Melinda and the Wild West (4 page)

Melinda walked to her desk and sat down,
already feeling discouraged. With her elbows leaning on the desk,
she placed her hands over her face so she could relax. Teaching was
not as easy as some would think. Could she do some good in this
small town and make a difference in someone’s life? As she sat
quietly thinking, she heard the scribbling of a pencil next to her.
Looking up, she saw Jenny sitting at her desk and actually writing
what she had written on the board. Melinda fought back the tears
that welled up in her eyes. Jenny really did want to learn.

Melinda decided not to give a lesson that
day, and instead had the children tell the class what they enjoyed
doing, and what their favorite books and hobbies were. She wanted
to get to know each of the students and maybe they would get to
know one another better, too. Before long, Jenny was standing
before the class and telling them what she enjoyed doing most on
the ranch.

Jenny said proudly, “I like to go riding on
my horse with my pa to round up the cattle.”

One of the children gasped, “You have your own
horse?”

“Yes, my pa gave her to me. But he makes me
brush her down every day and I have to take care of her. He says
that when you have an animal, you have to take the responsibility
of taking care of him.” Jenny sounded enthusiastic and so grown up
as she spoke of her horse and responsibilities.

Just before Melinda let the students go for
the day, she said, “I have learned a lot about each of you. I
learned that some of you like to fish, swim in the lake, play ball,
and even ride a horse. Now would you like to know my favorite thing
to do?”

The students nodded enthusiastically.

“All right, then. I absolutely love to sing.
I’ve given several concerts in Boston where I’m from. And I just
love it.”

A wide-eyed student asked, “Are you
famous?”

Melinda shook her head and laughed. “No. I
just love to entertain people. That’s all. Since my favorite
subject in school is music, I’m going to teach you a song every
day. Just before we leave today, I want to teach you a song called
‘Clementine.’ Do any of you know this song?”

Some shook their heads and others
nodded.

Melinda taught the class one verse at a time. As
they sang, Jenny listened carefully and watched her teacher but did
not participate and sing with the class. After going through the
song a couple times, Jenny started to sing. In no time at all,
Jenny’s voice rang out with joy and excitement. She was not on key
most of the time, but that did not matter to Melinda. She had
broken the barrier between them. With joy swelling in her heart,
she listened as the class sang.

The following day, Melinda arrived at school
and found Jenny in a fight with Billy. They were squabbling on the
ground and the young boy was yelling for help. Melinda eyed Jenny
in amazement. Here she was, only eight years old, fighting with a
ten-year-old boy. The most shocking part was that Jenny was on top
of him, pulling his hair as he screamed in pain. How in the world,
Melinda wondered, did this feisty young lady manage to overpower a
boy almost twice her size? Jenny was slender and wiry and Billy was
a bit chubby and slow of movement, which could have been a factor.
But still, the boy had bulk on his side.

“Jenny!” Melinda called out with her hands on
her hips. She was shocked at such behavior. As a new schoolteacher,
she felt completely unprepared for what was happening before her
very eyes.

No one paid attention. Annoyed, Melinda
tried to pull them apart. As she tugged Jenny away, the young man
held his face with his hands while Jenny continued to swing her
fists at him.

“I’ll teach you,” yelled Jenny. The blood
was rushing through her veins, making her face red with anger.

“Jenny!” Melinda said with authority. “Come
with me.”

Taking the feisty little she-cat by her
hand, she led her inside the school and sat down at her desk. Jenny
looked down at the floor with anger flaming from her eyes.

Melinda was frustrated but she knew that
kindness and tenderness went further than scolding. She took a deep
breath to settle herself down. The with tenderness in her voice,
she spoke to Jenny.

“Jenny, what’s wrong?”

Jenny would not speak.

Melinda gently held Jenny’s hand in hers and
with her other hand she tenderly replaced a blond curl that had
come loose from the scuffle and was hanging in her eyes. When she
saw the defiance in Jenny’s eyes, Melinda felt discouraged.
Everything she had done yesterday had been completely undone by
Jenny’s classmate. Taking a deep breath, she sighed. Then, after
uttering a silent prayer, she spoke softly.

“Sweet, sweet Jenny. What am I going to do with
you? Why can’t you talk to me? You know I care about you. Please
tell me why you were fighting with that young man.”

Jenny’s eyes flamed and she spoke with
vehemence in her voice. “He called me a name. He always calls me
names every day. I hate him.”

“What name did he call you?”

“He called me stupid and dummy and I’m
not.”

“Of course you’re not. You’re a very smart
young lady with a pretty smile.”

When Melinda smiled, Jenny’s frown gradually
disappeared and her eyes softened.

“Jenny, you’ve got to control your temper.
Ignore what the kids say because none of it is true. Remember, you
are above those who call you names if you just turn and walk
away.”

“But I can’t,” said Jenny adamantly.

Melinda knew that it was easier said than
done. After the class settled down, she worried that the children
had made their judgments about Jenny simply because of a teacher
who announced to the class that she was a trouble-maker and had
placed her at the back of the class, hidden from the rest of the
students. Had he actually said that she was a troublemaker in front
of the class? That was what the children had told her. How could
she undo every negative word or action the children had learned
from their teacher?

The first two weeks went by quickly. Jenny
continued to fight with the boys, but less frequently because she
wanted to please her teacher. Each day Melinda would have to give a
lecture to the class about respecting one another. Each day she
made a conscious effort to build up Jenny’s self-esteem. And
Melinda knew that Jenny’s love for her was growing day by day.

One morning, when all the students were
supposed to be reading, one of them made a spit wad and tossed it
at Melinda. She knew it was someone trying to be funny and she
suspected it was Billy, so she simply ignored it. Then another spit
wad was tossed and it hit Melinda’s hair and bounced off onto the
floor.

With all the patience she could muster, she
stood and looked at the class and said sternly, “If I feel another
spit wad hit me, then you’ll put your books away and you’ll get out
your math and do a few pages.”

Then she sat down and all was silent. No
more spit wads were tossed after that. The threat of doing extra
math was sufficiently frightening.

One day, Melinda noticed that Billy was
acting quite mischievous and had tried to dunk Peggy’s pigtail in
his inkwell. He must have thought his new teacher was dense, she
mused. Did most students seem to underestimate their teachers like
this? Did he actually believe that she would think it was an
accident? When he tried to dunk the braid in the ink, Peggy must
have felt him tuck at her hair because she whirled her head around
and her pigtail slapped Billy right in the face, swiping his face
with blue ink.

Billy had a blue streak across his face for
several days and he swore that he would never do such a thing ever
again if Miss Gamble would not punish him. Melinda was frustrated
and considered a punishment, but opted not to since his blue face
seemed to be humiliating enough.

Sometime after the ink incident, Peggy found a frog
in her lunch pail. After she screamed at the top of her voice, she
headed right for Billy and accused him of placing it there. It
seemed to be his style and she was convinced that he was getting
even because she whipped his face with her hair. Most everyone
suspected Billy to be the culprit because he grinned when she
accused him of it — but no punishment was executed since there was
no proof of it.

The frustration of being a teacher was high.
Was she doing any good or even making a difference in the lives of
any of these children? Their behavior was very discouraging. But
suddenly one day, things began to turn around as if she were being
rewarded for her efforts. The third week of school, Jenny started
doing her schoolwork and did not act rebellious about it. Melinda
was so impressed with Jenny. She had come a long way and she was
very smart. She had warmed up to Melinda and the joy she felt was
incredible.

She wanted the class to get to know Jenny
better in an atmosphere other than the classroom, so she decided to
plan an excursion that would take the students away from the
monotony of the school and hopefully allow them to overcome their
prejudices against Jenny.

“Class, I have decided to take you into the West
Mountains to the Paris Springs next Monday. I will show you where
the fresh unpolluted water pours out of the mountain and where we
get our drinking water. You will need to bring a note from your
parents for permission and a sack lunch because we’ll be having a
picnic up there. Don’t forget to bring a cup so you can drink the
fresh spring water.”

After Melinda told the class about the
little excursion in the mountains and all the fun they would be
having, Billy seemed to turn pale and became quite fidgety. He kept
glancing up at her as if something was on his mind. He finally
stood and slowly walked up to Melinda with a sheepish look on his
face.

He ran his fingers through his brown wavy
hair and then he took a deep breath and said, “Miss Gamble, you are
making school fun for us and I never had fun at school before. You
are much nicer than the other teacher we had. So, I just want to
tell you that I’m sorry for all the mischief I’ve been doing.”

“Thank you, Billy,” said Melinda with
surprise. “I appreciate that.”

“And I’m sorry for what I did today,
too.”

“Sorry? You haven’t done anything
today.”

His dark brown eyes widened. “Oh yes I have,
Miss Gamble.”

She lifted her eyebrows slightly. “What did
you do?”

“Well,” Billy swallowed and nervously wiped his
hands on his pants. “I would like it very much if you would just
look the other way while I get something from your desk. All right,
Miss Gamble?”

Melinda looked into Billy’s eyes
questioningly. “Billy, did you put something in my desk?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Can I peek?”

“No, ma’am. You wouldn’t like it if you did.
Just turn the other way so you won’t get scared.”

Melinda quietly rose from her seat and
backed up to the wall so she could watch at a safe distance. Billy
opened her drawer and exposed a nice fat garter snake that was
lying upon her papers. Billy slid his hands under it and picked it
up, just as Melinda gasped.

Billy looked up at Melinda and said, “He
wouldn’t have hurt you, Miss Gamble. He’s just a garter snake. I
play with them all the time. Pa says they eat the bad bugs in our
garden.”

When the girls realized what Billy had in his
hands, the classroom became a siren of screaming noises that would
have pierced the ears of anyone who entered the room. One girl
fainted and another ran outside without permission. The boys
laughed until their sides ached, and Melinda wondered if she should
give Billy a punishment. Since he had been so honest with her and
willingly took the snake outside, she hesitated to do so. Honesty
had its merits.

One by one, the permission slips arrived on
her desk. By the end of the week, Melinda counted them up and found
one note was missing. Jenny had not brought her note from home.

While the students worked on their math, she
took the opportunity to ask Jenny why she did not bring her note.
Jenny’s desk still sat next to Melinda’s, for Jenny liked it that
way and she seemed to study better when she was near her teacher.
It seemed that she lacked confidence and being near Melinda helped
assure her of her abilities.

“Jenny, I need to talk to you.”

Jenny’s head rose from her work and she
smiled at Melinda.

“Jenny, did you forget to bring a note from
home?”

“No.”

“But I don’t have a note here saying you can go
to the mountains.”

Jenny lowered her head and looked at her
desk. “That’s ’cause my pa won’t let me go.”

“Why, Jenny?”

“He says it’s too dangerous.”

“I wouldn’t let any harm come to you. The
other parents have written notes. They seem to think it’s all
right.”

“But my pa doesn’t think so. He says that I
might get hurt.” Jenny looked into Melinda’s eyes and frowned. “The
fact is I can’t do much of anything, Miss Gamble, because he
worries too much.”

Jenny looked out the window and spoke as if
she were reminiscing about the past. “One time, a neighbor’s cat
had kittens and she was giving them away and my pa was too busy to
take me to her house to get one because he said he didn’t have the
time.” She turned and looked at her teacher with a bit of sadness
in her eyes. “When Pa finally had extra time, all the kittens were
given away and it was too late. I wanted a kitten so bad.”

Melinda’s heart went out to Jenny and she wanted to
help. She had learned firsthand how a small animal was able to help
a child emotionally. The memory of it warmed her soul as she
remembered her childhood days, and how her faithful dog had helped
her through many a tough time as she poured her feelings out to
him. She remembered how this loving animal had licked her tears
away and then snuggled up close as if to comfort her. She
remembered the softness of his fur against her face and the
enormous amount of love she had for this animal. Her dog had been
her friend and confidant. Why hadn’t Jenny’s father cared enough to
go with her to get a kitten?