Listen Before You Speak

Bonus Chapter

"Quiet down class!" I shouted to the class. Sometimes they were just unbearable, chatting among themselves, giggling loudly about yet another Instagram post or whatever it was the youngsters was doing these days.

It took a few minutes for the children to actually settle down which gave me enough time to write my name in big block letters on the black board behind me.

MR. VAN LEER

"I am Mr. van Leer," I said as I turned around, staring at the open faces of yet another group of children sitting in front of me. Some of them eager to learn, others wishing that they could be anywhere else than in my classroom. "And I will be your English teacher for this year. I would like to welcome you all, and also assure you that this will be a class where I promote thinking for yourself." And also speaking up for yourself, I thought to myself although I did not add that.

"Take out your copies of The Scarlet Letter and begin reading at chapter one," I said. There was a brief ruffle of books and pages, but within minutes everybody had their nose in a book, allowing me to sit down and take in the scene in front of me.

I have always liked teaching. Apart from wanting to be an author, a dream that I was still working on, there has never been anything else that I truly wanted to do. Teaching children to love reading and understanding the great works of literature under my watchful eye was a little slice of heaven to me.

A hand shot up in the air.

"Yes? Mr.?"

"Justin sir. Sorry sir. I just have a question," the kid said nervously.

"Yes?" I answered, sure there was a frown appearing on my face, but I quickly worked on removing it.

"Who is that in the photo's?"

I turned my head around to look at the photo's stuck on the far left side of the black board. A teenager, one much too small for his age stared back at me. His eyes sucked in my soul, and I could not help the feeling of a broken heart swell inside me.

"His name is Elijah," I answered.

"Is he your son?" Justin asked.

This kid is nosey. I will have to keep an eye on him.

"No. He used to be one of my students. He actually had the seat right behind yours about eight years ago," I answered. There was no point in lying, but the whole class had their eyes on me now.

"So why do you have a photo of him?" Justin asked again.

"Because he was a very special kid who I should have helped way sooner than when I actually did," I said as I looked down, not wanting to meet the eyes of my students while tears stung at the back of my eyes.

"What do you mean sir?" Justin asked again.

"Enough questions. It's reading time now," I answered as I looked down to the desk, refusing to meet the eyes of the students in my class.

When the very last student left the classroom after the bell rung I walked over to the photo that was mentioned earlier. Only looking once towards the door to make sure that nobody could be watching me I stood in front of the photo and looked deep into the eyes of Elijah. It had been ten years but I could still smell the blood on the sheets. I could still hear his feeble moans and sobs as I called the ambulance. It felt like an eternity went by before they finally arrived, and with each passing minute yet another bit of his life force drained from his body. It was by far the most terrible night of my life so far. Nothing could have prepared me for that. I knew I was dealing with a kid with a lot of problems, but I never thought he would go that far.