Cain's kindergarden Class' Magical Adve

                                                      Ms. Cain’s Kindergarden Class' Magical Adventure

                                                                                  By

                                                                    Fredna DeCarlo


Ms. Cain’s kinder garden class was going on a field trip to Camp Sienna. She had everything gathered up that they would need. The chicken nuggets and French fries for lunch and in the cooler were bottles of water and juice boxes.
Ms. Janey was outside getting the St. Catherine’s van ready. She had checked all the seat belts and made sure there was enough gas in the van. Then, talking to herself she looked around and said, “All’s ready here.”
She went back inside and told Ms. Cain “All is ready to go, let’s load these kids up and head out.”
Ms. Cain turned and looked at her class, “Okay guys, line up and we’ll go get in the van.”
“Yes ma`am Ms. Cain,” they all giggled. They were excited about going to Camp Sienna to run and play on the soccer fields, swing on the swings and slide.
They lined up in order. Dalana first, then Henry, Imili got in line behind him, then Mava and Ella. They followed Ms. Cain outside and one by one climbed into the van.
Ms. Janey and Ms. Cain checked all their seat belts to make sure they were fastened good and tight, and when they were certain they were all safe they hopped in the front seats and fastened their own seat belts.
Ms Cain started the van and they were off on their adventure. Ms Cain drove slowly over the hill and pulled out onto the road. Ms. Janey looked around to make sure everyone was sitting still and behaving.
Ms. Cain pulled to a stop at the red light where you turned to go to Baines. She waited for the light to turn green and when it did she drove forward.
Instantly she knew something was wrong. The road in front of her changed right before her eyes. It wasn’t even a road anymore and the van was driving on grass and headed for the woods.
She reached over and touched Ms. Janeys arm to get her attention because she didn’t want to scare the kids, but Henry had already noticed.
He asked, “Ms. Cain where are we?”
“I’m not sure where we are or what has happened Henry, but Ms. Janey and I will figure it out.” She hoped she sounded a little surer of this then she felt.
Ms. Janey was looking around trying to see if she recognized anything, but all she saw were trees.
She asked Ms Cain, “Do you think we can turn around and cross back over whatever just happened?”
“I don’t know but I’ll try,” was all Ms. Cain said.
She tried to turn the van around and go back the way they had come but no matter how far she went it did not cross back over into Sienna.
Ella started giggling; she was looking at Mava’s clothes. She said, “Ms. Janey look at our clothes.”
Ms. Cain and Ms. Janey looked at each other in surprise. They were all wearing bonnets that were black and white. They had on high collared, long sleeved, ankle length black dresses with a white apron-looking-thing on the front of them.
That is all of them except Henry. Henry wasn’t wearing a dress. Henry had on a white shirt with a big fluffy collar and a closed, tight fitting, black jacket, a pair of black pants that stopped at the knees like knickers, and long white socks with black buckle shoes.
Imili giggled, “Ms. Cain, we look like the pilgrims in the pictures you showed us in class.”
Delana laughed. “I sure hope there aren’t any Indians here.”
“Native Americans,” Ms. Cain corrected her, but she was hoping the same thing.
“Well, I think we’re going to have to get out and walk from here. I can’t drive the van any further,” Ms. Cain stated.
“Do you think we should really leave the van?” Ms. Janey asked her.
“I am not sure about that either, but we need to have a look around and see if we can figure out where we are and how we got here,” Ms. Cain told her.
Ms. Cain turned around and looked at her class. “I want you to stay close together and I don’t want you to talk unless it is absolutely necessary. We don’t know where we are and I don’t know if there are Native Americans hiding in the trees watching us.”
Ella looked over at MS. Janey. “Maybe we should go home.”
“I don’t think we can right now, but Ms. Cain and I will get you home, I promise.”
Henry reached out and took Imili’s hand in one of his, and Mava’s in the other, while Delana and Ella held hands. They all followed Ms. Cain and Ms. Janey into the woods.
They had walked for about fifteen minutes when suddenly they heard voices coming from ahead of them. Ms. Cain stopped and turned around to face the kids.
She whispered, “Now remember kids, I don’t want you to talk unless it is necessary and please don’t tell anyone here what has just happened. One reason is that they won’t believe us, and if I am right in what I am thinking, we have somehow traveled back in time and if we start talking about time travel they will think we are witches.”
Ella giggled. “Witches, there’s no such things as witches Ms. Cain.”
“I know Ella, but these people believed in witches, so don’t say anything.”
Mava whispered, “Look Ms. Janey,” she was pointing to the left and when Ms. Janey followed the direction of her finger, she almost fainted.
Standing hidden in the trees was a Native American quietly watching them. He didn’t have a shirt on and his pants were a light yellow color. You could tell they were made from animal hide. He had a head band on and there were three feathers sticking up from the back of it. He had long, shiny black hair and eyes that looked like drops of oil. His skin was a brown color that to Imili looked like her Noni’s coffee.
He had a bow and arrow strapped on his back and he was watching them closely. He did not look mad or mean, but he felt really scary.
Ms. Janey whispered something in Ms. Cain’s ear that the kids couldn’t hear. Then Ms. Cain looked up quickly and met the eyes of what Ms. Cain hoped was a friendly Native American.
She whispered to the children, “Stay close to Ms. Janey and me now.”
“Yes ma`am,” They all whispered.
He stood quietly and watched as they walked past him, through the tree line, into the open area in front of them. Before them was a busy little village town.
There were Pilgrim and Wampanoag children playing games. Some were playing the pin game where you try to toss a small ring over a skinny stick like a big pin. Others were playing Blind Man’s Bluff, which is a game where one player is blind folded and they try and touch the other players who are running and hiding from them.
The adult women, both pilgrim and Native American, were cooking over open fires and the men were at the far end of the village shooting targets.
Mava whispered, “I’m hungry Ms. Cain.”
Ms. Cain whispered. “We’ll be eating in a little while, I hope.”
She looked at the kids and instructed them, “You may go play with the other kids but don’t talk much, and Henry, you watch out for the girls.”
Henry giggled, “I will Ms. Cain.”
Then, the five of them ran to play with the other children and Ms. Cain and Ms. Janey walked over to where the other women were. An older woman asked Ms. Cain if they were from the orphanage out in the woods.
Thinking it was the easiest answer, and would be the one that would keep her class safe she said, “Yes.”
The women eyed Ms. Janey closely and you could see that they decided she was Native American, and Ms. Janey wasn’t going to correct them.
They offered to help the women cooking, but were asked to help set the table instead. Ms. Cain and Ms. Janey accepted the chore but never took their eyes off the kids.
The plates were really just big wooden bowls and the silverware was spoons and knives. They did not have any forks. They were supposed to pick the meat up and eat it with their hands. The cups were leather mugs.
Once the place settings were on all five of the long wooden tables, they went back and started gathering up the food to place on the tables. There were all kinds of foods, but not many that you would see on a Thanksgiving table in these days.
Each table got two roasted ducks and a large platter of venison (deer meat), a large bowl of mussels, squash, cabbage, corn, onions and a ground up corn oatmeal like dish called samp. There were also pitchers that were actually wooden jugs full of water and apple cider.
MS. Cain and Ms. Janey walked over to where the class was playing Blind Man’s Bluff, and a small Native American child was chasing after Ella and Delana who were giggling and running in circles so she couldn’t catch them. Mava, Henry and Imili were hiding and laughing at Ella and Delana.
Ms. Cain called the class to her and Ms. Janey and the children all gathered around them. Ms. Cain reminded them that they were in a very unusual situation and that they had to be on their best behavior. She reminded them not to eat until after grace was said and to mind their manners. She told the girls to sit on either side of Henry and to watch out for each other.
Imili asked her, “What if we don’t like the food?”
Ms Janey laughed, “Well you better eat it anyway, chickadee, because we haven’t figured out how to get home yet and we may not have anything for supper.”
Delena giggled, “We still have chicken nuggets in the van, Ms. Janey.”
“And juice boxes,” Ella added.
Ms. Cain looked them over one more time and said once again, “Just behave guys, okay?”
“Yes ma`am,” they all answered her.
The women called everyone to eat and so they came, both Native Americans and Pilgrims alike. They sat at tables together, not a single table had only one type of people, unless you counted the kids table which was truly only kids.
They sat quietly waiting for grace to be said and Ms. Cain and Ms. Janey were proud of their brood. Finally, a man stood up and begins to say grace. He gave thanks that they had made it through the very hard first few months here in the new world, and for their new friends, the Native Americans, who without their help, never would have survived. He gave thanks for the food and blessed the hands that prepared it.
When he finished, they begin to eat. Mava asked Deleana, “What are those black things?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not eating them,” Henry added.
“Me either,” Ella and Imili added, trying not to giggle.
Ms. Janey got up and went over to the table and put venison and squash on all their plates, and then she added a small piece of duck. She looked at each one of them and whispered, “Eat it.”
“Yes ma`am,” they all whined quietly.
She looked back at them one more time before rejoining Ms. Cain at their table. Ms. Cain asked her, “Everything okay over there?”
Ms. Janey just nodded.
They eat for a while, and then people begin to get up and mill around. Ms. Cain found out from one of the women that they actually planned to eat several times a day for about a week, and that some of the meals would be mixed like this one. Sometimes the Pilgrims would eat by themselves in their houses, and the Native Americans would eat alone, either outside or in their make shift housing. Then, on the last day, all the leaders from both the Pilgrims and the Native Americans were going to meet and eat together.
When the other kids had gotten up to go and play, Imili whispered to Henry, “That food was awful.”
“I know,” Delana and Ella laughed.
Mava on the other hand took a piece of Imili’s uneaten duck and ate it. “It’s not so bad,” she laughed.
Ms. Cain thanked the women for the meal and told them that they had better get the kids back home. There were studies and chores to be done, and they still had a long walk ahead of them.
Ms. Janey was gathering up the kids when a Wampanoag boy ran up to them he handed each one of them a shiny black stone from a bag that hung around his neck. They all took their stone and smiled at him. “Thank you,” they all whispered.
They felt bad because they didn’t have anything to give back to him, but he only smiled at them, and turned and ran back to where his friends were playing.
“Let’s go kids, “Ms. Janey ordered.
Ella was first this time, then Imili, Henry and Mava. Delana brought up the rear. They followed Ms. Janey and Ms. Cain away from the village and back into the woods. They were sleepy and somewhat full from their lunch. It seemed like they had walked much further on the way back than they had earlier, but finally they saw the St. Catherine’s van hiding in the trees.
Ms. Janey looked at Ms. Cain and could tell she was thinking the same thing that she was, “What if they couldn’t get back to the Sienna side of the world? What in the world would they do? How would they survive, and what would these kid’s parents do?” Neither one of them said a word.
“Load up into the van, kids,” Ms. Cain directed.
So they did one by one.
“Do I have to wear my seat belt?” Imili asked.
“Yes ma`am, Noni would spank us both,” Ms. Janey laughed.
Henry and Mava both laughed, and Delana giggled. “She can’t spank you Ms. Janey”
Ms. Cain took a deep breath and asked, “Are all the seat belts on?”
Ms. Janey nodded her head.
“Okay, then let’s try to go home,” Ms. Cain said as she turned the key and the van roared to life.
She drove very slowly towards the way they had come. The trees were really close and a couple of times she didn’t think they would be able to squeeze through, but she made it.
Ms. Cain turned left after the last tree and was headed towards an open area. When she reached the grass, she and Ms. Janey both gasped. They were sitting at the red light on Sienna Parkway right at Baines Middle School.
Ms. Cain smiled, and Ms. Janey said, “Let’s get this puppy back to St. Catherine’s.”
All the kids laughed, but they were not really sure how they felt. They knew no one would ever believe them and they weren’t even sure they believed what just happened themselves.
Ms. Janey and Ms. Cain quietly unloaded the kids and led them back to the class room where they all sat and ate chicken nuggets and drank juice boxes, while they talked about the first Thanksgiving.






                                                 THE END