Sept. 7

Nick’s Point Of View

The morning went rather quickly. I spent it, making alphabet booklets and cutting up construction paper for apple mosaics. My life was hell. Miss Abbott gave me the most mundane activities. She didn’t think I was capable of handling anything more than busy work. I think she was afraid I would get myself into trouble. She was probably right, but still I could do more than what she gave me.

Lunch was another story. I have never opened so many containers of milk, packets of ketchup, or suckable yogurt. By the end of lunch I had a colorful splatter of food on my brand new white shirt. Word to the wise, never wear white when working with children.

Now I was sitting on the bench on the playground with all of the kindergarten teachers. They were really boring, droning on and on about contracts, the weather, and complaining about other teachers. Miss Abbott sat there quietly not really joining in the conversation. Hell, she wouldn’t even talk to me.

I was bored, so I decided to get up and walk around the playground.

“Mr. Cart, look at me.” Fred yelled at he climbed across the monkey bars. Halfway across his arms got tired and he fell to the ground.

“Good job, Freddy.”

“My name is not Freddy. Don’t call me that. My name is Fred.” He yelled and kicked me in the shin.  Then he ran off.

“Are you okay, Mister?” A little girl from another room asked.

“I’m fine.” I winced in pain. For a kid, he sure kicked hard.

“Do you want me to tell Miss Abbott?”

“No. I’m fine.”

She ran off.

“Mr. Carter do you want to play with us?”  Jake asked.

“Sure. What are you playing?”

“We’re explorers. We are looking for buried treasures. The pirates hid in the tunnel. Let’s go boys.”

Jake and his friends started running towards the tube slide. I followed them up to the slide.

“Down we go. The treasures at the bottom.” A dark haired boy yelled.

“We’ve got to get it. Go down the tunnel.” Jake pushed the boys in front of him down the slide. “Mr. Carter, you going to go down the slide?”

“I don’t know if I will fit, buddy.” I looked at the tube slide. It was made for little kids, not a big oaf like me.

“You can do it Mr. Carter.” Jake said enthusiastically. “I’ll help push you down.”

Jake scooted back so that I could get ready to go down the slide. I sat down and put my legs into the tube. Jake used all his energy to push me. He was grunting and groaning. Slowly I started to go down the slide. When I got a little over half way down, I stopped sliding. Shit I was stuck.

I attempted to wiggle and jiggle free, but I was stuck. I knew going down the slide was a bad idea. I sat there trying to figure out what to do. Before I knew it I felt a pair of sneakers hitting into my shoulder.

“Mr. Carter, why aren’t you moving? They going to get all the treasure.” Then Jake started kicking my shoulders. “Move, move, move.”

“Jake stop kicking me. I’m stuck.” I said irritably.

“How we going to get out of here?” Jake started to whine. The whine turned into a cry.

“Calm down, Jake. Give me a minute to think about it.”

“HELP!!!! HELP!!! WE STUCK IN THE SWIDE!!!” He started yelling.

“Stop yelling.” I replied calmly.

“CALL 9-1-1. HELP!!!

Jake was giving me a headache. I couldn’t think with all his yelling.

Within two minutes, Miss Abbott was at the bottom of the slide. She was trying to look up the slide to see what was wrong.

“Are you stuck in there?” She called up the slide.

Duh, wasn’t that obvious. Why else would Jake be screaming his head off?

“Jake you need to be quiet.” Then I yelled to Miss Abbott. “Yes, we’re stuck. Jake is in here with me.”

“Okay. We’ll get you out.”

A few minutes went by with silence. Jake’s crying turned into soft sniffles.

“Mr. Carter, I am going to gently pull on your legs. I think you will be able to come out of the tunnel that way.”

Caitlin gently grabbed my left calf and gave it a pull. I didn’t budge.

“Did you feel any give?” She asked.

“Nothing. Pull a little harder. I won’t break.” I yelled down.

She pulled my leg harder and I could feel a little movement. Slowly I started to slide down. Caitlin continued to pull my leg. Swoosh; I slid down the last three feet of the slide.

When I stood up, all of the kindergarten students were watching with big eyes. The other teachers looked highly amused. Two of them were snickering behind their clipboards. I felt extremely stupid.

Jake slid out and ran to his friends.

“Did you get the treasure?”

“Everyone go play. You have five minutes.” Miss Abbott called out. The kids scattered.

“Thanks for saving my life.” I gave her a sheepish smile.

“What possessed you to go down the slide?” She gave me her best teacher look.

“Umm…the boys wanted me to play with them. We were busy looking for treasure.”

“I can’t even be mad at you. It was nice of you to play with them. One word of advice stay away from the slides. There for kids, not adults.” She smiled and walked away.

I thought for sure she was going to yell at me or put me in the corner. Miss Abbott had a sense of humor.

I watched her as she sat with the other teachers. They kept looking at me and chuckling. I knew by the end of the day the whole staff would know about my slide incident. I would be the butt of a lot of jokes tomorrow. Would I ever have a normal day at school?