A Tale from the Hills (3 page)

“You must be the Hill family that I have heard so much about.” she declared. “My name is Mrs. Boatwright, and I am the Principal here at Mountain School.”

The oldest child introduced himself and then each of the other kids.

“I am Joseph Hill.” he stated confidently. His daddy taught him to say “I am”. Ordinarily he probably would have said, “I
be”.

“And this is Josh, and Alan, and Alice, and William.”

“Its very nice to meet each of you.” stated Mrs. Boatwright.

All four kids replied at once, “Thank you ma’am.”

They had practiced that line all the way to school.

The Principal took all of the children into her office.

She would try to determine each of their reading, writing, and other classroom skills. The three older boys knew the basics of reading and writing, because their father had taught them using the old Bible. Their daddy was poor in arithmetic skills, so the boys were also. Mrs. Boatwright decided that the second grade level would suit their needs for the time being.

Alice and William had no basic skills. They could spell and barely print their names and count to ten, and say most of their a,b,c’s, but that was about the extent of their early learning. They would be placed in the first grade level. Now for the first time in their young lives, the five siblings would be separated.

Mrs. Boatwright gave the new students a tour of the school building. Although the building was relatively small, to the children who had only known a tiny two room house, the school was huge. Included in the tour was a trip to the outdoor toilets. The privy on the left behind the school building was for the boys. Likewise, the one on the right was for the girls. Since all of the teachers were female, they used the same toilet as the girls. Long ago a gifted pupil had carved the likenesses of a boy and a girl for the toilet’s doors, and the carvings served as signs for anyone who might forget his or her left from right.

At Mrs. Boatwright’s request, each of the new students attended to his or her business before they were taken to the classrooms. The Hill children were used to an outdoor toilet, but the toilets here were elegant compared to their own. And the smell was not nearly as bad either. Sometimes when their daddy came out of the one at home, the kids dared not go in for as long a time as possible. It was a kind of family tradition at the Hill house. The kids did not know that Mrs. Boatwright poured lime into the school toilets every month or so. The Principal was responsible for maintenance, as well as administrative duty in the small school in a poor county. She could assign some jobs to the teachers and students, but toilet duty was hers alone.

Although all of the details had not been worked outyet, the older Hill students would be helping around the school to pay tuition for all five. Almost all of the student body at Mountain School had a similar arrangement. If a family’s wealth was measured by monetary means, the entire county could have easily declared poverty. Therefore, students could pay their tuition by chopping wood, or carrying water, or sweeping and mopping, or dusting, or clearing pathways and roadways, or cutting brush around the school. The Principle and the teachers were not well of by any means either. They taught not to make money, but to serve the community and to fill a void in many people’s lives.

Mrs. Boatwright escorted Joseph, Josh, and Alan to their common classroom; Alice and William waited in the hallway. William was apprehensive and melancholy. The anticipation of things to come and seeing his brothers walk away, was more than his little heart could take. As hard as he tried to hold them back, tears were forming in the corners of his eyes, and his dingy little chin was starting to quiver. Without even realizing it, he was squeezing his sister’s hand so hard that she cried out in pain.

“Sorry sis.” he whimpered.

“Its ok Will,” she said. “Everything will be all right, I promise. Ok?”

For some unexplained reason, the sound of his sister’s voice calmed him.

At long last Mrs. Boatwright came for the two younger Hills. William had stopped crying, but both of the children were a little scared. Everything changed as soon as they entered the classroom.

Standing with her back to the blackboard, the sunlight beaming through the window and shining on her golden hair, the teacher looked like an angel from one of their daddy’s Bible stories. William imagined that his mother must have been as beautiful as this lady. He would look back on this day when he was older, and he would think that this was one of the brightest in his life.

Interrupting the class that started two hours earlier,

Mrs. Boatwright called the teacher to the door.

“Miss Coalson, this is Alice and William Hill. They will be starting school today for the first time.”

The angel spoke, “It is very nice to meet you Alice and William. I think that you will get along fine in my class. I look forward to being your teacher.”

“Thank you ma’am.” Again they spoke in unison.

Mrs. Boatwright said goodbye to the children and Miss Coalson and proceeded to her office. She was behind with the monthly reports because of the new students, but she enjoyed being with students much more than paperwork anyway. As she sat at her desk, her mind drifted back to the days when she taught. She thought that nothing was more rewarding than seeing a child’s eyes open wide to the learning experience. That sense of excitement and wonder was something that few adults outside of the teaching profession would ever see.

Reminiscing was something that she often did at school, getting ready for school, and driving to and from the school each day. She would think about her life before Mountain School. She would think about her husband and how much she missed him since his death. She would think about the tragedy that ended his life and turned hers completely upside down. After his death she left the city where they lived and moved as far away as possible to start over. She loved this place where she had settled, but memories lingered and would always be just one thought away. She finally willed herself to get back to the monthly reports.

Meanwhile, Miss Coalson assigned Alice and William to seats that were side by side, because she could tell that both of the children were insecure in their new surroundings. She gave each of them paper and pencils in a small pouch, so that they would feel more at ease with the other students. These things instantly became precious commodities to the new students. But before the two of them sat down in their desks, she introduced them to the rest of the class.

William looked all around the room. He did not knowany of the other kids. He looked and felt so small in comparison to some of his classmates. After he finally sat down, he felt more relaxed, especially since his sister was close by. Another reason that he felt much better was Miss Coalson. The first time that he saw her it was true love. It was the kind of love that little boys have for first grade teachers. And he knew in his heart that she would love him too. He just wanted to sit in her lap and peacefully fall asleep while she read to him a story.

There had never been a teacher at Mountain School who was more compassionate and caring than April Coalson. She had moved to the area from Charlottesville three years before the Hill children started to school. Like Mrs. Boatwright she was there to escape the past, and like Mrs. Boatwright, she was glad to be at Mountain School. She felt needed there.

At first the impoverished students broke her heart. Coming from an upper middle class background, she had never seen people living under such harsh circumstances before. It was not very long before she realized that underneath the ragged clothes and dingy faces, the kids were just like kids everywhere. There would be students who wanted to learn, and students who were lazy, and students who would get into trouble, and students who would become ministers and teachers, and everything else in between.

In Charlottesville, April’s father was a banker. Her mother had once been a teacher, before April was born, but after April’s birth she became a banker’s wife and mother. April grew up with the best of everything.

April’s only boyfriend during adolescence was Tom Lewis. Everyone, especially April, thought that they were the perfect couple. She was sure that one day in the future they would be married.

Tom wanted to think that they were the perfect couple too. All of the plans that he and his parents talked about included April. He was going to be the next Frank LLoyd Wright and April would be his beautiful wife. Tom and

April attended all of the parties and dances, and social events, in and out of school. An invitation to either of them always included the other.

It was in high school that Tom started questioning things about his life. After a strenuous game of touch football during physical education class, several of the boys were showering together. Tom had always suffered mixed emotions about seeing other boys naked, but on this particular occasion something happened. The glistening water on his teammate’s bodies caused him to attain an erection. He was so embarrassed that he ran from the shower room before he even rinsed the soap from his hair and body. He did not dare let any of the other boys see him sexually excited. He quickly dried himself and put on his clothes. Although all boys get excited with or without external stimuli, he was sure that something was wrong with him. There was no way that he could talk to anyone about his situation, but he vowed to never let it happen again. He used any kind of excuse to avoid being naked around his classmates.

At the same time he caught himself gazing at the other boys, even fantasizing about them, and every time he got an erection. The physical education teacher noticed a marked change in Tom’s behavior, and even went so far as to ask him if anything was bothering him. Tom emphatically stated “No”, so the teacher did not pursue the matter any further. Tom was afraid that the teacher would say something to his father, who was an Army Coronal, of course he said nothing.

Tom did not act upon his feelings about the boys in his class, but at the same time his relationship with April became more and more plutonic. She decided that he, like she, wanted to save himself for their wedding night. After the Senior Prom, when other couples were sneaking away to be together, Tom complained of a sick headache to avoid an embarrassing situation. After graduation Tom spent the Summer at his grandmother’s in New York. He needed an escaped from April. He loved her and he did not want tohurt her or shame her, but he wanted to be away from her to think.

April was accepted at the University of Virginia in the Fall, but Tom decided to attend a college in Richmond. He assured April that Richmond was not that far away, and that they would see each other often. Visits every weekend changed to every other weekend, then once a month, and finally holidays only. He was pursuing a degree in Architecture, so April assumed that he had so much studying to do that he dared not leave campus. Tom decided that he needed to spend his Summer vacations in class also.

During his time at Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond, Tom developed an emotional as well as physical relationship with a fellow student named Ned Bellows. They spent all of their time together. Tom never mentioned Ned to April or his parents. He knew that they would never understand.

Tom’s relationship with Ned lasted throughout their college career. When the time came for graduation, Ned pleaded with Tom to move with him to New York. Tom wanted to be with Ned more than anything in the world, but he realized that he could never explain to his parents and April that he was homosexual. He felt that his father would die of shame, and that April would never forgive him for leading her on for all of those years.

Tom could not deal with the idea of losing Ned or living without him. On the night before graduation, Tom climbed the many steps of the campus chapel tower and jumped to his death. Devastated, Ned Bellows attended Tom’s funeral and created a scene. He blamed Tom’s dad and April for his lover’s death.

April was so upset that she would not leave her room for days at a time. One day while reading a newspaper, she happened upon an article about the lack of teachers in rural Virginia. She had found her escape. She applied for a position and she was quickly accepted. She did not tell anyone except her parents of her future plans. She did not want anyone to know where she was going, and she did notwant anyone in her new life to know about her past. When she moved into the tiny, nondescript bungalow in Washington County, she would be a poor struggling teacher fresh out of college. She was determined to blend into thecommunity, no one would discover why she was there.

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Chapter Three
 

The leaves were all of the glorious shades of red, and yellow, and brown, and orange when the Hills started classes at Mountain School. The heavy rains that always come in the Fall would soon scatter them along the cliffs and crevices and hollows and creeks that ran throughout the region. The mountains were still quite beautiful even after the leaves were gone, but right now they looked like a giant patchwork quilt. The kids were so distracted on the way to school that by the time they reached the clearing of the school yard, they would have to run to beat the bell that signaled the start of the day.

Mrs. Boatwright would honor students by letting them ring the bell. She would choose a student according to grades, or improvement of grades, or even a good deed that she had witnessed from a student. Teachers might also submit a prospective honoree for consideration. All of the student body would sit on pins and needles on Fridays, in anticipation of who would be chosen to ring the bell on Monday morning, and for the rest of the school week. The smaller students could not physically pull the rope that rang the bell, but Mrs. Boatwright assisted them at their much honored task. Rewards for a job well done were very important to students who had few positive aspects to their young lives.

By the second week of their now daily routine the Hills had gotten used to going to school. The two younger students loved everything about the first grade. Alice and