She didn't believe in transcendence

It would be incorrect to say that Mr.Harrison killed Martha. He lived 5 miles outside of town and was nowhere near her house when she died. He wasn't even the person who expelled her from school. That was the principal, Mrs.Johnson. But Mr.Harrison was the one who had made a point of going to the office the day after Martha's first day of detention. He was also the man who used the L word and the words: peversion and revulsion. There were other words, of course-but these where the ones that got back to Heather.

Martha had been kicked out of school for the whole year and her parents had decided to send her out of state to a boarding school. That night she had gone to the garage, found her father's hunting rifle and killed herself. Did terrible damage to the Volvo station wagon as well.

It took a week or so for the details to reach Heather. But once they arrived she reached her own conclusions quickly. Mr. Harrison had killed the love of her life. He would have to die. She broke into Martha's house and got the rifle. Slept with it the first night, cried over it. Then bought shells the next day at K-mart. The day after she waited for Mr.Harrison as he arrived for school at 7:16-right on time. He seemed blissfully unprepared for the last day of his life. Hair uncombed and a fresh coffee spill on his sweater vest. The conversation was brief:

Mr.H-good morning...oh, yes. Hello..I am sorry for your friend...(looking at ground, stuttering)
H-you wouldn't know a friend if they slapped your face.
Mr.H-what? hey, what's that..HEY

Heather sat down next to the curb and waited for the police. She was too chicken to shoot herself, she knew that ahead of time. She just sat down and let the rifle fall down next to her. She waited for the running and the noise and the darkness. One of Martha's notebooks was clenched between her hands next a single rose. A yellow rose.