Chapter 5
Chapter Five
“Hello, darling. How was school today?” Grandma asked as Nelly arrived home, closing the door behind her and setting her bag down by the chair.
She had more work than usual, since she had spent her planning period discussing the school play with another teacher. She had what she was doing in her own classroom, plus the school play, but thankfully, the church had not tapped her for anything this year.
Although, things seemed to be running behind a little bit and maybe no one was planning on doing anything.
There was a part of her that wanted to jump in and make sure something was being planned, and if not, plan it herself, but she already had a lot of irons in the fire.
She thought about the firewood and smiled.
“Hello, Grandma. School was wonderful. The kids were great, and I think we all learned some things. Did you have a good day?”
“I did, but I cannot find my husband anywhere. He seems to have slipped away from me and did not let me know where he was going. I really don’t like it when he does this. He knows I always want him to leave a note.” Her grandmother looked very put out, although not worried.
Her words sent a squiggle of fear through Nelly’s stomach. She had thought her gram was in her right mind today. She hadn’t had an episode for over a week.
“I’m sure he’ll be back soon, Gram. Would you like to go into the kitchen?
I’m starving.” She put an arm around her grandmother’s shoulders and gently guided her toward the kitchen.
It was funny, but being in the kitchen usually soothed her grandmother.
Maybe it was because she had spent so much time there, creating delicious meals and dishes for her own family.
Or maybe it was just being surrounded by the warmth and the good smells and the idea of sitting at the family table and laughing and talking with each other.
Whatever it was, Grandma always settled when they entered the room.
This time was no different.
“I sure hope those children didn’t give you too much trouble today,” her grandmother said, like the episode about her husband had never happened. She seemed to be back in the present.
“They didn’t. They’re good kids. I really love my class this year.”
“You say that every year,” Grandma teased her. And it was true. She always did think the class that she had currently was the best class she’d ever had. And she’d only been teaching for eight years. Was that the way it would always be?
“That’s true. I guess I just always see their potential, you know?” she said, feeling the strain between her shoulder blades and flexing a bit to try to alleviate the pain. She had a long evening ahead of her before she could go to bed.
“That’s one of the things I love about you. You were always so driven and competitive in school, and you still are, but you have such a big heart.”
“Driven and competitive?” she said, although she knew it was true.
“Well, yes, you and that…McBride boy. Roland. The youngest. My goodness, you guys had such a competition going on.”
“That’s because he was mean to me, and I always wanted to outdo him.”
“Yes, that’s probably true. But you guys pushed each other to excellence. It was competition in the very best way. One year, you would win the spelling bee, then next year, he would.”
“No. I won every year except for one, and that’s when Jamie won.
” Jamie had ended up being the valedictorian of the class.
It was funny, because she didn’t remember any competition between her and Jamie, even though she had graduated number two.
But she remembered tons of competition between her and Roland, and Roland hadn’t even graduated in the top five.
Their class had been small, and Roland had ranked well, but…
not even next to her. It’s funny—she remembered him as her main competitor.
“Every teacher you had commented on your rivalry with him. And how it was too bad that the two of you didn’t get along, because instead of tearing each other down, your rivalry built each other up.”
“I think that’s true. I don’t think I would have graduated number two in the class if it hadn’t been for Roland.
I was so determined to beat him at everything.
” She thought about other academic competitions, even any time they took a test. She didn’t care who got the best grade in the class, whether it was her or someone else.
She only cared that she beat Roland. Somehow, someway, she always found out his grade.
Thankfully, she had a friend who sat behind him in almost every class, at least the ones where they were seated in alphabetical order according to last names.
So she kind of had an inside scoop on what he made.
Somehow, he figured out how she did as well. It couldn’t have been the person behind her, because that had been Jamie, and they had been friends.
Maybe it was someone who usually sat catty-corner from her. She wasn’t sure, but…most of the memories were good. Even if her feelings about Roland were irritation more than anything.
“I always thought the two of you would end up together,” Gram said as Nelly opened the refrigerator door and pulled out the salad fixings she had ready to put together for the meal.
“Roland and me?” she asked, aghast at the idea.
“Well, sure. You guys weren’t competitive because you hated each other. You were competitive because you were attracted to each other.”
Whoa. Was that true?
She didn’t recall having tender feelings toward Roland. Not even one.
Did she?
She’d been so busy competing with him that she’d never stopped to examine how she might really feel.
It was just so satisfying to beat him every time.
She would think about the valentine that he had made fun of her about, the way she had cried and how hurt she’d been, and it just felt like that much more satisfaction.
“I do remember that teachers commented on our rivalry, and looking back, I think you’re right. Roland made me a better student. He kept me focused on the things that I really should have been focused on, even if I wasn’t doing them for exactly the right reasons.”
“I think you’re missing the point. There was some romantic interest between the two of you.”
“I don’t think there was,” she said honestly.
But in hindsight, maybe her grandmother was right.
It was funny how she totally didn’t notice anyone else or even care about their grades.
She didn’t even care about hers. As long as she beat Roland.
She really hadn’t thought of him in a romantic way, but maybe it was something that was there, just not on her radar.
She hadn’t been interested in any other boys. And come to think of it, the ones she had gone out with hadn’t consumed her the way Roland had. And maybe, just maybe, she had compared some of them to him and found them wanting.
“Now that you say something, maybe…maybe there was a bit of attraction there. I know I really enjoyed our rivalry, although I would have said that the thought of him turned my stomach and that he was mean and unkind and a big jerk. But…he really wasn’t, was he?”
Her grandma smiled, kindly, as she chopped tomatoes at the table.
She shook her head. “No. He really wasn’t.
He was a nice young man, and I was disappointed when the two of you didn’t get together.
I thought you were perfect for each other.
The same way my Stuart was perfect for me. He was such a good man. Gone too soon.”
Her grandma was quiet for a few beats, and Nelly had to admit that she was relieved that her gram seemed to be completely back in the present.
The episodes of her being confused, or lost in the past, were scary and unsettling.
She knew it was a part of growing older, and something that she had to face, but she didn’t want to.
“So, anything new in town?” her gram asked.
One of the things that her gram really loved was the fact that Nelly still got out and told her all of the things that were going on.
Her gram had different places that she went, and then they compared notes.
It made her gram feel like she could still stay involved and made her less sad that she couldn’t do all the things that she used to do.
“Well, I heard that the Johnson family needs firewood, and that came from the school nurse, who talked to one of the children, who had come to school and refused to take their coat off. Apparently, they were afraid that the school was going to be as cold as their house.” She had felt bad for the little one and had determined to get the wood to the Johnson family as quickly as she could.
“Oh, that’s sad. I remember cutting wood when I was young.
I enjoyed doing that with my dad. He would take us all out into the woods with his chainsaw, cut up the logs into billets, and we would carry them to his pickup.
It was work that my siblings really didn’t enjoy, but I loved being out in the woods. ”
“I’m sure that was fun,” Nelly said. She hadn’t exactly gone out in the woods and gotten hers.
She had strategically talked to someone who knew someone who owned a log truck.
That person had brought her a load of firewood, paid for in cash by someone who knew someone.
Then, she paid someone else to cut it up.
She was going to go herself in Gram’s old pickup, which of course used to be her grandpa’s, and take a load to the Johnson family.
She’d been setting it up for a while, because she’d heard that they had a bill and couldn’t afford their heat and had turned their heat way down so they didn’t have to order oil before Christmas.
Hearing about the little one who refused to take his coat off had made her step up her efforts, and she was ready to do it tonight.
She had her eye on midnight or slightly thereafter.
She figured she could take a little nap before she left and then sleep a bit afterward.
That seemed to be the best time, and then that gave her four hours give or take to load her pickup and then unload it at the Johnsons’.
She might even be able to get two loads if she hurried.
She wasn’t sure exactly how long it would take, but it felt good to be planning it and to know that tomorrow morning, the Johnsons’ worry about keeping their house warm would be completely over.