Chapter 7-2
302 Words
“I’M NOT GOING TO RESPOND to unsubstantiated rumors,” I told Principal Anderson when I sat down. I was sick of being polite.
He ignored me. “Julia, this is a very troubling rumor. You vanishing at will like a witch, creating Satanic voodoo in the park at night. Is there any truth to these rumors?”
“Bob, I told you I’m not going to respond to rumors, especially ones as stupid as these. Are you telling me you believe I can vanish at will like a witch? I’m black, Bob, not supernatural.”
Principal Anderson leaned back in his chair, trying to feign a level of cool I knew he didn’t possess. “I know this sounds crazy, but I have to identify every possible problem and suss it out thoroughly. That’s my job.”
I leaned forward, trying to drive home my point. “Do you though, Bob? This sounds like the kind of thing you could just let go.”
“It’s scaring the children and causing them to talk, Julia. It’s affecting their learning.”
“So now, if I get this straight, I not only have to pull back my hair and dress more conservatively, but I gotta prevent children from spreading rumors about me, or I could wind up back here again. That’s a lot of rules, Bob. It’s too many rules. Children gossip. I thought my third-grade teacher was a troll because she had long fingernails and a mustache. But you know what, Bob?”
“She wasn’t?”
“That’s right, Bob, she wasn’t. But that didn’t stop me from telling everybody she was one. Do you think she got sent to the principal’s office for some crap her student said?”
“I would suppose not, but you are in a different situation.”
“Yes, I’m black, so clearly that means I’m a witch.”
“I didn’t say that.”
I stood up. “Fire me or don’t, Bob, but enough with this literal witch hunt.”
*
- Writer
