Page 3 of Stone

They were on the second page of the story, only about three lines per page, so it wasn’t difficult to do for him, he heard from the office. They all loved it when the intercom sounded, liking it when someone was called to the office. Usually, it was him and a student, but this time, it was just him. Putting one of the shier kids in charge, he made his way to the office to see what was going on so early in the morning.

“Mr. Griffin, this is Ms. Rachel Cummings. She is looking to have her niece put into our system and she wanted to meet one of the kindergarten teachers. I thought of you first thing.” He didn’t point out that as of two weeks before break, he was the only one who wasn’t pregnant and already asking for time off. “Mr. Griffin also has been the teacher of the year for the last six years running.”

Eight, but he wasn’t going to correct their principal at this point. He shook hands with the woman and pulled his hand back, barely catching himself from wiping his hand on his shirt. It was as if he was handling slimy meat or something. The woman wasn’t human, but worse than that, he knew that she wasn’t in charge of her “niece” either and had taken the child from her parents after killing them.

It happened a good deal more than he wanted to admit. Not the killing part but that someone wanted to hide their child—one that they’d gotten by other means until the heat was over and they could move on. This woman wasn’t looking for a good school, not even a good teacher. She wanted a place in a small town that wouldn’t, she hoped check into things that she’d rather they didn’t.

While the woman was going on and on about how she’d been in other districts that had demanded that the little girl be tested before putting them into a grade. Of course, too, she was the smartest kid in the room at her last school. He reached out to Storm, his sister-in-law.

After telling her what was going on, he waited for her to tell him that she was going to come and get the child. He didn’t see the little girl because Ms. Cummings said that she was napping in the car and that’s why she had left her husband there with her.

“I didn’t think that anyone would mind about me parking in a no parking zone so she’d not wake up.” He did mind but kept his mouth shut. The little girl in question was being held by Cummings’s accomplice, her longtime boyfriend, Harry Jones. “My husband just dotes on her. I get jealous sometimes if you know what I mean.”

Again, she made him slightly ill, but he smiled and waited for Storm to get back to him. When she did, she was laughing hard and he had to smile. To know her was to love her but to hear her laugh,you knew that someone was going to get their asses handed to them in short order, and you could only wish that you were around when she did it. It was a nice show when she got all fired up.

“The police are on their way. Believe it or not, they’re both wanted by the feds. Imagine my surprise when I read that.”He asked her how many times they’d pulled this trick. “First time on a child. They’re branching out, so to speak. They used to only take infants to sell off, but that’s getting harder for them to do with all the security that goes on at the hospital nowadays. You should be seeing the first cruiser pulling in now.”

He nodded to the open doorway and asked if something was going on with the parking lot. Knowing full well that it was about the couple, he stepped back, taking Mr. Sharp with him, his boss and hoping that the woman ran out rather than taking a hostage of either one of them. He’d go before he let Sharp, but he wasn’t keen on getting hurt today.

Cunnings not only had a gun, but she was firing at the police as she left the school. Diving for cover, hoping that the shattering glass was something more than the front of the school, Stone pulled the alarm that would have all the teachers going into lockdown. He wasn’t taking any chances with his class and made his way there as soon as he realized that Ms. Bonnie, the longtime secretary, was on the phone with the police as well.

His class was going through the motions of what they’d been going on once a week since they entered his room. Not only did they know to not open the door unless it was him but they already had the blinds pulled down and the steel plate pulled in front of the door so that it engaged the locks. Getting them to go to the bathrooms in their room, he was thrilled when one of the kids knew how to get the class pet. Mr. Moons was a cat that the kids had adopted on the second week of class.

“Mr. Stone, are we in trouble?” He said that they were safe so long as they did what they’d been told. “It’s my birthday today, and I need to get home. My momma is baking me a ‘nilla cake for my birthday. Will we be going home?”

“Yes, Thomas. I’m hoping that everyone goes home.” He heard the police, only because his hearing was far better than most anyone else’s in the bathroom, and looked to the two children who were not human. With a small shake of his head, they both nodded and wouldn’t tell that the police had the couple taken down. “We should have sung happy birthday to you. I should have remembered.”

Small talk to the kids was better than telling them that he was afraid as well. He wouldn’t die, but there were things going on that he didn’t like having no control over. He checked on the other kids and tried cheering them up as well. Before he could get back to the other students, Rain and Storm popped into the room.

“It’s over. You guys did great and no one was killed but the two people that started this whole thing. We were on hand to save the little girl, too.” He asked her if her parents were really dead. “Yes, I’m afraid that they are. But there is other family that will take her in, hopefully. Your kids are going to come out all right with this. They did what they were told and managed to feel good about not getting hurt on top of that.”

“That doesn’t mean that we’ll stop practicing.” She agreed with him. “When will the lockdown be over? I don’t want them to think that they’re still in danger.”

“The police are here now, so it shouldn’t be much longer. You did a good job, Stone. I’m very proud of you for taking care of the kids. It could have been much worse had you not notified us when you did.” He told her that he knew she had his back. “We do. Forever and a day.”

After the lockdown was released, he continued with the class projects as if nothing happened. It was good, he thought to keep normal around the kids. After about an hour, it was like nothing had ever happened. They were in the reading circle when one of the kids, Davy Markus, asked if the people were dead.”

“Yes, they are. They did a very bad thing, and the police had to take care of them so that they’d not do anything like that again.” He put the book aside and asked if they had any more questions. There were only a couple at first, but by the time lunchtime was ready, they were talking about how they’d had such a good time on break. Normal is just what they needed and he was glad that he had such a good class that seemed to understand that he was there for them all.

Rest time was better than he thought it would be. They were resting on their cots when he decided to get some of the grading that he’d been putting off for a few days. There wasn’t that much but it was enough to keep his mind from going over this morning. When it was time for them to start waking up, he put it all away to spend some good time with the kids. It was coloring time, and it was his favorite time of the day.

The kids could write their names now and were able to say their alphabet. There were other things that they could do as well but he was most proud of all of them as they were working hard to be able to go to first grade. It was like a passage of something special to them, and he was working to make them the best kids to go forth that he could.

“Mr. Stone?” He looked at Valeria and asked her what it was she needed. Of all his kids, she was the most difficult to get motivated on things. She could do the work, they all could but she wanted to wheedle her way out of as much work as she could all the time. “Do you think that we could take a longer nap today? I’m worn out.”

“I’m sure that most of you are. But we have a time schedule to adhere to, and it’s important that we keep to that.” She told him that she was powerful tired, a word that he was sure that she picked up at home. “Maybe I could take a longer nap, and the rest of the kids could just do their work.”

“No, that won’t work. We all have a schedule, as I said.” Ignoring her little tantrum, he began helping the kids put their cots away. “Come on now, everyone. We have work to do.”

Preparing the kids for the next grade was a daily thing. They had to know so much now that it boggled his mind that anyone was able to keep up that didn’t go to preschool before coming to his class. The ones that had been in the pre-k classes excelled in their work and were better at getting along with the other students. They also seemed to understand the rules better than the ones that hadn’t. Most of his class had gone to pre-K and they were all doing very well and didn’t mind helping the other students that hadn’t been able to go to the classes for one reason or another.

By the time the end of the day was coming around, he was exhausted. It had been a stressful start, and it seemed to be more or less stressful for the rest of the day. Two students had forgotten to bring their money in for lunch, and he’d made sure that he sent home notes with them. It had been a policy to not allow the kids to have their lunch if they didn’t have a paid-up account but he’d had his family nip that in the bud right away.

A child couldn’t function without a meal to eat. And for a lot of the kids, it was the only meal that they had all day. There was a breakfast program in place that would have hot food for the kids who weren’t able to have a hot meal at home, but that was nearly too much for the cooks, and they’d had some of the pack come in and serve it to the kids. It was a good win for everyone and some extra pocket money for the women who had come in to help out.

Stone had bus duty today and was looking forward to it. Most of the parents that did pick up would have to stop and talk to him about this or that when they would be in line and it would make it slow moving for the kids. So being on bus duty like he was meant that he’d not see the parents at all and just made sure that the kids got on the right buses so that they’d make it home. Hall duty was just as nice for him. Just making sure that the kids didn’t run through the halls to get out of school was one of his all-time favorite things to do. It sheltered him from parents, mostly women, about making passes at him.

Stone knew that he wasn’t a bad-looking man. He made sure that he kept himself in good shape and ate right. Running after twenty four kids a day would do that for him. But he was also single and wealthy. Having all his brothers with wives made him the last time anyone could get their hands on the Griffin money. Or so they had thought. He wasn’t waiting on a mate. She’d come or not. But he wasn’t going to change his life by getting one.

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