18. Cora

18

CORA

C ora sat with Sylvester, watching him do his last math problem as she willed herself to sit still and not jump up and start pacing.

It was important for Sylvester to have a routine. Their counselor had said so back in Washington after Arthur passed. Cora kept to it religiously, knowing that her boy needed her to make everything in his life feel as safe as possible after he had lost a parent.

"Okay, now can we talk about it?" Sylvester asked impatiently, putting down his pencil.

"We sure can," Cora told him. "Great work staying focused on your homework. Isn't it nice that it's all done now?"

Sylvester nodded, looking miserable and picking up his football keychain again.

She'd managed to get him to put it down long enough to do his homework, but he was clearly still worried enough to want the security it usually gave him. Seeing the memento of his dad made Cora wish for the millionth time that Arthur was still around. He always knew just what to say.

"You know I love you no matter what, right?" she said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Principal Tucker told me that you're really good at reading and making friends, and that Miss Sullivan really likes you."

"She did?" he asked softly.

"She sure did," Cora told him. "That was the first thing she told me. The next thing she told me is that there have been two times when you've done something disruptive or unsafe. Her job and Miss Sullivan's job is to keep you all safe and help you learn, so they have to make sure you know what to do differently next time. Do you know the two things she was talking about?"

Sylvester nodded, but he didn't answer right away. Cora kept her mouth shut. She knew it was just as important for him to tell her in his own words about the negative things that happened as it was for her to let him explode with joyous explanations of the good things.

Besides, maybe Miss Sullivan's description had lost a little of its accuracy since it had to travel through another person to get to Cora. It was better for Sylvester to explain things himself, from his own perspective.

"I gave Donny a noogie," he said quietly at last, looking down at his hands.

"How come?" Cora asked him.

"We were just joking around," Sylvester said.

"So you weren't mad at him?" Cora asked.

"Of course not," Sylvester said, looking up at her in surprise.

"And you weren't teasing him?" she asked carefully. Kids were so attuned to the word bully these days that she knew she needed to not use it, but she wanted to know if that's what was happening here.

"No," Sylvester said. "Donny is my friend. I thought it would be funny to him, and he just laughed. And so did the other kids."

"It must have felt good to hear them all laughing," Cora said gently.

Sylvester nodded, looking slightly less worried.

"There are two reasons you can't do it again," Cora said. "Do you want to hear them?"

"It's not safe," Sylvester said. He didn't look convinced though.

"Do you know why it isn't safe?" Cora asked him.

After a slight pause, he shook his head.

"When you gave your friend Donny a noogie, you were careful not to hurt him," she said. "But what if another student saw you do that and then they decided to do the same when they were teasing another child. And what if they were trying to hurt them? Or what if they also just wanted to be funny but they weren't as gentle? It's not safe to have your arm wrapped around someone's neck. And in the classroom the rule is usually not to touch anyone else at all."

Sylvester looked completely miserable. She could tell he was trying not to cry.

"I know you didn't think of all that stuff, you and Donny were just having fun," she said. "But now you know, you won't do it again, right?"

He shook his head emphatically .

"What about the other thing?" Cora asked. "Do you know what that was?"

"I jumped up on my desk," he said.

"Good heavens," she let herself say. "Why did you do that?"

She wished she could take the question back as soon as it was out of her mouth. Kids Sylvester's age didn't have good impulse control. He might not know exactly why he had done it.

"Susannah lost her hat," he said right away. "And no one else would listen or help her look. So I jumped up on my desk and then they all turned around to look at me. I told them to find Susannah's hat."

Cora had to try to hide her smile. From what she was told, working in elementary school classrooms was like herding cats. The teacher herself probably wanted to jump up on her own desk to get the kids' attention sometimes.

"We found her hat," he said softly. "But I know I'm not supposed to get up on my desk like that."

"So you wanted everyone's attention to get help for a friend," Cora said thoughtfully. "That reminds me of someone we know, someone who jumped up on a chair recently."

" Jared ," Sylvester said happily.

"And Jared also gave his brother a noogie, didn't he?" Cora asked.

Suddenly, Sylvester's happy smile was fading.

"Does it seem unfair that a grown-up gets good attention for doing the same things that are getting you in trouble at school?" she asked carefully .

"Maybe," Sylvester ventured, looking up at her worriedly as if he were wondering if it was okay for him to say so.

"Well, there are two things I can tell you that might help," Cora told him. "The first is that there are rules for us, wherever we go. And the rules are different in different places and for different people."

Sylvester frowned.

"In school, the rules have to be very strict," Cora said. "Children are learning, and you're away from your parents. So it's very important to keep you safe. Things like climbing and jumping and roughhousing, things that might be okay at home, are not okay at school."

"Roughhousing," Sylvester echoed.

"That's the kind of very physical playing around that siblings and kids who are good friends sometimes do," Cora explained. "Like when Jared gave his brother a noogie. That's okay to do at home, if it's okay with your parents. But you can't do it at school. At home, if you break something or set a bad example for a younger child, your parents have to help you make it right. But the teacher can't do that for you at school and also teach you. Okay?"

"Okay," he said, nodding.

"And jumping up on the desk just isn't safe," Cora told him. "I know Jared jumped on a chair, but I'll bet if his mother had been there she wouldn't have liked it either."

A smile finally broke out on Sylvester's face and he looked like he was trying not to giggle. She felt a burst of gladness in her heart that he was feeling better enough to smile at a silly idea .

"Desks and chairs are for sitting at, not standing on from now on, okay?" she said with a smile.

"Okay," he told her. "I'm sorry."

"I accept your apology," she told him solemnly. "Now I think you know what you'll need to do tomorrow."

"I need to tell Miss Sullivan I'm sorry," he said, looking down again.

"That's going to make her so happy," Cora told him encouragingly. "Especially if you can tell her you learned why you can't do that stuff at school."

His little face popped back up and he looked happier at the idea of being able to tell the teacher that he learned something.

Cora was pretty sure that Miss Sullivan had already told him everything she had just said. But Sylvester had probably panicked at the idea of being in trouble and just stood there feeling ashamed and unable to take it in. That was why Cora had needed him to relax into his routine a little and know she wasn't mad before they had their talk. She was pretty sure he understood enough now about why everyone had been unhappy that he would be very unlikely to do anything else that might get him into trouble like that again.

With the unpleasantness over, she told Sylvester to go wash up while she heated up some dinner.

While they ate, he told her all about some fun games he and Donny had made up and played on the playground today, and by the time he was in his pajamas in bed with a book, he seemed as cheerful as ever.

"Can you read to me tonight?" he asked her when she was about to go .

"It would be my pleasure," she told him.

He probably just wanted her there for reassurance after he'd been in trouble, but she would take as many of these sweet memories as she could get.

"Do you need me to tell you what's happening so far in the story?" he asked as he handed over the book.

"No," she said, looking down at Treasure Island fondly. "I remember this one."

She read until it was clear he was struggling to stay awake.

"I love you," she told him, closing the book and giving him a kiss on his cheek. "Sleep tight."

"I love you too," he murmured with his eyes closed. "It's not Jared's fault I was bad. He didn't know I'd try to do that stuff too."

His words were so unexpected that they hurt her heart. As she slipped back downstairs for a cup of tea, she couldn't help feeling heartbroken for her boy all over again.

In spite of what she'd told him, there was just no way they would be spending any more time with Jared. Sylvester had enough strikes against him with his asthma and having to grow up without his father.

While she had enjoyed seeing him have fun with Jared, and she liked the big cowboy too, Sylvester's safety and happiness were her first priority. And it was clear that Jared wasn't a good influence on him.

Cora had chickened out of talking to Jared in the driveway earlier, but that was probably for the best. She had still been upset, and it would be better to talk to him after she'd had a little time to collect her thoughts .

Or maybe she didn't really need to talk to him at all. He was done working on the house, so he wouldn't have much reason to come by anymore. Maybe it was better to just let him move on to his next thing instead of making a big deal about it.

Of course, she had been thinking about spending more time with him, not less. But thinking that there might be something between them had been silly anyway. And selfish, when she had Sylvester to worry about.

She had just gotten the kettle going when there was a knock on the front door.

So much for getting time to collect my thoughts.

Cora marched out of the kitchen, trying to think of what she would say if it was Jared.