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I smiled widely as I followed Mrs. Threadgill into the room that also hadn’t changed in sixteen years. Jesus, it was like being in a time warp.
“Ahh, our guest speakers are here early. Michelle, please allow Shane his seat back so we can discuss some fire safety. Mr. Spada, please introduce yourself.” Adeline said gleefully.
I rolled my eyes. This wasn’t my first rodeo.
Therefore, I had no problem spewing out the usual spiel I gave to the five to eight year olds, bringing Dillon and Sebastian in while I was at it.
After about fifteen minutes of speaking, I finally stopped and waited. “Any questions?”
Of course, Adeline had one. “How do you put out a chemical fire?”
Her eyes were practically dancing with happiness, which made me want to gather her up into my arms and hug the shit out of her.
We hadn’t seen each other in well over a week, although my phone bill would definitely be hurting from all the text messages we’ve been sending over the last two months. I’d been called into work twice on the days we’d planned to hang out due to the flu going around.
“It depends. What kind of chemical is it?”
After going on to explain what we did during certain situations, Sebastian finally broke up our verbal foreplay by asking if there were any other questions.
We of course got the usual questions.
Do you have a Dalmatian at the station?-No.
How much water does it take to put out a fire? –A lot.
Do we have a fire pole? –Yes.
Do you slide down the fire pole? –Duh. Yes.
Whose hose is the biggest. –Mine.
That last one was whimpered by Adeline into my ear, which I promptly answered with nothing but the truth.
“You had me ready to beat some teenage ass. Was it that Fairway kid?” I asked her, scrutinizing the boy who was trying to look anywhere but at me while Sebastian and Dallas answered more questions.
“Yes,” she agreed. “He was sent to the principal’s office, which in my opinion is more than enough of a punishment right there.” She shuddered, eyeing Mrs. Threadgill who hadn’t left yet.
“Doubt it. That woman used to be like a junkyard dog in my days. She’s gone soft in her old age.” I laughed quietly.
“I didn’t know you went here.” She asked confused.
“Yeah, I was home schooled until I was in junior high, and then my mom decided I needed to get out and experience high school and meet new people, so he enrolled me in my freshman year.” I hedged.
The reason I was home schooled was because I had zero immune system. I’d had Leukemia when I was a young child, and battled it for a year when I was nine years old. After that, I was a very sickly child who could barely walk out of the house without catching a cold.
Then, when I was twelve, I suddenly kicked all the colds and sicknesses, and was able to actually be a child.
I begged my father over and over again to let me go to school, and when I was fourteen, he’d relented. Mostly because he was tired of hiring tutors to come to the house to teach me the stuff. He had better things for me to do than sit on my ass all day. He didn’t want my mother to be teaching me either. Her role was mainly to play his perfect little house wife and attend brunches, and show her face in the community.
But Adeline didn’t need to know all that.
When people realized that I’d had cancer as a child, they looked at me differently. With pity and something else I could never identify, and I hated the way it changed the way they treated me. I didn’t want to see that change in Adeline, although she’d probably understand more than most where I was coming from.
“Well that’s good that you got to go to public school so you didn’t miss everything. Were you a basketball player?” She asked eyeing my large frame.
I hadn’t realized that the class was done with their questions until one of the kids that sat in the back piped in. “Nah, Ms. S, I bet he was a defensive lineman. Look at the size of the man’s arms.”
Little did they know that I was the size of a beanpole in school. “Actually, I was on the debate team and played the violin in band.”
