Mrs. Brugel's Last Day of School

On Mrs. Brugel’s very last

Day of school

She was cleaning out the classroom

When she saw one of her students

Outside near the playground

Backpack on

And that invisible alarm system

That children have

Going off loudly

In the hopes that someone will hear

Mrs. Brugel throws

The last of her things

In the box she’s loaded up
Year after year

And she makes her way

Out to the sidewalk

Where the student is waiting

And asks her

If everything is alright

What Mrs. Brugel doesn’t know

And might never know

Is that this is a girl

Who can’t go home

She’s eight-years-old

And her mother

Has left to check herself

Into a hospital

And she’s asked her mother

To come watch her daughter

But her mother

Does not care for children

And doesn’t have a relationship

With her daughter

Or her granddaughter

And so when she gets a voicemail

Asking her to swoop in

And be of service

She deletes the voicemail

And does nothing more

Than say a prayer

That somehow it’ll all

Work itself out

The little girl doesn’t know this

She just knows

That her mother

Is supposed to pick her up

And she’s not there

And the only reason

She’s not panicking

Is because it’s not the first time

Her mother has failed

To do what she’s supposed to do

And often the little girl

Will walk the two miles home

And find her mother

In her room

With the door closed

And the lights off

And no dinner

And nobody to talk to

The little girl would have already

Started walking

But it was so hot out

One of those early summer days

That brings a little too much heat with it

And she was hoping

That this time she was wrong

And her mother was just running late

Mrs. Brugel got a version

Of the story

That the little girl had rehearsed

That her mother is sick

And sometimes takes a nap

And doesn’t wake up right away

And when that happens

She walks home

And it’s really not

Very far of a walk

So she’ll just start out now

And thank you for checking on me, Mrs. Brugel

But I’ll be just fine

Mrs. Brugel thinks about

The right thing to do

And the appropriate thing to do

And wishes that they were the same

More often than they are

She tells her student

Who is, as of that moment,

No longer her student

To follow her to her car

And once they’re in the car

She gives the little girl a choice

Mrs. Brugel can bring her home

But if nobody’s there

She will have to contact someone

Who can make sure

That the little girl is kept safe

Then she tells her

About a little house

Down on the shore

Where Mrs. Brugel spends

Her summer

It’s a cottage and it’s small

But there are two bedrooms

And one of them always goes unused

Mrs. Brugel says that

If the little girl wants

They can go to the cottage

And spend a day or two or more

At the beach

And they can try contacting her mother

And when they do

She’ll bring the little girl home

But why not have a little bit of summer

In the meantime

Since the girl lives nowhere near the beach

And has never gone

The little girl says

She’d like to see the cottage

And off they go

And the future is not simple enough

To offer us a happy ending

Because eventually

Little girls grow up

And if their mothers

And grandmothers

And other adults fail them

Then they carry that with them

And it’s hard to let go of

But if they have a teacher

Like Mrs. Brugel

Who can hear the silent alarm

That goes off

And can swoop in

And judge the difference

Between right and appropriate

And decide on right

Then they grow up

With a fighting chance

And so in place of an ending

We’d like to give

A chance

To see the story

With all its best parts

And not to focus

On its sad parts

Because it all comes around

To a summer on the beach

And that doesn’t sound

So bad

Does it?