Teacher

by R. L. Merrill

  He shrugged. He smirked while he was typing. “Entirely self-serving.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You sell yourself short. I’ve yet to see you be self-serving, Danny! Even your reasons for doing things for yourself are to serve the interests of others. You are getting your diploma because you want your daughter to respect you. You had surgery to save your voice so you could continue with your career. By continuing with your career you insure the careers of many other people. So quit denying your generosity. It’s unbecoming.”

  He picked up a crouton from my salad and made like he was going to throw it at me before popping it into his mouth with a smile.

  “I bet you can’t wait to be able to speak so you can fight back without resorting to food and liquids for weapons.”

  He shrugged and typed, with his tongue out again. Damn he made me squirm. “Who says I’ll stop throwing food and other things at you? You assume I am a civilized man.”

  My voice was low when I answered him. “Could have fooled me in that suit. You look devastatingly handsome.”

  He blushed and it spread clear down his neck, drawing my attention to the top buttons he’d left undone. I cleared my throat nervously.

  “So, I was thinking for your next assignment for English I’d have you do a research report on something you learned today. I’m going to email you the directions and format for the paper. How does that sound?” He nodded and gave me a thumbs up. “And we finished US History yesterday, so I think we’re ready for Government.” He shrugged. “And I can either start you on another elective or you can start reading another novel while you work on your research paper.”

  He nodded and whispered, “All of it.”

  “Ok. Now I know this week I won’t be able to work with you as much. I can come Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4:00 and...”

  He started typing. “I don’t want you to run yourself down. I wish I could take you back to my place and make you rest today, but Nora has the day off... Maybe if we just meet Monday and Friday and then one day next weekend... And I decided I very much would like you to come over while Janey is with me. It might be good for her to see her old man doing something worthwhile.”

  I smiled as I read his text. “Thank you. I’m sorry I can’t give you more time, but it’s only for another week and a half. The last day of school is next week Wednesday and then I’ll need half a day Thursday to pack up my things. You can have me full time starting a week from Friday.”

  He smiled and laced his fingers together.

  “Of course at the rate you’re going, we’re not going to need much more time after that to finish!”

  He started typing. “That’s what I’m planning on. I’m going to work my ass off to get done.”

  I couldn’t help but giggle. “Oh, and I’ll need to find out when the exit exam is scheduled. You’ll have to take that at the school, though. I can’t get around that. My students and the adult school students take it in the same place.”

  He shrugged. “As you pointed out, I’m an old man and most of the kids won’t recognize me, right?”

  I nudged him with my foot under the table and he popped another one of my croutons into his mouth.

  We finished eating and had been sitting quietly for a while, just staring at each other. Wordlessly we agreed it was time to go. He bussed our table and we moved toward the door. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him reach out to touch my lower back, think better of it, and shove his hands in his pockets instead. I really couldn’t wait for this to be over. I’d never had a man act this way around me before. I dated some, but most of the men I’d gone out with in this town were entirely about finding the right arm candy to get them ahead in show business. I’d never really found any of them attractive and none of them ever pursued me. Danny was so different. For the first time I found myself being pursued and I was hopelessly attracted to him.

  He walked me to my car and I looked around for the Range Rover. He noticed and smirked, pointing to the tough looking black Dodge Challenger parked at the far end of the lot.

  “Always black?”

  He nodded and whispered, “Always.”

  We stood there awkwardly for several seconds and I wondered what was going through his mind. I didn’t want to separate. I wanted to go back to his house and-

  “I guess I should go. I’ll email you the assignments and I’ll be over to grade them with you tomorrow. You can take some tests if you are ready.”

  He nodded and shoved his hands in his pocket, bringing out his phone. “This is hard. I want to kiss you goodbye. I can’t stand keeping my hands to myself. There. At least I told you.”

  Reading those words buckled my knees a little and I sighed. “Goodbye, Danny. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  He smiled and waved. I watched him walk over to his car and thought there was no way this was ever going to happen. He was too much. Too much to look at, too much to dream about, and way too much to ever be mine, no matter how much he was flirting with me.

  I spent the rest of the day trading emails with Danny to clarify the assignments I’d sent him, and running errands. I bought enough food to get me through the week, dropped off and picked up clothes at the dry cleaner and washed what I could in our nasty laundry room. Around 8:00 that night I gave up and went to sleep, but the phone Danny gave me buzzed, stirring me from an almost slumber.

  “Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed spending this morning with you and to thank you for setting it up. I hope you get some rest. I wish I could speak to you and call you on the phone to tell you goodnight. Two more weeks... Until then, sleep well.”

  I did sleep well.

  Chapter Ten

  Monday was a whirlwind day of submitting grades and preparing for our graduation ceremonies on Wednesday. I rushed out the door at 3:00 and hit a ton of traffic going to Danny’s. I texted him to let him know and he warned me to not text and drive and to be careful. He was so cute when he was scolding me.

  I hurried up the walkway to his house and was greeted by Nora.

  “Hey sugar. Danny and Alex are at the bar waiting for you.” I smiled at her and she kissed me on the cheek. Guess I was part of the family now. “Dinner will be at 6:00. We're having chicken satay and saffron rice with steamed vegetables.”

  I clutched my stomach, aware that my apple for lunch was probably not enough and groaned. “Nora, you are going to be the death of my wardrobe.”

  She didn’t find that comment amusing. “If I am it’s because you could stand to gain a few pounds. You need to take better care of yourself, Jesse. You’re too thin.”

  I knew she meant well, but her remarks were a little close to home. “I’m fine, Nora. I’ve always been thin. Plus, I have to be careful about what I eat because I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. Sometimes what I eat makes it flare up worse.”

  She looked appalled. “How could you be sick like that? You’re so young! Why didn’t you tell me?! Look at all that pasta I made last week! I’m sorry, Jesse.”

  I waved her apology away. “No, Nora. Don’t be sorry. You didn’t know. And I’m really ok. I promise I’ll be healthy enough to see Danny through this, ok? Don’t worry.”

  She frowned at me. “I’m not worried about that. I know you’re just as stubborn as he is and will make sure he finishes. I just want you to be ok. I’m glad you’re here.”

  I was surprised at how much her words touched me. Other than Cosmo and the guys, I hadn’t really made many connections down here. I liked my job and that’s what kept me sane, but I hadn’t made many friends. I really liked Nora and I appreciated how well she took care of Danny.

  I heard Alex laughing in the bar so I wandered over. Danny’s eyes lit up when he saw me, and Alex shook my hand.

  “Good to see you again, Jesse. Mind if I hang out while you guys are playing school tonight?”

  Danny smacked him in the back of the head and shook his head.

  “As long as you don’t distract him that is fine with me.”

 
I unpacked my stuff and Danny scooted his work over to me. There was a typed note on top.

  Here’s my typed research paper. Hope it meets your rigorous standards. I also did a rewrite of my short story and added a few more poems to my portfolio so we can be finished with Creative Writing. I started reading another one of the books you had pulled out, Romeo and Juliet, although I’ve read it before. If you want me to read something else I’m happy to. I took the pretest for government and got a 78% on it. I’m ready to take the first and second unit tests tonight.

  I raised an eyebrow at him and said, “Danny, did you sleep at all? This is like two weeks’ worth of work for one of my high schoolers.” He shrugged, giving me a satisfied grin. “Alright, you go ahead and take your test while I grade your research paper.”

  I logged him in, unlocked his test, and he gave me a sweet smile. Alex read the test over his shoulder and whispered, “Dude, I could never pass high school now. How do you remember all this stuff?”

  Danny chuckled and whispered, “I don’t. I’m learning it. Some of it I’ve read about and know from like the papers and stuff, but I dropped out in 10th grade, man. I never had this stuff in school. Jesse’s just a great teacher.”

  I rolled my eyes. “No talking while you’re taking a test!”

  They both laughed and Danny continued with the test.

  Danny’s research paper was good, but it was obvious he was tired when he wrote it because I found spelling and grammar errors that I hadn’t found in his work before. I also wanted him to tighten up his thesis statement so I made my notes and waited for him to finish his test so we could go over it.

  He took my criticism well, but I could see him mentally scolding himself over the mistakes.

  “Danny, you did great. I would just like you to fix these things before I give you a grade. I make all of my students correct their papers until they’re perfect.”

  He grinned and whispered, “Of course you do.”

  We kind of got lost looking at each other for a minute until Nora called us for dinner.

  When we stood up to walk to the kitchen I noticed Alex watching us and smiling tenderly at Danny. I thought back to what he said to me at the bar the other night. Maybe he’d been concerned I didn’t have good intentions toward his friend. I hoped he was over that.

  Dinner was great. Alex and Nora teased Danny about not being able to talk and took turns pretending to be him responding to certain situations. The language they used would have made a trucker blush and I almost shot milk out my nose a few times I laughed so hard. Danny remained smiling through various shades of crimson during the meal, often looking to see what my reaction would be.

  “Hey Danny, that take was preeeetty good, but do you think you could do it a little heavier next time,” Alex mocked in a smarmy producer voice.

  Nora replied in a deep voice, “Fuck you, you cocksucker. You get in here and try screaming this shit, motherfucker. My throat fucking feels like ground beef burned to fucking charcoal briquettes.”

  Alex had to catch himself before he fell off his stool. “That was spot on, Nora! Dude! There were days that I lost count of how many times you cursed out Ron and those bastards from the label.”

  Danny shook his head and dropped it onto his arms. Nora came around and patted him on the back.

  “Aw, baby, don’t be embarrassed. I learned some of my best cuss words from you.”

  He reached out to pinch her and she jumped away. I helped Nora clean up and Danny and Alex went outside for a few minutes. When they came back in it was obvious Alex had needed a cigarette. While he was talking to Nora, I pulled Danny aside.

  “Do you smoke, Danny?”

  He looked at me confused and shook his head. “No, why,” he whispered.

  I shrugged. “I was just curious. I wondered if that was part of your throat problem.”

  He shook his head and whispered, “No, just too many years of screaming and singing incorrectly. I saw a voice coach a few years ago and he warned me that I’d already done a lot of damage to my voice. He showed me some techniques that made my voice sound better and it felt better but the damage was done. The surgery became necessary. I just hope it did the trick. I don’t want to go through that again, nor do I want to deal with what if it didn’t fucking work.”

  I touched his shoulder. “I want you to be ok, too. I know how hard it was when I had to give up my dance scholarship." Where did that come from? Why was I all of a sudden in a sharing mood? Duh, because this man had me a mess. His eyes lit up and he motioned for me to continue.

  "I’d just spent the summer after graduating high school dancing on a cruise ship. By the end of the tour I could barely walk. I couldn’t get my feet into my tap shoes they were so swollen. I couldn’t pick things up because my hands were weak and causing me pain. The doctors had warned me this would happen if I kept up the pace I was at, but I knew I had a finite period of time to have a career so I pushed it. Thankfully, I’ve gotten the pain under control for the most part and the flare-ups aren’t near as bad. But the damage is done and there’s no way to repair it.”

  I didn’t realize I was hugging myself until his arms came around me and held me to him. I moved to put mine around his waist, already a natural motion, and I heard a throat clearing.

  “Hey, I thought you said no touching the teacher, jackass.”

  Alex was tapping his foot at us and Nora had covered her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing out loud. She removed it to say, “See? I told you they were trouble.”

  Danny stepped away from me, pulling out his phone. He typed as he walked and shoved it in Alex’s face when he got closer.

  “'Hugs are ok'? What the fuck does that mean? That didn’t look like a student-teacher hug to me.” He was teasing, but Danny still picked up the sponge and chucked it at Alex, chasing him down the hall.

  I looked up at the clock and it was already 7:00. “Alright, boys. Recess is over. Danny and I need to go over some more things before school is done for the day.”

  They ran around the corner and Alex hid behind me. “You have to save me, Teacher. He’s wicked.”

  I turned to look and he was rubbing his backside. I chuckled and walked into the living room.

  Danny sat next to me and we went over his assignments for the next couple of days. Then we went in the library, with Alex tagging along, and I read to Danny from Romeo and Juliet. After reading a few pages, I looked at the two of them, both completely engrossed.

  “I should get more copies and we can each read parts, Alex.”

  Alex shook his head and held out his hands. “I’m allergic to Shakespeare, man. I break out in hives.”

  I laughed at him and looked back at Danny. He was typing on his phone at the other end of the couch and he leaned forward to show me.

  “I’m not sure if Romeo and Juliet was a good choice. Strangely, listening to you read this isn’t relaxing me. It’s having the opposite effect.”

  I was suddenly really glad Alex was in the room because I had to sit on my hands to keep from launching myself at Danny. We must have been quiet for too long because Alex cleared his throat.

  “I always wondered why the hell, Shakespeare had to be so tragic. I mean, why couldn’t they have lived happily ever after?”

  I turned to look at him sitting in an armchair with his head back and his eyes closed. “Have you ever been in love, Alex?”

  He opened an eye. “I fall in love every time we go on tour. The stage is my mistress.” Danny threw a pillow at him. “Ok, maybe it’s just the groupies, I fall in love with.”

  I laughed. “Don’t you ever want to settle down? Have you ever been married?”

  He snorted. “Nah, didn’t fall into that trap. Ooops, sorry Danny.”

  “No worries, bro. I learned my lesson,” Danny whispered.

  I wondered what he meant by that, but figured it wouldn’t be good for me to dig.

  Danny's eyes found mine and he smiled sheepishly at me. “Keep reading,
please Jesse?”

  I couldn’t turn him down. I smiled back and read for a while longer. He lay down with his head next to my leg. It was a fight to not reach out and run my fingertips over his face. I finished the first act and when I looked down I found Danny was fast asleep. He was breathing deeply with a peaceful expression on his face. I stood up carefully so as not to wake him and saw Alex was also out with his head kicked back in the chair. Stifling a giggle, I went out to the bar and left Danny a note. I found Nora watching TV in the kitchen and told her I was sneaking out.

  “They’re sleeping in there and I didn’t want to wake them.”

  She laughed and promised to tuck them in. She saw me to the door and I drove home feeling pleased with the night’s progress, but a little disturbed about Danny’s comment. Did that mean he never wanted to get married again? I wasn’t hoping for that now, but maybe someday I’d want to get married. I tried not to let my mind race ahead of me and instead stretched out a bit before crawling into bed.

  Knowing I wouldn’t see Danny for the next three days made getting up Tuesday rough, but by the time I got to work I had no time to mope. At the end of the day I could barely get my stuff together without yawning. I made my way to the studio, but opted out of dancing with the kids. I simply critiqued their performances for the show and went home to crash.

  Wednesday I woke to texts from Danny.

  “I miss you.”

  “I hate it that I didn’t get to say goodnight Monday.”

  “Friday is too far away.”

  “Ok, I’m working. I promise.”

  I tapped out a response.

  “I miss you, too, and Friday does seem far. I’m glad you are working, but please get some sleep. I don’t want you to fall asleep on me again. Although, it was pretty cute. I didn’t even mess with you, aren’t you lucky? Have graduation today for seniors. Can’t wait to give you your diploma.”

  I made it through graduation with only a few tears for some of my favorite students. I took pictures with a few kids and their parents. One of my students I’d worked with all four years brought me flowers and her parents thanked me profusely.