A Party for Mrs Singh

By Alvin Peters

Mrs Singh was just finishing the last subject before lunch when there was an announcement from the principal, Mr Gomes. He wanted to see her in his office. She told the children to turn to page 45 and read quietly what they had just discussed. Before she left the class, she said pleasantly, “Be good.” The children replied cheerfully, “We’ll do our best, Miss.” She nodded, then walked away.

Two minutes later, the quiet was interrupted by one of the students, Zaira, “Listen, I heard Mr Gomes talking to Miss Peterkin and Mr Stewart recess time. They were talking about Miss. They said she will not be teaching us next week.”

“What!” some students said in unison.

“Shhhhhh! Hush before Mrs Phillip come here and give us detention again,” Zaira said.

Mrs Singh’s instructions were for the most part dutifully followed, but this troubling news put that on hold. The children turned to Zaira.

“Are you sure? You heard them right?” Solomon asked.

“Yes, that’s what I heard.”

“But why,” Krystal said. “What happened?”

“Maybe Miss fed up,” Matt said, “Remember last term when Leon was lying on people and there was bacchanal in the class.”

“I don’t lie anymore,” Leon stated with arms folded.

“Don’t say that word,” Susan said. “You must say ‘fib’.”

“I don’t fib anymore,” Leon said.

“My mommy said,” Krystal added, “that a fibber is a stranger to the truth or something like that.”

“I’m not a stranger,” Leon said.

Zaira stood up, “Allyuh, the point is that Miss will not be our teacher next week. What we going to do?”

“We could talk to the principal?”

“Nah. We should tell the Prime Minister.”

“The PM too busy to listen to we.”

“To us,” Krystal said correcting the student, “Besides, does anyone have his phone number?”

They thought about that for moment.

“We could email him and ask him to keep Miss here.”

“That will take too long. Remember next week she leaving us.”

“We could pray for her. Miss said that God loves to hear the prayers of children,” Solomon suggested.

“Yeah, but remember Miss also said that God isn’t a genie.”

“Then we’ll pray extra hard.”

“And let’s behave and don’t give her any trouble. Maybe God will like that.”

The bell to signal lunchtime prayers rang.

Zaira said in a hushed, excited voice,” What about a party? We could let her know how much we love her and maybe she’ll stay.”

“Yeah,” Matt replied, “we could put up our snack money for the rest of the week and next week we could buy stuff from the cafeteria. But let’s keep it a secret.” The children agreed.

For the first time in ages all the children closed their eyes and said their prayers for the next few days. Their excellent behaviour was complimented by Mrs Singh, the principal, and others.

On Tuesday of the following week, they decided that after recess they would surprise their teacher. They went to the cafeteria and bought lots of snacks, pastries, sandwiches, and juices.

They asked the cafeteria lady if she could keep a secret and told her their plans. They also asked if they could get a discount. Mrs Singh recently taught them that topic. She happily obliged.

God always gives us what we need.

When Miss walked into the class, she was greeted with a loud cry of: “Please stay, Mrs Singh. We love you.” The cheers died down quickly when the principal entered the room. The students muttered, “Good afternoon, Sir,” and sat silently.

Mr Gomes was a strict principal. He tolerated no nonsense from his students, but he was fair and gave them his full support. No-one could forget when he cheered the football team down to the last dying seconds even though they lost seven goals to one. The room was completely silent when he spoke.

“Good afternoon, children,” he said. “I see you are having a farewell party for your teacher.” He looked around the class. The children averted their eyes.

“You may have heard that Mrs Singh will no longer be your teacher. That is correct.” Some students opened their mouths, but he raised his hand for silence.

“I think that it is only fair that you be the first students to know that while she will no longer be your class teacher, Mrs Singh has been promoted as our new vice principal.”

“What?” some students exclaimed. “Yes, Mrs Singh will be our new vice principal. She will be officially installed tomorrow. Mr Stewart will be retiring. I hope you will all wish him a happy retirement and thank him for his service.”

“Sir,” Zaidar said as she raised her hand, “can we still have our party even though Miss is staying?”

“Hmmm,” Mr Gomes said as he walked slowly up and down the class. “This party was not authorised by Mrs Singh nor myself. This is an infringement of the rules.” In a rare moment he smiled and said, “But since you have shown how disciplined and thoughtful you can be, I’ll allow it.” The children cheered. The principal nodded to Mrs Singh and left the classroom.

The party got underway. They shared the treats and sang songs. Mr Stewart was presented with a special plate; an impromptu speech by one of the students was followed by some cheers. He was most grateful.

During the festivities Leon said, “Miss, we prayed so hard for you to stay but we forgot to tell God we wanted you to stay as our teacher.”

Mrs Singh laughed, hugged him and said, “Thank you so much. Remember, God doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we want Him to, but He always gives us what we need. I will always be looking out for you and remember,” she raised her voice, “be good.”

They shouted in reply, “We’ll do our best, Miss!”