Twice Denied

Yesterday, one of my little first grader boys came up to me and gave me a nice little Chinese fan. I accepted it of course, only to have him return about 5 minutes later looking nervous and asking me if I still had his fan." Of course," I said. It was still sitting where he had placed it 5 minutes ago. He awkwardly stated that his mom wanted him to bring it home that afternoon. Then he stood their staring at it, then staring at me. I responded, "So does that mean you want it back?" His eyes looked they might start tearing up any moment, he quickly nodded his head. I gave him back the fan. It was hard to part with this gift that had been mine for all of 5 minutes.

Later that same day one of my third graders gave me a poem she had written. To: Mrs. H, it read. It spoke of how I was as pretty as a snowflake and my heartfelt books were heartfelt. It was quite beautiful as you can see. I placed it on my desk, only to find her some time later holding it again and reading it aloud to a fellow classmate. She handed it back and I returned it to my desk. But, that afternoon, she was once again had her poem back. Only this time she was erasing my name and writing To : Mrs. K . That would be her regular ed. teacher. "I hope you don't mind, " she said, "I didn't know Mrs. K would be here today." (she's been out on leave). I merely nodded.

Maybe tomorrow, I will actually get a gift that I am allowed to keep...