Jack -Short Stories

A Simple Misunderstanding

Being the smart child that Jack Nolan was, he had trouble keeping his mouth shut at times. He never meant any harm by it, it sometimes just slipped out.

Mr. Tomlinson, Jack's seventh grade English teacher was one of those adults who never liked to be shown up, or corrected, by anyone let alone one of his students. This man was a great ass of a human being. He was two years from retirement and could not wait for the day when he could walk away from his low paying teaching job and never have to lay eyes on the students of North Madsen JR High ever again. Mr. Tomlinson was a tall thin man, with a long drawn face that would surely crack if he ever tried to smile. Some of the other students said that if you looked into his cold, steel gray eyes long enough, you could see evil and awful things. Whether this was true or not, I do not know. His voice was deep and low and he never bothered to put any sort of infliction in the words he spoke, so you can imagine just how bored his students got when listening to his English lessons.

One day in particular, Mr. Tomlinson was in rather nasty mood. Far nastier than normal. He had woken up to find that his lovely blue four door sedan had been smashed into by the neighbor's young son while he was learning to ride a two wheeled bicycle. In the man's eyes, his car was wrecked beyond belief and there was no fixing it. In reality, the young boy barely grazed the vehicle. Nonetheless, the damage had been done and the man was going to speak with his neighbor about getting it fixed after he returned from work.

After assessing the 'damage', Mr. Tomlinson found he was running late for work. He was never late for work. While driving to school, a woman who was busy putting on make-up in her rear view mirror, swerved into the teacher's lane, causing him to spill his scalding coffee all over his lap. The man cursed loudly as the hot liquid burned his lap as he could not do anything but take the pain. At the school, he found that his front row parking spot had been taken by a substitute teacher. This only upset the man further as he had worked very hard to earn the right to park there. After parking four rows back and doing his best to clean up his stained trousers, Mr. Tomlinson grabbed his briefcase and made his way into the school. The principal, Mrs. Carter, was already waiting for the man at the front door. The woman was a tad worried about her employee but mostly, she was upset that his first and only tardiness had bumped her out of the running for 'Principal of the Year' or some stupid award like that.

"You're late," the woman crossed her stumpy arms over her rather large chest and glared up at the tall man. "You want to tell me something I don't already know, Margaret?" Mr. Tomlinson hissed at her as he took in her demeanor. The woman stood up a bit straighter, not that it would have made a difference in her five foot two stature. Not many were intimidated by the short, round woman and Mr. Tomlinson was no different, although he did hate being confronted with things that were out of his control. Mrs. Carter's eyes looked over the disheveled appearance of the teacher and she pursed her lips as she thought on how to reply, "a simple call would have sufficed," she tapped a fat foot on the hard floor of the school entryway. "If I had taken the time to call you, I would have been far later than I already am," the man ran his fingers through his short gray hair and sighed, "if you are going to write me up, then be my guest, but I have to get to class." Mrs. Carter stepped aside, "Tonya Johnson has covered the first thirty minutes of your class," she informed him. Mr. Tomlinson strode past the woman, bumping her elbow with his arm and almost knocking her backward.

Tonya Johnson was the art teacher. She was far younger than the other teachers and was a pleasant, lovely woman, one who the students all loved. The young woman didn't know a thing about teaching English, but that didn't stop her from lending a hand where ever one was needed. As Mr. Tomlinson pulled back the door to his classroom, it was as if winter had arrived early. The room suddenly became much darker and some of the students could have sworn that a snowflake or two fell as the man stood in the doorway, his cold eyes roaming over his classroom until they settled on Tonya. A bright smile spread across her face as she looked up at the other teacher, "Mr. Tomlinson, it's so nice to see you." Sometimes Tonya Johnson was too nice to others who did not deserve her kindness. "Yes, I only wish I could say the same," he replied through gritted teeth. Tonya's pretty mouth turned down into a frown.