Blessed & Broken

Chapter 10

For the next few weeks, it felt as though I was walking on a magical cloud. Life was absolutely perfect. Ian and I were madly in love and spent every single minute we could with one another. I was with someone who truly cared for me. Someone who I was safe and protected with.

I was looking into the mirror, putting the finishing touches on my make-up, when he came and intertwined his arms around my waist. I could feel his face bury into my hair as he took in a deep inhale. I turned to look at him, wrapping my arms around his neck. Ian pulled me into a warm embrace. Our lips danced against one another's. His kiss was so lovingly, I could feel it deep within me.

I giggled as I pulled away. “I have to go.” Unfortunately, tonight was parent teacher conferences. Ian brought me back in, his kiss becoming more urgent. It was difficult for me to leave. All I wanted to do was be with him. In between our lips touching, I said, “I... really...have...to go....” I could hear a low grumble in his throat. “Ok”, he said in defeat. 

He smiled at me and gave me a little gentle kiss on the nose. “I’ll be here when you get back. Good luck.” To this day, I have no idea why he said that he would be here when I got back. I knew that he was always with me.

The evening wore on and conferences had been going quite well, but exhausting. Most parents were happy with the progress their children had been making. It was nice that they were involved in their child’s life and schooling, helping enhance their little one’s learning. However, there was one exception. Mrs. Mackey, Cole Mackey’s Mother.

Here comes this woman, rushing into my classroom, her cell phone practically cemented to her ear, talking fast and loudly. As she held her private phone conversation, publicly, in my classroom, I saw that she was dressed to the nines. Her coat looked as if it were made of real fur. Spiked heels that gave her a few extra inches of height and perfume that was way too strong. Personally, it made me want to gag. I waited patiently while she finished her phone conversation. 

She ended her call and looked at me. “Yes, I’m here for my son, Cole”, she announced in the not so friendliest of tones. I extended my hand out. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Mackey. I’m Miss. Stone.” The tips of her boney fingers with bright red colored clawed fingernails took ahold of my pinky and daintily shook it. “Please have seat.” I gestured to a chair that was placed in front of the table. The chairs were a little shorter than normal chairs. It was only because they were made for kids. The other parents didn’t seem to mind. 

She made a disgusted noise and started to look around the room. She spotted a computer chair placed at the computer station. She walked over to it, making her heels slap against the floor. She wheeled the chair over in haste. “There, now, go on”, she waived to me as she sat.

I composed myself by sitting up straight and putting a smile upon my face. I looked at her and began. “First of all, I wanted you to know how wonderful your son is. I have very much enjoyed having him in my class.” Mrs. Mackey’s phone pinged and she looked down at it. “Well, he knows that if he acts anything less than good, he will have to deal with me”, she said typing on her device. I looked at her a moment, seeing if she was going to make eye contact with me. Whatever she seemed to be dealing with, was obviously more important that our conversation about her son.

“Oh, Cole is very well mannered”, I reassured her. “However, I have noticed that he has been needing a little more extra attention than the other students.” Her head swung up. “Are you saying that my son is slow”, she snapped. Her comment took me by surprise. “No, No, No. I’m just saying that it takes him a little longer to catch on to what we have been learning.” She started to tap her foot. “I have been setting aside some one-on-one time with Cole and he has really seemed to have benefited from it.”

Mrs. Mackey appeared to be annoyed and went back to looking at her phone. I understood now why Cole was benefiting from the extra attention. “Why isn’t he reading books yet”, she asked, interrogating me. “Oh Lord, please not one of these parents”, I thought to myself. “Well, Mrs. Mackey, this is only the second quarter of kindergarten. The children are learning how to sound out letters and put words together.” I closed my eyes for a brief moment before asking, “Mrs. Mackey, do you and Cole practice his sight word flash cards that I send home?” She looked as if she was appalled by my question.

“Practice flash cards? Isn’t that what we, the parents, pay you to do? Aren’t you a teacher for a reason, Miss. Stone?” I was so taken back by her words. I wasn’t sure how to respond. She continued on. “Another thing. What is with all of this homework that you send home? Don’t you get that people have lives? Busy lives!” I was starting to get hot and was shocked that I was being confronted this way.

“Mrs. Mackey, I send home three assignments a week. They should take no more than five to ten minutes to complete.” I continued before she could speak again. “I don’t send homework home as a punishment. I send it home for practice. How can anyone master a skill without practice?” She crossed her arms and started to squint her eyes at me. I knew that she had no good come back because what I said was more than logical.

“Miss. Stone, how long have you been teaching for?” I folded my hands and answered, “This is actually my first year of teaching.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Well, that explains a lot.” She was being very dramatic as she got up from the chair. “I think that you are way too young to be teaching, especially my son!”

I could feel the dumbfounded look on my face. I was so hurt.  “And another thing”, she said as she slammed the tip of her finger to the table. “I am going to talk to Mrs. June about Cole being switched to another teacher. A teacher who is experienced and actually knows how to teach!” 

 She turned around and stomped out of the room as if her heels were going to start busting holes into the floor. I could feel the tears well up in my eyes. My chest felt heavy. I was thankful that she was my last one for the day, so that no other parents could see how upset she made me.

On the way home, thoughts were shooting off in my head at turbo speed. “How dare she tell me that I don’t know how to teach? Where the hell does she get off telling me that I am too young?” The more I thought, the angrier I got.

“I took whatever little spare time I had during the school day to give extra help to HER son!” That was just who I was though. I would have stayed over five hours every single day if someone needed me. Cole was starting to do so well. Mrs. Mackey has no clue how much he needed the extra help.

By the time that I got home, I was fuming. I stomped straight through the front door, into the kitchen. I took my brief case and slammed it onto the counter. I could see Ian out of the corner of my eye and that is when I started to rant about everything I was thinking in the car.

I started to pace the floor. “Where the hell does that...Bitch get off telling me that I can’t teach!” Knowing that Ian was there the whole time during the conference, I didn’t need to explain anything, however I needed to majorly vent. I continued pacing and stomping. “She says I’m too young! I worked my ass off in college! I graduated with a 3.9 GPA!” At this point I didn’t know if I was talking to Ian or myself.

“Is it unusual to get a class of your own so quick? Yes, it is. But damn it! I’m good at what I do and I know how to work with these kids!” I balled up my fist and shook them to the air. “I’m so pissed right now! I’m so f*****g pissed!”

Ian started to walk towards me. “Come here Kal...” He touched my arm and before he could get the rest of my name out, he thrusted his hand back as if he had just touched a hot stove. He started to slightly tremor and I swear that I saw his eyes flash different shades of dark. I could hear a low growl come up from the depth of his throat. My anger now turned to concern.

The episode lasted only seconds. As he was coming out of it, he shook his head and placed his hands upon the sides of his temples. His breath was very heavy, as him he just ran a marathon. “Whoa, what was that?”, he asked. I was relieved that he was recovering from whatever just occurred. “Are you ok?”, I asked in a frantic voice. “What happened?”  

He was now bent over with his hands on his knees like he just had the wind knocked out of him. “What were you feeling just now?”, he questioned as he looked up at me. I closed my eyes, tilted my head back, and sighed. “Anger.” I looked at him in sorrow.

“I am so sorry, Ian. You should have never experienced that. I should have known better than to let you touch me when I was feeling that way. I should have protected you better.” I took a deep calming breath. “Are you ok?”, I asked again.

“Yeah”, he said shaking his head and moving his body closer to me. He took his hands and held on to both sides of my shoulders. “That is a bad feeling, Kalia. A bad feeling.” He pulled me into his chest, my cheeks getting squished between his massive hands and torso. My hair fell in front of my face as he was rubbing my head. “Don’t ever feel that way again”, he said seriously. I slightly pulled back. I moved the hair out of my face and tried to smooth it down with my hands. 

“Sometimes a person can’t help but feel that way”, I responded. “It’s just human nature I guess.” Now, this time when he pulled me back, he put my face between his hands. Once again, my cheeks were being distorted by his burly grasp. 

“Kalia, you must replace that horrible feeling with happiness. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel that way”, he said with much seriousness. “Feeling that anger just took so much energy out of me. Don’t you people see how much anger depletes your soul?” He was so concerned. “Remember what I said. Only you are in control of your emotions and your own happiness.” He stared into my eyes with his brows furrowed. 

I know that he was concerned. Honestly though, it’s impossible to never get mad. I just didn’t want him to worry about me and truth be told, I wanted my face back to its original shape. “Ok, I’ll try”, I replied as my words came out in a jumble. Ian released his hands and I gently started to massage my face back into place. 

All of a sudden, his hands grabbed my face again, but this time, he pulled me into the deepest, most amorous kiss. His lips caressed mine so sensuous. I think the neighbors may even have felt it. His kisses softened and then he brought me into a tender hug. “Don’t worry about Cole. You will still see him”, he said to me. I took comfort in what he said. 

Ian was right as usual. I would see Cole again. The next morning, Mrs. June came into my classroom before school started. “Hello, Kali.” I looked up from my daily planner. “Hello, Mrs. June.” I had a feeling I knew why she was here.

“I received a phone call from Cole Mackey’s mother. Apparently, she is not pleased with Cole’s progress and the way that you teach.” She let out a sigh and crossed her arms. “Unfortunately, I will have to put him into Mrs. Pace’s class.” I looked down; my face saddened. “I’m sorry, Mrs. June. I tried so hard to help him.”

She came and sat on top of my desk, next to where I was sitting. “I know that. Do you know how many times I have walked past your classroom and seen you doing one on one with that boy?” My head hung low. I felt better knowing that Mrs. June had noticed my effort. 

“Some people are just assholes”, she said. I looked up at her in surprise. She gave me a small unapologetic smile. “I wouldn’t have fought so hard to get you into this school if I didn’t think you were anything less than outstandingly capable at teaching.” She patted my shoulder and said, “Just keep doing what you are doing, Hun.” She stood up to walk out of the room. “Thank you, Mrs. June.” She turned to give me a wink before she walked out of sight.

Later that day, when the final bell rang, I heard a small little voice call my name. “Miss. Stone?” I turned to look and there was Cole standing in the doorway. “Hi Cole!”, I excitedly exclaimed. He looked so sad. I walked over to him and got down to his level. “What’s the matter buddy?” His eyes were fixed on the floor. 

“Why am I not in your class anymore?” I could hear the tears in his voice. It broke my heart. What was I going to tell him? If I told him the truth, that would just open up a whole can of worms and frankly make me look like an ass. I searched my thoughts quickly.

“It’s because you are such a good boy, that Mrs. Pace needed you in her class to help teach the other students how to be good.” He looked at me and started to cry. “But who will help me learn?” I took him into a warm hug. “Oh, honey. Mrs. Pace is a good teacher. She will help you learn.” I could feel his warm tears soak into the shoulders of my shirt. “But she won’t teach me the way that you do.” What Cole didn’t know was that I was feeling the exact same way. 

I pulled him back so that I could look at his cute baby face. “Do you go home after school or do you stay here for after school care?” Cole looked at me with some

boogies running down his nose. “I stay here until Mommy picks me up.” I reached over and got a tissue and wiped his reddened nose.

“I’ll tell you what. How about if I come check on you in the after-school room before I go home to see if you need help with homework?” He used his sleeve to wipe the remaining tears on his face. “Ok.” I gave him a big smile. “See? Everything will be ok now. Right?” He nodded his head. “Yes, Miss. Stone.” “Ok. Good. Now go see the other teacher for after school and I will come by Monday to see if you need help.” “Ok, Miss Stone”, he said as he turned and walked away.

From that moment on, I would stop by the after- school room to check on him. Some of the times, he felt confident enough in his work and didn’t need me to stay. Most of the time, he wanted me there. All I really did was just check the work that he already completed. I smiled at the thought of knowing that Cole already knew how to ride the bike. I was just his training wheels. I was perfectly happy keeping him safe and steady.