Carola Dibbell - The Only Ones

A lot of these Parents are, like, Grandparents, the Parent already died, so they are from another generation and were old enough to remember the old schools, before the Big One. They really knew a lot about school. I’m not saying they had the same opinion. They disagreed. Like, a good school is a Stretch, but others knew what is wrong with that, it could be a Strain.

Remember all the things I had to learn to be a Parent, the wrinkles, the neck, wind? Now I had to learn this, what was wrong with everything. It was interesting.

Like, indoor/outdoor? In that time, there was a new idea, it is more healthy to do things outdoors. You will not get the germs. It wasn’t just about school. They are starting to think Domes are not that great, period. Like, ok, inside the Dome, you’re not going to get something. But leave the Dome? You’re going to get everything. It is an Immune thing.

So then some other Parent explains what’s wrong with Outdoor Schools. Like, what about rain? Maybe they won’t get TB or SV. They could still catch their death of cold.

Another Parent said, how they went to school indoors, it was good enough for them. If it was good enough for them, it was good enough for the kids today, but another one said, they want their kid to have a% in the Duof9H better life. So when they said that, I learned I wasn’t the only one.

Here is something else I learned. Remember how I worried, what will happen if Ani goes to school? How I was always worried someone will find out what’s wrong with us? I wasn’t the only Parent who worried. I’m just saying this because maybe in your life something could happen that makes you think something is wrong with you and you’re the only one in the whole world that it is. Well I will tell you, what was wrong with us, Ani and me, it’s not the only thing that could be wrong. What was wrong with these other kids is they are not a hardy, they really could get something bad. Whatever is wrong with us, it isn’t that. These Parents took their kid’s life in their hand, just to go to school.

We went to this City Line school for about five months, then one morning, it was blocked. Caution tape, signs. One teacher had got sick. They didn’t say what it was, but a kid got sick too. They are required to shut down.

So I got what I thought we wanted. It is just us two again. I didn’t like it now.

This was a gray and windy day, and when Ani and me got back to our courtyard, I started to dig a little in the froze-up ground where the potatoes have been, and Ani is hopping in the cold. Then she just stops. I just stopped too. And I don’t know what this proves, but Ani looked at me and said, “Ani? Let’s go to school.”

I put her in the carrier, took her back to 261 stStreet, and ducked under the caution tape on the steps to the school door, which is covered in boards. We weren’t the only ones there. About eight Parent/kid combos gathered at the front, even though it was a windy day. Remember those Parents who worried would their kids get something from being out of the home? I’ll tell you what these Parents got. They got mad. Think about how nervous we were in the first place, to even bring our kids out of our homes. Now this.

Somebody said, if this one school closed, we were entitled to a list of schools our kids could go to instead, even in other Zones. Man! How did they know that?

Someone else said, everyone else thinks something is wrong with us, by being City Line. The City Line kids have rights too.

So someone shouts, “City Line kids! City Line kids!” So we all shout, “City Line kids! City Line kids!”

We marched up Little Neck Parkway toward the Bay and are going to get on a boat and sail to Nassau County and force them to put our kids in school there, but a cop stops us for our own, you know, sake because the vigilantes in Nassau County are going to shoot us. They got someone to put us all on a group shaw and some hybro pulled it all the way to the Temporary Center, in Sunnyside, a really long ride. A few people came out to stare.

There was masks for all of us when we got out. The Grandmother named Doris Goodman went in with one other Parent, the rest of us waited outside and met three other mothers who told us what was wrong with most of the schools in Queens. In one hour Doris Goodman came out with a list of Out Of Zone schools that are Legally Obligated to accept our kid, if the kid doesn’t have something, so the other mothers look at the list and between them they knew what is wrong with every school on the list! So everyone cheered. The Catholic School is a Strain, the Utopia school is not even a Stretch. There is also the Jamaica Estates Dome school, which is the only really good school in Queens but they give you such a hard time why not go to this one Manhattan school that is Legally Obligated to take everyone, even us. There was a Zone crossing Pass for every Parent and a copy to Hunter’s Point of theWhat doon of the list. We even got travel coupons! Then we all got pulled back to the Alley Pond barricade where we all climb off and make a plan to meet here in the morning, eight Parent/kid combos.

Well guess what? Besides Ani and me? Nobody showed but Betty Feeny and her daughter Carmel. At least we got each other for Support. So off we go. We’re going to start off with the Catholic School. It is the closest. We walk there with our Pass.

It was a little hard to find but seemed ok and different from what I remembered from Catholic School in Corona. Besides that there is just eight kids in the whole school, the teachers make you change your clothes and leave them in a bag. The Parent too — they give you a kind of uniform and mask. It didn’t work, not even for fifteen minutes. Ani would not wear the uniform, she would not wear the mask, she would not sit in chairs, she could not even tie her shoes, she is expelled. Carmel is ok but scared to be the only one she knows so Betty pulls Carmel out and next day we meet again and try the school that the Sunnyside mothers said is not a Stretch. It’s on Utopia Parkway and even harder to find than Catholic School, but we see somebody climbing a fire escape so we just hide our carriers and follow them up to the roof where a young guy is in charge of five kids or so, all older than Ani. Man, I am getting used to kids! The young guy said hello and explained his plan. He did not intervene. He didn’t know how these kids had stayed alive. He did not want to rock the boat. Whatever that means, they did not have chairs in this school. So Ani did not have to sit in them. I think they had chalk.

We been here like half an hour when a girl who seemed regular in other ways starts walking backward. She did it for a long time too. So Betty goes up to the teacher and says, hello, she’s walking backward. So the teacher did not think he should intervene. He said she is just being herself.

So Betty asked the teacher, “Is she the only one?”

“Walking backward? In this group,” he looked around, “she could be the only one. But there are others. We think it serves some sort of purpose. We don’t know why they do it. We don’t want to absolutely forbid it. We don’t want to damage the cerebral flow.”

Well, Betty and I don’t know what that is and are not sure the teacher does, so Betty agrees with the Sunnyside mothers about the Stretch and wants me to come with her to Jamaica Estates. I don’t even know why I didn’t go. Later I really wished I left right then. Although the guy said the girl was the only one, in that group, I noticed others who walked backward, and pretty soon Ani began to do it too. They would put one hand against the chickenwire while they did it. They did it fast too. Ani practiced it at home, inside and out.

Look, I know the teacher wants them to be themself. But I don’t know if this is Ani’s self or the others’. She never walked backward before. At least she’s not myself. Still, if she is going to be like others, maybe it should be others who walked forward. Maybe others who could tie their own shoes.