Karma by Diane Godfrey-Doherty (ebook reader macos .TXT) 📕

rocking chair. “Oh, ah no, Mrs. King sorry,” Billy replied. “Well Billy you and I need to have a chat in private, so the class can have some free time to explore the classroom and all the activity centres while you and I step out and speak.” “Ok, Mrs. King”, Billy mumbles with his head down. The class exploded into a frenzy of voices as the students filter their way around the room to explore every nook and cranny. Mrs. King lead Billy out to the hall to talk, I really couldn’t hear what she was asking him until I went to the reading center and sat close to the slightly opened door. I heard Mrs. King ask Billy; “please tell me what you said during circle time”. “I really don’t want to say,” Billy replied. “Listen to me Billy, I heard what you said but I just wanted to make sure that what I heard was exactly what you said,” Mrs. King confirmed. “Ok,” Billy started then with a long pause he began by saying, “she is so dirty, Mrs. King that’s all”, Billy replied. “Who are you talking about Billy?” “The girl in the front with the curly black hair and brown skin, like dirt,” he elaborated. There was silence and I wondered what Mrs. King was doing or what she was about to say. I guess maybe she was getting her thoughts in order. I sat frozen in the corner of the reading center pretending to be reading a book with my knees up to my chest to squeeze the lump that had grown from my tummy to my throat, because I knew Billy was talking about me. I had always known I was different on the outside but that didn’t seem to make a difference in my house with my parents and my brothers and sisters. We were just a family, like any other family. I heard Mrs. King, with a soft voice say, “Billy that little girl has a name and its Karma.” “She has feelings just like you and me.” “ Even though she may look different on the outside she is the same as everyone else on the inside so we all need to make sure we don’t hurt anyone’s feelings while we are here at school. “ I wondered then if Billy felt sorry for what he had said, maybe he didn’t mean it I thought. I waited to hear what Billy would say to Mrs. King. Would she make him apologies to me? Billy had no response. He did not agree or disagree with Mrs. King he just said boldly “but my Daddy always says people who have brown skin are dirty”. I heard the sole of Mrs. King’s shoe click down on the tile floor as if she stepped back not knowing what else to say to Billy. She stood there looking at him for what seemed to be minutes and then knelt down once again and said, “Billy I will not have anyone say hurtful mean things to anyone in my classroom, and that goes for you too.” “No matter what your Daddy says, and if I hear it again you’ll be visiting Mr. Grimes the Principal of the school.” “Do you understand me Billy?” Mrs. King’s voice sounds short and angry, as if she was at her wits end. “Yes Ms King,” is all Billy could say in response and then she brought him back into the classroom. When Mrs. King returned to the room I watched her look around at everyone in the room. Suzy and Brenda are there in the house centre, John, Freddy and Daniel where busy with the building blocks. As Billy joined in with John and Freddy Mrs. King turned around and our eyes met. I was afraid at first that she knew I was listening to her when she was talking with Billy in the hall. A lump gripped my tummy and had driven up into my throat and was making me want to cry. As Mrs. King came up to me I knew she wanted to talk to me and she wondered if I had heard what Billy had said at circle time. “Karma, what’s wrong, why are you crying?” Mrs. King pressed. “I....I....I want to go home,” I couldn’t help but stutter. “I want my Momma, I can’t be strong, and I can’t stand tall.” “I need to go home, please call my Momma.” Mrs. King looked at me slightly confused. Then I guess she must have realized that I heard her and Billy talking out in the hall. As her face straightened she said, “its ok honey I understand, it’s very scary your first day at school.” “Everyone feels this way.” “It will get better sweetie,” Mrs. King tried to coax me out of the reading center without making a scene. “Come on now let’s go back in to the classroom,” she says. “NO”!!!! I couldn’t help but yell out. “Their mean and I need my Momma.” “Who is mean Karma?” And then it dawned on her that I did hear what Billy had told her in the hall. “Oh God” she whispered. “It’s ok Karma, it’s ok sweetheart”. She tried to reassure me with an arm around my back which made me feel warmer and calmer. “I’m sorry you heard what Billy was telling me in the hall, you should not have been listening.” “And even though this is how he feels he....” “No, no!” I interrupted her and looked at her with confusion. “No, Mrs King it wasn’t Billy, it was Freddy.” “As soon as you left the room he told me I was dirty and needed to take a bath because I was all brown like dog poo,” I spat out in broken sob. Mrs. King pulled her arm off my back. As she pulled her hand away I thought she agreed with Freddy, I and dirty like poo. She won’t even touch me, I’m horrible, and yucky just like Freddy said and now the teacher thinks that to. Freddy was right. When, Mrs. King pulled away she could quickly see the pain and sadness swallow up my face. She reached out for me again and hugged me tightly with both arms and gave me the warmest hug. “We will take care of this Karma I promise you.” “This will not continue in my class.” “Come with me.” As she took me by the hand she led me back to the center of the classroom.

Chapter 2


“Hey baby girl, how was your first day?” Is all I heard from Momma when Mrs. King opened the door to check to see which parents were waiting at the doors? “Not so good Momma, I don’t want to go back EVER!” I couldn’t help but say very loudly. I could tell my Momma was confused and she looked at Mrs. King for answers. But all Mrs. King did was give a look that expressed concern and hope without saying a word. I could see that my mother knew that my first day didn’t go as well as I had hoped. Momma took my hand and we began to walk away to the other side of the school where we would find Lucy and David ready and waiting to walk home. All the way home Lucy talked nonstop about how she was sitting next to her best friend Louise and how this was going to be the best year ever. “We’ll share our pencil crayon and lined paper mom,” Lucy mentioned with excitement. “We could even share our lunch too,” she giggled. Lucy seemed to be in a world of her own, excited about the prospects of the school year. I just walked in silence thinking of all the hurtful things that the other children had said to me that day and I wondered how I would be able to go back. I know for sure now that no one will ever want to be my friend because they all think I’m dirty. I guess it showed on my face what I was thinking and feeling cause my Momma seemed to know I was feeling pain.
When we got home and unpacked our backpacks, which were full of the day’s things. Lucy had gone off to call her friend Louise about the next day’s events and as far as David was concerned school was just school, nothing to get excited about. It was just something he had to do because Momma made him. He couldn’t get home fast enough to get to his play station II and drowned himself in one of his games he likes to play for hours at a time.
I laid my pack on the kitchen table and began to pull out my empty lunch bag and tons of papers that were addressed to the parents of the students of Mrs. King’s class, along with the letters from the principal of the school welcoming new parents. “Here Momma, these are for you to read, they are from my teacher.” “We have to make sure all our parents read this important stuff” I repeated Mrs. King’s instructions. “Ok Karma, I will, just give me a moment.” “First, I want to hear about your day,” Momma continued. “Did anything happen today that you want to talk about?” “No!” I looked to the floor quickly. I knew there wasn’t much my Momma would do to help me at school. My Momma was a very shy and quiet woman, but I knew she would love me and be there for me. “Well it seems to me that you aren’t as happy as I thought you would be after your first day of school and I wonder if something happened to upset you,” Momma just blurted out. “I just wanted to come home, that’s all”. Well my mother knew she would have to press me to get the doors open to talk. She really wanted to know what had happened on my first day. “Well, Karma I need to know what happened, sweetheart so that we can talk about it and talk to Mrs. King about it and get things straightened out.” “It’s ok Momma Mrs, King did that already.” “She talked to me and I told her some boys were mean and I heard them say I was dirty and looked like poo.” “He made me cry Momma, he was so mean, and all the kids laughed too.” As soon as I started to talk, the words wouldn’t stop coming out. I continued to tell her that all the kids laughed. My Momma questioned me. “Well maybe not all of them but I felt so ugly Momma, why are boys so mean?” I could see the look on my mother’s face meant she was thinking hard on how she would answer that question. She tried to explain children’s behaviours to me and then it became clear to me that this would be the beginning of my struggles. “Tomorrow would be another day,” my Momma said. But I know my Momma hoped that Mrs. King would be able to get through to her class, and the kids would be nicer to me. Margret knew kindergarten students attended school every