraggly long-haired guy. You assume he is her boyfriend, but he is probably her husband. He looks very much like those weed-smoking, hacky-sack-playing boys from your alternative high school. She won’t say a word to you, but you hope she does. You will tell yourself that she still bears the thick face she had in junior high. You will also tell yourself that you don’t look the same; you’ve changed.

* * *

Many years later, you will read Adriane’s obituary. She liked Dachshunds. When you study the accompanying photograph you realize she doesn’t look anything like the mean girl you remember.

 

STORY IMAGE CREDIT: Flickr Creative Commons/Max Klingensmith