“You’re not the teacher,” Billy stated with perfect certainty.
The gray haired woman said, “No, Billy. I am not your usual teacher. I am your substitute teacher.”
“What’s a subsitoot,” Laticia asked, slightly slurred because of her very first baby tooth being currently in the hands of the tooth fairy.
“Well, child, do you ever feel sick or unwell? So bad your mom and dad had to keep you home for the day?”
Laticia nodded.
“Today, Mrs. Patterson is not feeling well. I’m here to teach the class for the day. I’m Mrs. Loviatar.”
Laticia nodded and said, “Ooooh. Okay”
Nathan raised his hand, while in the back, Galen and Marcus were starting to giggle between themselves, involved in some joke that involved fart noises.
Mrs. Lovitar said, “Yes Nathan. What is it?”
“Why are you wearing those sunglasses?”
“They’re not exactly sunglasses, child. I’m blind.”
“You can’t see anything?”
Mrs. Loviatar smiled. “Not as you do, but I assure that I see everything. Like you starting to to tease Delia, Galen.”
Galen froze, and Marcus too. They had switched to from fart jokes to calling the sullen girl in the back corner of the class silly names. She was ignoring them, but her head raised as her name was called and she seemed to notice the substitute for the first time.
Michael raised his hand, but did not wait to be acknowledged. “Mrs. Loviatar, can we go back to the museum?”
“No, child. I’m sorry.”
Galen burst out, “Is that because dumb Delia left trash on one of the zibbits?”
Delia shot him a terrible look, but said nothing.
Mrs. Loviatar shook her head and said “No. As I understand, it wasn’t trash she left on the ex-hib-it.”
She pronounced the word carefully, annunciating each syllable.
Galen found himself repeating the word with her, carefully.
Anna asked, “I saw her do it.”
The teacher looked at her, shaking her finger, and said, “Nobody likes a tattletale. She did not leave trash, because it was not trash. It was an offeri-… a gift. It was a whole piece of candy.”
Delia looked up at Mrs. Loviatar, who looked very young despite her silvery locks. She spoke, for the first time in the week.
“Your name is the same as one of the exhibits.”
“Oh, is it? Interesting”
Mrs. Loviatar came from around the desk and walked through the rows of seats. She touched a number of children on the shoulder as she passed, but she ended her stroll through the classroom in front of Delia, who was also the last girl she touched on the shoulder. When she did, she bent over and dropped an empty peppermint wrapper on her desk.
“It was very yummy candy,” Mrs. Loviatar whispered. She pulled down her solid black glasses and winked one milky eye at the child. This made Delia smile.
At the front of the room, the door opened and a coughing Principal Overton stumbled in, his eyes red. He blew his nose into a cloth handkerchief and put it back into his pocket. One of the little girls said, quite audibly, “Ew.”
The principal addressed the teacher. “Are you doing okay, Madam?”
Mrs. Loviatar turned and walked to where he stood. She said, “I’m fine, but shouldn’t you be at home? We’ve a lot of nasty bugs going around. It would be a shame to infect the children.”
“Oh, don’t worry. It’s just a cold.”
“Are you sure? Keep in mind, many of the children in this class were unvaccinated.”
“I’m quite… were?”
“I’m sorry?”
“You said ‘were’ unvaccinated.”
“Oh I’m sorry, meant ‘aren’t’ of course.”
“How would you even know-“
“Let’s just say diseases were a special interest of mine once. Now, Mr. Overton, I have a class to look after and keep an eye on. May I get back to my work?”
Principal Overton coughed, snorted, then nodded to her. “Carry on.”
He left and Mrs. Loviatar went to the desk.
“Now class, I think we should start with story time. I have a very, very old story to tell you….”
__________
Notes: Another story inspired by one of the good folks at r/WritingPrompts. The story called for a kindergarten class to be protected. There are far worse and all too real threats I could have gone with, but as soon as I found Mrs. Loviatar and red the bit in Wikipedia about her, the answer became clear.
Be First to Comment