The Last Classroom

Chapter One

The sun was dissolving like a lozenge in a feverish child’s mouth. It was a chilly spring evening. The air was freshly misty in Beachtown and a full moon started to appear over the small population with a string of moving clouds. You could hear dogs starting to bark as if they were communicating with each other.

There were a few suburban blocks named after kinds of horses. Thoroughbred, Clydesdale, and Arabian were some of them. They flanked a small main drag where there was the town square. Some statues made of concrete adorned it in a military setting. It showed George Washington holding a rifle aiming at a huge copper turkey. An iron fence with a gate similar to that of a cemetery surrounded the scene. The gate would slam shut at ten o’ clock every night although clever pranksters would shoot their paintball guns at the statues, usually with orange paintballs.

A courthouse loomed nearby in a dark gray cloud of despair. Citizens would rather be at Bensen’s Bingo Hall and Bar having some unforgettable times. Explosions of laughter could be heard from down the street of that cheerful place. The smell of sweet barbeque floated from on the other side of the square. It came from a quaint little café cute; called Minnie’s.

The sidewalks were of cobblestones that were in surprisingly good condition. The old, rickety post office remained just outside of the square in its Victorian style spookiness. It had once been new, but then got used as rental apartments, and then finally became the Beachtown Post Office.

This night was just exactly like most nights here-uneventful. Beachtown stayed forgotten most of the time with the exception of people coming off of Highway 5 to stop and go to the dusty gas station. They would just gas up and leave. Sometimes the Beachtown Sheriff’s deputy would sit in anticipation of a speeder or two. Usually, not a lot of tickets were issued. It was pretty slow paced at the police department, but ironically, there was no donut shop.

Even the farmers were scarce outside Beachtown. There was only one orchard on the only farm road. It consisted of apples and peaches. It was the town’s source of fruit and was owned by a hardworking family. The children were still young. They enjoyed picking apples that were basketable. They also owned a small horse ranch called Brown’s. Horseback riding lessons were offered by paid instructors who taught kids in a ring. Training for horse shows was a common goal for the teachers to have their students achieve. Some would make it to Nationals, and some even became champions of their class. Western and English were the main categories that could be practiced. There were about five horses that would be ridden and cared for by students at Brown’s. Some students came from other small surrounding towns just to have lessons with the horses. Kids would arrive home smelling of fresh air and manure from the day’s practice and cool down.

There was one school in Beachtown. It accommodated grade school, middle school, and high school students all in one. The principal was the only one at the school for thirty years. Students received an education while getting a lot of attention in their small classes. Usually, if a student graduated from the whole school, they would have to move away from their families in order to go to a college in another town or city. There were no colleges in Beachtown, and a lot of graduates would become teachers or tutors if they had to stay. Any other job was hard to come across. One could start a small business, but many opportunities were non-existent.

The Mississippi River flowed muddily about five breezy miles east of town. You could hear coyotes howling at the full moon. From the beach, trout could be found flipping in a silverfish flourish. The air smelled of a salty sweet smell. An occasional beer bottle floated up to the shore. They were probably thrown carelessly by a teenager. A bum may have done the same thing. Crawfish liked to crawl up on rocks to greet a fisherman or woman. Tonight, the river sighed without a person to hear it. It flowed freely without criticism. It was a calm week night.

The townspeople were busy winding down after a hard day. Nobody remembered the river at this time. They did not see the toads hop into the budding brush, or the group of deer coming out of the sycamore forest to get a drink. There was not anyone to hear the slurping does, or the owls whimper their nightly regrets. If somebody was there, they would notice some fog drifting above the water with bats darting across it, screeching all the way. Someone missed a bear come out of hibernation to look for a fish to claw out of the water. The slow moving animal growled at a group of robins flying away because they were startled. Their branch slapped against the leaves of another as they split. The river was so wide and vast that the other side looked foggy and dark. Some fallen trees protruded in blackness on the shoreline but they were barely visible. Many catfish had been caught there by families out on a picnic. Fisherman baiting their lines had many good days. This enormous body of water was alive with its very own ecosystem. It had a very unique was of balancing itself. If there were too many guppies, then fish would eat those baby toads. Water moccasins would take care of any overpopulated trout community. Too much algae would be devoured mosquitoes and little silvers.