STOP AND THINK
At this point in the story, write a few sentences stating what you now know about Laurie, about his mother and his father, and about his experience at school. Quietly, speak what you have written to a classmate. Now read on …
Monday night was the fi rst Parent–Teacher meeting, and only the fact that the baby had a cold kept me from going; I wanted passionately to meet Charles’s mother. On Tuesday Laurie remarked suddenly, ‘Our teacher had a friend come to see her in school today.’
‘Charles’s mother?’ my husband and I asked simultaneously.
‘Naaah,’ Laurie said scornfully. ‘It was a man who came and made us do exercises, we had to touch our toes. Look.’ He climbed down from his chair and squatted down and touched his toes. ‘Like this,’ he said. He got solemnly back into his chair and said, picking up his fork, ‘Charles didn’t even do exercises.’
‘That’s fi ne,’ I said heartily. ‘Didn’t Charles want to do exercises?’
‘Naaah,’ Laurie said. ‘Charles was so fresh to the teacher’s friend he wasn’t let do exercises.’ ‘Fresh again?’ I said.
‘He kicked the teacher’s friend,’ Laurie said. ‘The teacher’s friend told Charles to touch his toes like I just did and Charles kicked him.’ ‘What are they going to do about Charles, do you suppose?’ Laurie’s father asked him. Laurie shrugged elaborately. ‘Throw him out of school, I guess,’ he said.
Wednesday and Thursday were routine; Charles yelled during story hour and hit a boy in the stomach and made him cry. On Friday Charles stayed after school again and so did all the other children.
With the third week of kindergarten Charles was an institution in our family; the baby was being a Charles when she cried all afternoon; Laurie did a Charles when he fi lled his wagon full of mud and pulled it through the kitchen; even my husband, when he caught his elbow in the telephone cord and pulled telephone, ashtray and a bowl of fl owers off the table, said, after the fi rst minute, ‘Looks like Charles.’
During the third and fourth weeks it looked like a reformation in Charles; Laurie reported grimly at lunch on Thursday of the third week, ‘Charles was so good today the teacher gave him an apple.’
‘What?’ I said, and my husband added warily, ‘You mean Charles?’
‘Charles,’ Laurie said. ‘He gave the crayons around and he picked up the books afterward and the teacher said he was her helper.’ ‘What happened?’ I asked incredulously. ‘He was her helper, that’s all,’ Laurie said, and shrugged.
44 FIRE & ICE 1
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