Middle of Everywhere - Mary Bray Pipher [59]
The funeral had been well handled, but I could see the grief today. We had a story circle and each student shared one happy memory of Nibbles. Deena remembered one day when Nibbles slept on her lap. Ignazio remembered how much Nibbles liked bananas. Khoa made spirited comments about Nibbles's poop. Ly remembered a day she had drawn Nibbles. Walat recalled the fan Nibbles had with his exercise wheel. Pavel said Nibbles tickled him when he crawled all over his back. Mai and Trinh refused to tell a Nibbles story, but they liked the other kids' stories. Telling stories never fails to produce good in the universe.
Grace whispered that there had been other troubles this week. Khoa was upset that his brother was in jail. Deena had missed several days of school translating for her family with the INS. On the bright side, Pavel would be getting new glasses. When the class was ready to work, Grace suggested we do family drawings.
I circled the room as the students worked on their drawings. Pavel drew his parents in their car with his brother, himself, and his sister in the backseat. He told me, "They are on their way to work and we are going to day care."
Ly drew herself surrounded by family—her mother and father were sewing and her siblings were studying. Ignazio drew himself in the middle of his extended family, which included cousins and grandparents. Fatima drew her parents and siblings giving her presents. Deena drew her mother in bed and the others watching television. Walat drew his house in Iraq with a star on top. He said, "Our house in Iraq was nicer than the one we have here."
Abdul smiled his Mona Lisa smile and drew fish with teeth and wheels where they should have had fins. Khoa's drawing was the biggest and most colorful. He had drawn his siblings around his parents with a big red heart in the center of the picture and everyone holding hands. He pointed to the tallest brother and said, "My dad hired a lawyer. We'll get his butt out of jail."
Mai drew a picture of her father, stepmother, and baby brother. I asked her why she was not in the picture, and she said, "I am in Vietnam." I asked if she had a picture of her mother and she nodded yes. I said, "Carry that picture with you and whenever you look at it, your mother will be smiling at you." She looked at me carefully and then nodded again.
Grace explained the Thanksgiving story and suggested a game with Thanksgiving words. Normally games animate this class, but today even Ly and Khoa were low-key. When Grace called on Walat he was under the table looking for his eraser. Deena had a headache and lay her head on her desk.
Abdul and Khoa picked at each other, trying to start a fight. I remembered something Grace had told me earlier about Abdul. She had described him as not following rules. But she said, "He recently arrived from a war zone and there were no rules. No good rules anyway." She told me about a Bosnian boy whose dad had taught him, "Always attack first," which may have been a good rule in Bosnia, but it didn't work well at Sycamore School.
Grace took out a picture book and told them the story of the Mayflower. The pictures were from a book entitled A Better Life. The best students paid attention, but unfortunately, the kids who most needed to pay attention didn't. Khoa was listening a little because when Grace talked about the Pilgrims' hard times he shouted out, "Boohoohoo." Grace asked what was the name of their boat and Deena answered, "The Titanic."
Fatima was impressed with the fact that there were no bathrooms on the Mayflower, a fact that generated a host of raucous remarks from Khoa. Ignazio was most impressed that the Pilgrims had only cold food and not much of that.
Grace showed them pictures of the Mayflower landing and of the Indians helping them plant corn by burying little fish by each plant. When Grace