Beautiful Child: The story of a child trapped in silence and the teacher who refused to give up on her. Torey Hayden

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       Chapter Nine

      The next afternoon started off badly. Billy got into a fight with a child from another class during the lunch break and was banished to the principal’s office. Bob gave Billy the expected lecture and then made him sit in one of the “principal’s chairs,” which were lined up in the hall outside Bob’s office. This was where the “bad kids” sat until Bob told them they could return to their classroom. Billy was incensed. As ever, he couldn’t see how anything that had happened was his fault, and when he came back to my room after the bell rang, his face was red with indignant anger, his voice on the edge of tears at the unfairness of it all. Everybody hated him. Everybody treated him unfairly. It was this stupid school and why did he have to come here anyway? He wanted to go home right then. He wanted his brother. He wanted to go to school where his brother was, because then people wouldn’t keep picking on him.

      Fortunately, Julie was there, so she could take the other kids, because I wanted to spend time alone with Billy. My gut feeling was that what he really needed was sympathy and a cuddle, and I knew if I was nice to him, it would make him cry. I wanted to spare him the humiliation of bawling in front of the others, particularly Jesse, who didn’t have a lot of patience with Billy anyhow.

      This would have worked out, if I hadn’t forgotten about Gwennie. I was in the hallway with Billy when she came up the stairs. “Hi,” she said cheerfully. “How come he’s crying?”

      “None of your business!” Billy snapped back.

      “How come he’s crying? What happened? Did he fall down? I fell down. Yesterday. Look. I was on my bike and my bike fell over.” She showed us two scraped knees.

      “Make her go away,” Billy pleaded.

      “I got a Raleigh bike. It came from England. England is one of –”

      “Gwennie, could you just go on into the classroom, please? I’m talking to Billy just now.”

      “Yeah, it’s private!” Billy said.

      Gwennie didn’t move. She just stared at us. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked me, as if Billy weren’t even there. “Has he got something the matter?”

      “Yeah, you!” Billy cried and swung an arm out at her.

      Gwennie wasn’t as out of it as she appeared because she quite gracefully stepped back out of his swing. And just stood there.

      “Gwennie, please. Julie’s waiting for you.”

      It was no use. I gave up, opened the door, and took both Gwennie and Billy into the classroom.

      Julie was only just coping. Shane and Zane had gotten into an argument about who was supposed to use the cassette recorder first and Jesse barked his nervousness.

      “I remember being a baby,” Gwennie suddenly announced. “I remember my mother putting me in a little chair outside.”

      “That’s nice,” I said hurriedly. “Now could you find your chair in here, please? You too, Billy, time to start your folder. You find your chair as well.”

      “Oh? When did my chair get lost?” he queried.

      “I mean, sit down in it.”

      “I was sitting in my little chair and I saw a bird,” Gwennie said. “A bobolink. Bobolinks live in the Great Plains. Some live in Canada. The capital of Canada is Ottawa. Canada’s a very big country –”

      “Gwennie.” I pointed sternly to her chair. That’s when I noticed Venus was not at her table.

      “Where’s Venus?” I asked Julie.

      Julie, looking decidedly harassed, glanced around quickly. “I think she went to the bathroom. She was here. I’m sure she was here.”

      I went over to the window. There was Venus, lounging on top of her wall. I had no idea if she had ever come in from lunch or not. “We can’t have this,” I said. “The amount of time that kid misses because no one notices she isn’t here. I’ll go get her.”

      “No,” Julie said with unexpected feeling. “I’ll go get her.”

      I could hear the unspoken plea not to be left alone in charge of the others. Over the previous few days, I was becoming increasingly aware that I was expecting a bit too much of Julie. While she was experienced in the classroom, she was not a teacher and had no pretensions to be. Obviously, my room had come as a shock after her experiences as a support person to Casey, who was hardworking, sweet-tempered, and confined to a wheelchair.

      So while Julie went down to the playground to charm Venus off her wall, I got everyone started on their work. Or at least she tried to charm Venus. Minutes passed. Five, ten. I glanced out the window and Julie was still down there, standing beside the wall, talking up to Venus, who appeared to be ignoring her completely.

      About twenty minutes later, Julie returned. She didn’t say anything, but the look of defeat said it all.

      “I’ll go get her,” I said. “Everybody here is busy. They can do an activity of their choice, when they’re done with their folders. If you run into problems, call Bob up.”

      I think when I said that I knew I wasn’t coming back up myself, at least not for a long time.

      Down in the empty playground, I crossed to where Venus was sitting on the wall. “Venus, it’s time for class. When you hear the bell ring, it’s time to come in.”

      No response whatsoever. She was in her glamour-queen pose, reclined back with her arms behind her, supporting her weight, head back, eyes closed, one leg up, one leg outstretched along the wall, long hair tumbling down.

      “Venus?” I stood below her. The wall was about six feet high, so it was really a very inconvenient height to bring her down from.

      She totally ignored me.

      “Venus? Do you hear me? It’s time to go in. It’s time for class.”

      I knew I’d crossed the Rubicon. By coming out onto the playground myself to get her, I’d played into her game. The only way to make it my game was to ensure she went back with me. I couldn’t back down now and give up. At the same time, I knew whatever I did had to be well gauged. If I reached for her and missed or did not get enough of a grip, she would be over the wall onto the other side and off, the way she had done the other time.

      I stood a moment longer, trying to figure out the best way to tackle the problem. It was difficult because the wall was taller than I was and Venus, of course, was on top of it. I didn’t want to lose her but I didn’t want to hurt her either. Nor myself.

      Was she aware of me? This was the question that always lurked in the back of my mind. How much awareness was in this incredibly inert child? On the one hand, I felt much of it had to be within СКАЧАТЬ