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Tiny hands and chubby fingers clutched at the blue plastic block that was slightly larger in the baby boy’s grip. It collided against the triangle shaped opening of a larger plastic shaped box that was brightly colored.
“Not quite, sweet boy. You’re so close.” Mary’s gentle voice spoke to her son as she caressed his chubby cheek with a bit of drool being wiped away. Matthew’s bright blue eyes looked up to his mother and he revealed a gummy smile as he redirected his approach to fitting the shape into the right opening.
“Of course you listen. You’re going to be such a bright boy.” she pressed a kiss into his sandy brown hair.
“What’s tha’ supposed to mean?” Arthur’s voice called as he stood in the entry of the living room.
Mary and Matthew both turned their attention to Arthur who lowered himself to be eye level with his son and his toys.
“Oh you know. I’ll have the first Morgan boy who listens,” she teased her husband while reaching out and stroking his bearded cheek. Those beautiful sea green eyes meeting hers with love.
Before he could speak her phone began to ring. A hope that it wasn’t the hospital calling for her to come in crossed his mind.
“Mama will be right back, Matty.” She stood and left their son with Arthur. “Try to teach your daddy something new.”
“Ha ha” the exaggerated laugh came as he swatted a hand at his wife while she stood to walk away. “You know this is much too complicated for me.”
Mary grabbed her phone off the coffee table and walked toward the dining room. “Hello? Yes, this is she…is she alright?” Concern painted her tone that immediately caught Arthur’s attention. He rolled over onto his back but met his wife’s dismissive hand as she turned to carry on the conversation.
Oh he disliked that. He scowled as he half listened and focused on his son’s next challenge of putting a yellow star block into its place.
“You little genius,” The boy had his gaze set on the slot before Arthur could voice some encouragement. Both watching as it fit perfectly into place. A small celebration of chubby clapping hands and another big gummy smile was given to his father.
“As bright as your ma’ and smarter than your pa’,” Arthur clapped his hands gently with his son before kissing his forehead and earning a squeal.
“That was Bea’s school. She’s alright,” Mary assured her husband quickly. “Her teacher wants a meeting with us. Apparently there was some sort of…I dunno…disagreement with her classmates. And one boy was pushed down, our courageous daughter didn’t even try to deny it.”
Arthur huffed with a smirk that was poorly hidden from his wife. “Smart girl. What? Ain’t we teaching her to always tell the truth? Besides that boy had it comin’...’m sure.”
Mary unfolded her arms and knelt down to lift Matthew into her arms. “Arthur. We’re also teaching her to not be a bully and to use her words not her hands to disagree. You don’t even know what that little boy did.”
Arthur placed the remainder of the blocks into the slots before placing it away into the toy box for Matthew. He stood and shrugged. “I don’t need to. Boys shouldn’t be around our girl. They should be eating dirt and poking their nose with the others. You know we’re going to go into this seein’ that she had a good reason.”
“Of all the ridiculous things to say. Is that what you were doing and expecting our son to do?”
Matty leaned his head against his mother’s shoulder more occupied with the thin chain necklace she wore than his parents' conversation regarding his big sister.
“Matty? No. He’ll be too busy bein’ smarter than his class.”
“That he will. But, oh, we’re both going to have to go down there. I’d hate to bring him when we’re meant to focus on Bea. I could ask Jamie but it’s his only weekend down from college and he’s visiting friends. I’d hate to impose. Do you think Hosea…?”
Arthur met his wife’s gaze and nodded before his wife could finish her sentence. “Please. Bes’ wouldn’t ever say no to this cute little face.”
–
Arthur and Mary walked into the half empty halls of Strawberry Elementary. Children hurried to their after school activities. The walls lined with bright colored papers ranging from art, awards and memos of activities that were to take place and had.
“It’s just down this hall.”
“I remember. Them kids came running out that door with Bea in the lead to meet me and the guys.”
Mary looked back to Arthur with a smile. “She wouldn’t stop talking about her hero in his big firetruck. Here it is. Remember, mind your words.”
Mary walked through the open door first with Arthur close behind. A squeak from a chair against linoleum was heard before the squeal of their little girl broke the silence in the room. “Mommy! Daddy!!”
“Hey, baby,” Mary watched as Arthur scooped their daughter up into his arms.
“I’m sorry, daddy. I didn’ mean to be bad.” The little girl had obviously known why her parents were present.
“Ain’t nothin’ to be sorry about, princess. Your mom and I are gonna get this straightened out.”
Just then another woman not much younger than the Morgan’s came from the joining room. She smiled while approaching Mary and Arthur and extended out her hand to Mary first. Another male teacher exited the room as well.
“You must be Beatrice’s mother and father. Welcome, I’m Ms. Simon. This is our yard duty teacher Mr. Teller.”
“It’s good to meet you. Mary Morgan and this is my husband, Arthur.”
Each of them exchanged hand shakes while greeting the other for a moment.
“Beatrice. Your mommy and daddy are going to have a meeting with us. Did you want to play in the reading corner?”
The little girl looked to her teacher then back to Arthur with hesitation. He assured his daughter once more that they would sort out the troubles before setting her down and urging her to play where she was asked. Once the young girl was well out of listening range Mary and Arthur were gestured to sit at a table.
Arthur looked down at the child’s chair brightly colored red with paint marks and what looked like glue and glitter was stuck to the back of it. He was the last to sit (awkwardly) in his chair besides his wife.
“I know we could have met under better circumstances but as you know we do hold a low tolerance to bullying here at our school. Before I begin, I would like to let you both know that we did hold a meeting earlier with the other student’s parents. No harsh punishment was dealt and Beatrice wasn’t in the room.”
Arthur held his tongue as he nodded then looked to his wife who nodded as well.
“I’ll start with that I am Beatrice’s homeroom teacher but during recess we do have a rotation of other teacher’s she is familiar with watching the students as they play in the yard. In this case, I was not present, Mr. Teller was so I’ll allow him to speak on what he witnessed.”
“Uh, yes, so as Ms. Simon was saying I was present during late recess. The students were playing and getting along as they should have. However, I think there was a disagreement between your daughter and one of her classmates. Other students were present but when I had approached the small group that is when I saw your daughter push the boy.
I’ve spoken with the children including both children, your daughter included. And I believe there was just some disagreement regarding their play.”
Arthur listened carefully to what was explained. He didn’t particularly enjoy hearing how his daughter was made to appear as the bully. However his wife spoke up.
‘I can assure you both that we do speak often with Beatrice about bullying and that if she doesn’t agree with others to simply walk away. If it goes beyond that she knows to inform her teacher or another adult. Is the boy okay?”
“He is. He was embarrassed and spoke out against how he was shoved.”
Arthur spoke up this time. “Did anyone talk to Bea? What did he say and why was he bullying girls? I mean, I’m sorry, but you mentioned comin’ along to see her push him. You didn’t hear why? Or what he did to provoke m’ daughter?”
Mary gave her husband a side glance before turning to him with a look. They had discussed minding his words and he was warned to not defend Beatrice’s actions no matter what had pushed her to resort to getting physical.
Arthur fidgeted in his small seat once more. Unable to get comfortable. How could he when he was currently pursuing his job as a kindergartner’s lawyer?
“Well…I was monitoring all the children. A lot goes on in the yard, so I couldn’t hear their conversation or every one of them, Mr. Morgan. I did ask, but, you know how children are. Unreliable to tell the whole truth.”
“Not my girl.” Arthur began before Mary’s hand reached out to touch his knee that was nearly to his chest in his sitting position.
“I believe my husband is just reiterating what I had previously mentioned. We teach Bea not to get physical.”
Mr. Teller looked to see Mary’s hand brought over Arthur’s, then he met Mary’s gaze. “Yes, well…I believe Beatrice’s telling was Aj was being unfair to another classmate about the game they were playing.”
Arthur all but rolled his eyes at the name. Milton’s boy, of course this had involved the police officer’s son. Beatrice had spoken to him about the bully of a boy. He felt Mary’s hand squeeze his after his reaction.
“I’m sorry. I can see how Beatrice became upset. I believe she’s spoken of Aj before and has told us that she’s spoken to you, Ms. Simon about their interactions.”
“She has and that’s what I’ve explained as well to Mr. Teller. I had never seen Bea get physical before but I believe it could have changed during this interaction.”
“No boy’s should be fixin’ to argue with girls anyway,” Arthur muttered while turning away from the conversation to peer back at his daughter. Who was calmly reading while sitting in a large bean bag chair. Her little pigtails swayed as she read each page to herself.
Mary could crush his hand within her grasp at his comments. Oh he was pushing it.
“Yes that may be, however girls know not to rough house as well. It isn’t proper.”
This redirected Mary’s attention back to Mr. Teller. Her posture straightened as she withdrew her hand from Arthur’s. His attention was caught by the other man’s words but by his wife who seemed poised to go in. This was about to get good, Arthur thought to himself as he sat upright.
“Well, that is certainly a way to put it.” Mary began, “I don’t like to sound like a broken record here, Mr. Teller but I will remind you that our daughter’s last resort is to get physical. I won’t make this an exchange of what is proper for girls and what isn’t. Boys should be held to the same standard. After all, we can only hope that they grow up and learn that they will not be boys forever.”
Arthur exchanged glances between the three others. His wife stood upright with a stony face set on the other man. He was toying with his lioness now. The fiercest woman who would have no issue ripping into him. They were treading dangerous waters and the storm.
The silence that fell between them hung heavy in the air only broken by Ms. Simon.
“Well, I do think we’ve covered all that needs to be said today. I’ll be going over the no bullying rule in our class with all the children on Monday. Thank you both for taking time out of your schedule to meet with us. It was nice to see you again, Mr. Morgan and a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Morgan.”
Arthur stood with some relief as he feared the child’s chair would not last another minute with his weight and it gave some relief to his backside. He shook the hands of their other, exchanging gratitude. As did Mary, begrudgingly with a cold stare that melted after thanking Ms. Simon. It scared him to see how she could turn on a dime with such pleasantries.
—
After a quiet exit from the school grounds Arthur turned to his wife.
“I thought for sure you were going to rip his head off.”
Mary looked to their daughter who walked between them. She saw Bea laugh at this and look up to her mother.
“Arthur. We just defended our daughter in there. I don’t want that language around her now.”
“What? With your skills, you could have easily attached his head back on to his…butt.”
Beatrice laughed out loud at her father’s statement. Mary couldn’t shy away the smile now and rolled her eyes.
“Well, yes, but he should know to mind his manners-”
Arthur interjected, “And not to mess with the Morgan girls.”