Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West

Author:Kathleen West [West, Kathleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

ISOBEL JOHNSON

When Isobel had made it through dinner and bedtime, she and Mark huddled together over their laptops. An open bottle of Pinot stood between them on the kitchen table, an upgrade from their usual boxed wine, given the circumstances. Mark crafted sentences while Isobel found and attached lesson plans and scholarly articles supporting her pedagogy. She and Lyle exchanged texts intermittently, and though Isobel searched for it, there wasn’t a bit of an “I told you so” tone to his messages. Instead, he offered his own suggestions and agreed to edit the first draft. Just after midnight, when Isobel and Mark had finished documenting her philosophy on teaching the works of Mark Twain and scanning her college transcripts (all A’s and a Phi Beta Kappa distinction), Mark leaned over and kissed the hair above her ear. “Let’s head to bed,” he said.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.” Isobel felt tears welling again. She’d sniffled through dinner, telling Riley and Callie that she was allergic to something in her classroom.

“Let’s just try.” Mark stood up, arched his back to stretch, and held a hand out to Isobel. She took it.

“I just can’t believe this,” she said again. She’d been saying it over and over as they worked.

“I know,” Mark said. She collapsed into him, feeling the soft terry cloth of his sweatshirt against her face, her glasses askew. “But it’s going to be okay.”

“The thing is,” she said. Her lips brushed his shirt as she spoke, and her chest felt tight. “If I lose my job, this whole thing will have been a colossal waste of time.”

“What do you mean?”

“I came to Liston Heights to impact privileged kids, remember? That’s why I told myself I could even apply for this job. I was going to try to disrupt their thinking. I was going to prevent them . . .” She trailed off. She’d said this before to Mark. She’d said it to Lyle; she’d even told Eleanor some of these ideas. Maybe it was time to face the fact that she’d been wrong to come to Liston Heights all those years ago.

Mark squeezed her harder. “You’ve taught hundreds of kids there,” he said. “Thousands even, in the last eight years. I think your message has come through.”

“If what happens is that I get escorted out and Judith Youngstead takes my place, everything I’ve worked for is just gone. The school tells the kids that I was wrong or bad, even. The kids accept the status quo, which in the case of Liston Heights is incredibly unfair.” She imagined the horror and shame of emptying her desk and closing her classroom door forever. She imagined Lyle’s sad smile. He’d warned her, after all, and he’d been a good friend.

Mark didn’t respond right away. Then finally, he said, “You don’t have to be fighting all the time. You can do what Lyle and Eleanor and all the others do.”

Isobel pulled back from her husband, leaving his embrace. “What?” She felt a familiar indignation rise.

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