“Good morning ladies and gentlemen, my name is Miss Blake and I will be your English teacher this year,” Miss Blake said, greeting her 2nd hour class.

She stood in front of the room dressed in a long, ankle-length, navy blue skirt, and blue loafers. The weather was just starting to get chilly so she had chosen to wear her off-white cardigan sweater, and her matching stockings. Mindy was adorned in her pearl necklace and earrings that had been a graduation gift from her grandmother last year. Although there really wasn’t a strict dress code for teachers, Mindy felt it was important to be a good role model for the students and dress professionally.

“Now that you know my name, I will quickly take attendance and try to learn your names. Please say here when I call your name.”

Miss Blake ran through the list, calling out names, looking up to see who answered, and trying to commit the face and the name to memory. Teaching six classes meant 180 new names to learn. It usually took her about two weeks to learn them all

“Robert Anderson,” She called.
“Here,” the student answered.

“Melissa Barnie,”
“Here”

“Carlos Fuentes,”
“Here”

“Lasheka Thompson,”
“Here”

“Shawn Murphy,”
“Here,” Shawn replied.

The voice that greeted Miss Blake’s ears gave her pause. It was the deep, low voice of an adult male, not the high-pitched, raspy voice of a high school boy. Miss Blake looked up and unintentionally paused. Her surprised eyes took in the student who had answered by the name Shawn Murphy.

Sitting in front of her was no lanky, awkward ,17 year-old. Shawn Murphy was obviously a grown man, and by the looks of him one that was close to her own age. Not a bad looking young man either, though he did have a very serious demeanor, and very sad eyes. There was definitely a story behind this student, and Mindy made a mental note to speak with his counselor.

Mindy heard Shawn clear his throat, which brought her back to the task at hand. She realized she had paused too long. Her students were giving her curious glances.

“Where was I? Oh yes. Attendance,” she said smiling. “Matt Walker…”

__________________
"Yes I did go to him,
but completely against my will,
and yes he did things to me,
things of which I dream of still,"

-Cowboy Junkies "Black-eyed Man"