Tightening the Knot Read Online Free

keeping his gum at home.
            Thank you,
            Mrs. Donnor
               
    Jacob’s mom sent a reply the very next day.
     
            We have no rules against Jacob chewing gum.   He buys it with his own money and I will not take it away from him.   If the school wishes to have a rule against something as harmless as gum, the school can enforce it.
 
                This was why Meredith hated sending notes to parents.   It was also why she hated parent-teacher conferences.   It seemed every year there was one parent who refused to parent.   She had sat down with Jacob after this to explain her fears.   She told him that she would simply leave the trash can near his desk.   She attached a piece of paper to the wall behind it with the word “gum” and an arrow pointing down to remind him.   For a few weeks, he would spit out his gum shortly after arriving and no one had to say a word.   This eventually stopped working, too.   He started waiting longer and longer to spit it out and was now back to swallowing it when she said something.   And she had to say something as the entire class was aware of his habit.   She planned to start a new approach, one she had not yet thought of, after the break.   In the meantime, she had recently stopped by the school nurse to brush up on her Heimlich technique.  

 
     
     
     
    ╣ Chapter 4 ╠
     
     
     
     
                Shortly before lunchtime that Monday, Jeffrey’s mom appeared in the hallway holding up a familiar red lunchbox.   It was familiar because half the boys in the class had the same Spider-Man box.   Meredith took the lunch as Jeffrey’s mom blew a kiss to her son and rushed off.  
                “Thanks, Miss Donna.”
                “Oh, nuts!   I mean, you’re welcome Jeffrey.”   It had just dawned on Meredith that he was not the only one to have forgotten a lunch.   She laughed and wondered what Jenna would say and if Mercy would believe it had really been an accident.   At least she worked in a place with a cafeteria.   She lined up the kids and grabbed her bag, which did not contain any food, and followed the little ones down the hall.   Most of them scattered to tables and she followed the rest into the lunch line.
                After paying for her lunch, Meredith found her way to a staff table and chatted with co-workers over several fried items and a Jell-O cup, which was actually a bit of a treat as she never bothered to make Jell-O at home.   Then she bused her tray.   More than anything else she did as a teacher, returning a tray to the cafeteria reminded her of her own school days.   There was something very déjà vu inspiring about the clinking of cheap silverware into plastic wash tubs.   She sat back down and pulled out her laptop for the last five minutes, as a few at the table had already done, and logged on to her email account.   She found a note from Greg informing her that he would be gone when she got home.  
    He would be leaving after lunch on a business trip to Atlanta .   He was called upon to spend a day every few months at his company’s office there.   He was typically given a bit more notice and explained that the trip could have waited till the end of the week, but he wanted to go now so he could drive back on Wednesday and be home in time for his mother’s arrival.   Meredith appreciated the fact that she would not be left alone with her mother-in-law, who was also nice enough.
    Meredith’s class lined up next to another group of first graders as the bell rang.   She greeted the other teacher, Ellen, as they headed down the hall.   This was one of the same women she had caught drooling over the new teacher earlier in the day.
    “Hey, Ellen.   How’s your day going so far?”
    “Pretty good.   How’s yours?”
    “Honestly, I forgot my lunch so it could be better.”
    “Yeah?   The