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SHORT STORY 01

Well, we had all these children out planting trees, see, because we fgured that ... that was parto their education, to see how, you know, the root systems ... and also the sense oresponsibility, taking care o things, being individually responsible. You know what I mean. Andthe trees all died. They were orange trees. I dont know why they died, they !ust died."omething wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stu# we got rom the nursery wasnt the

best. We complained about it. "o weve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own littletree to plant and weve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brownsticks, it was depressing.

It wouldnt have been so bad e$cept that !ust a couple o weeks beore the thing with the trees,the snakes all died. %ut I think that the snakes & well, the reason that the snakes kicked o# wasthat ... you remember, the boiler was shut o# or our days because o the strike, and that wase$plicable. It was something you could e$plain to the kids because o the strike. I mean, noneo their parents would let them cross the picket line and they knew there was a strike going onand what it meant. "o when things got started up again and we ound the snakes they werenttoo disturbed.

With the herb gardens it was probably a case o overwatering, and at least now they know notto overwater. The children were very conscientious with the herb gardens and some o them

probably ... you know, slipped them a little e$tra water when we werent looking. 'r maybe ...well, I dont like to think about sabotage, although it did occur to us. I mean, it was somethingthat crossed our minds. We were thinking that way probably because beore that the gerbilshad died, and the white mice had died, and the salamander ... well, now they know not to carrythem around in plastic bags.

' course we e$pected the tropical fsh to die, that was no surprise. Those numbers, you lookat them crooked and theyre belly(up on the surace. %ut the lesson plan called or a tropicalfsh input at that point, there was nothing we could do, it happens every year, you !ust have tohurry past it.

We werent even supposed to have a puppy.

We werent even supposed to have one, it was !ust a puppy the )urdoch girl ound under a

*ristedes truck one day and she was araid the truck would run over it when the driver hadfnished making his delivery, so she stuck it in her knapsack and brought it to the school withher. "o we had this puppy. As soon as I saw the puppy I thought, 'h +hrist, I bet it will live orabout two weeks and then... And thats what it did. It wasnt supposed to be in the classroom atall, theres some kind o regulation about it, but you cant tell them they cant have a puppywhen the puppy is already there, right in ront o them, running around on the oor and yapyap yapping. They named it -dgar & that is, they named it ater me. They had a lot o unrunning ater it and yelling, /ere, -dgar0 1ice -dgar02 Then theyd laugh like hell. Theyen!oyed the ambiguity. I en!oyed it mysel. I dont mind being kidded. They made a little houseor it in the supply closet and all that. I dont know what it died o. 3istemper, I guess. Itprobably hadnt had any shots. I got it out o there beore the kids got to school. I checked thesupply closet each morning, routinely, because I knew what was going to happen. I gave it tothe custodian.

And then there was this 4orean orphan that the class adopted through the /elp the +hildrenprogram, all the kids brought in a 5uarter a month, that was the idea. It was an unortunatething, the kids name was 4im and maybe we adopted him too late or something. The cause odeath was not stated in the letter we got, they suggested we adopt another child instead andsent us some interesting case histories, but we didnt have the heart. The class took it prettyhard, they began 6I think, nobody ever said anything to me directly7 to eel that maybe therewas something wrong with the school. %ut I dont think theres anything wrong with the school,particularly, Ive seen better and Ive seen worse. It was !ust a run o bad luck. We had ane$traordinary number o parents passing away, or instance. There were I think two heartattacks and two suicides, one drowning, and our killed together in a car accident. 'ne stroke.And we had the usual heavy mortality rate among the grandparents, or maybe it was heavierthis year, it seemed so. And fnally the tragedy.

The tragedy occurred when )atthew Wein and Tony )avrogordo were playing over wheretheyre e$cavating or the new ederal o8ce building. There were all these big wooden beamsstacked, you know, at the edge o the e$cavation. Theres a court case coming out o that, the

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parents are claiming that the beams were poorly stacked. I dont know whats true and whatsnot. Its been a strange year. 9...: