The Oak Hotel - Watty Awards 2013 Finalist

Chapter Forty-two - Rowan

Chapter Forty-two

Rowan

Lincoln felt what must have been the biggest smile ever play across his face. It was as if he had been watching a movie through a half-closed door when someone swung it wide open. Turning to Kayleigh, he found a similar grin. Together, they watched the scene unfold before them.

"Wonderful!" the woman said, putting her hands together. "Well, today is our special day. Who would like to present first? I can see you're all very excited."

The seated girls glanced nervously back and forth, though more in anticipation than dread.

"Shall we go oldest to youngest?" she asked.

 From the back of the room, a tall girl stood slowly. Lincoln supposed she might represent the oldest student. In her slack hand was a folded piece of paper.

"Please, Jennifer, to the front of the room!" Rowan de'Malange said with an infectious smile.

Jennifer smiled back, then moved forward minus her nervousness and turned to her friends. Opening the brown scrap of paper, she held it up before her and took a deep breath.

"Always in my heart," she began. "In my every waking dream. Another story."

She turned to her teacher, seeing a look she'd never seen before. At first Jennifer seemed afraid she'd somehow messed up, but Rowan put her hands together and placed the tips of her fingers to her lips.

"That was you, dear," she said. "That was truly you."

In their minds, Kayleigh and Lincoln heard the voice of Sapana: Our theme that week was sharing our lives. We wrote about ourselves and explored who we were. The final assignment was to condense it all into a haiku poem, though this was no small task.

"Did you tell them about your people?" Kayleigh asked. "About your mother and how she brought you there?"

I told them everything, Spana said. I held back nothing. In sweet return, I learned everything about them.

Lincoln remained quiet, feeling as if his voice would interrupt the poetry reading before them. Instead, he concentrated on each girl as she stood before her peers and spoke the seventeen syllables that revealed their souls. Lincoln thought about his life and wondered what his own haiku might sound like.

Finally, the young Sapana made her way to the front of the room. Lincoln saw that the girls watched her with a special kind of love and respect. It was hard to miss. He didn't think it was simply because she was Arapaho, but more the person she was.

Sapana was not holding a piece of paper; her hands were held in front of her, similar to that of her teacher. Finally, she spoke.:

"Sisters entangled. No force can tear us apart. Life in all moments."

At first, Lincoln thought something was wrong. The entire scene froze as if someone had pressed a hidden pause button. He turned to Kayleigh; her eyes were wide and staring at the girl at the front of the room. The expression on Rowan de'Malange's face matched that of Kayleigh's.

There was much truth in my words, Sapana explained. Truth on many different levels, though I was still too innocent to understand or even imagine the implications. My haiku, however, explained much about how close we all felt. We were girls sent away from our families to an affluent, private haven. The reasons were different, but most of us felt (to some degree) abandoned. I knew my mother did the right thing, but I was still on my own.

As sisters, we did not have to bend to this. We had each other. We had our teacher, Ms. de'Malange.

The scene resumed, the startled looks turning into smiles. Rowan stepped forward and embraced Sapana warmly.