by Tim Wellman
She nodded her head and walked back to her classroom, and this time, turned the door knob and went inside, walked immediately to the chalkboard, and turned to face the kids. "Girls, my name is Miss Crone, and I'm your new teacher." She bent over and let everything she was carrying spill onto her desk in a neat pile, and then shuffled through it until she found her grade book. "Now, one by one, come forward and tell me your name so I can mark it down along with your desk position." She looked around. "Well, let's start on this side, you, first." She pointed at the little girl on the front of the row nearest the windows.
She got up, adjusted her clothing, and walked to the teacher's desk. "My name is Susan Napier," she said. "And I sit there!" She pointed to her desk.
"Susan," Evelyn said as she wrote in her book. "And it isn't necessary to tell me where you sit, since I can see that very clearly." She looked up and smiled at the girl. "Napier... do your parents own the grocery store?"
"Yes ma'am, my mom," Susan said. "Though I can't get you any free food."
"I wasn't asking!" she said, her face blood red with embarrassment. "Anyway, you can go back to your seat. And now, you," she pointed to the girl behind Susan's empty desk, "you're next."
One-by-one she met and recorded each of her fifteen students, trying her best to chat with each girl a few moments to break the tension of the first new school day. They were a mixed group of introverts and extraverts, intelligent and average, playful and serious. No one stood out as a loner or a leader, there were no obvious troublemakers or bullies. It was a normal class full of students. That pleased Evelyn. After some tumultuous teen years, she liked normal, even though there would always be something abnormal about her class of only girls.
One girl raised her hand and spoke. "Miss Crone, do you believe in god?"
Evelyn was somewhat surprised by the question, or more importantly, the motivation behind the question. "What? Oh, of course I do, uh," she looked down the list of names in her book, "Chelsea."
"Do you think everyone goes to heaven?"
"Well, all children go to heaven if they die," she said. She thought for a moment and wondered if her answer was appropriate. In her limited teaching experience, and indeed, life experience, she had always been around older students. "Students, I know what happened at the end of last year's classes, and I expect that many of you lost friends or even members of your family. And I know it must be tough for all you to be here now, the empty desks bringing back the memories of the boys you were together with for two years. And we should all do our best to remember those boys, but continue to live our lives looking toward the future." She forced a smile and looked around the room. "Since this is the first day, we'll spend a while getting our books and I have some handouts for you, too." She looked toward the back of the room. "I believe our textbooks are in the lockers back there, so if a couple of you on the back row could get them and hand them out to the rest of the class, it would be a big help."
Susan raised her hand. "I might be able to get you a small discount at the store, but that's all!"
"I told you I wasn't asking for anything!" Evelyn said.
****
"Ah, Miss Crone!" the Principal called out as he saw her approach. "So, how is your first school day going?"
"It's fine," she said. "The girls are well-behaved." She stopped at his office door where he and another man were talking.
"Fine, fine," he said. "They're good girls, unlike our new class of first graders."
"Demons all," the other man said.
"Oh, you haven't met the other teachers yet," he said. "This is Steve Cross. He taught your girls in first and second grade. But, after we found we were getting you late last school year, he got to move back to his original position as first grade teacher for this year."
She held out her hand and he shook it. "Pleasure. Call me Steve. Or, the first grade class's human sacrifice."
"Call me Evelyn," she said.
"That's better," he said. "I can't imagine anyone calling you a crone."
"So, you were advancing with your students?" she said with a chuckle.
"Yes, but apparently I failed second grade," he said.
"Well, I'll leave you to your childish flirtations," the Principal said. "Got to wolf down some nourishment."
"What?" Evelyn said. "No!"
Steve chuckled. "Don't mind him," he said. "Hey, they've got corndogs in the cafeteria today, let's have lunch."
She shrugged. "OK." He opened the door and waved her through and they walked together toward the small cafeteria. Kids were busy shuffling in, but there was also a faculty entrance. "Oh, uh, Steve, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, anything at all," he said as he opened the cafeteria door and waved her inside.
"My girls all brought their lunch and stayed in the classroom," she said. "But, it seems all the other kids are eating here."
"You want two corndogs?" he asked. She hunched her shoulders and nodded. "Four dogs, please," he said to the cook and she slid two trays across the counter.
"Ya want mustard er ketchup?"
"Mustard," Evelyn said.
"Same for me, gorgeous," he said with a smile that made the old cook giggle.
"Ya charmer, you," she said. She dropped several mustard packets onto each tray.
"These tables are for the teachers," he said as he pointed Evelyn to a chair around a small, round table in the corner of the room.
"So, you didn't answer my question," she said.
"I'm sorry, I forgot what we were talking about," he said. "Ask me again."
"My girls?" she said as she squirted the condiment onto a corndog. "They're eating lunch in the classroom."
"Oh that. Well, I guess some of the other kids aren't completely comfortable around them and so they think it's best to give the other kids some space."
"What is there to be uncomfortable about?" she said. She took a bite. "These are tough as shoe leather!" she said with her mouth full of barely edible food.
"Yep, took 'em years to perfect their technique, but they finally succeeded at creating the very worst food in the country," he said.
"Fine, fine, you two seem to be hitting it off," the Principal said as he stopped by the table holding his tray.
"Oh, join us Mac," Steve said.
"And what was the conversation I interrupted all about?" he said as he sat down at the table.
"Miss Crone here was just inquiring about why her students eat lunch in their classroom instead of with the other students," he said.
The Principal waved at someone across the room and stood up. "Y'all excuse me, I gotta talk to Miss Johnson about the Entrance Rally." He hurriedly walked away.
"Have you talked much to your girls, yet?" Steve said. "Getting to know them?"
"Oh, I suppose so," she said. "One little girl, Susan Napier and I had an interested conversation."
"Did she offer you a discount at the store?" he said with a grin.
She smiled and nodded. "Yes. Yes she did."
"Susan is a good kid, she's just an only child and never played much with others," He said. "Her father was very strict and thought she should be better than all the other kids in town so he kept her locked in the house most of her life. Now, she's just over-compensating by trying to buy friends."
"Well, she said I couldn't have anything for free," Evelyn said and laughed.
"Well, she's still a Napier," he said.
"What happened to her father? What changed?"
"Oh, he was with the boys," Steve said. "Didn't Mac tell you?"
Evelyn shook her head. "No, just about what happened to the boys."
"Larry Napier owned the old coke ovens and he was riled up because the boys went inside without his permission," he said. "Got mad and ran his car right into one of the ovens. He jumped out, apparently, and saw the thing starting to crumble, and ran inside to try to get the boys out. But it all fell suddenly and killed the boys and him."
"Tragic," she said. "I feel sorry for
Susan now, knowing she lost her father."
"I know," he said. "Especially 'cause she watched it happen."
"She did?"
"Yeah, all the girls were there, they just stayed outside while the boys went inside," he said. "A lot of the kids who lost family or friends in the accident sorta resent them for surviving."
"Oh," she said. She dropped her head and thought for a moment. "So, that's why the girls eat in the classroom?"
He nodded. "Well, the wounds will heal," he said. "Eventually people will forget. You gonna eat that other dog?"
"You can have it," she said.
He grabbed it, poured packet of mustard on it, and stood up. "I'll eat it on the way back to class," he said. "Got some stuff I need to take care of."
She stood up. "Thanks for filling me in," she said. "I've got a lot to learn about the kids and the people around here."
"Well, don't be too nosy," he said. "Every small town has secrets that should remain secret, especially from outsiders."
She frowned. His voice had changed, not drastically, but enough to make her feel slightly threatened by his words. She mused it was just her imagination and smiled. "Right. Well, I should get back to my girls. There's just enough time to go over a few handouts before the Entrance Rally begins."
****
"Ah, Miss Crone, if you would, can you direct your class to these seats here?" the Principal said. She couldn't help but notice her girls were being separated, only slightly, but distinctly, from the rest of the students.
"Okay, girls, lets file in here," she said and waved her hand to the two rows of folding metal chairs. All of the girls seemed to notice their chairs were set up a few feet away from everyone else's, but no one said anything. They seemed to be used to the segregation. Evelyn wasn't, and it was beginning to niggle at her sense of fair play. They were being separated for being fortunate, for being lucky, or perhaps for being protected, but nonetheless, separated unfairly for something that wasn't their fault.
But the speeches and introductions went by quick enough, with the Principal keeping things moving along briskly. She was introduced as the new teacher and walked to the small platform to say a few words. She pretended not to notice a few of the other teachers step off as she stepped on, but it was a little harder to ignore them stepping back on when she stepped down. So, she was one of her girls, now. Because she was their teacher, she had taken on their stigma. In a perverse way, that made her happy. If they were her students then why shouldn't she be held in the same regard?
"Fine, fine," the Principal said as he stepped back up to the microphone. "Miss Crone is a nice person so every student should feel comfortable going to her with any problems you have. She's closer in age to all of you than the rest of us old timers are." One of the teachers coughed behind him and he got distracted for a moment. "Er... well, I think that about covers everything. You can all go back to your classes and relax until the bell rings." He started to walk away, but then seemed to remember something. "But make sure you're all prepared to learn tomorrow! Otherwise the board will be all over my ass if we have snow days this winter and..." There was another cough from behind him. "OK, fine, fine, well, welcome back and enjoy your year!"
"Okay girls," she spoke loudly so everyone around her could hear, "let's get back to our classroom." She stood up and ushered them out of their seats and together they strolled the twenty feet or so back to the building entrance.
"You don't hate us?" one girl said.
"No, sweetheart, I don't," Evelyn said. "I don't know everything that's going on around here, but none of it is your faults; I'm sure of that." She opened the classroom door and allowed them all to enter and then followed them in and closed the door. "Get your seats."
Susan paused by Evelyn's desk and dropped a small piece of paper. As she went on to her desk, Evelyn picked it up and read it. "20% off." And it was signed by Susan.
"Miss Crone!"
She turned toward the young girl's voice, and then checked her grade book for the name. "Yes, uh... Betsy?"
"Will you eat with us tomorrow?"
She smiled and nodded. "I will."
****
She walked across the small field, a more direct route to the old dormitory than taking the winding stone path. It was an old wooden house, probably built a hundred years ago as a single residence, but had at some point, been divided into small apartments. Her apartment was on the second of the three floors, but as far as she knew, she was the only one living there. But, it was comfortable, clean, and was actually the only place Evelyn had lived besides her parents' house.
She dropped a big stack of papers on the table by the door, kicked her shoes off, and then plopped down on the sofa. "Well, it's different," she said. "And you thought working in a small town would be boring."
Her cell phone rang. "Hello mom," she said without looking at the number. "Because you're the only one who ever calls me." She turned her laptop around on the coffee table, opened it up and turned it on. "Yes, I'm fine. The school is great, got a bit of a tragic story attached to it, so I'm told, but that just makes it more interesting, right?" She clicked the web browser open and went to a search engine. "No, just some kids got in an accident at the end of the last school year. I don't remember reading anything about it when I was checking everything out, though." She typed in 'Ceres WV tragedy'. "Hmm, oh, there it is. I'm emailing you a link." She started reading. "Hey, I gotta go, I need to start dinner. No, but I have a microwave. Talk later. Yeah. Bye."
****
"Oh, hello Steve," Evelyn said as she walked into the hallway from outside. "Another bright and pleasant morning, huh?"
"Hello Miss Crone," he said. He nodded, and then walked away.
She stood frozen for a moment as her mind processed the scene. What had just happened? She shrugged, and then continued to her classroom. Maybe he was just having a bad day.
"Good morning, girls!" she said. She held up a brown paper bag. "See, my lunch." All of the girls were quiet, a couple seemed to have been crying. But they all appeared to be very scared and upset. "What? What is it, girls? What's wrong?"
A few of the girls pointed to the chalkboard behind her and as she turned to look, she cupped her hand over her mouth and gasped is shock. Someone had drawn crosses all over the board, hundreds of them, and then in the center, wrote, "Demons rot in hell!"
"Did you see who did this?"
"It was like that when we got here," Susan said.
"But... why would someone do this?" she shouted. She walked to the door, opened it and shouted down the hallway. "Who did this?!" There was no answer. She hadn't expected one. She turned back to the girls. "Why do they hate you so much? You're the victims!" She stomped her feet. "I'll be right back."
She walked back into the hallway and shouted. "Principal Stevens!" She shouted again.
He eventually poked his head out of his door. "Is there a problem, Miss Crone?"
"Yes! Yes there is!" she said. "Come here, I want you to see this!"
He seemed clueless as he walked toward her and entered the room. "Good morning, girls."
She grabbed his shoulder and turned him to face the board. "This! This is the problem!"
"Oh my," he said. He turned back to the students. "Did you girls do this?"
"Do you think they'd call themselves demons?!" Evelyn said.
"I assure you, Miss Crone, I'll get to the bottom of this," he said. "The student responsible will be properly punished! This is completely unacceptable behavior!"
"Thank you!" she said. "I hope you can find whoever did it, sir."
"Fine, fine," he said. "Well, I've got to get back to my office." He waved at the girls. "Don't worry, girls, okay? Stay calm! I'll fix this!" He quickly walked out the door.
"Can you girls in the front row come up here and help me erase all of this?"
The girls were quickly at the chore, but Evelyn noticed something. The girls seemed to realize it at the same time. "We can't reach high enough to er
ase it all."
Neither could she. Though she was only a couple of inches over five feet tall, if a student of any size had put the graffiti on the board, she should have been able to reach it. "A teacher did this?"
"They all hate us," someone said. "He makes them hate us."
"He?" Evelyn said.
"They," another girl said.
"Susan, can I lift you up so you can erase the rest?" she said.
"Sure!" Susan said. She turned her back to Evelyn and she bent down and grabbed the child around her thighs and hoisted her up in the air and together, as a team, they managed to eliminate all traces of the hateful message.
She sat Susan down on her feet, and Susan turned and grabbed her around the neck and hugged her. "It's okay, sweetie," she said. "You're not alone." She looked up at the rest of the class as Susan let her go. "None of you are alone." She took a deep breath. "I'll get to the bottom of this." She shuffled some papers and took a deep breath. "I want all of you to tell your parents what happened when you get home. They need to get involved in this whole problem."
****
The rest of the day had passed without incident. The girls were attentive and quick learners and seemed to show genuine respect for their teacher. And as promised, Evelyn stayed with her girls in the classroom for lunch. Some of the girls had been quiet but several were opening up, talking, laughing and generally acting like any other third graders during their free time.
"Betsy, and how many others need to go to the bathroom?" she said. Several other girls raised their hands. "Okay, we'll all go as a class." She motioned everyone to follow her and then stood outside the bathroom door as everyone went inside.
"Oh, Miss Crone, can you come down to my office?" the Principal said as he poked his head out of his door and motioned to her.
"I'm waiting for my girls to come out, sir," she said.
"Oh, I see," he said.
"Will only be a few minutes," she said. Then, one by one, the girls started joining her. She did a quick headcount. "Okay, that's everyone." She walked them back to the classroom, quickly peering inside to make sure there were no problems, and allowed the students back in. "Grab your seats," she said. "The Principal needs to talk to me, so I'll be right back."