Day by Day

by Delia Parr

  “No. It’s not about the counseling or another picture. I wish it were.”

  Judy’s pulse began to race. “Is he sick?”

  “No, he’s not sick or injured. He’s been in a fight. I have one of the other children’s parents here with me now, and the other one is on the way. I’m hoping you can join us momentarily. Otherwise, Brian will be suspended from school, and he will not be permitted to return until you can arrange to meet with me.”

  Judy swallowed hard. “Suspended? He’s only in first grade,” she grumbled. “Since when does a six-year-old get suspended from school?”

  “When that six-year-old gets involved in a fight. We have a zero tolerance policy for bullying behavior.”

  “I’m on my way,” Judy murmured. She hung up the telephone and shook her head. Two weeks of school. Two different problems. Two summonses to the school. Maybe a suspension for fighting or bullying. “I wonder where he learned that,” she whispered, seeing Duke’s image in her mind’s eye, and shoving it away.

  At this rate, Brian might break his mother’s poor school discipline record before he reached his seventh birthday! “If I survive that long. There’s a reason why God made mothers young. Some grand mother I’m turning out to be,” she grumbled and headed off to answer her summons to the school.

  Again.

  Chapter Seven

  No panic. No fear. Only a dreadful sense of déjà vu.

  Judy climbed the front steps of Park Elementary School with her mind playing flashbacks of raising her daughter. Candy had partied hard, fought hard and rebelled her way through high school and graduated next to last in the Class of 1987, but at the top of the list of students with discipline infractions.

  Judy reached the top step and took a deep breath. When it came to her own child’s outrageous behavior in high school, she had passed embarrassment and humiliation a long time ago. By learning to distance herself, to separate the child from the behavior and the parent’s responsibilities from the child’s obligations, she had managed to survive with her own sense of worth only slightly bruised and battered. Would she be able to do the same with Brian?

  She had a good idea of what lay waiting for her inside the principal’s office. Still, the process was never pleasant. She was also certain she was about to face down a pair of professionals and a pair of parents young enough to be her own children, all of whom were educated far beyond her own high school diploma and license as a hairdresser. She squared her shoulders and reached for the door.

  “Judy? Wait!”

  She turned and saw Barbara Montgomery rushing up the steps. Sunshine danced in the highlights of her hair, a casual, yet elegant layered cut now, but misery and panic shadowed her face. When she reached the top step, she held on to the railing and stopped to catch her breath.

  “Sorry. The car…is in for repairs…. I closed my shop…and ran here as fast as I could in heels.” She took a deep breath and lowered her voice. “Are you here about the fight, too?”

  Judy frowned. “I’m afraid so, but please don’t tell me the twins were involved.”

  Barbara’s eyes filled with tears. “Only Jessie, but I think Melanie was there. She’s too timid to fight. She wouldn’t argue with her own shadow.” She groaned. “I’ve never been called to school before. Not once. The boys were always so good at school, but these girls are going to be a whole different story, I guess. This is terribly embarrassing.”

  “You didn’t get into a fight. Jessie did. Keep that in mind. It’ll help. Trust me, I know,” Judy assured her.

  “I’m sorry Brian was involved, but I’m awfully glad you’re here,” Barbara said. “Facing the principal will be hard enough, considering she’s a paragon that the administration lured away from another district this year. The other parent is bound to be a thirty-something, career-building powerhouse. Or a stay-at-home soccer mom whose husband has a six-figure income, while she’s a combination of Mother Earth, sultry siren and last year’s finalist for Mother of the Year.”

  Barbara shook her head. “They’re going to take one look at me and assume because I’m a grandmother, I’m too old to be raising two six-year-olds effectively. I might think I’m too old once in a while, but I defy anyone else to think it.”

  Judy looped her arm with Barbara’s. “I’d like to see them try. There’s safety in numbers and power, too. We’re not just grandmothers. We’re grand mothers,” she whispered, sharing the gift Mrs. Edwards had given to her. “Let’s go inside and prove it.”

  Barbara sniffed. When she reached into her purse for a tissue, she eased out of Judy’s hold. “Grand mothers. I like the sound of that,” she said and dabbed at her eyes.

  “Me, too.”

  “Okay, I think I’m ready now. I’m not sure I’m up to doing this. It’s been a week since John talked with Detective Sanger, and there’s still no news about whether or not they’re going to arrest those two girls and charge them with Steve’s death. Maybe if I didn’t have that on my mind, I wouldn’t be so anxious about being called up to the school. Thanks, Judy. I really needed a friend right now.”

  “Me, too,” Judy repeated and led Barbara into the school. When they arrived at the principal’s small office, the secretary ushered them to the door of an adjoining conference room. “Mrs. Worth wanted to meet with the adults involved in here. The children are all with Mrs. Booth, the guidance counselor, in her office. They’ll be joining you later, after your meeting,” she explained and opened the door.

  Judy stepped inside, studied the positions of the two women seated at the long, rectangular table, and assumed the woman seated at the head was Mrs. Worth, the principal. Perfectly coiffed and made up, she wore a navy-blue power suit that had to be tailor-made. Mrs. Worth could not be a day over thirty, yet she looked every inch the capable administrator Barbara had mentioned earlier.

  Judy’s heart sank to her knees as she eased into a chair. Across the table, the other woman met Judy’s gaze and offered a brief, tenuous smile. The fact that the woman sat opposite Barbara and Judy implied that she was the parent of the child who had been bullied, but Judy tried not to leap to conclusions or allow the slightest hope to rise that Brian had been the injured party here. The woman was even vaguely familiar. Judy could not place her. She assumed she had just seen her about in town. Returning the woman’s smile, she looked at her closely. Her heart skipped. Another grandmother? Or was she?

  At first glance, the woman appeared to be much younger than either Judy or Barbara. She was small and petite and wore a trendy pink-and-black ruffled blouse. Her straight blond hair was long and loose. The fluorescent light caught the rhinestone chips glued to her bright pink nails, and she wore enough gold jewelry to pay for Brian’s winter clothes.

  When Judy looked closer, the laugh lines in the corners of the woman’s eyes, the creases at each end of her lips, and the wrinkles on her face and neck put her well into middle age. Another grandmother?

  Maybe.

  Probably.

  Feeling more than a little relieved, Judy caught Barbara’s gaze and smiled.

  Mrs. Worth started the introductions and finished with the other woman. “Mrs. King…Ginger…is here on behalf of her grandson, Vincent. He’s in third grade, and he’s also new to the school, like Brian and Jessie and Melanie, although he probably won’t be staying here for more than another few weeks.”

  Another grandmother.

  Judy relaxed against the back of her chair.

  “But Melanie isn’t really involved,” Barbara asserted.

  “Not directly. No,” Mrs. Worth admitted, “but we’ve included her because she was caught up in the incident.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry we all have to meet one another under such difficult circumstances, but I’m certain we can resolve today’s problem if we all work together.”

  Her voice was firm, but gentle and calm, unlike the voice Judy remembered from her telephone conversation.

  “I’ve talked to all of the children myself, individually an
d collectively, as well as the two lunch aides who were supervising the children. Here’s what I’ve been able to learn. Apparently, all of the children were outside in the playground after lunch. Jessie and Melanie were playing hopscotch with some of the other girls. Vincent had brought out a little sketch pad and pencil. He was sitting nearby, drawing away and minding his own business when Brian came up and demanded to see the sketch pad.”

  “Brian admitted this?” Judy asked, although she suspected he had.

  Mrs. Worth nodded. “He did. To me and to the counselor. When Vincent refused, Brian grabbed the sketch pad and ran off, charging right into Melanie. They both fell to the ground, with Brian on top. Jessie rose to her sister’s defense and tried to pull Brian off. Then Vincent jumped into the melee to retrieve his sketch pad. There was a lot of yelling, some kicking and punching and name-calling. Inadvertently or not, I can’t be sure, Vincent elbowed Brian in the process, as well.”

  “Then it’s Brian’s fault, clear and simple,” Judy offered, hoping to take some of the wind out of Mrs. Worth’s account by acknowledging Brian’s guilt. “That’s something I will take care of with him.”

  “I didn’t realize Vincent didn’t share well, I’m afraid. That’s a concern to me. I’m not sure if I’ve ever even seen him with a sketch pad, though,” Ginger admitted.

  Barbara shrugged. “I’m probably not aware of half of what the twins do or don’t do, or what they have or they don’t have. They rely on one another a great deal. Jessie is the more dominant of the two, and she’s very protective, so it doesn’t surprise me that she rushed to help her sister. I can’t condone kicking and name-calling, though.”

  “All in all, it sounds like a typical school-yard incident to me,” Judy suggested. “None of the children were hurt, right?”

  “No,” Mrs. Worth admitted. “Just a few scrapes and crushed egos, and a few of the bystanders were frightened. I had the nurse check everyone out, but you’re all welcome to have each child seen by his or her pediatrician, if you think it’s warranted.”

  Ginger frowned. “I don’t think so, but I’d like to see Vincent first.”

  Barbara and Judy added their agreement, but Judy was still confused by the tone and content of the telephone call she had received from the principal. Thirty years ago, she would have let it go. Not now. “You mentioned bullying when you called,” she prompted.

  The principal sat a little more erect and passed a folder to each of the three women. “Bullying behavior can be physical, verbal, emotional, or any combination of the three. That includes intimidation and using force, such as trying to take another child’s sketchbook, or name-calling, and kicking, which also happened today. In accordance with district policy guidelines, we have a zero tolerance for bullying of any kind. There is a copy of the guidelines in each of the folders, along with suggestions for activities that you can use at home to help reinforce more positive interactions between your children and the other children at school. It’s very important for children to know when their behavior crosses the line and just as important for them to learn how to properly handle an incident with a bully. Hopefully, we can put this event today behind us and prevent another one like it from occurring again.”

  Judy smoothed her hand across the folder and decided against suggesting the principal had blown the whole incident out of proportion. “What now? Can I see Brian?”

  “I’d like to see the girls,” Barbara said firmly.

  “And Vincent,” Ginger added.

  Mrs. Worth leaned back, reached for a wall phone and pressed several numbers. “Janet? Alicia Worth. Can you bring the children to the conference room now? Oh, that’s great. Thanks.” She hung up and turned her attention back to the three women at the table. “If you haven’t met Janet Booth, she’s our guidance counselor. She’s been meeting with the children, and she assures me all is well. The children have each talked with her, and she tells me there are no hard feelings between them.”

  Mrs. Worth stood up, smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle from her suit jacket, smiled and handed each of them her card. “I’ll leave you alone with your children…grandchildren now. It’s almost dismissal time so you might as well take them home with you. If you have any questions or concerns, please call me. My direct line here at school is on the card, as well as my home number.”

  “What about Brian? Can he stay for the after-school program today? I really should get back to the salon,” Judy explained. There was no way she could open up tomorrow, especially if Ann was still out, unless she took care of the cleanup today.

  “That might not be a good idea. Overnight, the other children will probably forget all about what happened, but today…Is there any way you could take him with you?”

  “Yes, I suppose so.”

  “Good. Thank you all for coming,” she said and disappeared out the door.

  “Brian can come home with me,” Barbara offered.

  “No. Thanks anyway. He can help me to sweep up. It might be a good chance for us to talk about what happened today.”

  Ginger toyed with one of her gold bracelets for a moment. “You’ve both been very understanding. If Vincent had just shown his sketch pad to Brian, none of this would have happened. I haven’t had a child in school for more years that I want to count. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was waiting for you, but—”

  “But you didn’t expect to see people like us?” Judy asked.

  Ginger raised a brow.

  “Grandmothers,” Barbara suggested. “We’re both grandmothers raising our grandchildren, just like you.”

  Ginger’s eyes misted. “I thought I was the only one. I just enrolled Vincent a few days ago. He started later than the other children, so I didn’t get a chance to meet any of the other…mothers. A lot of them are probably younger than my own children.”

  “Well, you aren’t the only one,” Judy insisted.

  The door opened, and Janet Booth stepped into the room. She closed the door behind her and introduced herself, giving Judy an extrawarm smile. “It’s good to see you again, though not under these circumstances,” she murmured. “I saw Mrs. Worth on my way here. She agreed with me that it might be better if I took you to the children. Follow me. You must be anxious to see them.”

  She smiled again. “Please. Relax. And don’t worry. The children are fine, and they’ve already patched up their differences.” She hesitated and looked over her shoulder as if to make sure the door was still closed. “Look, we’ve all lived through raising our own children, and I’m confident you’ll all be able to raise your grandchildren, too,” she said as she pointed to the folders still lying on the table. “Don’t be too disturbed about what you read, but do try some of the activities. I’ve been an educator long enough to know that there are certain issues, like violence in our society, that are reflected in our schools. Sometimes those issues seem to take on a life of their own. School tragedies and lawsuits have made school districts more than a little nervous these days. Bullying as you and I experienced it with our children years ago isn’t quite how it’s defined or interpreted these days. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be aware of or concerned about how our children or grandchildren interact with one another. We should, but in this case, I think we can safely say this whole affair was just an old-fashioned school-yard ruckus. All of the children know what they did wrong, and they’re truly sorry.”

  Like the principal, she handed out her cards. “If you have any concerns, call me,” she said and opened the door. “Shall we?”

  Judy got up and followed Barbara and Ginger out the door, happy to take along a good dose of common sense from the counselor. When they reached the counselor’s office, Brian was lying flat, belly to floor, legs bent and feet kicking in the air while he doodled on one side of a large sheet of paper and an older boy, probably Vincent, was on the other side. Melanie and Jessie were seated together coloring opposite pages of a coloring book.

  Brian looked up, saw Judy, scrambled to his feet, and ran
over to her. “Grandmom! Vincent’s grandmom works in a candy store, and she lets him fill his pockets with candy. He said we could go to the store, and she’d let me fill my pockets, too. Can we go? I got big pockets today,” he said, tugging on her slacks with one hand and one of the pockets on his camping shorts with the other. “Can we? Please?”

  “That would be an interesting punishment,” Judy remarked.

  Apparently, Ginger was right behind her and overheard. “Sounds like all has been forgiven,” she teased. “I work part-time at Sweet Stuff now that Vincent’s in school.”

  “I thought I’d seen you in town,” Judy admitted. “I don’t go to Sweet Stuff very often, though. I try not to keep candy in the house. Not that I’m all hung up on keeping candy from Brian,” she whispered, only too aware that, given her daughter’s name, there might be double meaning to her words. “Candy and children just go together,” she managed.

  “It’s me. I’d eat every piece of candy I could find.”

  Barbara edged into the room and joined the conversation. “Did I hear someone mention candy?”

  Brian tugged on Judy’s pants leg. “Can we go today and get some candy? Please?”

  “Not today, Brian. We have to go to the salon and sweep up, then we have an appointment before dinner. Besides, we have a few things we need to discuss first about what happened in the school yard before we even think about getting some candy.”

  He dropped hold of her slacks and hung his head. Huge tears trembled, then rolled down his cheeks.

  Judy knelt down and tipped up his chin with her fingertip. “I said we were going to talk, Brian. Just talk,” she assured him. Visions of how his mother, her own daughter, and his father might have disciplined him made her tremble, too.