A Most Unusual Passage
Copyright© 2026 by J&J
Chapter 33
I’d slept fitfully last night, woke up tired, and even Martha’s breakfast hadn’t made me feel any better. By the time I left for school, I was in somewhat of a pensive mood. I guess yesterday’s conflicts with Elizabeth, and to a lesser extent, Fancy, were on my mind.
By the time I reached the school, I’d come up with a plan. First off, I needed to talk to Elizabeth. I’m not sure she’s entirely correct in her beliefs, but I also needed to understand why she felt as she did about Sylvia.
After I entered the building, I went to the office, expecting to find Elizabeth there.
“Fancy,” I asked, “have you seen Elizabeth?”
She looked up from her computer screen, shook her head and said, “No, but doesn’t she have a class to teach today?”
I’d forgotten all about her taking over Clair Fishburn’s classes.
I glanced at the clock, saw that it was only a few minutes until the class bell rang, and decided I’d talk to her during her lunch break.
It was a busy morning. The county required a summer closing plan, and I had a lot of work left to do on it. By the time I finally had the first draft completed, it was almost time for lunch. I took the handwritten plan with me and walked out into the outer office.
Fancy was filing papers in a cabinet on the far side of the room, so I walked over towards her.
“Here is the closing plan. Take a good look at it, and if you see anything I’ve missed, just make a notation, and let me take a look. If it looks all right, please go ahead and type it up. The sooner we get this off, the better. It’s one more thing I won’t have to worry about getting done, before we close the school for the summer.”
Fancy stuffed the final paper into a folder, placed it in the drawer and slammed the drawer shut. “OK,” she said, taking the paper from my hand.
I was about to ask her if Elizabeth brought her lunch with her, when the bell rang.
I nodded towards her, “I’m going to find Elizabeth. I’ve been somewhat of an ass over this situation with Sylvia Chambers. Elizabeth and I need to sit down and talk about it.”
Fancy grinned, “Well, Martha must have gotten to you. I’m glad to hear you are going to talk with Elizabeth. Marcus, that Chambers girl has some serious problems; even I can see that.”
She paused for a moment, walked over to her desk and picked up her purse.
“I’ll eat in the teachers’ lunchroom; that way you and Elizabeth have some privacy,” she said, walking out the door.
I shook my head and started off towards the room where Elizabeth was filling in for Clair. All of the students were gone, as I’d expected. However, there was no sign of Elizabeth.
I figured if she weren’t here, she was probably grabbing lunch in the cafeteria and then eating in the teachers’ lunchroom, so I headed in that direction.
I first checked the cafeteria and couldn’t find her, so I walked across the hall to the teachers’ lunchroom. The only one in there was Fancy.
“Have you seen Elizabeth?” I asked, as I closed the door.
Fancy looked up from the table, “Ahhh, I saw her in the hall on my way down here.”
I could tell something was not right. Fancy immediately turned away from me and began to eat the sandwich she’d taken out of a paper bag.
I walked around to the other side of the table, took a seat, and then asked.
“Fancy, out with it. I can tell you are hiding something from me.”
She looked up, “What do you mean?” she answered, but her guilty expression gave her away.
“Fancy, you and I have worked together for a lot of years. Far as I know, you’ve never lied to me. Let’s not start now.”
She put the sandwich down, looked up at me, and then in a soft voice spoke.
“Marcus, I’m pretty sure she’s on her way over to talk to Seth Chambers about Sylvia.”
“Damn, he’d be more likely to listen to a fence post than Elizabeth. Maybe I can catch her in the parking lot.”
I got up and hurriedly made my way to the parking lot. I didn’t see Elizabeth’s little SUV there, so I concluded she’d already left.
“Nothing more I can do now,” I thought to myself. “If I follow her over to Seth’s place, it will only make things worse. Besides, she made this decision; now she’ll learn the hard way what happens when you inject your opinions into someone else’s family.”
I walked back to my office. I’d just have to wait for Elizabeth to return.
I spent the next hour or so trying to read a school trade magazine, but I’m sure my attention was elsewhere. I was somewhat worried about Elizabeth. Not necessarily for her physical safety. Seth Chambers might be a narrow-minded person, but I didn’t believe that he would harm her. But like most folks around here, he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. Usually in terms that left no doubt as to what he meant. This was something else Elizabeth would have to understand. People out here didn’t talk around things. They tended to want everything out in the open and were not afraid to say whatever they thought.
Although I was expecting Elizabeth, I was startled at the soft knock on my door.
“Come on in.” I said, loudly enough to be heard on the other side of the door.
Elizabeth poked her head around the door, and asked, “May I talk to you?”
I didn’t answer; just pointed to the chair next to my desk.
She came in, closed the door, walked over and sat down.
“Marcus, I’m pretty sure I made a big mistake.”
I nodded, but didn’t answer.
She swallowed; then continued in a soft voice, tinged with regret, “I went over to see Sylvia Chambers’ father.”
“You solve anything?”
“No, it’s probably worse now than before.”
I could tell she was having a hard time telling me what she’d done, so I took pity on her.
“So you went over to see Seth Chambers, and he sent you packing, with the caveat not to meddle in his business. Is that pretty much what happened?”
She didn’t answer, but nodded her head.
“Now, didn’t I tell you that would most likely be the outcome?”
Again, she nodded her head, and then answered, “I’m sorry Marcus. I was only trying to get him to see that he has a remarkable daughter, who also is very emotionally unstable at the moment.”
I didn’t say anything. I was trying to figure out how to respond. Finally, I said, “Elizabeth, let’s take this one step at a time.
“First, you take it into your head to go talk to one of my student’s parents, without letting me know. I’m sure if our positions were reversed, you would not take that lightly.
“Next, you stuck your nose into a problem, without any idea if it would help or hinder the situation.
“Have I explained it clearly enough for you to understand what’s happened?”
She nodded her head again, and I could see her eyes were misting just a bit, but there was also a sense of resolve in her posture.
Again I paused before speaking.
“OK, what’s done is done, and before we go any further, I need to understand what your concerns about Sylvia really are. On my part, I could have handled yesterday’s discussion a lot better, so I deserve some of the blame. Suppose you try and explain why you think this is so serious.”
Elizabeth looked up at me with some surprise. I chuckled to myself, thinking she probably thought I was just getting started chewing her out. As realization dawned that the ass-chewing was over, she reached into her handbag and extracted the notebook I’d seen yesterday.
She handed it to me, and then said, “Marcus, I think what’s written here will express my concerns better than I can.
I considered that a rather strange reply, but I took the book from her.
I opened it up about halfway and found the start of a poem.
The Rose
Here, where the desolate prairie goes On forever, the wild wind blows, I don’t belong, for heaven knows, I cannot grow here, I’m a rose.
Jackrabbits come and call it home, Coyote and the pronghorn thrive, But in this land of rock and sand, The tender rose cannot survive
I did not choose this place to be, I only know it’s not for me. I need a gentle garden where I can take root and flourish there.
You love this land; you can’t understand The reasons why, but hear my cry, When you plant a rose where none can grow It will only shrivel, fade and die
After reading the poem, I set the book on my desk. I’ve been an educator for many years, and never have I read a student’s poem that was so polished and expressed so much. I’m sure there were also a few tears tugging at the edges of my eyes.
I looked up at Elizabeth, and she nodded and said, “I spent most of last night reading what is in that book. What you read is not a fluke. All of the poetry is of very high quality; a lot of it is quite beautiful, much of it sad, and some of it is very frightening.”
She turned to one page and pointed out a poem. “This poem she wrote to her father is essentially a suicide threat.”
I read the poem.
The Gift of Life: A Note to My Father
Father, I’m writing this for you, You don’t understand; you don’t want to. I’m flesh of your flesh, bone of your bone, But I have dreams that are mine alone.
Are you so blind you cannot see Your world is not enough for me? I could never live your way. I don’t belong; I cannot stay.
I don’t have the courage to show you this, But you must know something is amiss, I’m so unhappy; can’t you tell? My life is but an empty shell.
I don’t belong here; I won’t stay, Somehow I must get away, How and where, I do not know I wish that I could tell you so.
But you don’t listen; you won’t hear, You’ve made that all so very clear. I don’t know what I’m going to do, But I’ll leave this as a note for you.
I’ll leave your world or leave my life, I know I can’t survive this strife. These words are meant to tell you why, A silent cry. My last goodbye
After I finished reading the poem, I closed the notebook and handed it back to Elizabeth. She gave me an expectant look in return. I didn’t say a word, but leaned back in my chair, contemplating what I’d just read. After some thought, I came to the same conclusion Elizabeth had arrived at. This girl was in trouble and needed help. Without it, there was no telling what she would end up doing. I leaned forward and put my hands on the desk.
“After reading that,” I nodded towards the closed notebook, “I would have to agree with you. I also agree what you wanted to do was worth the effort, but you went about it in a way that ensured you would not succeed.”
Elizabeth didn’t say anything for a moment, but then after thinking about it, she asked, “OK, I can’t argue with that, but the real question is, what do we do now?”
While I’d given this some thought, I knew t Elizabeth wouldn’t like my answer.
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