You Lied

From the middle of the 5th graders lining up after recess came an indignant young man.  Peering over the wall of Grandma's Garden, he looked me straight in the eyes and announced, in no uncertain terms: You lied.

 I knew where he was going with it, but he was on a roll, so I let him preach. 

You promised us that book when you read to us and then you said that you were giving it to her on Monday when we came back after break and that was yesterday and it was NOT in her mailbox.

The her to whom he most emphatically pointed. was his struggling between delight that he stood up for a perceived wrong and worry that he would hurt my feelings teacher.  She need not have worried.  I spent two weeks wrangling a two year old; a 5th grader is hardly a challenge.

Anyway....

You lied.

Yes, I did.  I had the whole week off, with nothing to do and no place to go and doing the teachers' books was the only thing on my agenda and I just didn't do it.  I knew I should, but somehow I just didn't.  Did that ever happen to you?

The whole class was engaged at this point.  Nodding sagely, they agreed to forgive me.... on the condition that I fulfill the original promise and deliver the goods on the morrow.

And that's just what I did, spending last night writing short notes to 23 teachers on cards made at Shutterfly whenever they were on sale.  I carried in copies of The Lorax for the littles and  D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths for the 5th graders, with one young man specifically in mind.

*****

If you're looking for a quiz topic for your Congresspeople, especially the Republicans, ask their opinon oin