Winter Season

Vinegar

Esther was sitting on the couch when her phone chimed alerting her to an incoming text message. It was Oscar. ‘Just found out we are havin’ a meeting tonight. Have no idea what time I will be home. These things usually only last an hour though. No one wants to be here too long. Will call on my way home. I love you, O’

She sent him a heart in response.

She had made a pot of soup for dinner, so him being late wasn’t a problem. All she had to do was put the cornbread in the oven.  It was 3:45 when she got the text; it was 8:00 when he called her.

“Hi honey.”

“Hi,” his voice was weak.

“You sound killed. Do you want to even fool with dinner?”

“Let’s not and say we did.”

“Okay. Do you need this time to unwind?”

“No, I would like for you to help keep me alert.”

“What shall we talk about?”

“What am I going to do with five cases of vinegar?” His voice was deflated.

“Where on Earth did you get five cases of vinegar?”

“Someone donated them to the school and the family resource director thought it would be a good idea to give them to me.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

“Do you have enough to give each student a bottle?”

“No.”

“That would start a fight if you gave some and not all.”

“You’re tellin’ me.”

“What about a class project and make vinegar the bases?”

“That could work.” She thought his voice lighten a little.

“Do you do science fairs?”

“The school does but I have very little to do with them. If I have a student ask me for help, I am more than willin’. But no, I’m not doing that again.”

“What happened?”

He let out a long sigh, “for the first five years that I taught, we had fairs. I was gong ho and organized them. The last year that I did it, everyone of the students got a first prize ribbon in something: most creative project, best lay out, best idea, most challenging, every student walked away from that fair with a ribbon of some kind. I think it undermines the whole experience if everyone gets a ribbon. And I was banned by the school board for giving an overall first place or best overall ribbon.”

“Wow! Education has changed a lot since I was in school.”

“I’m so tired Ess.”

“What can I do to help?”

She could hear him smile, “just keep being your wonderful self.”

“Honey, when you get home, go to bed. Take a nap. Rest for a while.”

“I’m in the drive.”

“What would you like to do?”

“I’m coming to you.” She opened the door and watched him walk across the street. He walked like a man defeated. When she closed the door behind him, he hugged her up. “You feel so good.”

“I’m so sorry you had a taxin’ day.” After a long hug, he let her go. She caressed his face. “Why don’t you lay down and take a nap? Dinner can wait.”

He kissed her on the forehead and crashed.

While he napped, she looked up things he could do with five cases of vinegar. After half an hour, she went to check on him. He was sound asleep. She smiled to herself. He looked so peaceful. The stress of the day didn’t show on his face. She took an extra blanket from the closet and covered him up. As if she hadn’t already figured it out; she was in love. She could get used to the idea of curling up to him every night. A smiled crept across her face but she couldn’t give in to the idea. There was still a cloud of doom hanging over her head. It wouldn’t have taken much for her to let her head fill with assumptions but she blocked them out.

She was sitting on the end of the couch looking up stuff he might be able to use for his class when she felt him kiss her on the head.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to help you.”

“Really?” He sounded surprised.

“Yeah, why not?”

He set beside of her, “what have you found?”

“These are just ideas, you’re not gonna hurt my feelings if these don’t work okay. You know more about what you’re allowed to do than I.”

He smiled, “you got it.”

“Give me some parameters.”  

“It will be easier just to tell me what you’re thinkin’.”

She shrugged, “okay. What if each student researched and came up with a project using vinegar as their main ingredient? Have them do the project in front of the class and logged the outcomes. How well did it work? How much did it cost? Was it fun? What were some of the challenges you had? What did you learn?”

Oscar sat there for a moment thinking, “I like it but I think it would be too time consuming. That would be more of a semester long project. Something I could do a mid-term or a final over.”

She was shocked, “mid-terms and finals?”

“Getting them ready for college.”

There was a sour look on her face, “they will get enough of that in college.”

“Amen!”

“Well, you could break them up into groups. However, I don’t like the idea of breakin’ the class up into groups. I hated workin’ in groups when I was in school. Inevitably, one person ended up doin’ all the work.”

“I agree but administration eats that up. It is getting them ready for the work place.” He scoffed.

She raised an eyebrow, “indeed. And again, one person ends up doin’ all the work. If you want to keep a controlled environment, what about this project?” On her lap top, she had found the following project: How to inflate a balloon using baking soda and vinegar. Each student would need a balloon, small clean clear glass bottle, small funnel, baking soda, and vinegar. There was a list of key questions for the students to be looking for as they conducted the experiment and instructions on how to do it.

“I really like that. It will deviate from my lesson plan and I will have to get it approved but I really like that.”

“Cool.” Esther wiggled in her seat. “I think it would be great fun to try it.”

He raised an eyebrow, “really?” She smiled shaking her head. He put his arm around her and kissed her. “You are amazing.”

“Well, you know.” She giggled.

“Tomorrow when I get home, let’s try it and see what happens.”

“Yeah,” she beamed with a smile.

“I think I owe that little kid an apology.”

“What little kid?”

“The resource director had one of the students bring that to me and I wasn’t the friendliest person in the world.”

She rubbed his arm, “I know you’ll do the right thing.”

“You have a lot of faith in me don’t you?”

Winter Season