This week’s letter is “S”—I’m using both the author’s drawing and her prompt words:  Skunk, School, Scrubbed, Snug, Sense of Wonder.  Click the link to learn more about this weekly prompt, and join in!  https://nopenotpam.com/2022/08/07/a-letter-a-week-s/

But for the name “Sally”, this tale is 100% autobiographical!😉

Sally’s sense of wonder

About school lasted only

Through First Grade

Reading was easy, fun, and

Her teacher clearly considered

Her the star pupil…

By the next September

Mere thought of 12 full years

Of compulsory education

Became a stone tied ’round her neck…

The surprising kindness of pretty 

Miss P frightened her initially

When the young teacher

Took her to the Supplies room

For a chat, but Sally soon felt snug

Seated on Miss P’s lap as she

Asked in a soft voice, “Can you

Tell me, are you sad…or scared?

Don’t you like the other children?”

NO one had ever asked Sally

How she felt about anything

She had no idea what to reply—

She could hardly speak about

The well-scrubbed Steven B

Who was otherwise a skunk

The way he habitually picked her

Up and wouldn’t put her down

Till he finished squeezing her…

Nor could she reveal her home life…

Stressed by the obligation

To say something to Miss P, she

Admitted she couldn’t “do numbers”

Miss P assured her she’d help her

Learn, and briefly hugged her.

Math never did become Sally’s forte…

And though Steven ceased lifting

Her off the ground on a whim, his

Attentions continued through Jr High

Until her family moved out of state ~

She never forgot sweet, insightful Miss P…

And decades later, after her divorce

Sally wondered if she and Steven

Might have married, had she

Not left town… he’d seemed

Sincerely smitten, despite her

Gawky, not-yet-lovely adolescence.

©Leyde Ryan, 2022 ~ All rights reserved.