PART 2

CHAPTER 2

Lots of children crossed the huge gates of the biggest school in town on that sunny morning, and their voices echoed through the corridors and gardens as the first class hadn’t started yet.

A pregnant woman was walking through one of these corridors holding lots of books in her hands and a big bag on her left shoulder. But, carrying so many things, some steps ahead the inevitable happened: the books ended up falling on the floor.

“Oh, great!” she grumbled, as kneeling was not an easy task for her anymore. But, all of a sudden, she heard a soothing voice, with an Irish accent, coming from behind her.

“Let me help ya…”

The woman looked at the auburn lady that immediately knelt next to her and picked the books she had let fall on the floor, “Thank you! I should have known that this was going to happen. I’m carrying a lot with me already!” she joked, causing her interlocutor to smile.

“Don’t worry, I’ll carry your books and the bag, so that we can share the loads!”

“Thank you so much!” the woman replied, relieved to find a person to help her, “I don’t know you. Are you looking for someone?”

“Well, actually I’m the new teacher. My name is Monica.”

“Oh, nice to meet you, Monica. I’m Susan. I’m the teacher you’ll be replacing in the next months.” They shook hands with each other and started to walk along the corridor.

“Well, I’m glad you work here, cause, in fact, I’m a wee bit lost, you know.”

Susan smiled at Monica’s friendly tone of voice, “So, you don’t have to worry anymore, Monica. I know the school pretty well and I’ll be happy to show it to you – while I still can, cause pretty soon, I’ll have to stop walking around, if you know what I mean!” she placed her hand over her belly.

“How long have you been pregnant?”

“Six months. And this little one here doesn’t seem to be in the mood for waiting 3 months more! It doesn’t stop kicking!”

A kind and warm smile appeared on Monica’s face, “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

“No, the baby is in the wrong position, so it’s not possible to see. But, if you ask me, my husband and I are so happy that it doesn’t really matter.”

“You’re right. Children are always a blessing.”

“Well, considering me, I’d say I’ve been blessed twice, as doctors said that the chances of getting pregnant were almost non-existent.”

“God is always good.”

“I agree with you again, Monica. I guess we’ll get along quite well! Now, come with me, I’ll show you the school and introduce you to your future noisy students!”

*

The yellow school bus stopped in front of the 2 huge iron gates and the students (most of them the youngest ones in the school) started to get out of the vehicle. One of them was a little girl, of about 10 years old, with long brown hair, bright brown eyes and wearing glasses. She stopped next to the new driver holding a small pad of paper and a pink pen:

“Your average speed was between 30 and 35 miles an hour, and because of this we got here 20 minutes earlier than what we’re used to!” she said, carefully analysing the result of her calculations. And such a pensive and serious expression on her meek face caused Andrew to smile:

“Well, I think I can take it as a compliment!” he said, a friendly tone in his voice.

“Well, I’m glad to get here earlier, cause I have some homework to finish, but… It all depends on the point of view. I’m afraid 99% of the kids here weren’t pleased to get to school earlier…”

Finding the seriousness in the girl’s tone of voice really funny, Andrew nodded his head understandingly as she continued to talk.

“… And this is more evident if we’re talking about the boys – no offence!”

“Oh, that’s ok.” he replied, trying to hold his laugher, “But I bet there’s another point of view to be considered, isn’t there?”

“Oh, yes. Our old driver, Mr Spencer, was too slow and we used to arrive here 2 minutes before the class started. Besides, I guess he was a bit old, you know. We always had to speak twice louder with him…” she straightened her glasses, “Besides, once you drive a lot faster than Mr Spencer to get here, you’ll also drive faster to go away, and that means getting home 20 minutes earlier than the usual. And I believe that, in this case, everybody’s gonna love it!”

“So I guess I’m not that bad, huh?”, Andrew said, chuckling at the girl’s conclusion. Still with a pensive expression on her face, the girl placed her finger underneath her chin and narrowed her eyes, carefully analysing him.

“Umm… Yes, you look nice…” she finally answered.

“Well, I’m honoured you think that!” he replied, with all the seriousness he could muster.

The girl stretched her hand, “My name is Grace Turner.”

“Andrew.” they shook hands with each other.

“I gotta go now, Andrew. I have lots of experiments waiting for me in the laboratory. See you later!”

“See you, Grace!”

*

Due to her pregnancy, Susan had to share half of her groups with Monica, who would also be in charge of her other groups as soon as Susan got her leave. In that afternoon, the teacher introduced her new co-worker to her students.

“Alright, children, I want everybody to sit down cause there’s someone I’d like you to meet,” the teacher announced, as she and Monica entered the classroom. About 20 children, who, so far had been making a little mess, quickly obeyed to her command. “Children, this is Monica. She’s a new teacher here.”

“Good afternoon, Miss Monica!” the children greeted.

“Hullo, children!” the Irish angel warmly replied.

“Well, as you all know, I’m having a baby soon and I’ll need to be away from school for some time.”

Hearing some children complain, Susan smiled, “Calm down, it’ll be just temporary. I’ll be back in a few months.”

Pleased to have calmed the students, she continued to talk, “But, in this meantime, I’ll need some help and Monica will be here to share some of my groups with me.”

“Mrs Bale, when will the baby be born?” a girl asked, while she straightened her glasses.

“In 3 months, Grace. And I’ll be here for one month more.”

Suddenly, a boy raised his hand, “Oh, Mrs Bale, I know where babies come from!”, he exclaimed, enthusiastically.

But the same girl was quick to reply, “Silly, everybody knows that! It’s a scientific process!”

And almost immediately, the other children started talking all at the same time. Trying to suppress their smile, Monica and Susan exchanged an amused glance and the teacher interrupted the discussion, “Alright, that’s enough!”, she said, finally silencing the kids again.

“Edward and Grace, I’m glad you’ve been doing your Science homework, I really am. And talking about scientific processes, did you bring the projects you are supposed to present at the University exhibition, next month?”

All the children pointed to all sorts of different appliances and showed them to the 2 teachers.

“I’m sure I’ll like your students, Susan, for I can see all of them are very talented!” Monica said, “All these works are beautiful!”

“Almost all of them...” Edward pointed to Grace’s project: a wooden box, which was of the same size of a shoe box, with lots of wires connected to one another, “What the heck is that?!”

“For your information, that’s my new invention!”

The Irish angel came closer to her and studied the object, “And what does it do exactly, Grace?”

“It emits a long distance sound, in a frequency different from the human ear.”

“It’s useless!” Thomas retorted. But Grace ignored his comment.

“If you wanna call your dog, for example, you don’t have to use a whistle. You can use this.”

“That’s a really good idea, Grace! I can see you’re very creative!” Monica spoke, with a warm smile.

“I’m gonna be a scientist!” the girl explained, now pleased to hear such compliment.

“Silly, girls can’t be scientists! This is for men!” Thomas, replied.

Monica intervened, “Of course they can! And from what I can see here, Grace has the most important quality a scientist needs: imagination!”

Those word caused the girl’s smile to be wider than before, “Do you really think so?”

“Yes, and all of you did a really great work with your projects, and I’m sure you can do lots of wonderful things!”

Extremely satisfied with Monica’s kind words, the students liked their new teacher from the start and the same thing happened in the other groups, as whoever had the opportunity to meet the Irish angel soon noticed her warm hearted personality and immediately became very fond of her.

*

At the end of the day:

“Well, I guess you passed the test, Monica!” Susan said, while the two were keeping their books and school material in the teachers’ room, “Children just love you!”

“I can say the same thing about them. They are very smart kids, easy to work with!”

The teacher stopped what she was doing and sighed, “Yes... and I’ll miss them...”

“Well, you’ll have a wee one yourself to take care of pretty soon!”

“Yes, but I wish I could stay longer. Pity I have to take my leave earlier than the usual.” she lamented, a trace of sadness in her voice, which Monica didn’t miss.

“Why do you?”

“Remember when I told you I had almost zero chances of getting pregnant? Well, this little baby here was a miracle, but my pregnancy is considered a very risky one. It was very difficult at the beginning, I got ill many times an the doctors thought my body wouldn’t resist and that I would lose my child.”

Hearing that, a sad look appeared in Monica eyes, “I’m so sorry to hear that, Susan.”

The teacher smiled, “But I got better and this last month has been really calm. My doctor is afraid, though. He thinks that it’s better for me to stay away from work and rest as much as I can, cause the last 2 months can be quite dangerous and the baby can be born prematurely.

Frowning with concern, Monica placed a supportive hand on Susan’s shoulder, “I’ll pray that everything goes well for you and your baby, Susan. I have faith that, besides the doctors, there’s Someone else watching over you both.”

“Yes, I confess that I doubted that myself at the beginning of my pregnancy and wondered why all this was happening. But when I got better and everything started to work out fine, I knew that God wouldn’t leave me alone. And I trust that He will make things work just fine out for us!” the teacher said, with a confident smile.

*

The yellow school bus made its last stop at a white house, full of flowers and with a green garden surrounding it.  Andrew looked back and saw Grace holding her pad of paper and her pen.

“Ok, last stop: Grace Turner house!” he announced, watching amused as the girl walked over to him, “So, did I pass the test?”

“Yes, and with honours! I’m so early that mom isn’t waiting for me yet!”

“Well, now you can rest a little!”

“I wish I could! I have some work to do on my Science project. The other kids said it was weird, but my teacher, Mrs Bale, said it was fine. And Monica, the new teacher who will substitute Mrs Bale, told me it was very creative.”

“Hum, and I bet it was the encouragement you needed, right?”

“Yes. You see, I’ve always loved Science. I wanna be a scientist and work at NASA as an astronaut!”

“Wow! That’s quite a plan!”

“Yes. I showed my work to Monica and she said that I already have the first thing a scientist needs: imagination!”

“Well, I haven’t seen you work yet, but if it was Monica who said that, then  I do believe her – your work must be great!”

Grace smiled pleased to receive such a kind compliment twice in one day, “You know Monica?”

“Very well.”

“I like her; she seems to be really nice, just like you!”

Secretly agreeing with her, the blond angel nodded his head with a smile, “Thanks!”

“You’re welcome. I gotta go now. Bye!”

“Bye!”

He watched as the girl got out of the bus and crossed the gardens of her house. A minute later, her mother came to open the door and Grace greeted her with an embrace. As soon as they entered the house, Andrew heard two familiar voices behind his seat:

“She’s an adorable child!” Monica said, sitting next to Tess.

“Yes, and with a great potential!” the supervisor added.

“Kids do have a lot of creativity!” Andrew completed.

“I guess this assignment isn’t going to be so difficult, you know. And I’m quite pleased with it,” the Irish angel spoke, “What do we do now, Tess?”

“Well, we have a little child at home too and she’s waiting for us!”

Monica leaned forward so that she could stay close to Andrew’s ears, “Oh, yes. She must be missing playing with her daddy’s shoes!” she teased.

With a mock indignant expression on his face, he turned his head and stared at his dearest friend, “Not as much as she misses hearing her mom’s loud laugh attack filling the house!”

Monica was about to answer when Tess rolled her eyes with impatience, “My little one is not to be in the middle of a mess made by two grown up angels! What that baby really misses is her grandmother! And you’d better turn this bus around and go home, Mr Halo!”

“Yes, ma’am!”