It was the last day before the Thanksgiving holidays. Each period was going to take a test (easy to plan for). It was sixth period. The day was almost done.
The students started filing into the classroom. The sixth period kids all tend to arrive in one great mass. So the room was filled with them walking in and milling around, making their ways not so quickly to their assigned seats. One of them walked up to me and held out his hand. He was holding a plate from the cafeteria.
“This pie is for you,” he said with a smile on his face.
“For me?” I asked. “You brought a slice of pumpkin pie for me all the way from the cafeteria?”
“Yes.”
I smiled and joked, “Ahh. I know what you’re doing.” And I left the fact that it was test day for him and the other students to connect with the gift.
The others laughed. He turned and walked back to his seat. “Fine,” he said in a partial laugh, as if to imply “I see how it is.”
Five minutes later, the room was silent and they were all working on the test.
I grabbed a piece of stiff paper and my scissors. I cut the paper in half. I drew a design on it and put some words on the cover. On the inside I drew a slice of pie and shaded it with colored pencils. I wrote a thank you note on it. And waited until the end of class, after all of them had finished.
Before the bell rang, I walked up to his desk. He looked up. I handed him the card.
“I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful,” I said.
He smiled tentatively. His table partner leaned over to look and smiled widely.
He stood up and packed his stuff in his backpack, leaving the card on the desk. I thought to myself, “This is the way it always seems to go with the cards.” They serve their purpose but then they get discarded.
When the students were gone, I looked over at his desk again. The card wasn’t there. He had taken it with him.
I guess his smile was not so tentative, after all. And I am thankful for that… and the slice of pie.