Casting a Different Shadow Part Four

 

CASTING A DIFFERENT SHADOW

Part Four: 

 

Mrs. Naccaretto

I saw the boys heading down to the caves near the river that day,
even though I didn't realize it until much later.

I was walking along the path with my newborn, Miranda,
and I saw a gang of youngsters horsing around.
There could have been four of them,
there could have been seven -
you know how boys that age move around too quickly to be counted.
There were two dogs with them as well,
one a long sleek white whippet-type,
and the other was a tiny black furry yapper.

Had I been closer, I would have recognized them
from my fourth grade class of the previous autumn.
I'd started the year as their home room teacher,
but had to leave after a few months when my pregnancy became
embarrassingly noticeable.

Something happened to those children that day.
At the time, I wanted to rush forward and warn them not to play in the caves,
because of the danger, but, knowing boys,
that would have positively driven them to go there.

As it turned out,
no warning would have spared any lives or minds that day.
Whatever happened was meant to be.
I'm sure of this.
There was something in the air that day,
the sky was too steely-blue, the sun too bright,
every sound too frighteningly clear.

Miranda is grown now,
but has often asked me to tell the story of that day.
I don't know what happened, really.
But I saw them that day;
and taught the ones who were still alive
when classes resumed in the Fall.

That first day of school I told them that their homework would be
to write a composition entitled,
“How I Spent my Summer Vacation”.
I had the hope that someone would tell the truth.

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 ©Ellen Pepper 2025