The Stake

about Jessica, she’d stopped feeling free. Just vulnerable.

The bell rang, startling her.

She sat up straight as Mr. Kramer entered the room. He put down his briefcase, took out a small brown book, then stepped to the front of the table. He sat on its edge, resting the book on his thigh. The room fell silent. He scanned the rows. His face looked grim, a little haggard.

“I’m sure you’re all aware, by now, of the tragedy that occurred last night. Everyone’s talking about it. I imagine some of your other teachers have spoken to you about the situation.”

Pressing his lips together, he shook his head. He frowned at the empty desk.

“Jessica was my student. She was your classmate. Obviously, her death is a shock to all of us, and we’ll miss her.”

He looked up from her desk. His eyes briefly met Lane’s, then turned away and roamed from face to face.

“I don’t have any magic words,” he said, “to ease the grief we share. But I’m a teacher, and there is a lesson to be learned from this. The Bible tells us that, in the midst of life, we are in death. But the reverse is also true. ‘In the midst of death, we are in life.’ We need to keep that in mind. Life is a precious gift. We should never forget that, or take it for granted. We should savor every moment that is given to us.”

Lane felt her throat tighten.

“We have the present, and that’s all we can ever really be sure of. So many of us and I’m as guilty as anyone — allow our present moments to pass us by unnoticed, unappreciated, while we occupy our minds with other thoughts. Certainly, we need to work and plan to help things turn out right in our futures. But we even lose our futures if we spend them worrying about what may come next. When the nature arrives for us, it comes as single moments, present moments.

“So if we’re to learn anything from what happened to Jessica and her parents, it’s this — we need to live life now. We need to notice each second, and fill ourselves with its wonders and mysteries... and its joys.”

His final words brought tears to Lane’s eyes. She blinked and wiped them away.

He’s so right, she thought. Each moment is precious.

Thismoment is precious, sitting here, listening to Mr. Kramer. She realized that she had never felt closer to him, not even yesterday when he was touching her.

“I want to share a poem with you. Then we’ll get on with class.” He lifted the slim volume off his leg and opened it to a bookmark. “This is by Allan Edward DePrey. It’s called, ‘Grave Musings.’ He lowered his eyes and began to read, his clear voice low and solemn:

If I should sleep, this moonless night,

Nevermore to rise,

I’ll keep with me the shimmering light

Of the love in my lady’s eyes.

I’ll keep the touch of dewy grass

Wet on my feet at dawn,

And how it smells, so sweet, alas!

After the rain is gone.

I’ll keep the flavors I have known

Of bread and meat and wine,

And cherish them when I am bone

Because they taste so fine.

A few of the kids tittered. Mr. Kramer looked up from the page. “If you’d rather not hear the rest of this...”

“Go on,” Lane urged him.

“Maybe I shouldskip over some of this,” he said. “It gets pretty long.” He took a few moments to search the poem, apparently trying to decide where he should resume reading. Then, he continued:

Into the grave with me I’ll take

Each sight and smell and sound

And pray that they will not forsake

Me in my sleep beneath the ground —

If memory, in truth, survives,

The reaper’s savage knife

I’ll keep with me my golden prize

Of what I loved in life.

But if an empty darkness waits

Bereft of all I’ve known,

I shall not curse the cruel Fates

That cast me there alone.

For I was given years to taste,

To smell, see, feel and love.

Though doomed, at last, to charnal waste,

I had my glorious days above.

Someone in the room said, “Yuck,” and a few kids laughed.

“I admit the poem has its grim aspects, but I think DePrey’s point is well taken — ‘I had my glorious days above.’ We have to always keep ourselves aware of those glories.” He shut the book and set it aside. “Okay,” he said, nodding. “Let’s take out our textbooks and pick up where we left off yesterday.”

When the bell rang, Lane stayed in her seat. The other students filed out. She remembered how, yesterday, Jessica had stopped in the doorway and scowled at her.

The girl should’ve been enjoying the time she had left, Lane thought. Not giving me crap.

Hell, she didn’t know.

None of us knows. Any one of us could die tonight.

Instead of striking fear into Lane, the thought reminded her again of Mr. Kramer’s advice to savor every moment.

She watched him step behind the table and load his briefcase. He met her eyes. He smiled. “How are you feeling today?” he asked.

“A lot better, thanks.”

“Bruised up?”

“Yeah, some.”

“Well, you’ll have to stay out of bikinis for a while.”

Lane felt the warmth of a blush spread over her skin. “Good thing summer’s over,” she said.

“I promise not to make you stand on any more stools.”

“Do you have some papers or something for me?”

“So happens, I do.” He walked to his desk and began searching through stacks of file folders. “Ah, here we go. Spelling sentences.” He came toward her with the folder and a red pen. “Make sure you check for everything: spelling, punctuation, grammar. Five points off for each mistake.”

“Right.”

Stopping in front of Lane, he set the folder and pen on her desktop. “If you have any questions...”

“I really liked what you said at the start of class,” Lane told him. She felt daring and embarrassed. “About appreciating each moment. It was very...” She shrugged, and felt her blouse brush softly against her nipples. “I don’t know. It made me feel a lot better about things.”

He looked down at her, sorrow in his eyes. “I’m glad if it helped. This was a terrible thing. I guess everyone’s pretty shocked about it. I know I am, even though Jessica was a bit of a problem in class. Were you friends?”

A corner of Lane’s mouth curled up. “Hardly. But even still... When something like that happens...”

“I know. It makes us aware of our mortality. If it can happen to her, why not to us?”