Week 5 Assignment 1

Willie, My Thirteen-Year-Old Teacher by Scott Leopold 1 Thirteen. That is how old I was when I learned poverty existed not just in my hometown but also in my own backyard. I was in the eighth grade when classmate Willie Reidford taught me more in a thirty-minute bus ride than had all my eighth grade teachers combined. 2 I remember that sweltering May 30 in 1993. It was the last day of eighth grade, and I would finally emerge from my three-year-long pupa stage as a middle schooler and embark on the final and most prestigious stage in my childhood development: high schooler. We would be young adults, and so our teachers were sending us off in style. pupa stage an inactive period in the life of some insects undergoing transformation prestigious important, impressive 3 Everyone was relaxed and all were getting along, even Mrs. Brokaw, our homeroom and biology teacher. Then, she gave each of us a brand-new pocket dictionary. “Remember,” she said, handing out the small gift-wrapped paperbacks, “that half of knowledge is knowing where to find it.” After that, we signed yearbooks, ate pizza, and accepted graciously her teacherly gift. Many of us brought in music, and we listened to an alternating blend of rock and country. We bounced from Everlast, Barenaked Ladies, and Lenny Kravitz to George Strait, Tim McGraw, and the Dixie Chicks. The rednecks rolled their eyes at the rock; the preps rolled theirs at the country; yet the goths, geeks, skaters, jocks, and motorheads seemed to tolerate these two primary cliques. I sat back and reveled in our camaraderie. Here we were, thirty-two different kids together merely by alphabetical selection. We were formerly prey and predator, different species, now finally come together at a temporary pond in the savannah. preps those who behave and dress in a traditional manner cliques groups, factions camaraderie friendship, companionship, company predator hunter, attacker savannah open grassland 4 Jimmy Cadgett, my best friend throughout middle school, signed my yearbook. “Hang loose, dude! Maybe I’ll see you chillin’ and thrillin’ at the beach this summer,” he wrote. I could not wait. His parents had a beach house on St. Teresa Beach, just a half mile down from my aunt and uncle’s place. I was always jealous of Jimmy and my cousins because they spent their entire summer at the beach, and I only had a weeklong visit. Still, I was lucky. 5 I looked around at my eclectic classmates. We were indeed the luckiest lot on earth, I thought. We passed around yearbooks, listened to music and laughed, reminiscing about days gone by. With only about ten minutes left before we had to pack up the party and say good-bye for real, I remembered my camera. eclectic diverse, assorted, different 6 “Hey, Mrs. Brokaw, how ’bout a picture of you and me next to Rattles?” Rattles was the skeleton that hung in the corner of the room by the door. 7 “Sure thing, Scott,” she said. I knew I would miss her biology class, and I think she knew this. She knew of my love for biology. She, like all the good teachers, made her subject fun. Next, I got her to take a picture of Jimmy and me and then one of the whole class. They all agreed, though a few were reluctant. 8 “Hey, Linda! Can I get your picture with Cheryl?” Linda and Cheryl were the drama queens of the bunch. Cheryl was a class-A flirt with a fondness for dirty jokes, and Linda was her brainy best friend. 9 “Okay, but only if you invite us to your uncle’s beach house,” Cheryl said with a wink. 10 “Absolutely!” I said, caught up in the moment, euphoric over the summer prospects both real and imagined. euphoric overjoyed, elated, excited 11 An hour later, with our lockers and desks cleaned out and backpacks stuffed, we tittered with laughter and wore ear-to-ear grins as we settled down for our last middle school afternoon announcements. When the bell rang, I was sure the cheering roar of the eighth grade wing could be heard all across campus and across the street at the Publix grocery store. Once out the door, I made my way through a sea of hugs and high-fives and found my seat on the bus right next to Jimmy. As usual, he had gotten there first and had been holding the seat for me. 12 “I thought you were going to miss your last ride on old 121,” Jimmy hollered over the din of bus riders. 13 “Thanks for the seat, dude,” I said, throwing my book bag under the seat in front of us. It hit Willie Reidford’s foot, and he turned around and looked at me. “Sorry, man. Accident.” Willie just stared for a moment, and then he gave me that upward nod, raising his chin quickly and then lowering it smoothly, slowly. 14 “No prob,” he said. Willie lived only a few miles from me, but I had never seen his neighborhood. His bus stop was the last stop, and mine was five stops before his. The bus was noisy and alive with conversations about summer vacations and high school rivalries. 15 “I’m just glad we’re both going to County High,” I told Jimmy. 16 “Yeah, I feel sorry for all those dudes going to Lincoln. We’ll kick their butts in everything—basketball, football, baseball, even tennis,” he laughed. Our conversation fell to the beach again. Jimmy talked of his new carbon composite fishing rod and boogie board he could not wait to test out, and I hung on every word in anticipation of my family’s trip. 17 As we came to Jimmy’s stop, I told him I would call him that night and that we should talk to our parents and figure out what weekends we would both be at the beach. He yelled “awesome” and disappeared down the bus steps. 18 I tapped Willie on the shoulder and asked him if he had any special plans for the summer. “Not really,” he said wiping the sweat from his brow. “How ’bout you?” 19 I immediately thought of Uncle Rick’s beach house, but something told me not to mention the beach anymore and that I probably already sounded like a show-off. It was not even my parents’ house. “I think I’m just going to relax, grab a cold Coke, kick off my shoes, and play some Sega. I want to get out of this dang heat.” 20 Willie turned and looked at me with a smile. “You’ve got a Sega?” 21 “Yep. Genesis version. Going to go inside and cool off. How about you, Willie?” Genesis the name of the initial release of the Sega game system 22 And that is when it happened. Willie’s smile disappeared slowly. “Well,” he said, “I’ll bet air conditioning sure is nice. We don’t have a Sega game either, but I’ll get a Coke,” he grinned, “ ’cause I saved 50 cents out of my lunch money today.” 23 A pregnant pause filled the air, and I struggled to find any words. Right then the brakes began to squeal, and the bus lurched to a stop in front of my house. I gathered my backpack, yearbook, and gym shoes. I mustered up a few words and a faint but sincere smile: “Have a good summer, Willie.” pregnant pause a silence giving the impression it will be followed by something significant lurched pitched or staggered suddenly mustered gathered, collected 24 He smiled back at me, kindly. I stepped off the bus and walked a few feet. I hollered, “Hey, Willie.” He turned and dangled his left arm out the window, resting his chin on his right arm. He smiled and waved as I took his picture. 25 Two of my most treasured photos are from that day: One is of Jimmy and me. But the one more dear to me is of Willie Reidford, age thirteen, hanging out the window on Bus 121. A Closer L k Answer these questions about the essay: What is the thesis statement of this essay?                                                                                                                                                                                                                       List the major events of the story.                                                                                                            From whose point of view is “Willie, My Thirteen-Year-Old Teacher” narrated?                                                                                                            Choose one of the story’s major events and list all the details the author uses to show that event.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Why does the author state his picture of Willie “is more dear” than his picture of his best friend?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Why might the author have struggled “to find any words” in paragraph 24?                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Identify and explain the meaning of the metaphor (a comparison of two unlike things that does not use like or as) in paragraph 2.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Identify and explain the meaning of one of the metaphors in the last sentence of paragraph 3:                                                                                                                                                                                                                       In paragraph 3, what phrases signal a transition in time?                                                                                                            Why does the author use slang in the story?