4th Grade
4th Grade
We moved in the middle of 3rd grade, from one
neighborhood to another. Yet it necessitated a switch from Driscoll Elementary
to Stingley. At recess I was an outcast. There was a sign, a symbol really, by
a door that we never used. I must have asked someone and they said it was a
bomb shelter. What?
At Stingley I decided to read every
book on the shelves in the school library. I got through the Ds. I stumble upon
an old-fashion book by Nancy Barnes titled The
Wonderful Year about a girl much like myself whose heart breaks when her
family has to move. She also rode a bike. I read the book through once, twice,
three times. I remember telling my mother about it. Here was my story, told in
fiction, about another girl in another time, yet it was also about me.
In my school picture I flash a cheesy grin. I took the
photographer literally when he demanded that I smile. Pinned to my jumper was a
seal with a marble-size fake pearl for a body. I still have this pin.
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