Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
FAITH
Istapled the last reindeer with the red cotton ball nose in the hallway near our classroom door. It was a Friday, and my headache had been growing for hours, but the kids would love coming in Monday morning and seeing their artwork.
I went back into my room and grabbed the stack of homemade snowflakes attached to a string from my desk.
I didn’t want to go through the trouble of finding a ladder, and I took my step stool home last week and forgot to bring it back. I grabbed my chair and pushed it near the wall. High heels on a chair would be asking for an accident. I removed my shoes and stepped onto the chair.
The best part of being in the old part of the building was the ceilings were lower.
With the strings in my lips, dangling snowflakes swung back and forth as I reached with the stapler posed above my head.
I stretched up on my tiptoes. I could almost reach the ceiling.
I pressed up on my tiptoes harder. There!
The door flew open with enough force that it crashed into the wall.
I sucked the string farther into my mouth as I nearly fell off the chair.
Danny rushed into the room with tears streaming down his face.
I hopped down and rushed over to Danny, snowflakes left on the ground around me. I reached him and placed a hand on his back.
“Danny? What’s wrong?” I leaned down.
“My dad wasn’t at parent pickup, and I couldn’t find him in his office or the gym.” He rocked back on his heels and tried to hold back his gasps. “I think he forgot me.” With that confession, a fresh wave of tears was released.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I rubbed his back gently. “I’m sure your dad is here somewhere.” I grabbed a tissue from my desk and handed it to him. “Maybe we could find him together?”
“No, he isn’t here. He left me.” Danny’s shoulders drooped.
“Oh Danny, your dad would never forget you. He may lose track of time, but he will never forget you.”
Danny’s breath calmed. His eyes took in the classroom and snowflakes littered on the floor. “What are you doing?”
“I’m putting up some Christmas decorations.”
He wiped his tears with the back of his arm. “Can I help?”
It might be good to keep his mind busy, but I’m sure Adam was looking for him somewhere. “How about we look for your dad first, then we will decide?”
Danny didn’t meet my eyes, but nodded.
I turned around. “One second.” I slipped my shoes back on.
“I hate to wear shoes too.” Danny pointed at my feet.
I smiled back. “All right, let’s check the front office first, then maybe we can check his gym office?”
“I already checked it.” Danny shook his head.
“I’m sure you did. Maybe someone in the office knows new information now.”
Danny shrugged but started toward the hallway.
“Sorry you can’t find your dad. I’m sure that feels scary.” I quickened my steps to keep up with his fast pace.
“I used to have a mom, but now I don’t.” Danny stared at the floor but maintained his speed. “Grandma said it was because she left and didn’t come back.” His eyes shot to me before they darted away. “Do you think Dad will leave me too?”
My heart instantly broke, and I stutter stepped. I reached for Danny’s hand, pulling him to a stop. I kneeled down so I was eye level, and I squeezed his hand in mine. “No, Danny, I don’t think your dad will leave. Your dad loves you very much.”
He stared at the brown woven carpet. “But moms are supposed to love their kids too, right?”
I walked right into that one. I grasped at what to say. I didn’t know the details of his parents’ relationship, other than the gossip around town. Which was basically that she left them both for a more prestigious career.
“Yes.” I thought of my mother, I had almost called her last night.
I hit dial and then hung up. She wouldn’t want to get to know me, she would just want to change me.
I pursed my lips. “Some people aren’t very good at loving.
Maybe they just don’t know how to.” My forehead creased.
“I have watched your dad though. He knows how to love.” I pictured Adam as he held Danny and his eyes when he looked at his son.
Danny looked back at me with his eyebrow raised.
I squeezed his hand again, stood, and nodded toward the office. “Let’s see what we can learn.”
I walked into the foyer, which was scattered with a few chairs and a long desk. Margo sat behind the desk. She glanced up and smiled. “Hey, Faith.”
“Hey, Margo.”
Her eyes went to Danny at my side. “Oh no, did a parent forget to pick up again?” She tilted her head. “Wait, you’re Coach’s kid, right?”
I placed my hand on Danny’s back. “Yep, looks like maybe there was some confusion over pickup?”
“Hmm…” She sat back in the swivel chair and clicked her keyboard.
“Let me check.” She focused on the screen.
“I’m not seeing anything… Oh wait, yep.” She looked back at me.
“Looks like we relayed a message to the coach from his mom that she was having some car problems a few hours ago.” She shrugged.
“My guess is they got delayed. I’ll call him.
Do you want to wait here?” Margo looked down at Danny.
He stiffened and took a small step closer to me.
“That’s okay. Danny was going to help with a few things in my room, the door will be open. When his dad gets here, will you send him there?”
“Yep.” Margo nodded. “Sure thing. I’ll call right now.” She picked up the phone and started dialing.
“Thank you.” I said and headed toward my classroom.
“Are you hungry?” I asked Danny. “I have some gingerbread cookies I made that I need someone to try.”
Danny scrunched his nose. “Why do you want people to try them? Are they in a competition or something?” Danny’s shoulders had softened now that he knew his dad was coming. I was hoping the cookies would help him relax even more.
“Nope, I simply haven’t made them before, so I was trying something new.”
Danny shrugged. “Sure.”
Back in the classroom, I went to my desk and grabbed the Tupperware with cookies. I was going to drop them off in the teachers’ lounge since Rose refused to eat any, but then I got nervous.
Would people think it was weird that I was randomly bringing cookies?
What if they liked them and thought I was searching for compliments?
What if they didn’t?
So the cookies stayed at my desk.
I opened it up and handed it to Danny. “Have as many as you like.”
He picked up a cookie and took a bite, and his eyes lit up in surprise.
“These are good.” He reached in and grabbed two more.
“My grandma tries to make cookies,” he mumbled between bites, “but I think she tries to sneak veggies in them, ’cause they taste weird, and she burns them.
” He scrunched up his nose. “My dad will sometimes buy cookies though.”
I nodded. “Well, I am glad you like them. I love to make cookies, but I have no one to eat them.” I sighed.
His forehead crinkled in thought. “Well, my dad and I always eat the cookies he buys.” He shrugs. “We could eat them.”
I chuckled. This adorable boy’s logic was sound.
“All right, you finish those cookies there so you don’t get crumbs everywhere. I’m going to keep working on the room. Once you are done, you can help.”
He quickly shoved the remaining two cookies into his mouth. “I’m ready. What can I do?” Crumbs fell to the floor as he tried to keep the cookies inside his mouth.
I looked around to see what Danny could help with safely. “How about you hold the strand of snowflakes and I can staple them up high?”
He stood tall. “I’m tall for a second grader.”
“True.” I slipped my shoes off. “I’m short for a grown up, so that might come in handy.”
He followed me over to my chair. “It’s probably because my dad is tall so it’s in my garnetics.”
I smiled at his pronunciation of genetics. He used the most adult words sometimes. “I’m sure you’re right.” I steadied myself as I stood on the seat of the chair. “Okay, will you hand me a snowflake?”
“This one?” He grabbed a snowflake off the ground.
“Yep.”
We worked like this for a bit. Me reaching to my tallest and stapling and then moving my chair, and Danny holding the snowflakes as high as his arms could stretch. He hummed “Frosty the Snowman.”
“Do you like Christmas music?” I asked as I stapled another snowflake.
“Yep.” Danny bobbed his head to his song.
“Me too.”
“We’re going to get a Christmas tree tomorrow.”
I stretched and stapled another snowflake.
“Fun, like at the Merc?” The mercantile store was an eclectic mix of hardware, farm tools, seasonal decorations, alcohol, groceries, and, at times, questionable bulk sales.
I’m still questioning last year’s bulk onion sale.
What would someone do with forty pounds of onions?
Growing up, Christmas trees showed up at my house, huge, fake, and pre-decorated. The Merc had real trees for sale this year, and I wanted to get one.
Last year, Rose and I borrowed one of her family’s old fake trees for fun, and it was my favorite part of Christmas. Decorating the tree and putting on the lights was my favorite part. It felt like magic.
“Nope.” Danny picked up another snowflake as I moved the chair. “Dad takes the truck to the mountains, and we cut it down, plus we get one for grandma.”
“Huh?” I had never thought of getting a Christmas tree that way, but I immediately wanted to try. “That sounds awesome! Where do you go?”
“I dunno, a mountain.” He shrugged and handed me another snowflake.
I chuckled. “Fair.”
A thumping sound came from down the hall, and a six-plus-foot man sprinted into my classroom, eyes searching desperately until they landed on Danny. I saw his shoulders crumple as Adam rushed over and pulled Danny into a big hug, anxiety and worry rolling off of him.