be Sherm’s dad? He looks way too young to have a nine-year-old. He also looks all business. There’s nothing soft or nurturing in his cold, sharp gaze as it flicks around the classroom, silently assessing.
“What’s on the other side of those partitions?” he asks Principal Richmond.
“The third– and fifth-grade classrooms,” he answers.
The guy’s eyes continue to scan the room. “He’ll spend all day in here?”
The principal nods. “Except when he’s on the playground.”
“Is there security on campus?”
Principal Richmond looks momentarily perplexed, rubbing his round stomach as if he’s thinking with it. “Not as such. We have yard monitors during recess and lunch, and the teachers are responsible for the children when they’re here in class.”
“What about lunch?”
“He can bring his own lunch, or buy a bag lunch from Nutritional Services for three dollars. Either way, if it’s nice weather, the children eat outside at the picnic tables. On rainy days, we open the partitions and they eat inside as a group.”
The guy reaches into his pocket, but Principal Richmond holds up his hand to stop him when he comes out with a thick wad of cash. “We don’t allow students to carry money on campus. When we’re done here, I’ll take you to the office and have you purchase a scan card for Nutritional Services.”
The guy nods, then moves to the door and jiggles the knob. “The exterior doors are left unlocked?”
“During school hours, yes,” Principal Richmond answers, moving to my desk and shuffling through the papers I pulled for Sherm.
The guy’s full lips narrow into a tight line and he scowls at the door. He spins and starts toward the door in the back of the room, leaving no stone unturned.
I wipe my hands down my slacks again and decide just to ask. “So, you’re Sherm’s father?”
His feet stall on the chipped linoleum and he seems to finally notice I exist. “Brother,” he answers, and that one word seems to carry the weight of the world with it as it falls from his mouth.
His eyes make a slow sweep of my face, and as they trail down my neck, the front of my sweater, over my hips, and down my legs, I’m frozen in place, paralyzed by the intensity of his gaze.
Principal Richmond shoves some papers in my face, breaking the spell. “You still have fifteen minutes until the bell. Maybe you can get Sherman started on these.”
“Um . . .” I grab the papers out of his hand as Big Brother blinks, some of the thickest lashes I’ve ever seen hiding those incredible eyes. “Yeah. We’ll do that . . .”
Principal Richmond guides Big Brother to the door. “Let’s get out of their way and let them get started. I’m sure Sherman will have a positive experience here. Children his age tend to adjust quickly,” he’s saying as the door swings closed behind them.
I look down to see Sherm has pulled a small shark jaw off the bookshelf in front of my desk. I lean down and look over Mrs. Martin’s “cabinet of curiosities,” as she calls it—things that fascinated me as a kid. “That’s the jaw of an Atlantic sharpnose shark.”
Sherm tugs at a chain around his neck as he turns the jaw in his hands, inspecting it from every angle. A thick gold ring at the end of the short chain slides out from under his shirt. What looks like a diamond sparkles in the center of the band.
“What’s that, Sherm?” I ask, ducking my head for a closer look.
He lowers his gaze and fists his hand over the ring, tucking it back down his shirt. He obviously doesn’t want to talk about it.
“You know what?” I say instead of asking again. “Let’s do the tour first. Okay?”
He looks a little mournfully at the shark jaw then at me, like he’s afraid I’ll make him put it down.
“You can bring it with us,” I say, standing, “as long as you promise it won’t bite me. I’m sort of scared of sharks.” This is not a lie. I’ve always had a phobia, which is why, despite growing up on the beach, I’ve never gone into the ocean deeper than my knees.
He shakes his head.
“Okay, then. Let’s go.”
We move toward the door in the back of the room that leads to the short hall to the restrooms. “If you need the bathroom, just raise your hand. This is where the boys’ bathroom is,” I say, stopping in front of the door.
He holds up the shark jaw and makes