I taught Kindergarten, and one little boy started to orbit around me for a few weeks. I didn’t mind, but I was crabby.  I thought P.M.S. was the issue.  I had all the symptoms.  I was a busy bee, with 28 kids in my class and three of my own at home, the youngest was a one year old.

     I took my own kids into my classroom in the evenings to clean up and get ready for the next day.  After one of these long days I ran into the teacher in the music and motion room.  I had the baby in my arms, and the older of the three kids dragged a bag behind her full of papers and miscellaneous things I still needed to do at home.  She saw my crabby face and said:  “It could be worse Sharon.”  She cracked into a smile and said:  “You could be pregnant.”

     I laughed her off.  I loaded the car with kids and bag and went home.  We always were stopped by an active train track that usually was nearly a hundred cars long.  We counted them as they crawled over the tracks.  This was usually an activity that made the one year old fuss and bother all of us.  She was over-tired.  I was, too.

     The next day the child who was the moon to my earth asked to have a cracker snack.  I glanced at the clock and told him that it was almost lunchtime.  My class was a full day class, with lunches of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and ABC french fries.

     He looked me in the eye and said:  (You have been eating crackers all day.)  A bolt of lightning hit me.  I gave him the cracker snack and waited for lunch.  After school was let out I raced home, stopping at the drug store to buy the cheapest pregnancy test on the shelf.  I dragged my test, my bag, into the house to relieve the surly babysitter.  They all watched me intently after I took “the test” out of the bathroom and set a kitchen timer.  We watched this thing while the timer ticked me off.  It turned a bright blue in a couple of minutes.  In those days, it screamed that I was pregnant.  My mind went blank.  I was 39.  I was surprised by the bolt from the blue.  I studied my calendar and counted the days since I had ignored my period (s).  Not sure, I went to my familiar obstetrician.  I had ignored periods, with an (S).

     I thought I could carry on without telling my principal or fellow teachers.  That lasted less than one week.  I was already showing!  It was a surprise for all.  He was born six months later, as I turned forty. He was a blessing.  I loved teaching, but loved my own little ones more.  I also had my tubes tied.  The moon to my earth and I still kept in touch, and I hope he has a life full of little surprises as well.