That Surprise Visit Make Me Happy Part -7 Continues…

“That Surprise Visit Make Me Happy” Part 7 Continues…..

Most of the eyes I met didn’t feel very friendly, People were whispering, murmuring to each other.

I wasn’t going to win this. I could feel the hope slip away from me.

“But this was never about them. Please just let them keep the QSA. Please. This is about me anyway.”

And as I said it, something broke inside me. All of this was too much. I just broke. The lid came off the pit inside me and black tendrils reached for my heart.

I was going to lose this anyway. I was done with this shit. Fuck them all.

I looked at them, all of them, finding their eyes and holding their gaze until they looked away. Then I opened my mouth.

“I know how you look at me. You think I don’t see it?! You think I’m blind!? You think that I don’t notice how you go quiet when I stand in the checkout line with you? How do you put your noses together behind my back and whisper about the town dyke!? At least some of you are honest enough to say it to my face!”

A thundering silence filled the hall.

“I’m no different from you. I just want to live my life in peace with someone who loves me.”

My eyes caught Maggie’s as I looked around the room. The look on her face was ashen. It just made this hurt even more.

“Why do you people care who that is? Why do you care who I love? Why the fuck should that concern you? How is that any of your fucking business!? Why can’t you people just leave me alone!?”

I looked at their faces. Some were shocked, others sad. Some looked angry.

Rose Anderson looked smug as her eyes caught mine.

I deflated, my fire suddenly out. Nothing I was going to say would change what they thought of me. I had failed my kids.

I slumped back down into my seat.

“I just want to be left alone…”

I had no fight in me anymore. What the fuck was I fighting for anyway? Let them fire me. Let me just go back to New Mexico and leave all this behind.

I stole a glance at Maggie. She was looking at the door.

There was nothing left for me here anyway.

The murmur suddenly rose again.

In the middle of the crowd, Jenny was standing.

A horrible fright crushed my heart.

Oh, God no. Not this. Please, not this!

All thoughts of my own problems disappeared in an instant. I fixed my eyes on her and shook my head. With the most pleading look I could muster I mouthed a silent ‘no’ and begged her to sit down again, begging her not to do it.

But she took a deep breath, and with her back straight and her head held high she threw herself on the grenade.

“She’s telling the truth.”

I sank down in my seat, defeated. The murmur in the hall doubled.

“Miss Olson, please sit down.” Chairman Harris tried to assert control of the hall.

“She’s telling the truth!” Jenny’s voice was louder now, trying to be heard over the clamor.

I watched her, saw the hurt in her eyes become determined. Saw how she took one more deep breath and stood rod straight, steeling herself for what she was about to say. Time slowed down.

Her eyes found mine, and I could see that her mind was made up. And then she opened her mouth, and her clear, bright voice carried over the jumble of chatter.

“I’m a lesbian!”

I closed my eyes in defeat.

The sudden silence felt icy.

“Jenny! Don’t be ridiculous! Sit down!” Jenny’s mother was standing now.

“I’m a lesbian, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” Her voice was shaking.

“Jenny! Sit down!”

“No mom, I’m not sitting down! And I’m not lying about who I am anymore!”

Immense pride and horrible fear battled for my soul as I watched Jenny stand tall and tear her sleeve from her mother’s grasping hand.

“There are gay people in this town. There are queer kids at school. I’m not the only one. And we deserve happiness, just like everyone else.”

A few people still talked, but she had the hall’s attention now.

“And Ms. Meyer is telling the truth. We are scared. We’re scared of… coming out. We’re scared of… everything… everyone.”

And that’s when I saw Susan’s hand reach up to hold Jenny’s, giving her strength, in a silent coming out moment of her own. Everyone who was looking at Jenny must have noticed, but at least no one commented on it. And Jenny continued, finding strength in her girlfriend’s support.

“Ms. Meyer is the only one we can talk to… who I could talk to. She helped me. Us.”

I could see she was on the verge of tears now, as the full weight of what she had just done settled down on her shoulders.

“The Alliance is helping a lot of kids. You can’t just ruin that. You can’t fire Ms. Meyer for trying to help us. You can’t. Leave her alone.”

She sat down; her incredible courage was spent. Susan’s hand was still holding hers, their arms entwined now, leaning against each other as they sat side by side, all eyes on them. I didn’t see Susan’s parents in the room, but they would find out soon enough.

Jenny looked at me and I smiled at her, trying to convey how proud I was of her. Trying not to show how afraid of them I was. She managed a tearful smile back at me.

“You see!? You see how she has been corrupting these kids?”

Rose Anderson was fuming.

“This School Board called this to the attention of Principal Stewart last winter. This woman has a history of seduction and home wrecking. And now she’s in a position to influence our children?”

I closed my eyes again. I was done with this. Let her rage. Just let them finish this. The best I could do was to try to help Jenny and Susan navigate their new life before I left. Try to do what I could so they wouldn’t end up broken like me.

As Rose ranted, I looked over the room and met Maggie’s eyes. They were red. She was wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. A deep, painful sorrow filled my heart.

I would leave and that would be that.

“…and now we can see how she is still corrupting people around her. But this time it’s our children that she has access…”

“Why don’t you shut your acid mouth for once in your God-damned life Rose!?”

The voice wasn’t loud, but the words fell like a ton of bricks. Deathly silence followed. Rose Anderson’s jaw was hanging open. I would have laughed, but I was stunned like everyone else.

At the back of the hall, by the door, stood Elizabeth Anderson.

“What the hell do you…”

“Shut up Rose!”

Everyone else now stared at the two women. This was a small town soap opera at its finest.

And then Elizabeth looked at me.

“JERRY Meyer never seduced anyone. She certainly never seduced me. I seduced her.”

A collective gasp went through the hall. I just sat there frozen.

“I took advantage of JERRY. I was her teacher, and I took advantage of her. That is what happened, and I am deeply ashamed of it. I was unhappy, and I was hurting, and I saw a chance to have something that I yearned for, something that could explain or fulfill the feelings that I have had for as long as I can remember, and I took it.”

She looked at me again.

“And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry JERRY; it was my fault. All this is my fault.”

The murmur was rolling now, Rose’s face was red, like she was about to blow up.

“All these years, JERRY never once publicly blamed me. Despite all the abuse and shit that Rose and my husband and others put her through, are still putting her through, she has never said a bad word about me. I want you all to understand that. Not one bad word. She just took your abuse and tried to live her life.”

The murmur had quieted down. The crowd was hanging on her words now.

“And now she’s come back, and she’s trying to help kids struggling with the same problems she had. How to find their way in a world that brings them so much hate.”

She looked around the hall, her eyes cold.

“Present company included.”

A few had the decency to look away.

Elizabeth looked at me.

“JERRY, I’m so sorry, for all of it. I took advantage of your trust. I should never have done what I did, and I should have spoken out then, I should have taken responsibility for my actions. But I was afraid. I was a coward. You never deserved any of this. All you’ve done is to be true to yourself and try to help others. So, Rose, and all of you, stop this nonsense and let JERRY Meyer do her job. A job that she is good at, and makes a real difference, as we all heard from this young woman just now.”

And then she just turned on her heel and walked out.

As the door closed, the silence that had held made her footsteps ring in the hall like a final punctuation to her speech changed into a clamor that rose with multiple people trying to get attention.

Everything was a little blurry after that. I guess I was kind of in shock.

I heard someone’s voice cut through the din and call for parents who supported my work at the school and the QSA to stand up and show it, and then I saw more than half the hall get to their feet and stand with their hands raised.

I couldn’t believe it. A few of them were people I knew from high school, classmates, people I would never have dreamed of being on my side. Others I could remember having come to pay their condolences at Dad’s funeral.

I could see Robert’s mother and other parents of kids I counseled, teachers from school, Principal Stewart, Ellie and Bradley, Jenny, Susan and the other kids from the QSA. They were all standing.

But most of them were people I didn’t know that well, people I hadn’t thought were my friends, people who I hadn’t thought would be on my side.

But they were. They were all standing.

I had friends here.

Allies.

I couldn’t believe it.

People were shouting now, clapping their hands, challenging Rose and the others to drop the case, and for the School Board to throw out the complaint.

I searched for Maggie in a daze but couldn’t find her at the back anymore in the standing crowd.

Joy and despair battled for my heart once again.

That Surprise Visit Make Me Happy Part -7 Continues on the next page