pink slip

It was sitting in my mailbox today on top of an end-of-the-year party invitation from the school nurse, Diane. It said that due to budget cuts and lack of community support my position for the 2007/2008 school year would be terminated. It was signed by the superintendent. There was a stain below the signature. It looked like grease from a donut.

I went and showed it to Louis Bedo first. He works in the planning room with the kids that get kicked out of class. We've been seeing each other for the last few months. He has a beard like my Uncle Rick's. It's very wiry.

"That sucks," he said. We were in his small office with his door closed. The only hispanic kid in our school (Carlos) was in also in his small office. He had thrown computer keyboard at another student in study hall and was in Louis Bedo's office for the remainder of the day. "That really sucks."

Louis took the slip out of my hands and read the lines that I had just read. He shook his head and looked at me. He could see that I had tears building up in my eyes. He gave the slip back to me.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded and looked at Louis Bedo and then at Carlos. He was listening to our conversation. There was a scar on his forehead and I wondered if someone had thrown a computer keyboard at his head. I was quiet and kept staring at his scar.

"You got a problem?" Carlos said to me. "What you staring at?"

I looked at Louis and he stood up in between me and Carlos. He saw the first tear fall out of my left eye and he caught it with his left thumb. He tried to get the second one coming out of my right eye, but he was too slow.

"What you even doing in the planning room?" I heard Carlos say in between my sobs. "Are you a student? Are you in trouble?"

Carlos continued talking but stopped listening.

Louis stood between us.