Mon frere

"You are the one, you're the one in my heart, you're my darlin' my life's greatest thrill...."
I sing softly to Lola.
"Yes, you are the one, you're the one in my heart and I love you and I always will...."
I sing the Carl Smith song at a slower tempo than he did, but I've sung it to Lola since she was a baby.  It's our jam.  Or mine, at least. 

"Alright, mon frere, you have a good weekend!" the nicest teacher at my school called to Alejandro, as he got in his mom's car.  Alejandro's face spread in a huge smile. 

I drove from school to the Housing Authority, on Halloween.
"And I, I..... will always, love you!!!!" I howled, with Dolly Parton.
That is one of the few songs that has always brought me to tears.
I sing that to Lola lately, too.

"Goodbye, Jennifer Faulkner." Alejandro said jokingly, as he snipped a small piece of his cut and paste worksheet into little pieces as we worked in a small group.  This was not my class.  It was when I push-in to his big class and cluster them and try to make it work. 
"Wait, who is Jennifer Faulkner?"  I asked.
"Her name is at the bottom of all the worksheets she gives us," Alejandro stated, cutting Jennifer's name in two again, while motioning slightly, ever so slightly, at his teacher.
"I hate Jennifer Faulkner."
It's weird, ever since he showed me, I have noticed that his teacher must be caught on some Teachers Pay Teachers fetish worksheet thing with this one author.  Jennifer.  Jennifer Faulkner.  And every time Alejandro sees Jennifer's name at the bottom of one of those worksheets, he snips it into little pieces. 

We joke about it.  I see it in the recycle bin.  I ask him where her name is and he has it snipped apart in his desk.  It's everywhere. 

We have a new student coming.  He is a big boy, though he is only ten. Our grade level group is tight knit and we are very bonded together.  We've suffered losses and we've tightened up with who is left.  We look out for each other. 

I can't wait to meet him.