Scene 6: Mama Explains What She Learned
As they walked, Mama said, “Oy veh! What a mess! I told Principal Stephie what you’d overheard in the ladies’ room, and for sure you won’t have to deal with Mrs. Pinzetti and Mrs. DeLuca, anymore. She can get rid of them. She thought something funny was going on. She just didn’t know what. So, now she knows. But these doctors, they don’t work for her, and there’s nothing much she can do about them. It’s up to me to keep telling him no, we don’t want his surgeries. I mean Dr. Lambert. This Dr. Muñoz sounds like he’s got his own screws loose. But he’s another one she can’t do anything about. She feels terrible about the situation, but she’s stuck with it. But it’s not all bad. She can ask the school board, again, for the money to hire a qualified special ed teacher. She has a meeting with them, tonight, so we should know, soon, and if that doesn’t work out, then she says she has the money to hire a tutor for you, anyway. She knew you were alone in that classroom, but she thought since you’re so determined to learn, that you would use the time to study on your own. She didn’t know you study at home, every night. Ach! Next time, you must tell Mama if there is a problem you cannot solve on your own. We don’t want to go through all this, again, not ever!”
They got into Mama’s car, and on the drive home Mama quietly listened to the radio.
Kitten looked out the window and thought to herself, Now, I can recover from this unpleasantness. Nothing those people said is going to hurt me. They are not going to decide my fate or take away my dreams. They are not going to define who I am. This has been a miserable day, but I am going to treat it as a learning experience, and I will never treat another human being the way these experts treat me.
Original text ©2022 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved.
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