Chapter 8

No one said a word all the way home. Yvette glanced at Sam now and then, but she didn't say anything. There weren't many occasions in their marriage when she'd seen him angry, but this was one of those times, and it was best to let him just work it out of his system on his own. She glanced back to watch Esperanza in the seat behind Sam. She kept her distance from Samuel. The seatbelt helped, but the child pressed her body into the corner near the door, looked out the window as if something outside captured her complete attention, and stewed. Just like her father. It makes me wonder sometimes how they're not related by blood, and yet their temperaments are so similar.

"Sam, there's still time, we could go to church this morning."

He let out a deep sigh. "I don't think I'm in the right frame of mind to go right now." He glanced sideways at her as he parked in the driveway. "You and Sammy could go. This young lady and I need to have a talk."

She closed the distance between them and whispered, "Be careful, Sam. She's not some high school thug."

"Yeah, I'm trying to keep that from happening." He turned off the car and unsnapped his seatbelt. "See you later. I'll probably have lunch ready when you get back."

"Okay." She gave him a quick peck on the lips and got out. She let Samuel out of his seat and said, "Come on, sweetie, you and I are going to church." Samuel ran inside the open garage and jumped into the coaster wagon. Yvette laughed and followed him, picked up the handle, and navigated the wagon around the car. "See you later!" She waved and walked down the sidewalk to the corner and turned right to head for church.

Sam got out of the car, opened the back door, and wordlessly ushered Esperanza out of the vehicle. She walked ahead of him to the back door, each step plodding like a criminal going to her execution. There was no doubt in his mind that she knew she'd been acting up again and that there were consequences coming. Sam closed the door behind him and Espie ran for the stairs. By the time he got to the bottom, she was in her room and slammed the door.

"You're not getting off that easy, kiddo," he whispered to himself as he climbed the stairs. Disciplining his kids was the one thing that Sam hated the most about being a parent. It hurt him every time just as much as it hurt them, but in school every day he saw the results of sparing the rod and spoiling the child. He was determined that neither Esperanza nor Samuel would grow up that way.

He arrived at her door and knocked.

"I'm in the corner, Dad. You can go away!"

Sam fought the smile that crept across his face. With a shake of his head he dislodged it and replied, "I'm coming in."

"Whatever." She sounded defeated, not disdainful.

Sam opened the door and, as she said, Esperanza stood in the corner where the gable met the walls. Her back was to him, and she stood straight, her arms wrapped around herself. He smoothed a wrinkle on her bedspread and sat down, not sure how to approach this. She needed to be punished for her actions, but he also wanted to know what was behind all these things. She wasn't acting like herself, and it bothered him that he didn't know why.

He spoke softly. "Espie, I need you to help me with something."

She whirled and faced him, her eyes full of questions. "What? What do you need help with, Dad?"

The corner of his mouth tipped up slightly. He always knew how to get her attention. Her deep-seated desires to be needed and loved were always easy targets, and he played on that. Sam patted the mattress next to him and asked, "Can you sit here for a little bit?"

"Sure, Dad!" She stepped forward and plopped down next to him. She looked up with anticipation in her eyes as she asked, "What is it?"

"I want you to talk to me about school."

She looked confused. "Why? It's just...school."

He drew a knee up on the bed and turned to face her. "Is everything going okay? Are you bored? Is it too hard?"

"Well, some of it's kind of boring," she answered truthfully. "Most times it's fun, and I like my friends, and..."

"Do the boys give you trouble?"

Her expression turned like a summer afternoon going from sun to storm without warning. She crossed her arms in front of herself, scowled, and replied, "I hate boys, Dad."

"Why? What do they do?"

"When Mom puts my hair in braids, they pull on them and it hurts. They push us in the playground, for no reason! And they call us names." Her bottom lip worked. "I finally got tired of it, and I took care of Billy Greene the other day on the playground."

"You 'took care of' him?" Sam glanced down at her warily. He had visions of broken and bloody bodies. "What did you do?"

"I karate'd him. Dad, I know you said I shouldn't use those moves unless it was absolutely necessary, but it was necessary! He wouldn't leave me alone!" Her voice rose and she stood as she told him everything. Sam listened and his concern showed on his face.

When she stopped speaking, he reached for her and held her back enough so she could see his face. "Now, Espie, what you did was wrong. Until you attacked that boy, you did everything right. You should have gone to the teacher, or another adult on the playground, and reported him."

"But nobody likes a squealer," she whined.

"No, they don't, but I'll bet that everybody that boy tormented will be happy you did."

"He won't get into trouble, Dad! I know!"

"Okay, here's a plan. The next time a boy taunts you, get in his face and tell him you won't put up with it. Since you've already kicked this kid's butt, he'll probably lay off. If he doesn't, tell him that you will report him, and say it in a way that he knows you mean business." He paused and held her upper arms in his hands as he looked into her eyes. "Just look him in the eye and don't let your voice show him you're scared or you don't mean what you say."

"But..."

"Listen. Then you follow through, and if the teacher won't do anything, you go to the principal. It's his or her job to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen."

"And if that doesn't work...you can come in and teach my class and bust Billy Greene," she ended with a grin.

Sam could barely keep a straight face, but he did. "Sweetheart, I'm not really a teacher. I'm just pretending right now. And busting heads isn't going to solve anything."

She pushed away and stared at him. "I know you can be our teacher! You taught me!"

"I loved teaching you, punkin. And I am kind of enjoying teaching the bigger kids, but that's not what I do. You understand?"

Espie nodded. "I just wish I could stay home and have you teach me all the time."

"You'd miss your friends."

"But not the boys." She pouted and sat down beside him.

He put an arm around her. "You know, there's always one more strategy you can try. Sometimes boys do this stupid stuff because they like you, but they don't want their friends to find out, so they do mean things." He noticed her puzzled expression and continued. "So next time you could always call 'em out on that, start chasing them around, and then they'll see how they like it!"

Esperanza giggled. "Dad, that's too silly!"

"Just try it. Trust me." He smiled at her.

"I do trust you, Daddy." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. He pulled her into his lap,wrapped her in his arms, closed his eyes, and held her for a long time. She didn't call him 'Daddy' very often anymore, and when she did, he knew it was when she loved him the most.

"You know I love you, but I'm still gonna have to punish you."

"I know, Daddy." Her voice was muffled against his shoulder.

"Okay, then." He released her and she slipped from his lap. "I want you to stand in the corner, think about what we talked about, and I'll be back in about fifteen minutes."

"That's a long time, Daddy." Her head tilted.

"Yes, but the sooner you start, the sooner you finish."

Yvette and Samuel returned from church and found that Sam had lunch in the works. She glanced around the living room as they entered the house. "Honey, where's Espie?"

"She's upstairs." Sam stirred a pot of soup. "I had an interesting talk with her. Seems the boys are, well, being boys. She struck back, and she's lucky she didn't get in trouble at school for it." He tested the soup and tossed some more spices into the pot. "I talked to her about what to do next time. I think she got it."

"I guess we'll know soon enough whether it worked." They heard Samuel trotting up the stairs and their eyes went upward. Esperanza's room was directly above the kitchen. "It's too quiet."

Then they heard her voice, but not the words. Sam smirked. "You spoke too soon."

"I better see what's going on." Yvette hurried upstairs while Sam finished setting the table.

Within minutes, the kids ran downstairs and Yvette was right behind them, albeit at a much slower pace. Nobody was crying or screaming, and the look of triumph on Esperanza's face was priceless. "Here you go, Dad. I drew a picture."

He turned from the stove and studied it intently. "Wow, you really took some time with this one!"

"I left the corner after you came downstairs. I went right to work on it."

He would have sent her back up to finish her sentence, but the content of her drawing made him pause. "Did you see this, Eve?"

Yvette smiled and nodded. "I think it's your best work yet, Espie!" She turned, picked two magnets off the refrigerator, and tacked it up on the door. The picture consisted of multiple frames and was executed in greater detail than Espie usually drew, but it effectively communicated what Sam taught her. "You know, Sam, that would make a good anti-bullying poster."

"I was thinking the same thing."

"See? Something good came out of this, and now, hopefully, we'll have a little more peace around here."

Sam exclaimed, "If only it were this simple at school!"