The Ghosts of Dedap Road – 6

   Miss Mood was my Jupiter teacher. Clem said it was different in the states. Jupiter was the same as fourth “grade”, he said. School in the states sounded boring. Sadie was in Saturn and Clem was with the older kids in Neptune. That was when boys got to wear long pants. Sadie and I wore the same uniform: a sleeveless navy blue dress with a pair of navy shorts underneath, long white socks and black buckle shoes.

    Miss Mood always stood with her cigarette looking like a movie star and staring out over the open soccer field at something far away that I could never see. Some days I talked to her at recess and mostly she asked me about my brother and sister and where I lived and where I came from in America. I asked her questions sometimes too, but I didn’t always understand the answers. Some days I would talk to her almost all recess and other days she would shoo me off to play with the other kids. I especially liked her blue and yellow pastel eyeshadow that matched whatever she wore. Bright half moons painted on dark skin above eyes as black as custard apple seeds. There were other teachers on the playground because all of the Jupiter classes and some of the Saturn classes came out at the same time. But Miss Mood was the only one who talked to kids without sounding irritated.   

   It was library day, and usually my favorite day because there was almost nothing I loved more than reading.  But today was different. Miss Mood took me aside while we waited in an orderly line for the librarian.  She said to wait for her and not to go into the library with the other kids. I was suddenly afraid. I hated being singled out for anything. When the school year started, I always got all of the answers right in math class, so Miss Mood took me out of Jupiter math and put me in Saturn with Sadie. The kids were doing long division and fractions. I didn’t know any of that.  I wanted to ask Sadie how to do it because I knew she’d know, but she was on the other side of the room absorbed in writing. All I could do was stare at the problems and try not to cry. The Saturn teacher had a long talk with Miss Mood and then told me go back to Jupiter. After that I made sure to miss some of the answers on math tests for good measure.