Free Small Change by Sheila Roberts Page A

could it be to sit at a desk and push those blinking lights on a telephone? And she knew the alphabet, for crying out loud. She could handle filing.
    â€œWe mostly get requests for data entry. It would help if you knew Excel. But we'll keep a watch and call you when something comes up that we think is a good fit for you.”
    Jess nodded and left the office with a strong suspicion that she wouldn't be hearing from Solutions, Inc. You need a Plan B.
    On her way home she passed Heart Lake High, and catching sight of the school tennis courts suddenly inspired her. Now there was something she could do: teach tennis. She played doubles every Friday, spring, summer, and fall. She knew her way around a racquet. It had only taken her twenty years of playing to reach anintermediate level of excellence, but nobody had to know she was nothing more than a jock wannabe. It was like dying your hair— don't ask, don't tell.
    As soon as she got in the house she called her friend Mary Lou, the head of the Heart Lake Park and Recreation sports department and offered her services for the upcoming summer program.
    â€œI wish you'd called about a week earlier,” said Mary Lou. “I hired my last instructor on Friday.”
    It figured.
    â€œBut we just lost a kinder gym teacher. I could use some help there.”
    â€œKinder gym, like in gymnastics?” Tennis was one thing, this was quite another. “I don't think so. I can't even do a decent somer-sault,” Jess confessed.
    â€œThey call them forward rolls,” Mary Lou corrected. “You really don't need to know as much as you think you do.”
    â€œI must have to be certified or something. Otherwise, what happens if some poor kid gets hurt on my watch?”
    â€œTrust me. You don't have to be a gymnast to teach kinder gym,” Mary Lou assured her. “Anyway, you're not exactly teaching at a level that involves injuries.”
    â€œBut if someone did get hurt?” worried Jess.
    â€œThat's why we have insurance. Look, I'll train you myself. Okay? Come in and help me with my morning classes this week. That way you could start teaching when the new session begins.”
    As in she'd be hired? Just like that? It paid to have connections.
    â€œOkay,” Jess decided. It beat waiting by the phone, hoping to hear from temp agencies.
    â€œGreat! You'll love this,” Mary Lou enthused. “The kids are so cute. That's why I still teach a couple of classes. I love it.”
    You can do this, Jess told herself as she hung up. How hard could it be to teach little kindergartners and preschoolers to hop around on a mat?
    Not that hard, she decided the next day, watching Mary Lou in action at the old junior high gym where classes were held. All the kinder gym pupils were really young so it was mostly fun and games and an introduction to the basics of gymnastics with lots of stretching at the beginning. “Stand on your tippy-toes,” Mary Lou said, demonstrating. “Reach for the ceiling.”
    All the little gymnasts (mostly girls in pink leotards) stood on tiptoe on cute, little baby fat legs. Jess fit right in with her hot pink tee. She stood, too, on legs that also had fat, the grown-up variety.
    After stretching they worked on skill-building while parents sat in folding metal chairs on the far end of the gym and smiled at their future Olympians, oblivious to the smell of eau de sweat that perfumed the air. Mary Lou made it all look easy.
    â€œSee?” she said later as they waved good-bye to the last set of parents and children. “You can do this.”
    â€œWhat if somebody asks me to demonstrate?” Jess worried.
    â€œI'll work with you this week and teach you the basics, like how to do a forward roll and mount the beam …”
    â€œWait a minute,” Jess interrupted, “as in balance beam? They learn that in kinder gym?”
    â€œWell, we have a grade school class we need you to help