Chapter 15: School is in Session
Elizabeth woke early the next day. She decided to get dressed, make tea, and journal briefly until Laura came. Journaling on a regular basis again had definitely been good medicine for her spirit. Although the weight of what she had experienced still felt heavy, it didn't seem quite so burdensome. She sat at her desk journaling and enjoying her tea for about an hour. As she finished up, she closed up her journal, placed both her pen and journal into her drawer, and took her teacup to the sink. Just then, she heard a knock on the door. Elizabeth called out for them to come in, and Laura opened the door and smiled.
Elizabeth slipped upstairs to wake up Little Jack and give him kisses goodbye. He very sleepily crawled into Elizabeth's arms, and she carried him downstairs. She gave him a big hug goodbye and kissed his cheek with the promise of seeing him later that afternoon. Little Jack muttered back groggily his own goodbye and then went to Laura. Elizabeth gathered her things to leave and took one more last look. She took a deep breath and continued on her way.
On her way to the schoolhouse, she saw Nathan heading back to the rowhouses from his morning rounds. They greeted one another and then went their separate ways. Nathan wanted to make sure Allie was set for school and knew that Elizabeth would need to get some things done in her classroom before the students arrived within the next hour.
When Nathan opened the door to their rowhouse, he saw Allie had all her things at the door for when she was ready to leave. She was sitting at the table eating her breakfast as he came in, and he gave her a kiss on the top of her head. They chatted about how excited she was about returning to school and seeing all of her friends again. As she finished up her breakfast, she took her dishes to the sink and washed them up. She gave her dad a hug goodbye just as there was a knock on the door. Allie grabbed her things and opened the door to find Opal, Emily, and Maggie ready to walk to school with her. Nathan followed them out and closed the door behind him. He could see Timmy and Paul up ahead of the girls walking, as well as the Canfield family.
He passed and waved to Molly Avery as she was carrying baby Rena over to the Montgomery home before she went to work at the infirmary. Rosemary was on her porch sweeping away, but pausing every so often as she favored the small of her back. She smiled at Nathan and waved at him as he walked by their home. As he got into town, he saw Ned and Florence opening up the mercantile, and Mei was opening the pharmacy, and he waved to each one of them. Before he made it to the Mountie office, he saw Faith turning over the open sign at the infirmary as well as Anna doing the same over at the cafe. Judge Bleakney was walking from the cafe to his office across the way. Nathan smiled to himself as he watched his community come back to the daily routine that they once had.
Just before class was about to begin, Elizabeth opened the large drawer of her desk and saw the cowbell that Jack had given her so many years ago. She smiled to herself as she fondly ran her hand over the bell. Elizabeth came out of her reverie when Cooper Canfield came running inside, asking if it was time to ring the school bell. Elizabeth closed the drawer, nodded, and smoothed her skirt as she stood and walked towards the doors of her classroom. As she got to the edge of the steps, she saw the glowing faces of her beloved students. She smiled and greeted each one as they entered the classroom. Once everyone was in, she closed the doors and walked to the front of the room to start the day. It was good to be back.