The Hike
Grainy images of mountains and jungle flashed onto the white pull-down screen at the front of our grade six classroom. Our teacher, Mr. R—whom we called Rosie— was at the helm of a humming slide projector, regaling us with stories of his travels to exotic lands. “Here’s one of me on the mountain.” Click . “This is one of our hiking group—that’s me on the left there.” Click . The darkened room was rife with the sly dealings of my classmates, of which Rosie—for once—was blissfully unaware. “One of me feeding a monkey….” Click . Sarah passed a note to Ben, who opened it discretely under his desk, then giggled and blushed. Jimmy sniffed his liquid paper, then passed it to Joe. Mike stared at Susan, which I hated. I had asked him out only two weeks earlier on a scrap of folded lined paper that I had discretely placed on his desk in passing. ( Will you ...