Excerpt: Radiance of Moon

Chapter 15
Where Michelle Posts to the Group

To post in the Anti-Lynching group, Michelle had to join it, so she clicked on the Join button and confirmed that she wanted to join. The group was open to anyone, so she was immediately a member. She clicked in the messaging box and sat staring at the empty box for a few moments. She suddenly found herself in a quandary. She wanted to report on the graffiti she had heard about, but she had actually not seen either case of it. She could only give second-hand information, and sometimes even third-hand. Was that going to be helpful, to anyone?

She finally decided the best course was to just write what she knew. She also decided that she had to make it pretty - like a homework assignment - to be sure it was taken seriously. She turned off her internal English-to-Internet translator. Finally, she typed:

"On Monday, a friend of mine found the graffiti in the girls' single bathroom in Core D. It was reported to the teachers and maintenance was called to paint over it. On Tuesday morning, the boys' bathroom by the gym was closed for maintenance. I did not see the tags nor speak to anyone who did, but the grapevine said that the bathroom was closed so it could be painted over."

She paused for a second. The report was enough, but she felt like she needed to say more.

"I think if this was an isolated incident, the principal's response would have been good. Paint it over, scrub it off, whatever. But this just keeps going, the graffiti is turning up more and more. I think the principal needs to tell everyone this is happening and have everyone in the school try to find out who is doing it, then punish them."

She read back what she'd written, decided it was good enough, and clicked Post.

Michelle leaned back and took a deep breath. She felt like she'd contributed a little to the effort. She hated graffiti, especially in her school. She hadn't been there long, but she had invested a lot in it. She had trusted her classmates with the knowledge of her diabetes and her insulin pump, and even though there was some reticence about it at first, everyone had eventually moved on. Her pump was now just something unique about her, in the same way that a set of crutches or a pair of eyeglasses would be. She had joined the basketball team, and though they weren't the best team, they were good. And she had found good friends in Alana, Mayv, and Lucy. She felt good that Mayv had asked her for advice about her dilemma.

She looked back to the computer screen and clicked on the home button. She was done with Facebook, and wanted to check a few other sites. Before she had a chance to type in a new address, she heard her father calling her from downstairs.

"Just a sec!" she called out. She closed the screen on her computer, left her room, and headed downstairs. "Where are you?" she called out once she'd descended the stairs.

"Kitchen," she heard him say. She wound her way around the corners from the front door back to the kitchen. Sitting at the counter was her step-mom, and her father was standing behind her. She had her laptop in front of her. It was a big, wide-screen model that she had from work. The big, wide screen, though, was closed.

"Hi, Michelle," he said. "Can you sit down?" Michelle looked at them both, and saw that they both had a worried look in their eye.

She pulled out the chair next to Terry and said, "Sure, I guess." Once she sat, she said, "What's going on?"

Terry turned the computer so that Michelle could see it better, then opened the screen. The screen was black, but when Terry touched the touch pad, the screen flickered on. On the screen were a couple of Word documents and a spreadsheet, but on top of it all was an Internet browser. The page it was on was the Anti-Lynching group page that Michelle had posted to just minutes before.

"I was taking a break, checking out Facebook," Terry explained, "and it said that you posted a message to a group." Terry, like her father, were both on her friend list, a condition of her being able to join, much like Mayv's mother was a friend of Mayv. "The name of the group kind of freaked me out, and then I read your post and the ones before it."

"Did this really happen?" her father asked.

"Well," she said, "I don't know about the other posts but the one I wrote is true."

"Michelle, this is really disturbing," Terry said.

"I know. I can't believe all the graffiti that is showing up. It's disgusting."

"Well, I agree with you about that," her father said, "but more important is what the graffiti says."

"I don't know what you mean," she replied. "I mean, it's really a threat against the chief of police, right, but it can't possibly be a serious threat."

"You'd think," he said. "But someone who is willing to say that - I mean, lynching is nothing to joke about - might be willing hurt somebody."

"Dad," she said, "that's quite a leap."

"Maybe," Terry said, "but you're basically calling for whoever this is to be expelled, or worse."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, if they really are violent, they could come after you."

Michelle thought for a moment. She hadn't really thought of that, but she thought one reason for that is that she felt pretty safe where she was. It wasn't like there was constant fear of threat by anyone from anyone - at least not as far as she knew. "I don't think anyone's going to go after anyone, dad," she concluded.

"Well, I think probably not, too, but I don't know if it's a good idea to take any chances."

"Well, it's too late now," she said.

"You can delete your posts," Terry said.

"I could, I guess, but I'm not sure that's a good idea," she said.

"Why not?" asked her father.

"Because, dad, this is something that had to be dealt with by the principal. We can't have this rash of graffiti in the school. Especially if the graffiti is all about lynching and stuff."

"I'd feel better if it was more than just you and this Mike who posted to the group. Seems like you've made yourself a target."

"Maybe I have, dad, but really, I don't think this is anything to worry about. Really."

Terry and her father looked at each other and Terry shrugged. "It's not like this is some big city with gangs and stuff," she said.

"OK, look," her father said, "we'll let this go, but I'm going to write an email to the principal about this, and see what he has to say about it all."

"That's fine," Michelle said. "I'm sure you won't be the first one, but it can't hurt."

"OK, then," he said. "You can go, but please be careful until we've talked about this."

Michelle agreed that she would.

"Why don't you get yourself ready for bed," he said. "I'll come up in a few minutes to see how you're doing."

Michelle nodded and headed up to her room. She laughed to herself. Parents - they can get so worried over nothing.