Back to School (24/73)

It would take about 3 weeks for my arm to heal enough for the cast to be removed. My mood over those weeks was not very good. I had given up. I Just didn’t care anymore. My mother would have to fight with me to get in the bath or even comb my hair. I just wanted to be left alone in my room. To be all by myself. Jack pretty much left me alone while I was healing. Well except for the weekly interrogations.

Jack was paranoid that I had said something about the abuse while I was in the hospital. He would remind me every week what would happen if I said anything to anyone. He would remind me that people would die! My mother and Jack were both aware that I had been interviewed by a social worker when I was there. They were outraged about the session. They immediately both thought that they were going to be accused of breaking my arm. So much so that my mother was offering proof about my injury before it was even asked for. As the days got longer and isolation lonelier, I began to look forward to going back to school.

The day would finally arrive that I would be allowed to return to school. I was very excited about seeing my friends again. I felt as if I had been stuck at home for years even though it had only been 4 ½ weeks. I was in grade 4 in Inglewood Elementary School. My class consisted of 18 girls and 5 boys. We really had them out numbered. Our teacher Mr. Lester was a little different from the average elementary teacher in the late 80’s. He believed education was to be FUN and full of hands on experience.

One of the first assignments the class was given upon my return was to plan our year-end class camping trip. We were broken down into groups. In those groups we had to plan and budget for every part of the trip. There were no cell phones with internet access or really even much internet, so we had to do our research the old fashion way. By going home and asking our parents for help and by looking in the local newspapers to get an idea of what food would cost.

It was a big undertaking for group of twenty-three 10-year-old children. I had been assigned to the food group. We had to plan meals for two days and one night for the group. The catch was everything had to be moderately healthy and cooked over a camp fire as there would be no other way to prepare the meals. We were going to have to get inventive. There were 4 other people in my group including a boy named Lee whom I had a bit of a crush on. He always made me smile in class and made me laugh. I would get butterfly’s in my stomach whenever he was around.