Page 22 of Reagan

“Whatever you want, love, I’m here for you.”The two of them walked hand in hand out of the hospital, and she felt better than she had before.Just having someone love her was more than she ever hoped for in her life.And having Reagan in her life was like having all the blessings in the world.

~*~

Farley was enjoying his class this year.The students were eager to learn, and they were fun as well.He thought that teaching third grade was the best there was.They were learning all kinds of things that kept their attention, and he loved the fact that they asked questions of him when they didn’t understand.First graders were like that.Afraid to ask too many questions for getting into trouble.He was ready to get started when the first bell rang.

“All right, class.Let’s get started.Who wants to check the backpacks to make sure that they’re all hung up well?”He picked one person from the full class of hands being raised.“Once that is done, we’ll go over the spelling words from yesterday.Remember, there will be a test on Tuesday, and if you pass it, you don’t have to take the one on Friday.”

“Mr.Farley, my momma said that I can do them all right at home, so I don’t need to take the test on Tuesday.”He said that everyone took the test, no matter how well they did at home.“She’s not going to be happy with you.She said that taking the test stresses me out.I think she does the stressing, but I’m not allowed to say that to her anymore.”

“No, that would be rude.”He had to stifle a laugh when he thought of the conversation that would be going on tonight at Benji’s home.“I’ll send a note home with you to make sure she understands that we all take the tests at the same time here in the classroom so that I can tell that you’re learning when you need to be.”

“All right, but that’s going to be hard on me.”He did smile this time and told Benji that his mother could call and talk to him when she wanted questions answered.“I’ll tell her, but she’s working a lot nowadays, and she might not be able to come in.I told her that I don’t mind taking the test, I usually do really good on it anyway, but she said that I’m her little boy and that she says what’s going to happen to me.I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

“You’re not.”He wanted to tell Benji that his mother was, but didn’t.He didn’t want to put the little boy in the middle of things, and that would be just what he would do if he voiced what he wanted to.“We’ll go over the words now, and then tomorrow we’ll take the pre-test.Has everyone studied them?”

Again, a room full of hands went up, and he was glad to know that they’d been studying.As he was going over the words, he noticed that Megan was sleeping with her head down on her desk.That had been happening a lot lately, and he wondered what was going on at home.As soon as he had a break, he was going to make a phone call to her home.It might be a simple thing that she wasn’t sleeping well and needed to get some extra sleep at school.

By lunchtime, he and the kids had gone over not just their spelling words but their math homework as well.He was glad that things were progressing well for them.He was happy, too, with theresults that he was getting from them.He realized that they were taking the class homework seriously, and that made him feel good about the way he was teaching.Just as the kids were going down to the cafeteria for lunch, he heard from his brother Darius.

“I’ve been wanting to have dinner with you for about a week now.How about tonight we meet up at the burger joint and pig out?”He told him that it sounded great.“Good.I’ve been feeling a little down lately and have been needing to get together with someone for weeks.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.I’ve had a really good day and thought that tomorrow was going to be even better.”He called him a dork.“It takes one to know one.”The two of them laughed, and he was happy that he’d be able to see him tonight.

Making arrangements to meet up, he was glad that he’d talked to him.It was going to be fun to get together with his brother.They didn’t see each other all that much as they both had good teaching jobs.

Darius had come right out of college and landed a job at the local college.He had been teaching at the university for the last few years, and he seemed to enjoy it.As he was on lunchroom duty, he was free to make up a list of things that he wanted to talk to his brother about.

There wasn’t much, but he had it down pat when he was ready for the day to begin again.Lunchroom duty only meant that he was in the lunch room while his class was eating.He watched over the other classes that were there as well.Keeping them all in line when they knew they were going outside in a few minutes was difficult to do.After they went outside, he was free for the next thirty minutes to eat his own meal.

Looking forward to dinner, the rest of the day seemed to drag on.He had to stop himself from looking at the clock several times and was thrilled when three o’clock rolled around.Just fifteen minutes to go and he’d be free to go home and get ready for his dinner date with his brother.

He was ready to go when Darius showed up at his condo.He was dressed in a tie, and when he offered him something less formal to wear, he jumped at the chance.Giving him a couple of shirts to choose from, he picked a pullover, and they were ready to go.Meeting at Scotties Den, they were there before the rush started and still had good food.He loved this place and all that the place stood for.

After their meals, they sat at the table and talked until the place started to fill up.He and Darius walked about the town for a bit, and he remembered that he’d not called Megan’s parents.He was going to do that as soon as he got to school in the morning and find out why the little girl seemed to be sleeping all the time.

The two of them parted ways about seven.It had been a good time, and he hated for it to end.But they both needed to be in bed early so that they could go to work in the morning.He usually was up by six, but he thought that Darius was up well before then.He loved that he had so much in common with his little brother.They got along well, he thought.

The next morning, he was at the school at seven.Classes didn’t start until nine, but he liked to get things ready for his day early enough that things were put where they needed to be when he was ready for them.There were things too that he had to do, like putting the chairs back down on the floor after the room had been cleaned, and he didn’t want the kids to do that in the event they might get hurt.Plus, there were phone calls he had to make.

“Ms.Jacobson?This is Megan’s teacher, Mr.Dresden.I was wanting to talk to you about some behaviors that I’ve noticed from her.”She asked what she’d done now.“Nothing wrong.She’s just been sleeping a great deal, and I worry about her learning.”

“She’s not sleeping well at home.I try to get her in bed by midnight, but she balks at the idea.Always wanting to watch some television or play a game.”He had an idea that the child getting only five or six hours of sleep at home wasn’t enough for a growing child but said nothing to the woman.“I’ll have a talk to her when she gets home.Maybe I can get her into bed a bit earlier.Does eleven sound all right to you?”

“I’m usually in bed by nine, so eleven to me sounds late.”He laughed a little, and she didn’t say anything.“I need my good eight hours, or I’m not able to function during the day.Perhaps you couldget her into bed where she’ll get those eight hours in?”

“Eight hours?Holy shit, I’ve never slept a full eight hours in my life.I have to take a nap during the day, but I’ve never slept that long before at night.You gotta be kidding me, right?”He wasn’t sure what to say, so he said nothing.“I can try to get her into bed by nine, but I don’t know.What are you going to do to her about sleeping during the day?I got no time to go down there and pick her up if you’re surprising her.”He hadn’t the slightest idea what that meant, but figured that maybe she meant suspending her.

“I’m sorry, but that’s my only recourse is to suspend her.Since she’s sleeping in class, she’s not learning anything, and that’s going to hurt her in the long run.If I do suspend her, it might make it so that she doesn’t get to pass her grade when the time comes.”She said that she wanted to be in the fourth grade.“I want her to be as well, but the way things are looking, that might not happen.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what.I’ll get her into bed at nine and see where that gets her.She shouldn’t be up anyway when I’m having my parties.”Farley thought that the child might be better off staying with someone else, but didn’t voice his concerns.“She might not stay there, but I’ll get her there so that she can get her eight hours.That might be better for me, too.Can’t have too much fun when there’s a kid hanging around all the time.Know what I mean?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t.”She asked him if he partied.“I’m afraid not.As I said, I go to bed early so that I can get to school on time.There’s a lot of work to be done before the kids show up to learn.”

“Well, I guess it sucks to be you.”She laughed, and he wondered if she had other children who were suffering because their mother was partying all night.“I’ll do it.I don’t want her surprised at all about missing school.I get in some good nap times when she’s away, and I don’t want to give that up anytime too soon.”

After getting off the phone with the woman, he felt like he needed a shower.Looking up where she lived, it didn’t surprise him at all that she lived in the government housing.Some of the people who lived in them took advantage of the situation they were in, and he felt sorry for the kids.Instead of napping during the day, she should be making sure that her kid was getting a good night’s sleep.But he didn’t have anything to do with that, so he kept his mouth shut.As soon as he was back in his classroom, he decided to make sure that Megan was awake, and perhaps that would make it so that she’d be tired enough to sleep when she got home.It was something that he was going to try.

For the rest of his day, keeping Megan awake and the kids working, he thought that his job was the hardest of them all.He didn’t like the way that she was sleeping all day and staying up all night, but he had other kids that he had to care for, and it wasn’t fair of her to take up so much of his time.As soon as lunch was over, he sat in his office and ate his while the kids were outside.It was then that he realized that he might become a mated tiger soon.