Alice slipped on a pair of sunglasses when she walked outside the next morning due to the glare of the sun, but primarily to cover her swollen eyes. Following her short, succinct meeting with the superintendent, the desire to both scream and give up had culminated in a weeping session in the ladies’ room. (She drily noted that the time spent sobbing in the bathroom stall had been longer than the meeting itself.) As she walked toward the parking lot, her mind raced, sadness and confusion swelling in her chest. However, rage was quickly surpassing those other emotions. By the time Alice reached her car and discovered Henry Cooper standing next to it, she wanted to shatter somebody’s windshield with her fists. Perhaps the superintendent’s. Surprised that he was there, she nevertheless held up her hand. “I can’t talk to you right now,” she said.
“What happened in there?” Henry asked.
“I’m surrounded by inept, idiotic fools who care more about public relations than education. That’s what happened in there.”
Hot, angry tears quickly then pulsated behind her eyes. It was her lot in life to react to anger with tears. As the tears descended past her sunglasses, down her face, and onto her blouse, Henry approached her and placed his arm around her shoulders.
“You planned this,” Alice said, wiping her face. “To be here and to be the hero.”
“I just wanted to support you. This actual moment, however, with my arm around you, might be icing on the cake. Although I would prefer that you weren’t crying.”
“Did you really turn down Atlanta because of me?” Alice asked.
Henry nodded. “I didn’t like the idea of not being in the same building as you.”
“You should know that it’s highly likely that I’ll be fired, so being in the same building as me may not matter.”
“Yes.”
“I’m taking the kids to the tree.”
“I know.”
“I might go to another school in another city, another state.”
“I know that, too. But Alice, I can only hope that if there’s a chance that you leave, it won’t be goodbye.”
Alice took off her sunglasses and looked up at him. “I mean it, Henry. I need to really know you first.”
“I want you to know me, remember?”
There was no harm to simply getting to know him, was there? she reasoned. Admittedly, the fact that he was even there at the superintendent’s office spoke volumes. Slowly, she placed her head on his shoulder.
This Square Peg. 
🥺