Free Returning Pride by Jill Sanders Page A

asked me to a dance in junior high, when he’d been going out with someone else. That’s the dance I went to with Iian.” She smiled, remembering that night.
     
    “I’m going to look into this Megan. The thought of any child being treated bad…” she stopped and took a deep breath for her friend’s sake. “You know it hurts me knowing what you went through, after you told me.”
     
    “I know,” Megan reached over and patted her friend’s arm.
    “Thank you for telling me. I guess I’ve been too caught up in my new teaching role to notice some things.”
     

    Over the next few days, Allison watched the boy carefully. She also had his younger sister Susie in another class.
     
    It was really what she saw in Susie that caused her to be in Tanya’s office with a stack of their drawings and her own notes of items she wanted to point out.
     
    The little girl’s bruises and marks on her arms and legs were worse than her brother’s. Her drawings told a different story than Tommy’s. Where her brother’s drawings were about animals and death, Susie’s were filled with fear. More fear than a child of seven should have.
     
    Oh, some of her kids drew monsters in the closets or hiding under their beds. Susie’s monster was in every picture. When she painted flowers, there was a dark figure on the corner of the paper. When she water colored the Easter Bunny, the figure was poised just behind it. She had even colored blue spots on the bunny, and when asked what the spots were, the girl replied, “The bunny had been bad and had been punished.”
     
    That was when Allison had made up her mind. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Megan’s opinion, she had just wanted to be sure before going to Tanya with something this life changing.
     
    Almost two hours later, Allison left her friend’s office feeling assured. After making her case with Tanya, her friend had called an emergency meeting with the children’s other teachers. Some of them had voiced their concerns as well. Then they had called in the professionals, the Child Protection Services. And after relaying their concerns to them, Allison and the other teachers had left and allowed them to do what they needed.
     
    On her drive home, she was so nervous and wondered if she’d done the right thing. She ended up driving to the shoreline instead of home. Pulling out her bag filled with paper and art supplies, she headed to a secluded spot along the beach to sketch away her worries.
     

    He stood over the hot stove and watched his kitchen staff rush around him and realized that this was the reason he had had chosen to be a chef. The sights and smells of a busy kitchen were so embedded in his brain as a wonderful thing, he’d never had the time to think any negative thoughts about it.
     
    Since losing his hearing, all his other senses had heightened, but nothing compared to what his sense of smell had become. He could tell if something would taste by smelling it. Herbs and spices thrown together gave off a different smell and he could mix and match as he pleased with ease. Some of his recipes called for unorthodox herbs and seasons but every one ended up being a masterpiece.
     
    Sweat trickled down his back and his muscles screamed at him from the hard work he’d been doing at home. Still, he stood over the stove and created what he knew would be yet another great dish.
     
    Things were looking up for him, the work at the house was almost done. His relationship with Allison was coming along slower than he wanted, but he knew her mother and new job were taking priority right now in her life. He remembered the other night sitting on her front porch and smiled to himself as he finished one plate and started working on the next order.
     

    A few days later, Allison was late leaving the school. It was her last day for the week and her classroom had been a mess. She couldn’t really blame the kids, since it had been her idea to work with clay that day. It had