The Vineyard Read Online Free Page B

forgotten. Olivia took a deep breath. She could only hope that the note had been in a sealed envelope.
    â€œI tore it up.”
    â€œYou didn’t.”
    â€œTore it up and threw it away.”
    â€œOh, Tess. I need to see it.”
    â€œYou don’t. She’s just one teacher. She doesn’t know everything.”
    So. Sealed envelope or not, her daughter knew something of what the teacher had written. “Where is the note?”
    Tess looked away, defiant.
    Olivia caught Tess’s chin and gently turned her back. “Where is the note?”
    She looked at the ceiling. Her jaw remained set.
    Sighing, Olivia released her daughter’s chin and stood back. That was when she saw the torn corner of something protruding from the front pocket of Tess’s jeans. She pulled out one portion of the note, then a second and third. On the small square of counter beside the stove, she put the pieces together.
    â€œDear Ms. Jones,”
the note read.
“We truly do need to talkabout what to do about Tess for next year. I know that the thought of having her repeat the year is unpleasant, but ignoring my notes doesn’t help the situation.”
    Ignoring what notes? Olivia thought with a sense of dread.
    â€œYou and I need to meet. The final decision on next year’s class assignments is being made on Monday. If I don’t hear from you before then, I’ll go ahead with my recommendation that Tess stay in fourth grade a second year. Yours truly, Nancy Wright.”
    Olivia’s mind was spinning. Tess had been tested and diagnosed. She had tutoring at school three times a week. As of Olivia’s last meeting with both teacher and tutor, the child was showing a slight improvement in spelling. But she continued to fail tests either because she misread the directions or because she miswrote her answers. She couldn’t read. It was a terrifying problem.
She couldn’t read.
    The tutor claimed it would get better in time. Olivia wanted to know how much time. Tess seemed to be falling further and further behind the others in her class. She liked learning and retained what she learned. When Olivia read to her, she was responsive and smart. One on one, she was capable of understanding complex concepts. On her own, though, she lacked the tools to access those concepts.
    Three half-hour sessions a week with a tutor wasn’t enough; Tess easily could use twice that number. What she really needed was a whole special school, but that was a pipe dream. So Olivia did what she could, helping with homework. She also tried to get the teacher to be more kind, although Tess wasn’t aiding her own cause when she failed to deliver letters that the woman sent home.
    â€œDon’t yell at me,” Tess begged. “I didn’t bring the other notes home because I know what she wants to do. I can see it in her face whenever she looks at my papers. I was thinking that if I tried harder it’d get better and she wouldn’t look at me that way, only she still does.”
    Olivia pulled Tess close and held her with a sudden fierceness. She understood. In fact, she
agreed
. She hadn’t wanted Tess in Nancy Wright’s class in the
first
place. The woman was a stickler about directions, and following directions was one of the hardest things for Tess to do. She panicked. She rushed. She lost her place. She guessed. The other fourth-grade teacher was far better with learning-disabled children, but as the principal had dryly informed Olivia, she couldn’t take
all
of them in her class.
    For the life of her, Olivia didn’t understand why Nancy Wright hadn’t called when her notes weren’t answered. A phone call would have been far more appropriate in the first place. Putting a child’s failings on paper and then sending that paper home with the child seemed cruel.
    Olivia couldn’t begin to estimate the damage that had been done to her daughter’s self-esteem in