A SUBSTITUTE 

Our regular teacher said, “I’m not going to be in tomorrow because I have to go someplace.  But there’s going to be a substitute teacher coming in.”  I thought, “That doesn’t sound good.” I must have been in the second grade, about 8 years old.   So the next day I’m thinking, “Oh my gosh, we’re going to have a substitute teacher.  That’s not good.”  I don’t know why I didn’t think it was good.  I wanted the regular teacher that I knew. 

So that morning when I went to school, I went out the gate to the left, right in front of Bebe Rey’s house and cut across that lot, it had a lot of trees at that time.  It had a lot of Mesquite bushes and a trail that went across towards the school.  There was a post about two feet tall and 12 feet from the corner of the lot on the side of the trail.  The trail went right past it.  I’m walking along and I’m thinking, I don’t want a substitute teacher.  Then I saw the post and I thought, “How about if I sit here all day behind the post until school is out and then I’ll just go home with the rest of the kids. And they’ll never know.  That’s what I’m gong to do.”  So I sat down on the ground behind the post.  The top of my blond head was showing over the top of the post but I didn’t know that. 

 

John standing at the back, at 7 yrs old, with his leather fringed cowboy jacket and neighbor kids.

I heard Bebe Rey’s Grandmother’s door open and I looked around the post.   She looked my way and then she turned away.  I thought, “I wonder if she saw me.  No, she didn’t see me.”  She started walking to the middle of the road toward our house.  I thought, she’s walking down the street.  So I sat down again, relaxed.  Bebe Rey’s grandmother was a skinny little lady. 

I’m sitting behind the post and I hear steps coming toward me.  It’s that lady and my grandmother.  She went and told my grandmother, “I think Johnny is sitting there behind a post in the trail.” “He’s supposed to go to school.”  Yep, there’s Johnny.  My grandmother said, “What are you doing?”  I said, “Oh, I’m just sitting here.”  Aren’t you supposed to go to school, the bell is going to ring.”  ‘Yeah, I don’t want to go.”  “Why not?”  “Because they’re going to have a substitute teacher.  The real teacher is not going to be there, it’s going to be somebody else that I don’t know who it is and I don’t like that.”  “You better get to school,”  my Grandmother said.  “But I don’t want to, I don’t like that.”  “You go to school.  Come on, I’ll take you to school.”  “Don’t take me to school.”  “Okay, well you go by yourself.  But I’m going to stand here and watch you go.” 

So I walked down the trail and I would look back every once in a while, and yeah, they’re standing there.  I get to the end of the lot and they can’t see me anymore.  I get the edge of the baseball park before the school.   No they had come down to the edge of the trail, there they are, watching me.  I thought, oh, they’re watching me so I’m going to have to go.  Ding, ding they ring the bell and I went inside. 

No, it turned out the substitute teacher was a real nice lady.  It was Santo’s sister.  Oh, I know her, that’s Santo’s sister.  She said, “I’m your substitute teacher for today because your teacher couldn’t be here today.  We’re not going to do what you usually do.  We’ll just have lots of fun.”  Oh, that sounds alright.  It was fun the whole day.  When I got home, my grandmother asked, “How was your substitute teacher?”  “She was okay.”  “See” she said, “and you weren’t going to go to school.” 

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