Middle of Everywhere - Mary Bray Pipher [62]
Grace announced that she would be gone the next day because of a funeral. Mai twisted around in her seat and looked as if she might cry. I put my arm on her shoulder and asked, "Do you feel sad that Miss Grace will be gone tomorrow?" She nodded miserably but calmed down a bit.
Fatima asked, "Can I come with you, Miss Grace? I'll be good." Ignazio said he wouldn't come to school if Grace couldn't be there. Walat asked me if I could come and be the teacher. Deena worried the new teacher would be mean. Grace said, "No. The substitute teacher will be kind."
Khoa arrived late. His hair was still uncut but he wore a new warm coat. He sat down quietly and participated appropriately. Only once did he speak out of turn and that was to whisper to me that his brother was home. Otherwise, he was preoccupied with whether he would get his name on the list of students who caused trouble.
Ly was more restless this morning. As she had assimilated, she'd grown louder, more assertive, and more American in her actions. Today she'd rapidly finished her seatwork and she rolled her eyes impatiently that others were so slow. Ly had blossomed into a confident, loving girl, who also could be mouthy and impatient.
Ly sat gratefully by my side, not so much listening to my reading as absorbing me. She told me her family was Buddhist and didn't get a Christmas tree. She had wanted a tree—it's understandable in a country where Christmas is on TV from October until January.
We were all happy to be back together. Even a cold room with a wheezing heater had clean paper, sharp pencils, and a teacher to suggest that the universe was a bright, well-organized place that smelled like books and chalk.
Abdul came in at 9:00. He had grown taller in the two weeks since I'd seen him. He showed me his key ring with a key to the tool room and the furnace room. He reported that he had been checking the pipes with Mr. Trvdy, "his boss." He could have been president, he was so proud.
Grace had a clear plastic globe for the lesson, and she found the countries of her students and asked them to tell about their homelands. Deena said, "Bosnia used to be a beautiful place with many forests." "There were floods in Vietnam every year during our rainy season," Ly said. Khoa added, "There were cobras and rats in the rice fields."
Ignazio told of the flooding in Mexico near his home. He said, "The river was filled with frogs, and after the river went away, the frogs stayed in our yard." Pavel said, "It snows all winter long in Russia."
Grace asked what the big chunks of land were on the globe. The kids had various answers—"cigarettes," "islands," "cabinets." Grace was gentle with the wrong answers, "No," she said tentatively, as if the answer were almost good enough to be correct. "The right word is continent."
While Grace read a book with pictures on the history of the earth, Khoa played with Sunny, and Pavel pulled some toys out of his backpack. Grace had to reprimand both boys. Ignazio asked for my help and we struggled with the scrambled spelling words.
Abdul put his feet on a chair and didn't even pretend to work. I went over to sit by him and asked about his job. He said, "I like it, but they don't pay me."
Khoa's father was coming for a conference. Khoa wriggled in his seat and looked at the clock every few minutes. He showed me a report that had half happy faces and half sad faces and asked me if he had enough happy faces to stay in school. I explained that he wouldn't be kicked out of school. I said, "We want and need you at this school."
Grace decided to give the kids a pick-me-up. She taught them all twelve verses of "Hickory Dickory Dock." Ly smiled ear to ear as she sang. Mai couldn't carry a tune, but she belted it out anyway. Ignazio drummed on his desk. Not yet fully socialized, Khoa added a few nasty words here and there. Deena swayed to the music. Everyone but Abdul and Trinh sang.
Singing warmed us up. Some kids soloed, other kids didn't want to and Grace didn't make them. I remember a mean teacher who made me