(10th Story) August

August first.

July had zipped by in a whirl of lunch dates, patios, shopping, and cottages. Sherry had promised herself that she would start on school work in August. It was August. 

She packed her laptop, curriculum documents, resource books and notepads along with her bathing suit, and sunscreen for her visit to her parents cottage.  She had tried to beg off, but her cousins would be there this weekend and her mother had said it would be rude if she didn't show.

"I'll have to work." Sherry said. "It's two new programs this year."

"They'll understand," her mother replied.

Sherry arrived just before dinner. Sherry greeted her cousins and the new girlfriend.  

"Where's Ian?" her cousin, Matthew, asked.

"He stayed in the city.  He has tickets for a game on Saturday."

"Everything okay with you two?" her cousin Marcia kissed her on both cheeks.   "Will we be getting a wedding invitation soon?"

"Maybe," Sherry smiled. "But not from me."

She shook hands with Rita, Matthew's new girlfriend.

They had dinner outside. Grilled, burgers, and portobello mushrooms with coleslaw and potato salad. The cousins reminisced. Sherry felt bad for Rita who was left out of the conversation. 

"This must be boring for you," Sherry said.

"Oh no," Rita shook her head. "I find it fascinating. Your family is so different from mine. I grew up in a very small town. We had very few choices for entertainment.  We had to make our own games. Sometime we'd get into trouble for them. Like the time my brother decided to have a scavenger hunt.  He hid us little ones around the house. He set my cousins to find us, but they got bored and I was in the blanket chest for four hours before my grandmother found me.  My brother got in big trouble for that one! Our town is so small...."

"How small is it?" Sherry asked. 

Rita raised her eyebrows and frowned.

"Sorry.  Please continue," Sherry said.

"We didn't even have our own high school. We had to be bused to the next town over.  And the teachers all thought we were stupid because we were hicks, you know?"

"How long have you known Matt?" Sherry interrupted.

"I met Matthew on line a year ago.  We've been together for eight months now. Did I hear  you say your boyfriend stayed in the city to go to a ball game?"

Sherry nodded. 

"You poor thing! You must be so upset. I don't know what I'd do if Matthew did that to me."

"I'm not upset," Sherry said.

"Well, you're being very brave. I'm sure you two will work it out. My last boyfriend used to do things like that, but I set him straight. You just got to make the rules clear.."

"I think I should help my mother clean up. Nice talking to you." Sherry got up and walked away.

The next morning, Sherry woke up early and after a quick shower, she poured herself a coffee, and went out to the deck with her books and her notepad and her computer. 

She decided to start by reviewing some reading resources. She had co-created her long range plans with the grade four and the grade five teacher, but she to figure out how to approach those expectations.

She had been reading for fifteen minutes, when she felt someone looking over her shoulder. Sherry turned around."Oh good morning Rita. Did you sleep well?"

“Yes, thanks I always  sleep well with Matthew. It nice having someone to cuddle and a heart beat to listen to."

Sherry smiled, nodded and turned back to her books.

"What are you reading?"

"Books on teaching reading. I'm teaching two new grades this year. I have to get ready." Sherry smiled and turned back to her books.

"I thought I'd like to be a teacher."

Sherry suppressed a sigh. "What do you do now?"

"I'm in the food industry.  But what do you need to be a teacher?"

"A BA and a B. Ed."

"Really?" 

Sherry nodded.

"Even to teach grade one or kindergarten?"

Sherry nodded.

"But grade one would be easy, right? I mean we already know how to read, and count. How hard can it be? Anyone could teach that."

"Grade one is actually one of the most difficult grades. Teaching reading is not easy." Sherry turned back to her books.

"Really? Im surprised. I wouldn't have thought so."

Sherry nodded, smiled and turned back to her books.

" I had a few good teachers," Rita said. "There are some good ones, you know?"

Sherry looked up, smiled, nodded and turned back to her books.

" I guess you want to get some work done?"

Sherry looked up, smiled, nodded and turned back to her books.

"I like to read biographies myself. I don't see any reason to waste time on fiction when there are so  many good real life stories out there to read. What do you read?"

"Fiction. I don't see any reason to waste time with reality when there's so much good fiction out there."

Rita was quiet for a minute. "I'll write some titles down for you anyhow. My brother was in a really bad place emotionally and I loaned him one of my books and he pulled himself together. And my best friend..."

Sherry suppressed a sigh and glanced longingly at her books as Rita told her all the people she had helped and how grateful people were and how surprised they were that she knew so much.

Sherry smiled, nodded and hoped Matt would get up soon and rescue her from his girlfriend so that she could get back to work.  It was August.