PRESENT TENSE
Chapter One Hundred Twenty
June 22, 2009
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Around mid-morning, Jack helped Lizzy put her
sneakers on and strapped her into her car seat. He was leery about leaving the
camp unattended, but he wanted to register Lizzy for kindergarten with plenty
of time to do any things that needed to be done. He hadn’t been able to
register her before, and he couldn’t wait until Rose came back, because the
school office closed at four and she wouldn’t be home until past five.
"Did you ever go to kindergarten,
Daddy?" Lizzy asked, looking out the window as he drove out of the
campground and headed into town.
"Yes, I did, Lizzy, when I was a little
boy."
Lizzy tried to imagine her father as little,
but couldn’t quite manage it. "Where?"
"Right here in Chippewa Falls, Lizzy, at
the same school you’re going to go to."
"Am I going to learn to read?"
"Maybe not right away, but
eventually."
"Am I gonna have the same teacher as
you?"
Jack laughed. "Probably not, Lizzy. I
was in kindergarten a long time ago." It was possible, though. Jack
remembered her as being young and pretty—she might still be teaching.
He pulled into the parking lot of Jim Falls
Elementary School, then opened Lizzy’s door while she unbuckled herself from
her seat. He had long since stopped insisting that she not unbuckle herself as
long as she stayed buckled while the car was moving.
Lizzy looked around, wide-eyed, as they
walked towards the building. "Wow. I’m gonna be a big kid."
Her father chuckled. "Yes, you will.
You’ve been waiting a long time to be one."
"Yeah. It’s about been forever."
"It doesn’t seem like that long to
me." He held her hand as they went inside. To him, it hardly seemed that
any time had passed since Lizzy was born, but she would be five years old in
October, and Paul, had he lived, would have been just past a year old by this
time. Even the baby that Rose had been carrying, if she hadn’t lost it, would
have been less than a month away from birth. Time did indeed pass much more
quickly than someone as young as Lizzy realized.
He hadn’t been to the school in over
seventeen years, but he still remembered where things were located. He had been
a student there for all the years from kindergarten until he had finished fifth
grade and moved on to middle school.
The office was where he remembered it. The
school was a bit larger than when he had been there, but some things hadn’t
changed. They passed a few teachers as they walked, Lizzy gazing around the
building with interest. She could hardly wait for school to start, even though
there were more than two months to go.
Jack’s memories of starting school were
vague, but he had been slightly older than Lizzy would be when she started. He
did remember having to get shots before school started, and not appreciating it
at all, and he remembered clinging to his mother when she dropped him off on
the first day and wailing that he didn’t want to stay. That had gone on for
several days, until he had made some friends and decided that he liked playing
with his friends better than clinging to his mother.
There was no line when Jack reached the
office and walked up to the desk. A bored-looking clerk sat there entering data
into a computer.
"Excuse me."
The clerk looked up, appearing almost
relieved at the distraction. "How can I help you?"
"I need to register my daughter for
school." Lizzy stood beside Jack, trying without success to see over the
desk.
The clerk reached into a drawer and handed
him some papers to fill out. "What’s the child’s name?"
"Elizabeth Ruth Dawson."
"Lizzy," the little girl piped up,
still trying to see over the desk.
The clerk smiled. "Hello, Lizzy. I’m
Miss Landers." She looked back at Jack. "What is her age?"
"Four right now, but she’ll be five
October second."
"So her date of birth is October 2,
2004?"
"Right."
"And what grade? Kindergarten?"
"Yes, kindergarten."
"Are you looking at the morning or the
afternoon session?"
"Morning." He wasn’t sure what they
would do with her in the afternoons after he started at the university, but
they would be there when she got on the bus most mornings, and on those
occasions that they weren’t, they could drop her off at school.
"And what is your home address, and
mailing address if it’s different?"
"Uh…we don’t currently have a home
address. We’re living in the campground outside of town for now…at least until
my wife gets her first paycheck and we can afford a place to live. We currently
get our mail General Delivery."
"Do you know the address of the
campground?"
"No…but we’re in space seventeen."
"Okay." Miss Landers made a note of
that. "We’ll also need her vaccination records. If her vaccinations aren’t
up to date, there’s a couple of places in the area that give free or low-cost
vaccines to those who can’t afford them."
"I’ll have check on that." Rose had
usually taken Lizzy to the doctor when it was needed, so he didn’t know if the
child was up to date on her vaccines or not.
He looked around, realizing that Lizzy was no
longer standing beside him, trying to see over the desk. Instead, the bored
child was now sitting on the floor in the corner, poking her fingers into the
dirt of a wilted-looking plant.
"Lizzy, come here. Don’t play with
that."
"But, Daddy…"
"Lizzy, I said come here. That isn’t
yours. Don’t play with it."
"But it needs water…"
"Lizzy, come here." Jack’s voice
brooked no argument.
Lizzy came over, dragging her feet and wiping
her dirty hands on her already grubby shorts. "Daddy…"
"Lizzy, you can stand next to me or sit
in a chair, but you can’t play in the dirt. Do you understand?"
Lizzy nodded sadly, clinging to his leg. Her
earlier enthusiasm had been wiped out by her father’s scolding her. Still, she
stood on tiptoe and tried to see over the desk again, peering up at Miss
Landers.
"Your plant needs water."
"Lizzy…"
Miss Landers smiled. "Actually, she’s
right. I was supposed to water it earlier, and I forgot. Thank you for
reminding me." She leaned over the desk. "Do you like plants,
Lizzy?"
Lizzy nodded, hugging her father’s leg
tighter.
"A friend of my wife’s back in
California is a professional botanist, and she happily taught Lizzy everything
she could. I’m afraid Lizzy doesn’t know when not to play yet."
"She’ll learn. She’s pretty young,
yet."
"Yes, but she still doesn’t need to play
with things that aren’t hers."
"If you don’t object, there is a kindergarten
teacher here who uses a lot of nature projects to teach children. Your daughter
might learn well in her class. Her name is Mrs. Marks, but up until a couple of
years ago she was known as Miss Barnes—"
"She’s still here?"
Miss Landers looked at him, a bit startled.
"Well, yes. I’ve only been working here for three years, but I guess she’s
been here since the eighties."
Jack grinned, nodding. "I remember her.
She was my kindergarten teacher. I thought she was wonderful." He also
recalled her nature projects—flowers, leaves, grass, dirt—all sorts of things
that had delighted a five-year-old boy and made his parents shake their heads
at the stains on his clothes and the crumbling art projects that he had proudly
brought home and placed on the refrigerator. Lizzy would love her class.
"I’d like to place my daughter in her
class, then—if there’s room."
"I’ll see what I can do." She
handed him the forms to fill out. "Would you mind if your daughter waters
the plant?"
Jack sighed. "I don’t mind—as long as
she gets permission first. She just has to learn to ask first."
"Do you want to water it, Lizzy?"
Lizzy glanced at her father, afraid he would
tell her no. "Go ahead, Lizzy. She says it’s okay."
Miss Landers led Lizzy to the back while Jack
filled out the papers. When they returned, a happy Lizzy pouring water into the
pot and making sure it didn’t run out the bottom, Miss Landers took a business
card from her desk drawer and offered it to Jack.
"Excuse me, Mr. …" She stopped, not
knowing what to call him. Plenty of children had different last names from
their parents.
"Dawson. Jack Dawson. Call me
Jack." He looked up at her, pen poised over the third page of forms.
"Jack." She handed him the business
card. "Since you’ll be looking for a place to stay, this might interest
you…if you don’t mind trailer parks. My brother runs this trailer park, and
there’s almost always trailers available for rent or for purchase. It’s a good
neighborhood, with a playground for the kids and everything. Just ask for James
Landers. Tell him Eva sent you."
Jack took the card, tucking it into his
pocket. "Thanks. I’ll see what my wife thinks, look into it if she
agrees." He couldn’t imagine Rose disagreeing with a perfectly good roof
over their heads, but he had to make sure.
Jack finished filling out the forms and
pushed them back across the desk.
"Thanks." Eva took the papers and
looked them over quickly. "Okay. We’ll just need her vaccination records
and she’ll be all set. School starts September eighth."
"She’ll be there." Jack looked at
his daughter, who was still inspecting the plant. "Are you ready to go,
Lizzy?"
"Yeah." She ran up and put the
plastic pitcher on the desk. "It’s all watered, Miss Landers."
"Thank you, Lizzy. That was very
helpful."
"You’re welcome." Lizzy grinned,
showing her small, even white teeth. "Are you gonna be my teacher?"
Eva laughed, shaking her head. "I’m
afraid not, Lizzy. But you’ll like your teacher. The lady whose class you’ll
probably be in is very nice—and she likes plants, too. I bet I’ll see you,
though."
"Okay." Lizzy grinned at her, then
turned to her father. "Daddy, how long until school starts?"
"About ten weeks, Lizzy."
The child looked disappointed. "That’s a
long time."
"Not as long as you think, Lizzy. It’ll
go by fast. I promise."
"And school will be fun?"
"I hope so, Lizzy."