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Chapter 3

The past two days had been relaxing. Without the pressure of missing out on tourist attractions, Garret had finally been able to spend some time just sitting. He had brought a good book along, and was devouring the pages, now almost two thirds of the way through the four-hundred page volume. Taking a blanket with him, he made his way to the stone pier that jutted into the small, protected inlet. Placing the blanket on the ground he laid down, propping himself up on his elbows and opening his book. Two pages after beginning he was finding it hard to keep his eyes open and closed the book, putting his head down for a quick nap. The warm sun soothed him into a deep sleep extending far past his intended half hour nap.



“Mr. Green?” A female voice brushed at the edges of his sleeping consciousness. “Is that you Mr. Green?” Again the voice penetrated his mind.

Squinting in the blinding late afternoon sun, blinking back the stinging tears fighting to break loose from his eyes in the brightness, he sat slowly looking in the direction of the voice. A shadow fell across his body and he looked up into the face of a young woman, maybe in her early twenties, she could have been younger. Struggling to get up from his blanket, Garret wondered who this girl could be, and besides that, how did she know him.

“It is you,” she squealed, throwing her arms around his neck smothering him in a tight embrace. “I was walking along the waterfront and saw you and I just knew it had to be you. What are you doing here? Where is your family?”

Looking at her now, he started to find recognition in the deep recesses of his still tired mind. Kallie Simpson? Kelly Wilbur? Keri Spilner! That was it. How could he have forgotten? She was one of his favorite students through the years and even used to babysit the boys back a number of years ago.

“Hi Keri.” He tried tentatively, hoping he had gotten the name right.
Standing in front of him, Keri looked like the typical American tourist. Cut off jeans shorts were topped by a modest bikini top in pink stripes, the straps of a small backpack hugged her shoulders, and she topped it all off with a light pink fisherman’s hat to shield her eyes from the sun. Next to her stood two more girls observing this strange reunion with growing boredom.

“What are you doing here?” she asked again, “I haven’t seen you since graduation, that’s three years ago now. How’s your family? I’ll bet Andrew and Justin are getting big.”

Hesitating, not knowing if he should tell her everything, not wanting to put a damper on her mood, he tried to form the perfect response. “I came to Italy for a while to get away from everything back home. I just needed a break and some time to myself.” Pausing again Garret looked at her and decided to continue. “Nine months ago Karen died from the cancer. The boys are with my parents, and I decided it was time to look after myself.”

“Oh, Mr. Green, I’m so sorry.” Keri gasped. “I never even knew she had cancer. I’m sorry to bring it up.”

“No, no. Don’t be sorry. There’s nothing that can be done about it now.” Moving away from the painful topic of his wife he asked, “What are you doing here? This doesn’t seem like the typical college tour destination.”

“I’m here on an exchange program with my school studying art. Oh, I should introduce you.” Turning to each of the other girls she proceeded to point as she spoke. “Mr. Green this is Lauren, and this is Jenny. They’re both on the same exchange program with me.”

Turning back to him she said to the girls, “This is Mr. Green, my high school English teacher.”

Nodding at each of the girls in turn and mumbling a hello, Garret continued to listen to Kari’s explanation of arrival in Italy, the tours around Florence and Rome, and how they had gotten a recommendation to come to Cinque Terre for some amazing opportunities to paint.

“So that’s how we got here.” She concluded. “We’re staying just up in town a little ways. Are you staying near here or just visiting?”

Pointing to the balcony five stories overhead, he replied, “That’s my room up on top. It’s got an amazing view of the ocean and the town. I can’t believe they’re only charging me 70 Euro a night.” Smiling at her, he tried to cut the conversation short. “It sounds like you ladies have been having lots of fun. When you get back to the States, look me up and you can finish telling me all about the trip, alright?”

“Why wait until then?” she questioned, “What do you have planned for dinner? We were just going to hit one of the bistros here in town. I’m sure that Lauren and Jenny can do without me for a little while and we can catch up.”

Not knowing what to say, Garret stammered out a reply of, “Sure, that sounds great. How does 6:00 sound? I’ll meet you right back here.”
“Sounds good.” She replied. Wrapping him in another hug, she said, “It’s been good seeing you. I can’t wait to talk tonight.”



She walked into his sophomore English classroom with a quiet air of confidence. Heads turned and followed her movement across the room until she found a seat in the front row. She smiled at her new teacher and sat quietly waiting for class to start, arranging a notepad and pen neatly on the desk in front of her.

In a school of nearly two thousand students, he had never seen her before, but something in her quiet smile intrigued him. Over the course of the school year he came to know her writing. Most of the topics drew from her experiences and he found himself being drawn into her world. Being a new father, Garret had developed a protective side that tended to escape and manifest itself on his students. Most would just ignore his advice, but Keri thrived on it.

She was a pretty girl, making her popular with the boys, but she always seemed to choose the wrong guy. Being a cheerleader didn’t help matters because the expectation was that she would date one of the football players, most of whom were too caught up in their winning season to treat a girl right. She was also much more than just a cheerleader. An artist with a gift for her work, an elected student government official, and a member of the select choir, only began to outline the many extra-curricular activities that pulled at her every spare minute.

Keri often wrote stories in her journal, the main character always being mistreated by her boyfriend in some way or another. Garret was drawn in by the stories of abuse, feeling a profound hatred for the boy tearing his student apart. At times she would come to the classroom during lunch and when no other students were there she would talk with him about relationship problems, the stress of trying to maintain good grades while staying involved in all of her activities, and, close to the end of the school year, the separation and impending divorce of her parents. The advice was always accepted graciously, but her situation never seemed to change, and he watched as she slipped into a deep depression. On the outside she still was the happy-go-lucky cheerleader, always with a smile on her face, but during the lunches in the classroom she withdrew into herself, sometimes breaking down in tears and other times just blankly staring out the window.

Breaking up with her boyfriend toward the end of the year, she was immediately snatched up by another wretched boy that continued the pattern of mistreatment. Garret tried to tell her that it was alright to be alone, but it must not have sunk in, because she continued to walk through the halls holding his hand, being led around like a puppy on a leash, bowing to his every whim.

After she moved on from his class, he would occasionally see her around campus, usually with one boy or another. It never seemed to be the same one, but they all had the same way of looking at her, as if she was a possession, a status symbol, something to improve their image, and that she did.

During registration for her senior year classes Keri came to him asking if it would be possible to do an independent study creative writing class with him since the school had eliminated it from the schedule this year. Garret was happy to take her on as a student since he knew she could handle the type of writing required for the class.

Over the summer Garret’s second son was born. Karen was busy with her roll of mother to two young boys and it started to wear on her after a while. Garret finally tore her away from the kids one night in September to see a Broadway show in town. It was the first time that she had left the kids with anyone but his parents who lived only a short distance across town, but they had been unavailable that evening. Instead he asked Keri to watch the boys, and she gladly took the job since she did not work with all of her other commitments.