“Sweetheart, that’s why I’m sticking to this. I’ve watched my pay go down worse than a skeeter in a bug zapper, but every time I think of leaving, I look at my kids’ faces and think about never getting a new class again, then I chicken out.”
“That’s because you two are good teachers,” Mr. Gottmik murmured. He was a relatively taciturn fellow, which is why he tended to have the more independent, higher-scoring students. “I had some teachers who made me dread going to school every day. They were definitely in the wrong profession.”
“Bless your heart, I knowexactlywhat you mean. I think it’s kinda like nurses, ya know? Some of them are literally angels put on this earth, and some… well, some are just looking for some way to be in a position of power over a captive audience. Always try to speak up when I see it, but I like to think it’s less common as I’ve gotten older.”
“Well, when you think about it, education is such a new field, compared to human history, that we’re really learning new things every single day. It makes a difference in how we teach generation to generation.”
“I know that’s right! Always growin’, always glowin’!”
Although I could listen to Miss Angie read a phonebook—if those still existed—I zoned out as my thoughts drifted to my own class. What if one of them was going through something like that and I had no idea? I didn’tthinkAddison’s situation was that bad, but perhaps I should make a call home to check? Would that be out of line?
And for that matter… what about Benny? Was he hiding some trauma? He never talked much about his home life beyond fond things about his father and occasional comments about his little sister. What was her name? I usually tried to remember such things but names weren’t easy when I didn’t have a face to put to them. Vanessa? Vicky? It definitely started with a V.
I’d never heard of anyone else, as far as I could recall. No mothers, aunts, uncles. Huh. That could mean something, or it could be nothing. After all, things like divorce, small families, and the like existed.
Maybe I should check his file and touch base with his parents?
Yeah, that sounded like a plan. No doubt I was just too far in my own head with what was going on with Addison and hearing about that poor girl who lost her parents to a fire. However, it would make me feel better to check, and if it helped Benny, it would be worth the few extra minutes going to the office would take me.
Feeling better with a course of action chosen, I returned my attention to my food and my medication, working through them until it was time to head to my room. Thankfully, our afternoon was fairly typical—as far as afternoons with twenty first graders went—and before too long it was time for my after-school planning session.
None of my students stayed after class, and an hour later, I closed my door and headed to the office. The secretary was still there, as I knew she would be, and pulled up the file on her computer for me with SIS, the program we used for such things. Unfortunately, there was a technical issue with my login information, as well as Miss McCluski’s, Miss Angie’s, and Mr. Dominik’s, so none of us had been able to get into that system since it was updated. IT was “working on it” but it wasn’t a priority, so the office would be my go-to for most of the year.
“Thank you,” I said as I sat down and scrolled my way to parent information. There wasn’t a lot to go through, since he was only in first grade, so it took me less than a minute.
In the edit log, I saw his preferred parent contact had been changed to his father’s at the start of the year. Hmm, a nasty divorce perhaps?
That kind of information wasn’t likely to be in a school file, but there were advantages to teaching at a relatively small, suburban elementary school.
“Hey, Lizzie, do you know why Benny Poynter’s mother was taken off as his preferred parental contact?”
“Benny Poynter? Benny… Benny… Oh! Junior! Sad story really. His mother died about a year and a half ago, just after he started going to school here. Home invasion turned violent. It was pretty devastating, as I recall, they had family visiting and all of them were wiped out.”
She leaned forward, her eyes gleaming in a way that wasn’t entirely appropriate. Yeah, I liked gossip as much as the next person, but what Lizzie was telling me was outrighthorrific.“Rumor has it, it was a gang hit gone wrong. They had the wrong info on where their rival gang was hiding and wiped out the whole house.”
I didn’t know what to say, and all I could do was stare at her as if she was speaking in a foreign language.
“Please tell me you’re messing with me in a really tasteless way,” I finally said after swallowing hard.
“What? No! This isn’t something to joke about. If his father hadn’t been on a business trip, Ben would be the only survivor.”
“And his sister.”
“Pardon?”
“His little sister. Name starts with a V, I think.”
“Oh, I wasn’t aware he had one. But yes, if it weren’t for that business trip, those two kids would be orphans.”
“How horrifying,” I murmured, my mind spinning.
Well, if I had to guess why a kid might have vicious nightmares, then his family being murdered was pretty high up there.
Poor Benny. I’d lost my own mother, but still…
I didn’t believe in the Suffering Olympics™, but that was so much worse.
“Do you need anything else?” Lizzie asked, her mood seemingly unbothered even though it felt like the world had been ripped right out from under my feet. Never in all my years did I think I would have a kid in my class who had experienced something so truly awful. Actually, awful didn’t cover it. Horrific.Catastrophic.
