It was her last year teaching at Brigadoon. She was tyring to enjoy every moment she had left in this magical place. But the writing was on the wall. Declining enrollment had made her fate obvious. She would be laid off this year for certain. She began to think about buying a restaurant as an alternative. She was in the process of fantasizing about that as she drove to school that morning.
After the flag salute, she sauntered into class where the kids were chasing a trapped sparrow mercilessly around the multi-purpose room. Mrs. Lu got all the kids back in the classroom and ordered them to, ” Sit down and be quiet!” in her I’m the teacher voice. Then she went out to save the poor little creature’s life.
She calmly urged the little fella out of the door to freedom. When she turned around, the toe of her sandal got caught in the throw rug that was kept at the doorway entrance. The fall that ensued was like a half twist, pike, full on belly flop where her huge womanly frame rocked up and down to loosely form a curved shape with her large belly being the southern most portion.
She teetered back and forth on the brink of collapsing, her head and shoulders up one way followed by her feet and legs up in the other direction. She hovered back and forth in this manner for some time in slow motion until she came to a full stop, collapsing face down on the brown carpet covering the thick cement slab below.
She realized that she couldn’t get up. She had lost the use of her right arm which had broken the fall, but was now broken itself. The kids were being good now, afraid of the consequences facing them.
“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” she said jokingly. A few kids laughed, but one of the girls called the secretary who in turn called the fire department. The fire department came in sirens blaring. She was a big gal; it took four of them to get her up. They had her scoot onto a rescue board and were able to strap her in and lift her into a standing position.
Once standing she was “madder than a wet hen” which were the exact words the secretary used when she called Mrs. Lu’s husband. At the doctor’s office, her private physician refused to treat her explaining that she was hurt on the job and would have to go to the hospital emergency room for treatment and x-rays. That meant a four hour hospital visit.
The last thing the doctor told her as he prescribed the pain medication he thought she needed was, “Be careful with these. Don’t make any major life decisions while you’re taking them.”
While she was at home recuperating, bored out of her mind, and drugged, she began obsessing about buying a local restaurant. “I’m gonna bet on the home team,” she said to anyone who questioned her about it.
Several restaurant properties had come up for sale in the small local town. She thought that she could make a go of it. She could see the potential of the place she favored. So, of course, in the drugged state that she was in, she bought it.
That first year they felt like millionaires… then the bottom fell out, and the whole world knows what happened next. Lesson About Birds? Don’t save the bird. Call someone else to save the damn thing or let the fucking bird die.
(First published 6/5/12)
