When the morning comes

10 | when home becomes a house

"When I answer, it's not good, so when I decide not to answer, it's not good either." Benjamin glanced at me, furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance.

"You're being rude when you talk, I don't tolerate that."

"Sorry, Papà." Thick, salty tears started rolling down, but he was quick to wipe them off. "I'm nervous for the presentation, I just want to be on time before she gets mad, too, like everyday. I want to do it well for once, please can I just go now."

Façade or not, I pulled him in a hug and pushed my hand against his bottom. "Go. You'll be fine." Swallowing, Amanda's words flew through my mind, but I didn't give in to them. I could fix it myself, I didn't need their help. "You're alright, yeah?"

Benji nodded, wiped his face and jumped onto his bike. "I might show a part of Casey Tibbs. Like when he goes rodeo riding. I'll practice in the afternoon in the backyard." He pointed at the horse I had made. Legs made from wood, the sitting part was an iron barrel, laying position which rested onto the wooden rack. With a horse face sawn out of wood as well, he was able to put a halter onto it and ride it like a horse. Not much further, a cow made out of the same system stood there, too. That way, he could practice catching cattle on a horse with his lasso.

We had bought an old and unused western saddle from a riding school not too far from here, Benji had saved for it himself.

"That's fine, Benji." Sighing softly, I drank the remaining of my coffee, waved him off and got ready for my own work.

Driven off and arrived, I made myself ready for class, decorating the chalkboard with drawn balloons and other birthday decorations for one of my pupils' birthday. The morning had went rather smoothly, and when one of the volunteers came for lunch with the children, I went up to the staff room to eat my own lunch in peace.

It was one of the moments of the day I quite appreciated. Seeing it could be rather tiring, Teddy had put up a vacancy for voluntary work consisting out of spending lunch time and the play thirty minutes that followed after with the children. That way, us teachers could eat lunch in peace, work on our last preparations for the lesson that would follow.

After greeting some colleagues, I sat down in the corner, reached for the newspaper and quietly ate my lunch after a quick prayer. Unhealthy chicken club sandwich, but my tastebuds were satisfied as much as my stomach was after one and a half of the sandwich.

"Zev." Teddy appeared in the room, sitting down onto the table close to me. "Where were you, Wednesday night? I wanted to give you your coffee, but you were nowhere to be seen."

"Oh." Frowning, I looked up at him, swallowing down my bite before answering. "I forgot to tell you. Adeline became unwell, so I went home right after so she could go home and I could stay with Benji, of course."

Teddy nodded, a concerned expression forming onto his face. "Poor girl, just the flu?"

"Yeah, asked her how she was doing now. Said it was just a stomach bug."

"Right, that's good to hear." He gave me a smile, then ticked his pen onto his thigh. "Anyway, Salomé emailed me, says not to have received your material yet."

Genuinely confused, I retrieved my phone out of my pocket and checked my email. "She hasn't? I sent her the files yesterday evening." Refreshing my email, the notification popped up that one email was unable to send. Clicking onto it, the reason appeared not much later. "Oh, the files are too big. Tough. Got a hurry?"

"It do be in a bit of a hurry. Is there a possibility you can print it, bring it over to her house later? She needed it for tomorrow. I checked my timetable and I'm able to take over your class in the afternoon. Been wanting to do that, too, because I've been wanting to observe the behaviour of Gloria." He referred to a girl who hadn't been here for a long time, seemed to have gone through several traumas.