Thursday, July 05, 2007

Red (New Jersey, 1978)

I missed the last three weeks of fifth grade.

That was when we learned percentages. My teacher Miss Fornin let me sneak out of Ocean Township Intermediate School without any trouble because she liked me, and we both had read Coma. She had black hair and red cheeks and a pointy nose. Every week in her class I read a new segment of my SuperChicken series to all the kids. I would be a little scared to read in front of the class, but they liked SuperChicken.

So did I.

Miss Fornin would give us a new topic to write about every week, but usually I chose to continue SuperChicken's adventures.

SuperChicken could leap tall buildings in a flap, squawk, and a jump. He was a hero by accident. His mistakes would end up saving the day. SuperChicken was solving the mystery of the missing kitten when suddenly a toy car drove into the classroom. It surprised everyone.

Miss Fornin liked to see us laugh.

One night I had a dream about her that I never told anyone. The next day she said something in front of the whole class about me reading Coma which was almost five hundred pages long. I turned red and red, and read anyway.

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