“Welcome to Cabot Elementary! You’re all set and registered for Kindergarten! Here’s a packet for you to read over before school starts. There’s a letter from the Kindergarten teachers, a school supply list, and a book list from the library. This is a chart so you can practice his letters and letter sounds with him. You’ll also be getting a lot of important emails over the next few weeks, so make sure to read your emails carefully. Do you have any questions I can answer right now?”
Rosa shuffled the multicolored papers nervously, a pastel rainbow in her hands. “What time does the bus come?”
“Hmm, you should’ve gotten a letter from Transportation with all the need-to-know info for the bus, but lemme take a look for you.” The secretary tapped a few buttons and peered theatrically at her computer screen. Her bracelets jingled as she pointed at the data-filled spreadsheet, manicured finger oozing competence. “Looks like your bus stop’ll be the corner of Morse and Fillmore at… 7:38 a.m..”
“Thank you.” Rosa leaned back from the shoulder-high desk. The secretary had already moved on to helping the next parent as a crowd piled up behind her. Rosa slipped of the office and out of everyone’s way.
Two weeks later, Rosa tied Mateo’s new shoes, kissed the top of his gel-stiffened hair, and tipped him towards the approaching yellow school bus.
-BEEP-
“Hiiiiii! This is Mrs. White, I’m Mateo’s teacher! I’m so excited to share that he had an amazing first day! Please check his folder every night for important information from the school, I put a copy of my class newsletter in there for you to read over, if you have any questions about what to expect this year, and make sure to read your email carefully because I’ll send updates that way too. And, oh! Don’t forget to read with him every night, and you can quiz him on his sight words, too. I’m so happy Mateo is in my class this year! Please email or call if you need anything, ok?”
-BEEP-
“Hiiiii, it’s Mrs. White, Mateo’s teacher? I was just calling to see if you got my email about our Family Stories project? We want you to feel included in our classroom community! Could you please fill out my Google Form with some information about your family? There’s also a link in there to sign up to be a guest reader so you can share a book with the class. If you can’t make it during the day, you can always record a video of yourself reading the story!”
-BEEP-
“Hiiiiiii, it’s Mrs. White, Mateo’s teacher? How are you? Just checking if you saw the field trip permission slip in his folder the other day? It’s the green paper. When you get a chance can you please read it over and sign it for me? The kids are so excited for this super-cool opportunity! If you have any questions about it you can read the FAQs on their website.”
“Mommy, look what I got!” Mateo proudly pulled a plastic-coated book from his backpack. The cover was decorated with photographs of race cars, and the letters on the front were almost holographically shiny. “We went to library!”
After tucking Mateo into bed, Rosa ran her hand over his race car book. She thought of herself as a little girl. She wondered, What kind of story would I have chosen, if I’d been granted a wish for one magical, glossy book? Surely not race cars! Probably animals. No — fairy tales, like her grandma used to tell, with fluffy dresses in all the pictures. Rosa looked around as if to check for someone watching. Who would be watching? Still, she felt reassured to see there was really no one there. The teachers don’t have a spy camera watching us from Mateo’s backpack! Relax. She turned the pages slowly in her hands. She studied the lines and curves of black ink and tried to find the patterns. That one’s M for Mateo. And this circle, I know it’s o. But there are so many shapes, in so many combinations — what words do they each represent?
Soon, she thought, gently placing the book back on the table. She patted the flame-covered convertible on the front. Someday soon, he’ll know enough to teach me, too.
Author's Note: Henry Cabot Lodge, Samuel Morse, and Millard Fillmore were known Nativists who promoted the restriction of immigration. I imagined Rosa as an immigrant who did not have the same educational opportunities as Mateo.
[Prompt from TeachWrite: Write a piece of flash fiction that begins and/or ends with a book. 750 word limit.]
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash.