The first year I entered primary school, I had a very kind and loving female teacher. Not just me, but everybody in my class adored her. So, when she left us for a maternity leave at the end of the school year, and a substitute teacher was assigned to our class for the new school term, we were all devastated.
The new teacher was also kind-hearted, and she must have loved us as much as our old teacher did, but for some reason, we didn’t get along too well with her. Some of us even became rebellious, and our once organized class turned into a zoo. Among all the classrooms on the first floor, ours was by far the noisiest since nobody really paid attention to what our teacher was telling us.
But under all the noise and uncivilized behaviours, we missed our old teacher. During the class and during the break, we would tell each other how we wished our old teacher were here with us.
Then, one summer day, a rumour reached us, carrying the news of our old teacher visiting the school.
We had just finished our swimming lesson. We were changing into our regular clothes when somebody called out.
“She’s here! She’s here with her baby!”
“Where?” Someone else asked.
“In the school’s guest room!”
No sooner had he finished the sentence when the whole class started migrating. Everybody started to run down the corridor to get to the guest room. I was still struggling to put on my skirt. But as eager to see my teacher as everyone else, I also started to run.
With my red Hello Kitty swim bag on my shoulder, I followed others onto the corridor. I was the last one. I didn’t want to be late. I ran as fast as I could, and half way through, my shoes came off. I saw the last group of my classmates disappear into the corner where the guest room was located.
Fixing my shoes in the deserted corridor, I suddenly felt a surge of excitement climb up my spine. My teacher was here! We were finally going to see her! It was as if watching the climax of a most emotional movie.
When I finally joined others in the guest room, our teacher was feeding her baby daughter in her arms. We swarmed around her in the tiny room, and started telling her how much we had missed her all this while. And she smiled. That warm smile full of love. She said that we would do great even without her. And that she would eventually come back, so not to worry.
After the brief, but emotional meeting, we all migrated back to our classroom. The sentiment lingered for some more time. I had never felt our whole class being so close together, and I thought to myself that this was a perfect ending to this emotional masterpiece.