“I don’t know.If I do a good job, Ivy might let Buster visit again,” Venus replies.“Maybe.”
“A maybe isn’t a no,” he says cheerfully—words I say to him often.
She timidly moves toward the foyer as she says, “Buster and I better let you two get on with your day.”
We walk her to the Land Rover, where she scoops Buster into her arms and allows Olly to pat him goodbye.I follow suit.Then, she gets into the driver’s seat with Buster on her lap.
Olly and I stand there until she turns the corner at the stoplight.
“Dad, I want to go spelunking,” Olly says.
“Yep, I bet.”
“Can we bring Venus flowers when we go to the fairy house?”
“What?You know she’s too old for you, right?”
He scoffs.“I don’t like her likethat, Dad.But I like her.And she likes flowers, so…”
“You’re right.That’s a nice idea.Olly, you know she won’t be here long.You understand, right?”
“I know,” he says with a carefree shrug.“She has more adventures to go on.”
He says it like it’s understood, and I realize thatI’mthe one who needs the reminder.
CHAPTER32
Venus
“I wantto start over with a new approach,” I say to my class of two.Myla Rose looks skeptical, but she sits up, tapping her nails on her open laptop.My other loyal student, Jayden Jones, leans forward with a hopeful grin.Over the last week of classes, he has steadily moved from the back row to the seat right behind, but one space over from Myla, who sits in the same spot every day.He says something under his breath to her now, and she chuckles.
I clear my throat, nerves rising and stomach twisting into a knot, as I remember Henry’s advice to teach as I like to learn, to be authentic, to forge connections.My bracelets jingle as I mess with them.
“I’m not a very good teacher.”My mouth goes dry with the words.I slurp my water bottle while the duo eye me with skepticism, like they’re unsure how to respond.
Ins and Outs.
“The fact that I don’t like classrooms is one serious detriment,” I say.
Their smirking faces encourage me to continue.
“For me, being in a classroom again resembles that annoying, needling sensation when a limb falls asleep from lack of circulation, and it hurts until the blood flows normally again.”
They gape with raised brows, indicating I may have gone too far.
“So, for me to achieve proper circulation,” I explain, “and you, a proper education, I need to teach as I like to learn and bring the outside in.”
I leave the podium and approach the whiteboard, marker at the ready.At approximately five feet high and twenty feet wide, this is a much larger canvas than I’m used to.But I take another deep breath and calculate the necessary adjustments.
I start on the left side with a map of the Eastern Seaboard and draw in the features and relevant locations of our coastal plain.Midway through drawing in the details of inland swamps, I turn to my stunned, yet attentive students.
“Music would be appreciated,” I say, “if either of you?—”
“On it,” Jayden says, swiping on his phone.
The room fills with an upbeat instrumental that makes me smile, and my markers move faster.I outline the endemic plants of each region, creating basic representations that highlight their features.The rare plants in North Carolina compose a thirty-page list, so I narrow the focus to endangered and threatened species by region, starting with those in the mountains.
I’m no longer in a classroom, but engaged in an activity that has calmed and inspired me a million times.I don’t imagine Henry’s here, but I recall him looking over my shoulder at my latest entry and whispering encouragement in my ear.“That’s so real, Venus!What’s that part do?What’s this thing?How does it work?”And the tension of a classroom and students dissipates intonormalcy.This is what I do.I draw.
