"Yes...." he answered.
"What did you ask for?"
"An iPhone." all six years of him answered, definitely.
"Nunca he visto nieve...." Rosa informed me while we ran to the trailer.
"Oh, Rosa. I really hope it snows this year." I answered, knowing every time I see that snowflake on my weather app I would think of her.
"Voy al gimnasio los miércoles ahora.....¡y le entiendo todo!" she whispered dramatically.
"I am so proud of you, Rosa." I answered, struggling to make myself speak English instead of Spanish.
"You have been working so hard."
"Hey, Alejandro's brothers are in your classes and they don't celebrate Christmas, so we'll be hanging out in the trailer during the holiday parties. You can send his brothers to me, if you want." I emailed various teachers.
No one answered.
"Our mom is picking us up before the parties..." Gustavo mentioned one day, randomly. It figured. Their mom is no fool and would never want her children to be uncomfortable.
"Hey, Alejandro's probably not going to have to go to the trailer on the holiday party day, his mom is coming to pick them up." I informed the second meanest teacher in the school.
"Uh, okay, well, I'm going to send some other kids with you, you know kids that I haven't been able to make parental contact with...."
I don't know why she was so determined to not let me in that room during the party. Did she want to send the kids with me that she had barred from the party for behavior? Turn my trailer into a little mini-jail? Or the kids that didn't pay the eight dollar fee for admission?
"Ms. Q said that all the kids that don't celebrate Christmas are going to the trailer with you." Veronica whispered, later in the day.
"What!?" I whispered back, furiously.
I was getting pissed off. Can't answer an email but can send me fifty kids no one wants to my trailer. Kids I don't even know.
On the day of the parties, I spirited Gustavo and another little boy from his class out of the classroom before the parties began. I had my Scrabble game in the trailer and a bunch of candy, in anticipation. We booked toward Alejandro's classroom.
"His mom is picking him up." the second meanest teacher in the school informed me, as if I hadn't mentioned this fun fact to her a few days ago.
"Okay, have them buzz the trailer when she comes." I answered.
"No, she'll be here any minute, you should take them to the Media Center, I told them that's where you'd be."
We collected the third brother and the four of us sat in the Media Center. It is open at the top and sits in the center of the school. We could hear the parties all around. I set up my work laptop and let the other boy and Gustavo play math games on it. Alejandro and his other brother and I sat around and talked. Teachers came in with plates full of food and fraternized. We sat and waited while the clock ticked. An administrator came in. She didn't ask me why I wasn't wearing our mandated Christmas clothes or why I was sitting with students in the Media Center during the parties.
Their mom arrived an hour later.
"Snow..ow...ow man! Why are you here?" the kids sang, hauntingly. I locked eyes with Alejandra, who flattered me by looking thrilled when she saw me in the audience.
"Snow...ow...ow man, why are you here? You are just a little snowman with your little twig hands.. why would anyone want to talk to you....?"
She saw me wincing at the lyrics and nodded. And continued to sing, staring at me with a distaste on her face while she sang the mean lyrics.
"Hey...." one of the volunteer mentors at the Housing Authority said in greeting.
"I can't find my girl and her dad said she was here....but I know something happened...."
"Yeah, she's been suspended." another teacher responded.
I looked at Habiba.
"They jumped that girl, the one that was in your class last year at school. All four of them...." Four girls I taught at The Center last year and one that I taught at school.
"Her mom came up here and wanted to know what happened to her face."
"But...you know.. the other three didn't hit her...just jumped on her jacket and spit on her...." Habiba said lowly, knowing what they did was just as bad.
"I saw what she was doing!" the kindergarten teacher said with surprise. She was talking about Helina, my non-verbal girl.
"Wait, you mean when she tried to poke my eyes out with a pencil?"
"Yeah! She almost got you!"
"Yeah, I have to watch her. She tries to stab me." I answered. Or rip my finger nails off. Or tear holes in my clothes.
I crowd-sourced a book buy so that each of my students would have a brand new book to take home and keep and read over the two week, end of the year break. I told myself not to get too excited, not to be disappointed if they didn't react with glee, but honestly, they were marvelous. It was more that I could have ever hoped for.
I walked up the hill into the neighborhood with the kids that walk home from school. Adriana always walks by my side and we talk.
"My mom bought them presents. They're coming over on Christmas." she whispered, referring to Juan and Alberto, who her mom also always gives a ride home.
"Oh my god, I am so glad. Your mom is so nice, you all are so nice." I responded, relieved.
"Their dad is trying to take them, take them away from her....from their mom." she responded, with a much more serious look than any ten year old should have.
I entered the kindergarten classroom the day after the the book give away. I was shocked when Helina set up a chair for me, like the autistic girl usually does who was absent, and sat next to me, resting her elbow on my knee. I held onto the tiny kindergarten chair while I sat down, afraid she would rip it out from under me and I'd fall on my ass. I told her how pretty her hijab was and praised her for mouthing sounds that she refuses to vocalize.
About twenty minutes in, she shoved the eraser end of her pencil into my mouth, just when I got complacent.
I swatted it away and laughed.
"Oh, Helina. No one gets one over on you." I said and hugged her. And she hugged me back, her eyes batting and mischievous.
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