Winter Season

Paper

She put the paper down and took a deep breath, “I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have engaged with your family a while ago. I just don’t deal well with his kind of people. I grew up dirt poor but my gram would have died before she would have let me go out of the house lookin’ or smellin’ like we didn’t have anything. And never would I have had holes in my clothes. It kills me that people associate poor with,” she pointed at the door, “him. If I ever overstep, just tell me.”

Oscar swallowed hard. He thought long and hard about what to say to her. That little voice said, tell her the truth, what do you have to lose? “We really didn’t grow up like that. We didn’t have much. I don’t know what happened to him. He always got everything he wanted. It didn’t matter what it was. If mom could find a way to give it to him, he had it. That, what you say is a choice, he wasn’t raised that way.” He pursed his lips together. “Thank you for speaking up.”

“You’re welcome.” She went back to her paper.

The questions on the test were as follows:

Question 1

What energy drives Earth’s interacting systems?

Billy answered heat. The answer key said internal heat.

“What if they only got half the answer right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Little Billy here answered heat. Your answer key says internal heat.”

“Beside the question number right ½ then somewhere near his heat write internal heat.”

“Got ja.”

Question 2

According to geologic time, how old is the Earth? 4.6 billion years

Question 3

What are the three “clans” of rock that reflect Earth’s geologic processes? 1. Igkneous 2. Setomentary 3. Medomorphic

“What if they have spelt the words wrong?”

Oscar drew a sleepy breath. “The words that they written, do they make sense?”

She sighed almost laughing, “yeah. Hooked On Phonics worked for this kid.”

“Then spell out the correct way near their answer and give them credit.”

“But isn’t that encouraging poor spelling habits?”

“That’s what I said. But I was told and I quote,” He pulled his glasses to the base of his nose and puffed out his chest, throwing his shoulders back. ‘Mr. Patterson, you are a science teacher not an English teacher. Leave the spelling and grammar to them.’ And that’s what I’ve done.” He let the air out of his chest and pushed is glasses back up.

“Okay. I take it that doesn’t sit well with you?”

“No. We are cheating them.”

As she graded away at Billy’s test, she wondered if Oscar’s kindness started out as something else. She sometimes couldn’t leave well enough alone so she asked. “Are you always so kind as to help strangers unload moving vans? Or was there a bigger fish to fry?”

He felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. What? Well, big boy, she’s got you dead to rights. How are you going to get out of this one? His first thought was to ignore the question. No. No, you can’t. God is testing you here. “Why would you ask me that?”

She watched him. “One of the big issues I have to work on as a Christian is my faith in people. No one does anything out of the goodness of their hearts. We get something out of it, even if it’s a feel good.”

Wow, who was this woman that could see into his soul? If she could sense that, she would be able to sense a lie. “I came over to help you to get away from my brother. He hates anything associated with work.” Oscar hung his head in shame. “I’m sorry.”

She smiled, “I’m the one to be sorry. You’ve been nothing but kind to me. And your brother is a,” she paused choosing her words carefully. “Joy to be around.”

Oscar started to feel warm inside. A warmth he’d never felt.

Winter Season