Tangerine Tea and Gumdrops

I was in the teaching business for 27 years and I saw plenty of happy kids, sad kids, goofy kids and, you know, just ... kids being kids.

Due to this vast experience, I was good at quickly assessing a situation and acting appropriately without making anybody mad. I was smooth like that.

But one time I guess I just wasn't on my game. While walking through the halls during my free period I noticed a student sitting on the floor outside a classroom. His hoodie covered most of his face and the rest of his head was buried in his knees that he had pulled up to his chest and wrapped his arms around.

I always stopped to talk to students who seemed to be in places they shouldn't be because you just never know what's up.  A friendly hello sometimes helps a kid who is out of sorts.

Our conversation went like this:

Me: Hey, are you OK?

Him: (Slowly looking up from under the hoodie.) Yeah.

Me: Do you need anything?

Him: Nope

Me: How about a glass of water ... (and in a moment of insanity or stupidity, I said) or a cup of tea?

Him: (Thinking for a micro second) Yeah, a cup of tea would be nice.

Me: OK.

I was drinking a lot of tea that winter and it just so happened I had brought a few tea bags of my new favorite flavor, tangerine, to school that day. So, I went to the office kitchen and made this kid a cup of tangerine tea.

It was at that moment that my fantasy-camp mind started charging up again and I began thinking, who knows, maybe my cup of tea will be the life-changing event for this kid and someday he'll remember this and thank me on national TV.

Don't judge me...OK? I can't stop the fantasy camp once it gets going.

Anyway, as I made the tea I noticed a dish of gumdrops on the counter, dry and hard and leftover from the Christmas holidays.  I thought I'd just take a few for him. This poor kid clearly needed a pick-me-up. He seemed like he was having a bad day ... and you know, in my mind, the gumdrops would be the icing on the cake. In 20 years he would definitely want to name a building after me.

So out to the hall I went, all pleased with myself and served this kid tangerine tea and gumdrops to make his day a little brighter. 'Cause, you know, there's nothing like white sugar to put the "bright" in a kid's day.

Please hold your applause until the very end.

I went back to my desk in the English office intent on tackling the midterms and mountain of papers I had to grade. Five minutes passed and suddenly the office door flew open and a fellow teacher with my tea and my gumdrops in his hand literally stomped past me and into the kitchen. He threw the gumdrops in the garbage and tossed the tea in the sink.

Intuitive person that I am, I looked up and asked:

Me: Mr. X, are you OK? What's wrong?

Mr. X: (Talking between clenched teeth) I threw a kid out of class for totally unacceptable behavior and told him to sit on the floor in the hall for a while. Then some teacher came by and gave him gumdrops and tea!!

Me: (With my best wide-eyed, seriously concerned, yet totally innocent look thinking, "It was TANGERINE tea,  jerk!") Really? Oh gee, hmmm...

I lowered my head, put pencil to paper as fast as I could and started grading papers with a fury the likes of which I'd never done before.

A punch of air filled the office as the door slammed shut and the lights went out at fantasy camp.