by Torey Hayden
And then the last fifteen minutes. Everything was taken down, sealed up, put away. The children sat at bare tables in a bare classroom.
I passed out lined school paper. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do in the time left. Everybody got a pencil? Okay. Now, I want you to think back over the whole school year, over everything we did, over all the things that happened, and I want you to write down what you liked best. You tell me what your favorite thing this year was. If you need help spelling, just ask and I’ll write the word on the board. But you write down your favorite part of the whole school year. And when you’re done, fold it up and put it in this box up here. I’m going to save these until I get home and then I’m going to read them and I’ll be able to remember all the fun things we did together.”
All six children bent studiously over their papers and wrote. Billy was first done. He folded his paper and put it in the box.
“If you want to go down to the front door, you can watch for parents coming and tell them how to get up here,” I said.
Then Jesse and Alice finished.
“If you want to go down to the cafeteria, you’ll find the paper plates and things we’ll need for our party. You can lay them out on the tables. There’s going to be fifteen people. You can set fifteen places.”
Zane and Shane and Venus completed their papers. Zane took Venus’s too and put them all in the box.
“Zane and Shane, you want to go down and help Billy meet people and show them into the cafeteria? Venus, you come with me. We’ll go phone to make sure the pizza man is coming with our delivery.”
We were in the main office when I saw Rosa coming up the school drive with Wanda. Wanda hadn’t changed a bit. She looked a little cleaner perhaps, but not a bit tidier. And she hadn’t lost any weight. She waddled along behind Rosa.
“Look,” I said to Venus. “Look who’s coming.”
We were behind the big counter in the office and Venus couldn’t see over it. I leaned down to pick her up so that she could see, but she stood up from the wheelchair before I could get there. Hanging on to the counter, she pulled herself up to see Wanda coming into the office.
“Beautiful child!” Wanda shrieked when she saw her. “Beautiful child!”
Clinging to the counter, Venus pulled herself around it and fell into Wanda’s voluptuous hug.
“Beautiful child,” Wanda said again and held her tight.
Eyes closed, head back, Venus smiled broadly, happily, uninhibitedly.
And then it was the end. The pizza was eaten. Everyone was chatting excitedly about their summer plans. Zane and Shane were getting impatient to get theirs started. They raced around the cafeteria, empty except for us, until their mother decided it was time to take them home. This brought our lunch party to a close.
I hugged them, one by one.
Billy started to cry. “I’m not coming back. I miss you already. I don’t want to go. This was the best class in the whole world and I’m not coming back. They are. All those guys are, but I’m not!” he wailed. “It’s not fair!”
“I’ll miss you too. But we’ll see each other next year.”
“And me too!” Jesse said. “I’ll be gone, but not gone. You’ll see me too.”
“Bye. Bye.”
“Bye.”
And they left, one by one.
“And I’ll see you,” I said to Venus. I leaned over her wheelchair and kissed her forehead. “Have a good summer.”
“Bye,” she said.
“Bye-bye. And good-bye to you, Wanda. I’ll see you too next year, I’m sure.”
And they were all gone.
I was left with Rosa in the emptiness of the cafeteria. We cleared up the mess of pizza boxes and paper plates, cups, and napkins. Then I wished Rosa a good summer and climbed the stairs up to the room to get the last things and lock the door.
Picking up the box where the children had put their papers, I unfolded them one by one.
Shane’s said: I like them trips to afika, meaning, I assumed, the many imaginary journeys we had taken, like our first one into the woods.
Jesse’s was next. He wrote: I liked the party. The party was at 2:40 and we had choclit cake like a train and Kool-Aid and pretzels and cake and ice ceram and the ice ceram was Butter Brikle and a hole bunch of candy on the cake. I love you. XOXOXOXOXOXOX.
I picked up Billy’s. I like the way you always laughe with us, Miss Hayden. You like us. You make us smile. You sing with us. I wish you would all ways be my taecher forever. I love you vary much. I hope you have a nice summer. I will miss you. Love, Guillermo Manuel Gomez Jr. (Billy).
Zane’s said: I like you when you help us.
Alice wrote: You’ev helped us when we’ev had, a very bad problme. And you made us lauph a long time, well, that’s all I have to say now good-by thank you for the ordeal. I laughed when I read that. “Thank you for the ordeal” summed up the year quite well.
And last of all I took out Venus’s and unfolded it, laying it flat on the table. It said: I am happy.
Epilogue
Billy, after leaving our class, continued to go from strength to strength. Diagnosed officially as dyslexic the following year, he continued to struggle with reading but caught up sufficiently with his other work to be considered for full-time placement in the AP class in sixth grade. He has continued on successfully through school and has entered university.
Jesse went on to fourth grade in our school with resource help and adapted successfully to regular education. He graduated from high school and is studying for a business degree.
Shane, Zane, Alice, and Venus all stayed with me the following year. Shane and Zane continued to have serious problems with academic achievement, and they both remained in full-time special education throughout their school career. They are now both in sheltered programs.
Alice was mainstreamed in the middle of the second year in our class, joining a regular fourth grade in our building. She adapted well, although she returned regularly to see her friends in our class. In fifth grade, her family moved and I have since lost track of her.
Venus also was mainstreamed in the middle of her second year in our class. A year younger than Alice, she went into third grade and continued to have learning support two hours a day to help her with her lagging academic skills. She continued with this arrangement through middle school and then went on to high school as a full-time regular student. She is now employed in the office of a construction company.
Venus remained in the same foster home throughout her childhood and adolescence and was never reunited with her siblings, although she continued to see several of them on a regular basis. Danny was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Teri was convicted as an accessory and sentenced to four years. Wanda continued to live in sheltered group living. She died at age thirty of a respiratory ailment.
Praise for
TOREY HAYDEN
and
BEAUTIFUL CHILD
“Torey Hayden deserves the kind of respect I can’t give many people. She isn’t just valuable, she’s incredible. The world needs more like Torey Hayden.”
Boston Globe
“Torey Hayden throws herself into her classes—she doesn’t know how not to.... She’s awfully, awfully good, and Beautiful Child is as fresh and compelling as One Child.... Hayden spins out the story with gusto and a natural storyteller’s art.... She never fails to convey all the tearful and chilling moments this involvement of hers brings.”
Chicago Tribune
“Told with compassion and sensitivity, Beautiful Child takes the reader into a world where unfailing patience and dogged determination don’t always yield tangible results, but where the few and hard-won victories can be life-changing.”
BookPage
“Torey Hayden gives one hope for the future of public schools, indeed for the future of the human race.” Harold Kushner, author of
When Bad Things Happen to Good People
“Hayden ha
s a gift for demonstrating the ways in which [children with severe mental handicaps and emotional disorders] are ourselves.”
Washington Post Book World
Other Works
Also by
Torey Hayden
ONE CHILD
GHOST GIRL
JUST ANOTHER KID
MURPHY’S BOY
SOMEBODY ELSE’S KIDS
THE TIGER’S CHILD
THE SUNFLOWER FOREST
Copyright
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Copyright © 2002 by Torey Hayden
ISBN: 0-06-050887-6
EPub Edition © JANUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062271174
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