Chapter 2: Now

Leigh unpacked the last box, flattened it and added it to the stack in the porch for Jim to bundle up and take away. She looked at the dishes in the cupboard. They looked all right. The kitchen was completely different than in their old house in Winnipeg. That kitchen had cabinets and counter space to spare. It even had an island with stools along one side that they never used.

The trailer they were renting had counters in an L shape with dark brown fake wood cabinets. At least there was room for a decent sized kitchen table and chairs. They'd sold the furniture that wouldn't fit in the trailer, but Leigh would have hated to part with the old oak table and chairs that were the first things she and Jim had bought as a couple.

Leigh went through the kitchen again reminding herself where she had put everything, then went to the room they had set aside for her office. It had bookshelves on all four walls with a gap for the window and door. Her desk sat in the middle like an island. The curriculum guidelines for her new class were spread out on the desk. It had been a year since she had last been in a classroom. Leigh hoped she hadn't forgotten everything she knew about teaching.

When Jim got home she was still sitting at her desk. Books and texts were piled around her as she read updates from the Ministry of Education web site.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Leigh stretched until her joints creaked. "I meant to have supper ready."

"It's OK." Jim waved a bag at her. "One of the other RCMP members went fishing, so she sent me home with some fillets. It will only take a few minutes to cook them up."

Leigh pulled vegetables from the fridge and washed them as the fish cooked. Jim put fries in the oven so she put cauliflower in to roast and readied the green beans for the microwave.

"How was your day?" she said.

"It went all right. I only got lost a couple of times, but nothing serious. The Staff-Sergeant told me that this could be a tough town, but I haven't seen it yet. You wouldn't believe the graffiti though. They must use rock climbing gear to get to some of those places."

"How about you?" Jim put knives and forks out on the table, "You ready to go?"

"I hope so." Leigh put the beans in and set the time. "There was a time when I could do this in my sleep."

"You'll be fine."

They ate dinner and watched children play outside.

Leigh woke in the morning shaking from a dream. She climbed out of bed and took a long hot shower. By the time she finished both the dream and the shakes had faded away. She poured herself a coffee and made toast. Jim had already left for his shift, so she didn't have anyone to distract her from her nerves. When the toast popped, she opened the cupboard to get the peanut butter.

Relax, the note said, you'll be fine. Leigh laughed and finished fixing her breakfast. Somehow the note settled the nerves giving her the worst case of butterflies since her practice teaching days.

The school was the most unusual setup Leigh had ever seen. It was attached to the mall forming the town's equivalent of a downtown. The mall also held all the town offices, the police station and library. She was sure it would be nice in the winter months to be able to run all her errands without going out into the cold.

The school was Kindergarten to Grade 12 but the different sections of the school had their own entrances so the primary age children weren't mixed in with the teens. Leigh pulled the door to the primary hallway open and went to her classroom. Jim had helped her decorate with bright colours and pictures to support the children's learning.

Maps of the World, Canada and Manitoba hung on the walls. Leigh planned to add pins to show Spruce Bay and where each of the children had been. Other posters highlighted virtues she hoped they would all strive for: honesty, kindness, courage. She looked at the poster for courage. It was of a young girl taking the first step along a long rope crossing a gorge. Leigh could empathize with her.

Banners showed the multiplication tables; vocabulary builders ran along the top of the bulletin board - stuff to help keep the brighter children from getting bored. Jim had built her a little greenhouse they would soon plant with different seeds.

Leigh stood in the room and turned slowly in a circle. She and Jim had done a good job. This is a room in which children will learn. I can do this. She missed the smell of chalk, but the school had gone to whiteboards and erasable markers. The squeak of the marker as she wrote her name on the board didn't compare to the rasp of chalk. The bright colours would be fun.

Mrs. Dalrymple, she wrote it in black without any flourishes; just as she would have on a chalkboard in white. She wasn't enough of an artist to create the colourful scenes she glimpsed through the doors of other classrooms on the way in.

"Good morning." The tenor voice made her jump. She spun around to see the principal looking around the room. "It will do." He walked the rest of the way into the room. "I like to be part of the hiring process, but was away at a course when they hired you. I am willing to think the Superintendent made a good choice."

"Thank you," Leigh was sure he could hear the sarcasm she was trying to keep out of her voice. Mr. Damowski had told her that the principal was a control freak. "Mr. Ryckle, when I was being interviewed they didn't know whether we would have a dedicated phys ed teacher."

"We don't." Mr. Ryckle shuffled his weight from one foot to the other, as if he wanted to run out of the room, "Mr. Tanist from the High School side will be able to help out a bit with some of the extracurricular sports, but you will be on your own for gym."

"That's fine," Leigh said, "I planned for that just in case."

"Good." Mr. Ryckle looked around the room again and left without saying anything else. He reminded her of someone, but she couldn't bring the name to mind. No matter. I have more important things to do.

The bell rang and she headed for the gymnasium where the children would be lined up before walking to their class. They undoubtedly knew the school better than she did, but Mr. Damowski had said this was the way it had always been done. Mr. Damowksi was a new trustee on the Board, but familiar with the school, since he'd retired from teaching only the year before. The superintendent had a heart attack shortly after hiring Leigh; she hoped it wasn't because he'd heard of her past. The trustee was filling in.

The gym was full of students and their noise. She could barely hear herself think. Leigh's heart began to race. She was just about ready to bolt for the door when a very tall man strolled out onto the stage and held up his hand. A wave of silence washed across the room as older students fell silent and faced the front. In a surprisingly brief time the last voice was stilled and he dropped his hand.

"Welcome back to Spruce Bay Community School," the tall man said - his voice soft, but exceptionally clear. Even without a public-address system Leigh was certain that every student heard every word.

"My name is Mr. Jackson." The tall man pointed to himself. "I'm going to introduce the teachers for the year to you. Some you will know, some are new. You will give each teacher the full respect due to them."

"Yes, Mr. Jackson," the children said in ragged chorus.

"Mr. Ryckle is Principal, and he will teach the Grade Eight Class."

Some taller children stood up around the gym and looked toward the stage where Mr. Ryckle strode out to wave at the children.

The standing children walked through the crowd to the front then followed Mr. Ryckle out of the room.

"Miss Dupuis will be teaching Grade Seven and the French classes." Mr. Jackson said and an older woman strolled out in front of the stage. She lifted her hand slightly and the next group of children followed her out.

"Mr. McRoy will be teaching the Grade Fives and Sixes this year." Leigh heard a piercing whistle from the back of the gym. She turned with the children to see a large man in a wheelchair. He waved and another mob of children left the gym.

"Mrs. Dalrymple will be teaching Grade Three and Four this year." Leigh spun and looked in shock at Mr. Jackson. They never mentioned a split class. The largest group of children yet stood and looked around for their teacher. She couldn't whistle like Mr. McRoy and she didn't want to dash for the stage. So, she took a page from Mr. Jackson and just held her arm up. First one then another student saw her and pointed her out to their neighbours. When it looked like all the students had seen her, Leigh walked away toward her classroom

There weren't enough chairs for all the students, though if they crowded a little there were enough tables.

"It looks like we are going to be full this year," Leigh said when they were all in the room. "I'll ask the custodian about getting more chairs in a few minutes. For now, I want all the Grade Threes by the windows and the Grade Fours by the wall. If you don't have a chair, just sit on the tables for the moment."

The children took a few minutes to sort themselves out. Leigh could see a few pairs she'd probably have to break up later, but she decided to leave them for the moment. Two boys at the very back by the door made her wonder if they were in the right class they were so much bigger than the rest of the class. She could sort that out later.

"My name is Mrs. Dalrymple," Leigh said.

"What kind of name is that?" one of the smaller Grade Three students asked.

"What is your name?" Leigh asked.

"I'm Macky," the boy said.

"Dalrymple is an old Scottish name," Leigh said. She walked over to the map of the world and pointed to Scotland. "My grandparents came from here many years ago."

"Cool," Macky said.

"Ahem," Mr. Ryckle stuck his head in the door and gave it a jerk. Leigh nodded at him.

"I'll be back in a minute. While you are waiting, you will find paper and crayons on the shelves. Take one piece of paper and make yourself a sign of your name. You can decorate however you like."

"First or last name?" one of the big boys at the back asked.

"Just first name unless you want to put your last name on too." Leigh stepped out into the hall.

"We don't encourage the students to sit on the desks," Mr. Ryckle said.

"There aren't enough chairs, I was going to get the custodian to bring some more chairs during recess."

"Nonsense, the custodial staff have more important things to do." Mr. Ryckle stepped back into the room. "Tom, Steve, Anna, go to room twenty-four and bring back twelve chairs. That is four chairs each." The three students, two of which were the big boys at the back of the room walked down the hall.

"I expected you to plan appropriately for your class."

"I didn't know until this morning that I had a split class."

"Didn't you get my email?"

"No, I must have missed it."

"One of the new teachers changed their mind at the last minute about coming here. We are short-staffed so you'll have to make do. I hope that won't be a problem."

"No, Mr. Ryckle. It won't be a problem."

"I also expect my teachers to learn their students' names and not need silly signs to remind them."

"This is how I learn their names." Leigh took a deep breath and bit back the rest of what she wanted to say.

"This is why I like to hire my own teachers." Mr. Ryckle walked away.

The students were mostly hunched over their papers drawing carefully around the letters spelling out their names.

Leigh wandered through the class and watched them work. When the bigger children returned with the extra chairs, all the students settled at their desks. It was going to be crowded, but none of the children looked like they cared.

"Put your signs on your desk in front of you. If you finish your work early you can work more on them later. There are readers on the shelves. Tom, Steve would you give one reader to each pair of students."

"What about the Grade Fours?" A girl with a pale complexion and very black hair near the front raised her hand. Leigh looked at her sign.

"Georgia, we are going to start with these readers, but I will have some harder readers for those who want them."

"That won't be me, teach," Tom said. "I like easy."

So do I, I just never seem to get it. Leigh opened her reader and told the class what page they would start on.

They read through a story about two children who go shopping with their mother then have ice cream on the way home. Leigh looked at her students. At least half of them looked like they were at least partly Cree. One or two of their name signs were decorated with what looked like Cree letters. The rest of the students were a mix of faces that could have come from anywhere in the world. It was going to be a challenging class to teach. She looked forward to it.

They moved from reading to math when one of the students wondered how they could afford all the food on the list and still get ice cream. She had the students suggest how much the different things on the shopping list might cost and wrote them on the board. She had done some research the week before and suggested some corrections to their estimates. All the prices were much higher than what she was used to. In the end, they came to a total of how much the shopping trip would cost.

"How much do you think the ice cream would cost?" Leigh asked after they finished adding the numbers.

"Don't know, Teach," Tom said, "There ain't an ice cream shop in town. ‘sides my dad wouldn't buy all that stuff. We'd catch fish and eat that."

"Rabbit too," Steve said.

"Wild rice," another student, Jamie, said.

"I don't like wild rice," Georgia said.

"Me neither, but it doesn't stop me from eating it." Jamie rolled his eyes. "Better wild rice than nothing."

"It sounds like you are used to different foods than I am," Leigh said, "What kind of fish does your dad catch, Tom?"

"Mostly pickerel, but some goldeye and trout and stuff, jacks too."

"My brother uses snares to catch rabbits," Jamie said. "I don't mind them, but it gets a little boring after a bit."

"Bring some rabbit by the house and my dad will trade you a little moose for them."

Leigh looked up to see Mr. Ryckle glaring at her from the doorway. He didn't say anything, but Leigh wondered how he managed to do any teaching if he was spending all his time outside her class.

By the end of the day Leigh had a pretty good sense of the class. Georgia was bright but self-centered. Macky would talk all day about anything but what was going on at the moment. Jamie had a serious case of hero worship for Tom and Steve. Anna hadn't said a word all day. Her sign was just her name, nothing else. The rest of the children were still a mystery, but Leigh knew that she would learn about them in the coming weeks.

She packed the things that she needed to take home and heaved a sigh of relief. She'd survived the first day. Now, she needed to manage the rest of the year.

At home, she put some water on for tea and fixed herself a plate of cheese and crackers. Jim worked twelve hour shifts, so he wouldn't be home for a while yet. She put a casserole together and shoved it into the oven on a low temperature. It would be ready when Jim arrived.

Leigh took her snack down to her office and looked up her email. There was a message from Mr. Ryckle. The time stamp said it arrived in her inbox at 8:50 am that day - five minutes after Mr. Ryckle had left her room that morning. It meant that when they first talked, he might not have known himself she was doubling up.

"Well," Leigh said to herself, "you wanted the job." She looked up the Grade Four curriculum and started making notes. Georgia wasn't going to be happy with reviewing Grade Three for very long.