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| The author and a painting of him and his mother |
Stephen Poleskie
a short story
UNTIL HE WAS three years old, John’s
mother had dressed him like the daughter she always wanted: long hair in curls,
and white outfits with short pants, embroidered collars, and knee socks. But
then, when his sister was born and shortly after his father was called up for
military duty, John became his mother’s “little man,” wearing tiny versions of
grown men’s suits that his mother made for him, and enormous, striped neckties
that belonged to his father.
When it came time to
enroll in first grade John went off to school by himself. His mother had to
stay at home with his baby sister. As there were no school buses in his small
town, John waited on the corner until a group of students passed by and
followed them the mile or so to the school. John tagged along, carrying his
lunch in a brown paper bag, lagging slightly behind the group as they seemed
unwilling to let him join them. He had spent most of his first five years in
their small, second floor apartment with his mother and sister, playing by
himself, rarely going outside. The pages of John’s youth had not been filled
with friends.
Waiting anxiously in
line to register, John noticed that he was the only child there without a
parent; some were even accompanied by both of their parents. When his turn came
John stepped up and presented his documents to the lady seated behind the
cluttered table. The woman looked down at his papers, frowned, and shook her
head.
“You are only five years
old, that’s too young,” she announced. “You can’t start first grade until
you’re six.”
John was confused—he had
not expected to be challenged. He had begged his mother to send him to school a
year early, and she had consented. “Yes Ma’am, I know I am only five now, but I
will be six before the school year is over,” John said, preparing his young self
for the possibility of rejection. Pleading his case, he went on, “and I can
already read and write, my mother taught me, and I really want to go to school
so I can learn a lot of new things.”
“But you won’t be six
until June third, and school ends on June ninth, you have got to be six for at
least half of the year. Are you sure you’re supposed to be here? Where is your
mother?” The woman behind the desk looked stern and intimidating. Even seated
she was almost twice as tall as John was standing.
“She’s at home with my
baby sister and can’t come. . . .”
“Then why didn’t you
bring your father?”
“He can’t come because .
. . because. . . .”
John was positive that
if he told them his father was away in the army serving his country they would
let him in school, but his timid attempt to address this woman, who so towered
over him, had caused his lips to quickly succumb to confusion. As a
consequence, John was sent home from school on his very first day.
Once outside of the
massive building John began to cry. Too embarrassed to go home and tell his
mother what had happened, he decided to go to his grandmother’s house and spend
the rest of the day with her.
John did not reveal to
his granny that he had been to school and put out, but said his mother had made
him a lunch and sent him over to visit, which she often did. His grandmother lived
alone. A coal mine explosion had taken her husband from her six years ago. He
had immigrated to America
from Poland
where he had worked in a shipyard and gone on strike, and not been rehired when
the yard opened again.
The little boy passed
most of the day talking and playing checkers with his grandmother in the shade
of her grape arbor. The vines still bore fruit. The purple clusters hung down
with a sweet ripeness, attracting the busyness of bees that swarmed in the warm
September sun. Unable to concentrate on the game, John retreated into his
thoughts. He was happy here. Why he had wanted so badly to start school after
all?
When John saw the other
children coming down the hill from school, he said goodbye to his grandmother
and headed home.
“How was your first day
at school my little man?” his mother asked, kissing John on the forehead as
soon as he came in the door. “Didn’t they give you any books?” she asked
noticing his empty hands.
“No.”
“Did you meet any new
friends?”
“No.”
“Did you like school?”
“No. It was boring. I
already know all I have to know . . . I don’t think I want to go back again
tomorrow . . . or ever.”
After that brief display
of lies and bravado, John broke down and cried, telling his mother all that had
happened. How they told him he was too young to start school, and that he
should first go to kindergarten. And how they thought he wasn’t supposed to be
there because he didn’t have a mother or father with him, and all the other
children had someone. And how he wished his father wasn’t away in the army.
His mother cried because John was
crying. She told him that he couldn’t go to kindergarten because this cost
money, which she did not have, but she would go back with him tomorrow to the
public school, which was free, and try to get him in.
Standing in front of the desk, with
the baby she had carried the mile up the hill on her arm, John’s mother begged
to have her son enrolled even though he was too young. The principal, a large
and kindly woman, was impressed that John could already read and write. His
mother had also brought some of his drawings to show, which the principal said
were very accomplished. After a short discussion with the first grade teacher,
John was allowed in school. A little bird had fallen from its nest, and been
picked up and put back.
John’s mother walked
down the hill carrying his baby sister, proud and happy for her son. But the
damage already had been done. All through the boredom of that first year, which
John spent mostly relearning things that he already knew, he would be taunted
by his classmates as the little boy who had been sent home on his first day.
* * *
Biography
Stephen Poleskie is a writer and
artist. His writing, fiction and nonfiction, has appeared in many journals in the USA and
D'Ars,
and
Spazio Umano, in Italy,
Himmelschrieber in Germany,
In Other Voices: Merida in Mexico,
The Criterion in India, and
Imago in Australia. He also has short
stories in two anthologies,
Being Human, and
The Book of Love from W. W. Norton, and been nominated for a Pushcart
Prize. He has published six novels.
His artwork is
in the collections of numerous museums including the
Metropolitan
Museum, and the
Museum
of
Modern Art in
New
York, and the
Victoria and
Albert Museum,
and the Tate Gallery in
London. He has taught, or been a visiting professor at twenty-seven colleges
and art schools throughout the world, including: MIT, Rhode Island School of
Design, the School of Visual Art in New York and the University of California,
Berkeley. He is currently a professor emeritus at
Cornell University. He
lives in
Ithaca, NY with his wife, the novelist, Jeanne
Mackin. Web site:
www.StephenPoleskie.com/
This story,
Too Early for School, appeared in the June 2013 issue of
The Criterion, an English language magazine published in India.
