“Yes, Danny, isn’t that wonderful! Now all your daddies will be home soon.”
“Did we win or did we lose?” Mary asked.
“We — that’s you and I and all of us — we won.”
“Oh!”
The children sat back happily.
Then Johnny’s hatred burst. “Where’s my dad? What’ve you done to my dad? Where’s my dad?”
The New Teacher got up from her seat and walked the length of the room and the children’s eyes followed her, and Johnny stood, knees of jelly. She sat down on his seat and put her hands on his shoulders, and his shoulders were shaking like his knees.
“He’s going to a school. Some grown-ups have to go to school as well as children.”
“But they took him away and he didn’t want to go.” Johnny felt the tears close and he fought them back.
The New Teacher touched him gently, and he smelled the youth and cleanness of her, and it was not the smell of home which was sour and just a little dirty. “He’s no different from all of you. You sometimes don’t want to go to school. With grown-ups it’s the same — just the same as children. Would you like to visit him? He has a holiday in a few days.”
“Momma said that Dad’s gone away for-ever!” Johnny stared at her incredulously. “He has a holiday?”
The New Teacher laughed. “She’s wrong, Johnny. After all, everyone who goes to school has holidays. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
The children shifted and rustled and watched. And Johnny said, “I can see him?”
“Of course. Your daddy just has to go back to school a little. He had some strange thoughts, and he wanted other grown-ups to believe them. It’s not right to want others to believe wrong thoughts, is it?”
“Well, no, I suppose not. But my dad never thought nothing bad.”
“Of course, Johnny. I said wrong thoughts — not bad thoughts. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s right to show grown-ups right thoughts when they’re wrong, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes,” Johnny said. “But what wrong thoughts did he have?”
“Just some grown-up thoughts that are old-fashioned. We’re going to learn all about them in class. Then we can share knowledge, and I can learn from you as you will learn from me. Shall we?”
“All right.” Johnny stared at her, perplexed. “My dad couldn’t have wrong thoughts. He just couldn’t...
Could he?”
“Well, perhaps sometime when you wanted to talk about something very important to your dad, perhaps he said, ‘Not now, Johnny, I’m busy,’ or, ‘We’ll talk about that tomorrow.’ That’s a bad thought — not to give you time when its important. Isn’t it?”
“Sure. But that’s what all grown-ups do.”
“My momma says that all the time,” Mary said.
And the other children nodded, and they wondered if all their parents should go back to school and unlearn bad thoughts.
“Sit down, Johnny, and we’ll start learning good things and not worry about grown-up bad thoughts. Oh, yes,” she said when she sat down at her seat again, brimming with happiness. “I have a lovely surprise for you. You’re all going to stay overnight with us. We have a lovely room and beds and lots of food, and we’ll all tell stories and have such a lovely time.”
“Oh, good,” the children said.
“Can I stay up till eight o’clock?” Mary asked breathlessly.
“Well, as it’s our first new day, we’ll all stay up to eight-thirty. But only if you promise to go right to sleep afterward.”
The children all promised. They were very happy. Jenny said, “But first we got to say our prayers. Before we go to sleep.”
The New Teacher smiled at her. “Of course. Perhaps we should say a prayer now. In some schools that’s a custom too.” She thought a moment, and the faces watched her. Then she said, “Let’s pray. But let’s pray for something very good. What should we pray for?”
“Bless Momma and Daddy,” Danny said immediately.
“That’s a good idea, Danny. I have one. Let’s pray for candy. That’s a good idea, isn’t it?”
They all nodded happily.
So, following their New Teacher, they all closed their eyes and steepled their hands together, and they prayed with her for candy.
The New Teacher opened her eyes and looked around disappointedly. “But where’s our candy? God is all-seeing and is everywhere, and if we pray, He answers our prayers. Isn’t that true?”
“I prayed for a puppy of my own lots of times, but I never got one,” Danny said.
“Maybe we didn’t pray hard enough. Perhaps we should kneel down like it’s done in church.”
So the New Teacher knelt and all the children knelt and they prayed very, very hard. But there was still no candy.
Because the New Teacher was disappointed, the children were very disappointed. Then she said, “Perhaps we’re using the wrong name.” She thought a moment and then said, “Instead of saying ‘God,’ lets say ‘Our Leader.’ Let’s pray to Our Leader for candy. Let’s pray very hard and don’t open your eyes till I say.”
So the children shut their eyes tightly and prayed very hard, and as they prayed, the New Teacher took out some candy from her pocket and quietly put a piece on each child’s desk. She did not notice Johnny — alone of all the children — watching her through his half-closed eyes.
She went softly back to her desk and the prayer ended, and the children opened their eyes and they stared at the candy and they were overjoyed.
“I’m going to pray to Our Leader every time,” Mary said excitedly.
“Me too,” Hilda said. “Could we eat Our Leader’s candy now, teacher?”
“Oh, let’s, please, please, please.”
“So Our Leader answered your prayers, didn’t he?”
“I saw you put the candy on our desks!” Johnny burst out. “I saw you... I didn’t close my eyes, and I saw you. You had ’em in your pocket. We didn’t get them with praying. You put them there.”
All the children, appalled, stared at him and then at their New Teacher. She stood at the front of the class and looked back at Johnny and then at all of them.
“Yes, Johnny, you’re quite right. You’re a very, very wise boy. Children, I put the candy on your desks. So you know that it doesn’t matter whom you ask, whom you shut your eyes and ‘pray’ to — to God or anyone, even Our Leader — no one will give you anything. Only another human being.” She looked at Danny. “God didn’t give you the puppy you wanted. But if you work hard, I will. Only I or someone like me can give you things. Praying to God or anything or anyone for something is a waste of time.”
“Then we don’t say prayers? We’re not supposed to say prayers?”
The puzzled children watched her.
“You can if you want to, children. If your daddies and mommies want you to. But we know, you and I, that it means nothing. That’s our secret.”
“My dad says it’s wrong to have secrets from him.”
“But he has secrets that he shares with your mommy and not with you, doesn’t he?”
All the children nodded.
“Then it’s not wrong for us to have a few secrets from them. Is it?”
“I like having secrets. Hilda and me have lots of secrets,” Mary said.
The New Teacher said, “We’re going to have lots of wonderful secrets together. You can eat your candy if you want to. And because Johnny was especially clever, I think we should make him monitor for the whole week, don’t you?”
They all nodded happily and popped the candy into their mouths and chewed gloriously. Johnny was very proud as he chewed his candy; he decided that he liked his teacher very much. Because she told the truth. Because she was right about fear. Because she was right about God. He’d prayed many times for many things and never got them, and even the one time he did get the skates, he knew his dad had heard him and had put them under his bed for his birthday and pretended he hadn’t heard him. I always wondered why He didn’t listen, and all the time He wasn’t there, he thought.