That year my geometry class was average size. I was pleased to see the normal size classroom after so many years. A few days had passed from the beginning of the year—all the schedules were handed to the teachers, the school year started to settle down. Then one day a girl came to my door about nine o’clock with a note in her hand. It said that I had to put her in my first period roster, that she was a new student. I told her to sit in the back of the classroom and to wait for a few minutes after the class ended. At the end of the period I called her up front.

“What is your full name?” I asked the girl.

“Esmeralda Anna Perez,” she said.

“The school started about two weeks ago. Why did you come to school so late?”

She kept quiet. I entered her name, homeroom number, her guidance councilor’s name, her course of study in my roll book. I gave her a few forms to fill out.

“You can bring all of those forms tomorrow but you must fill out this book form now. Otherwise, I will not be able to give you a textbook.”

“Okay.” She started to fill out the form. I went to the book room and brought her a geometry book.

“What class do you have now?” I asked.

“Music,” she answered.

“Who is the teacher?”

“Mrs. Beckett.”

“I will give you a late pass.”

She asked me the spelling of my name. I wrote my name on the board.

Mrs. Rini Chatterjee. Mrs. Chatt – ur – jee. I wrote phonetically also.

She took a few minutes to write down everything in the book form and then gathered her stuff, got up to leave the classroom. I gave her the late pass.

“Is there any homework?”

“Look up on the board.”

She took it down and then left the classroom.

The next morning, first period started, and everybody was working on the two problems that were on the overhead screen already. I took the roll already, marked the absentees when Esmeralda showed up by the door with a late pass again. If anybody came with a late pass I had let him or her in without any question. I took the late pass and saw that it was signed by her guidance councilor. When she was approaching towards the seat that she sat the day before, I said:

“Esmeralda, my class is seated alphabetically. I want you to seat in the third seat of the fourth row,”

I pointed out the seat that she needs to take.

“Should I give you the homework now?”

“No, everybody is working on the day’s problems; do that now and then the homework will be checked and collected.”

She gave me all the forms that I asked her to fill out, and then sat down in the designated seat. She took out her notebook and pencil and started working on the problems. During the homework checking I noticed that Esmeralda practically didn’t need any corrections but all of her works were absolutely correct—and she was a ninth grader. I had tenth, eleventh, and even one twelfth grader in this class. When I started teaching the day’s lesson I realized that she was very smart, the way she gave the answers to the questions were flawless.

The next day, Esmeralda showed up again fifteen minutes late with a pass from the social worker, and every day of the week she kept coming late with a pass from the social worker. I went down to check with the social worker about the reason behind her coming late, but she refused to discuss the details due to family reasons. I didn’t ask much.

On Thursday, I announced that a test would be given on Friday to make sure that the students studied for the test. So, on Friday, all the students showed up on time, it was 8:47, the bell had rung two minutes ago, students were sharpening their pencils. I had already given them the papers, rulers, calculators, and all other necessary materials, and within a few minutes I would give them their question papers. It was 8:50 when I started giving out the question papers, the room was quiet now, everyone was reading the question papers some started to jot down their answers already. At exactly 9:00 Esmeralda showed up by the door with a late pass in her hand. Without asking any questions I gave her the question paper, papers, calculator, and other necessary items.

She went up to her desk, put her book bag down, took out her pencils and started solving the problems. Once in a while one or two students were asking the meaning of some words but Esmeralda didn’t look up for the entire period. At 9:20 she looked up.

She said to me that she had finished her work. After the bell rang, and I had collected their papers, I took a look at Esmerelda’ test. I had to give one hundred out of one hundred to her. Not only had she done everything perfectly, she had also drawn perfect diagrams for each problem—and she had come fifteen minutes late.

Around Christmas time we had different kinds of programs in school, dance, drama, music and everything. I bought the ticket for one evening program, and at about 7:00 when I entered the auditorium the program already started. I had to sit in the back of the auditorium because there was no empty seat in the front. I saw a girl was holding the microphone and singing an Italian hymn, her wonderful voice held the audience spellbound, the whole auditorium was absolutely silent. After she finished singing the audience applauded for at least five minutes in standing ovation. It was Esmeralda Anna Perez, they announced.

The school year was passing by quickly. The month of February came by, snow was falling heavy from time to time, and I was taking time off every now and then. A few years prior, on one February day, the snow was so much that they closed the main highway and I couldn’t get back home, and so I had to take refuge in a nearby hospital. It normally took about five minutes to get to that nearby hospital, but that day it had taken me four hours. Since that day, I began calling in sick on the heavy snowy days. As winter approached Esmeralda was not only coming late but was taking days off too, although during test days she did show up on her regular late scheduled time.

One day, however, Esmeralda was absent for a class test. The next day she came up to me and asked me if she could make it up after school. I stay after school almost every day so, I agreed to give her the test then. She came on time, took the test, gave me the papers and left. I stayed a few more minutes, checked her test, recorded her hundred out of hundred, as usual, in my roll book, packed up my stuff, locked my cabinets, desks, door, and then headed for home. I went up to the parking lot, started my car, came out in the street and started moving with the slow pacing traffic. I went just one block and the traffic stopped for red light. I saw Esmeralda. She was by the bus stop and waving at me. I waved back too and saw she was approaching towards me. I parked my car by the curve and rolled down my window.

“Mrs. Chatt – ur – jee! Can you please give me a ride to the train station?  I just found out that number nine bus has stopped operating.”

“Where do you want to go?” I asked.

“Home,” she said.

“Where is your home?”

“Clinton Street.”

“Oh! My God! That’s way too far.”

“Yes, of course but if you can give me a ride to the train station I will be able to go home.”

“Come in.” I opened the door.

“Thank you”.

“How far is your home from the station?”

“Seven blocks.”

I felt compassionate for this girl. In this bad weather, she had to walk seven blocks. I had one fourteen year old at home too. He never walked this much in this kind of weather.

On our way I told her: “You know, we are not allowed to pick up any student in our car without the school’s authorization.”

“Yes Mrs. Chatt – ur – jee, I know. I am not going to tell anybody anything.”  I said to myself that even if you say anything to anybody I wouldn’t care. If I feel that I am doing it right nobody can stop me. I remember the ill-behaved project coordinator that we had in school once who had an argument with me once. I wrote a letter to her husband, who was the assistant superintendent of the district, and since then she used to think twice before making any loose comment. After that incident our librarian had made a comment about me: “Oh my God,” she said. “Where is this woman coming from? She does not walk seven feet behind her husband with a veil on her head.”

“If you take a right turn after this block we will hit the train station,” she said.

“Let me drop you off at home,” I said.

“Really, are you sure”?  She was excited.

“Yes, really because it will take time for you to get home,” I said.

On our way we chit-chatted a lot about her family. Esmeralda’s parents had come from Mexico to this country. It was a very hard escape from their land. Her parents and their five-year-old son left the country with a group of fifteen people in the middle of the night. They walked over the desert for the entire night. They had only three bottles of water with them. It was a difficult and dangerous journey. In the middle of the desert three from the group died. When they hit the highway they found a truck that was exporting beer to this country. The truck driver agreed to cross them over the border in exchange for all the money the group had brought, but the condition was if the police found out about it they have to run for their lives at their own risk. The driver could not be held responsible for the losses of their lives from the police firing. They all agreed to those terms and hid between the barrels of beer.

I got goose bumps listening to her stories. In this whole wide world the story for survival is more or less the same. My father-in-law and mother-in-law had to hide in a pond for two days while they were crossing the border from East Pakistan to India. My mother-in-law was three months pregnant with my husband then.

“Take a right turn here Mrs. Chatt – ur – jee,” She yelled out, “and drive slow.”

“Is your house in this block?” I asked while turning the wheel.

“No, you have to take a left turn after the quick shop at the corner. My house is there.”

When I was taking the turn by that shop I saw a few black and Hispanic boys between the ages of maybe seventeen and twenty hanging out. The area looked devastated. Maybe at one time this place was a very posh area but right then it looked awful—the houses had lost the color of their paints, some of the houses had wooden boards on the doors and the windows, the streets were not cleaned, piled up garbage dumped all over, a few stray dogs and cats were running loose. When some rich and wealthy families lose everything from a mishap they suddenly become poor but their dignity prevails, this place looked just like that.

When I stopped the car in front of a three-storied building one of those boys from the group came running to us.

“Lionel, this is Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee, my geometry teacher,” Esmeralda introduced us.

“You teach in Keller Institute, my cousin graduated from there.” The young man extended his hand for a handshake.

“Oh! I see.”

I turned towards Esmeralda and said:

“If I did come by your house, go call your mom so that I can say hello to her.”

“Do you really want to see my mother?” She asked.

“Why? You don’t want me to?”

“My mother can’t get up from the bed nor can she talk clearly.”

“What?”

I was shocked to hear that. The house that I was standing by was probably pink a long time ago, but now its color had faded. I got out of my car and was ready to go to meet her mother.

“Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee!  Esmeralda talks about you often and now I know why.” Lionel was talking while walking by me.

“Is it because I gave her good grades?” I asked.

“No, she is getting good grades all her life but no teacher has ever come to see her mother, you are the first one. There is something in you that touched her mind.”

The stairwell was dirty and smelled awful, like nobody had cleaned it in over a million years. Somewhere the music was on “angels deserve to die, when angels deserve to die.”

We walked up to third floor and a door opened, I found a lady with a nurse’s aid’s apron standing by the door.

“Mrs. Jenkins! This is my math teacher, Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee.”

“Oh! Hi, how are you,” the lady greeted me. Then she turned towards Esmeralda and said, “I was wondering why you were taking so long to come back home from school today, I was almost going to ask Lionel to look for you.”

“Number nine bus suddenly stopped operating. I couldn’t have come back even now had it not been for Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee. I am very sorry Mrs. Jenkins for being this late.”

Both Lionel and I were listening to their conversation. Mrs. Jenkins said goodbye to both of us and left. Lionel proceeded towards the entrance of the apartment, and Esmeralda and I followed him. Inside the apartment I found an extremely beautiful lady lying on the bed, a white sheet covered her whole body except her head and face. There was a table by her bed, all kinds of medicine, water jug, cup, spoon, and a very beautiful flower vase with beautiful flowers made out of silk cloths. The room was small but neatly kept. There was a shelf by the wall decorated with all kinds of curios, a few pictures framed nicely, one of them with a lady, a man, a little boy and a little girl in it; the other one had one older boy. I recognized the little girl right away. It was Esmeralda. There were a few beautiful glass paintings hanging on the walls. As dirty as the outside of this apartment looked, the inside looked just the opposite—clean as a crystal.

“That is Elizabeth Perez, Esmeralda’s mother,” Lionel said.

“Hello, how are you today,” I asked.

She started to mumble but I could not understand a bit.

“Mom is asking you to sit down please,” Esmeralda said. Now I realized that she was speaking in Spanish that Esmeralda translated in English.

“Can I make some coffee for you Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee?”

“Oh no, no. You don’t have to worry about me at all. What’s wrong with your mother?”

“Last year after Esmeralda’s father died from the auto accident, Elizabeth had a stroke and since then she has been paralyzed,” Lionel answered. At this point Esmeralda left the room.

“Who takes care of her?” I asked.

“Who else will, Esmeralda of course?” Lionel added, “Mrs. Jenkins, the lady that you saw a few minutes ago is the social worker. She comes in at 7:30 every morning to take care of Elizabeth; after she comes Esmeralda can leave home to go to school.”

Now I realized why Esmeralda was late every morning.

“Well then who cooks?”

“Esmeralda makes breakfast for herself and her mother, and keeps the lunch ready for her mother.”

“Why doesn’t Mrs. Jenkins cook for them?”

“Mrs. Jenkins is a social worker; she is not a cook or housekeeper. Her responsibility is to watch over Elizabeth, that she is able to go to the bathroom, that she could eat her food properly without choking and all that.”

When we were talking I heard Esmeralda doing something in the kitchen.

“Where is Esmeralda, I have to go now,” I said.

“She is probably in the kitchen getting ready to cook dinner.”

“She has to cook dinner also?’

“Who else is going to do that for her? I help her out sometimes but the main responsibility is hers.”

I remembered about my childhood, which was like a storybook. I was surrounded by my aunts, uncles, cousins, and a whole lot of people. I could not remember if I had done any house work at that age. I felt so much compassion for this girl that my heart was heavy with pain.

“Call Esmeralda, I must leave now,” I told Lionel. Esmeralda came out of the kitchen.

“Esmeralda, tell your mother bye for me,” I said. She said something in Spanish and I saw a few drops of tears came out from the corner of Elizabeth’s eyes; she wiped it with the corner of her sheet.

“I will walk Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee up to the car, you don’t have to come Esmeralda,” said Lionel.

“Okay, bye Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee.”

Lionel started to walk down the stairs with me.

“Now I know why Esmeralda talks about you so much,” Lionel said. I didn’t say anything.

“Does Elizabeth have other children?”

“Elizabeth came in this country with her husband and their five-year-old son. After coming here her husband could not find a job for a long period of time so he wanted to go back to Mexico but Elizabeth didn’t want to go back. She stayed here with her son; her husband went back and divorced her. Later Elizabeth married Luis, a coworker in the same factory that she worked; Luis junior and Esmeralda were born afterwards.”

“Where are these two boys?” I asked.

“Anthony is in the army and Luis Junior started behaving strangely after his father died, he was socializing with the bad elements, he is in jail now for car theft.”

I didn’t make any comment. I got into my car and started the engine. Lionel extended his hand for a handshake and this time I didn’t refuse him. I told myself if god has sent you to take care of this little girl and her family you have my heartfelt appreciation.

Time passed by quickly, the school year ended, Esmeralda was in the super honor list. The next year a new bunch of students filled up the classrooms, I got busy with the new routines, new roll books, new everything. I seldom get to see Esmeralda. The third floor had four stairwells and two elevators so it was very difficult to keep track of who was coming by and who was going. Two years later, one day after school, when I was arranging my stuff for the next day a chubby girl entered into my room. I could not recognize her right away, but when she came closer I said;

“Esmeralda, is that you?”

“Yes, Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee,” she smiled.

“What’s up, long time, no see,” I said.

She took her jacket off and left it on the desk. Now I found out that she was pregnant but I didn’t question her about anything. It was against my nature to be inquisitive about other people’s business.

“Well, what can I do for you sweet heart?”

“Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee, can you write me a recommendation letter.” This was the time that the seniors come up to me for the letter; Esmeralda would be graduating that school year so she was getting ready for that.

“Yes, of course, what is your rank,” I asked.

“Number 1”

“Sure enough, when do you need it by?”

“If I can get it by the second week of December I will be glad.”

“You will have it then. How is your mom doing these days?”

“She is much better these days, goes to therapy two days a week, does not have to take too much medicine, she can do most of the things by herself, I am hoping that in a few weeks she will be able to do some light work in the rehab center.”

“Very good I am happy for both of you.”

Then I asked with a little hesitation, “Who is going to take care of your child when you go to school?”

“It will be Lionel’s mother.”

Now I realized that Lionel who I had presumed was a guardian angel had indeed taken advantage of this little fatherless doll. What an irony of fate. I did not ask anything else, sighed within myself, and smiled to her and changed the subject. After a few minutes, she took off.

Many years passed by. My colleague Nora, who I used to carpool with, had retired; there had been major changes in my lifestyle and the school’s lifestyle also. I had to drive alone for a few years, and then I found a new carpool partner; her name was Jackie Smith. Jackie had two daughters about my two older boys’ age and a son about my youngest son’s age. We had many similarities in our family lives, so we got along very nicely.

One day Jackie showed me how to get to school using the train from her town, which eventually helped me on one darned needed day. Jackie took a sick day and that very morning my car wouldn’t start. The car is old and everyday one thing or other is bad so, I asked my husband to drop me off by Jackie’s town from where I took the train to school. On my way back I saw it started raining so I opened my umbrella and started walking to the train station which was not too far from the school.

“Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee, Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee!” I heard someone calling me from a big white grand marquis car that pulled over by the curve. I could not see at first, but then I saw a tall, slender beautiful girl get out of the car and approached me.

“Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee, where are you going on foot in this kind of weather?” Now I looked closely, it was Esmeralda. Last time I saw her, she was pregnant and now I found no resemblance with this beautiful, tall, slender, movie star-looking young lady. Esmeralda had black, long curly hair; this one had short, dirty blonde hair.

She came up to me and held my hand, “What happened to your car Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee?”

“My car is in the shop so; I am going to the train station to go home.”

“Come with me, I will take you to the station.”

“It is alright, Esmeralda, I can walk to the train station. It is not too far.”

“It is raining.”

“But I have my umbrella, see. Coming from a monsoon region I am well prepared for that.”

“That’s alright, come with me, I will give you a ride.”

This is the first time ever that Esmeralda talked back to me. She opened the back door of the car, and I went in. There was a handsome young man by the wheel. She sat next to him by the passenger seat.

“This is David Gonzalez,” she introduced him to me. “We are from the same college, David graduated two years ago.” David extended his hand towards me and we shook hands.

“I know all about you Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee,” said David. “Esmeralda told me everything.”

“Really,” I said, “but I taught Esmeralda only for one year.”

“You know, sometimes people live together for their entire lives but never get close to each other, never know each other and sometimes you meet someone and instantly fall for that person, within a very short period of time you can grow very passionate relationship. You are that kind of person that has made a deep impact in her life.”

I asked Esmeralda about her mother. She said that her mother is working these days. She is fine. Then she took her wallet out and showed me the picture of a little girl. First I thought that it was a baby picture of Esmeralda. The little girl had curly hair hanging from two sides from her face, the typical nose and lips like Esmeralda, even the two beautiful dimples on her cheeks just like her when she smiles.

“Who is this?”

“This is my daughter Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee, couldn’t you recognize her?”

I could not tell her that I recognized instantly.

“She looks just like you, Esmeralda,” I said.

“We will adopt Lucy after we marry in two years,” David said. “And even after marriage Lionel will have joint custody of Lucy. After all he has done so much for Esmeralda that I will never forget.”

Is David another blessing in Esmeralda’s life? I thought. In David’s statement there is absolutely no grudge or effort to ridicule Esmeralda. He is merely giving an account of his future plans. I looked at his face and couldn’t find one inch of bitterness. I learned from David that Esmeralda had brought back her half brother from the army and got him a good supervisory job in the nearby factory where her father used to work. She had her own brother out from jail and got him a job also in a nearby store and had him graduated from the alternate high school. He was enrolled in a community college as a part time student. In fact it was Esmeralda who was taking care of the whole household. She was only twenty-one-years-old. My heart was throbbing listening to all these real life stories; I tried very hard to keep my tears on hold from slipping down my cheeks. I cleared my throat and said,

“David, get me off in the next traffic light. The train station is right there”.

“Let me drop you off at your house, Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee,” he said.

“But my town is far from here”.

“One day, you were supposed to drop off Esmeralda at the train station yet you took her home instead, let me drop you home today, Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee. That day Esmeralda really needed your help, at least let me show my gratitude for you today.”

On our way we talked a lot about Esmeralda and David’s future plans. David graduated with a law degree and was pursuing his practicing lawyers’ license. Esmeralda would graduate in two years and then she would join David in practicing law.

“You know Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee, Esmeralda’s rank is number two right now, only the big congressmen and the big shots in the law business could make this rank from this college.” I was enthralled to hear that my student would be graduating from an Ivy League college, would practice law. It seemed like not only an accomplishment for her but for me as well.

“Esmeralda and I will move in a house after marriage, Lucy will stay with us, but if Esmeralda wants to elope with Lionel……” David started laughing and tapped on Esmeralda’s cheeks. She smiled and I saw those two beautiful dimples just like when she first came in as a freshman in high school.

When David pulled over by my driveway, I shook hands with David one more time. Esmeralda got off and opened my door she walked with me towards my house.

“Bye, bye, Esmeralda, thank you very much,” I said. She didn’t say anything, just hugged me and whispered in my ears, “I love you very much Mrs. Chatt-ur-jee, I will never forget you.”

“I love you very much also my dear. When I grow very old and my eyesight is dim, still I will recognize you in a crowd of a million faces. And when my listening power is almost lost, still I will be able to recognize your voice and will say ‘there is my Esmeralda, my sweetheart.”

She kissed me on both cheeks and took off. When their car was taking a turn by the corner of the road I saw she was wiping her eyes. I kept thinking about Lord Shiva who did Samudra Manthan, who churned the ocean, and swallowed Beesh, the nectar, from the bottom of the ocean to bring amrita, immortality for all. This little girl was doing the same for all.

Suddenly I felt a terrible pain in my throat, a gush of water flooded my eyes, and all of a sudden I couldn’t see anything. I just started digging restlessly into my pocketbook to find my house key.