hands. “Danny, you’re new to our school. We’d like to see you get off on the right foot. In this school, when we find something that doesn’t belong to us, we bring it to the office, and my secretary places it in the lost and found. I know a Nintendo is an exciting toy, but in the future, I hope you will remember to bring anything you find on the school grounds here. Is that fair?”
Danny nodded.
Mrs. Travis stood. “All right, Danny. You can head off to class. Mr. Mathews is looking forward to meeting you.”
With a final unreadable glance at me, Danny left. I stood to follow him, relieved that Mrs. Travis had let us both off so easily.
Mrs. Travis held up her hand. “Do you have just a few minutes more for me, Mrs. Parker?”
“Sure.” I sat again with reluctance.
Mrs. Travis rounded her desk and took her seat. She opened a file and flipped through the pages inside. “After I spoke with you last week, I read Danny’s file more carefully. I even placed a call to his old school. Danny is an unusual boy. His school attendance record is perfect. He’s never missed a day, not even for an illness. He’s been late only once or twice. Danny hands in all his homework. It’s not always correct, but it’s always done. His grades tend to be above average. His father attends every teacher conference. His father signs every report card. In those aspects, Danny is a model student.”
She closed the file and leaned back in her chair. “On the other hand, Danny never rides the bus. His father transported him to and from school. His old school does not believe Danny had any friendships outside of school. Some weeks, they suspected the only showers Danny had were the ones he asked to take after his physical education class. On occasion, Danny fell asleep during lectures. His classmates often couldn’t find their lunch money. Sometimes they couldn’t find other things as well. No one could prove it was Danny, but he was the prime suspect. It led to several fights.”
She fiddled with a paperclip lying on her desk. “I know you and your husband have only had Danny in your home for a few days. Your husband indicated Danny’s father might be in jail for some time to come. I think it’s important we all work together to make sure Danny benefits from this move to our school and your home.”
I nodded and waited for her to say more. She didn’t. She just smiled at me.
I wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell me. Wasn’t it a given that we were all working together in Danny’s best interests? Was she letting me know that she knew Danny was a thief? Was she trying to tell me Danny should ride the school bus? That I should help him make friends outside of school? Or was this her carefully worded way of letting me know this school wasn’t going to tolerate any nonsense from Danny?
Mrs. Travis continued to smile at me, clearly allowing me to draw my own conclusions. Instead, I decided to take the opportunity to find out what more she knew about Danny.
“We share your concerns about Danny, Mrs. Travis. In fact, Danny was very upset last night. He said his father won’t talk to him about his mother. Is there any information in the file about her?”
She tapped the file. “According to this, she passed away when he was two. At least, that’s what his father suggested to Danny’s kindergarten teacher during a teacher conference.”
So maybe Danny’s mother really wasn’t dead? “What was her name?”
Mrs. Travis flipped through the file and stopped at Danny’s birth certificate. “Jennifer James. She had Danny at age nineteen. She and Mr. Phillips lived at the same address in Newark. I don’t know if they were married.”
She flipped the file closed and seemed to hesitate before plunging on, “I don’t know if this information will be helpful to you or not, but Danny’s teachers weren’t certain Mr. Phillips knows how to read. They would show him samples of Danny’s completed assignments during the conferences, and he didn’t seem to comprehend the work.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know if it was important or helpful either, but instantly I felt sorry for the man. The inability to read would be a huge deficit in life. “Is there anything else in his file that you think might be helpful?”