The Teacher Who Couldn't

You always hear those stories about teachers who changed people’s lives or inspired a child or two. I have always wondered where are these teachers people talk about? All my teachers have always had somewhere better to be or just bored of what they were saying. Just reciting information like the birds outside my window. Well now that I think about it I had a teacher back in first grade who would come to class and talk about the day that she would be free of all her worries. I never knew she was talking about but I remember her blue as the sea eyes and hair as shiny as a new penny. She talked to us like we mattered and she always told us we were the future. I didn’t understand all that she said but she made me feel happy. When she talked you forgot all about what worried you, like how your parents fought too much. One day she came to school and she had bruises on her face and arms. She started to cry after she read a story to us that I don’t remember but it did have a happy ending. We brushed away her tears with our smiles that brought out the sunshine and bicycle bell giggles. I thought that we had made everything better but I guess not. No, I was wrong. The next day the principal came in and explained that our teacher had gone away for a little while and would not be back. That’s all I was told but I know that she is in a place now where she won’t cry from stories that end happy or won’t have anymore bruises because she is finally free from worries. And husbands who don’t know when to leave.