Miss McCaffrey - Part One

It was definitely a sense of mission that enveloped Miss McCaffrey that early summer day in June. As if she had finally resolved some conflict within her, and committed to some great undertaking. I look back to it now, now that I have the vocabulary of an educated person, the understanding of an adult, and the experience of being a ‘real’ man, the importance of the lesson my teacher was (committed) to instill within me. But then, what does a boy of seventeen know about commitment and resolve. At that time I just knew that I was asked to stay behind while the rest of the class was dismissed.

“Jeremy, please stay. I’d like to have a word with you” Miss McCaffrey said as everyone was hustling out the door from their last class that Friday afternoon.

“Yes Miss McCaffrey” I replied as I straightened up the books on my desk and turned to see her.

She sat at her desk. Her short black curly hair stood quite pronounced against her alabaster skin. I swear her skin must never have seen sunlight. The lightness of her skin only highlighted the red pouting lips and ice blue eyes behind the black reading glasses. I could feel the tightness in my pants as I grabbed a spiral notebook to hide it behind.

"I wanted to go over the Hemingway assignment with you."

She had assigned me a special assignment studying themes in American lit. She told me that she was impressed with my strong writing ability and wanted me to explore and write about some of Hemmingway’s works. I had finished writing my thoughts on “the snows of Kilimanjaro" and the new book she gave me was much more challenging.

"I'm having the same trouble with this one as I did with "Kilimanjaro" but even more so. They are both easy enough to read, but as I didn't quite understand the subtext of "Kilimanjaro", with "Eden" I am not quite sure I'm understand the text. I can read it, but I'm not sure I get it"

"The European locations and customs can be a bit challenging, that's why I gave it to you. Why don't you drop by my house tomorrow before noon and we'll go over your progress" she offered.

"Ok, I'll be there" I said and made a dash for the bus.

Miss McCaffrey lived just a couple of blocks down from my folks. My Mom had met her two years ago when she first moved in, as Mom was the realtor when Miss McCaffrey bought a house here. I think that’s how I became pressed into service doing the fall leaves raking and gutter cleaning for the new teacher. It was during last December’s snow clearing that she offered to give me extra tutoring to improve my reading comprehension and writing skills.

She would assign me short stories, or sections of larger works and have me write my thoughts, feelings, interpretations. I really enjoyed the extra challenge, and someone caring about what I thought about anything.

She was wearing a light, cotton, dark blue, sundress with buttons running up the front. It was low cut because I could see the pendant that she always wore resting nicely in her pure white cleavage. I also found it curious that her breasts were moving a bit more freely than when we were in school.

"I'm thinking that ‘The Garden of Eden’ may be a bit advanced for you right now. Perhaps in a couple of weeks we'll revisit it," she said fetching a book off the top shelf of a bookcase. I thought it odd what she said as school was over in just two weeks. I watched her stretch and reach for the book.

"For now let's try something a bit more contemporary," she said turning around. I'm sure she caught me looking. She handed me a book with a bookmark in it and asked me to have a seat on the couch. She told me to

“Start reading the highlighted passage,” she instructed with a wry smile. “I’ll get us some iced tea.” I watched her lovely dress sway into the kitchen.

I made steady progress reciting the passage Miss McCaffrey had highlighted for me. The vocabulary in the book from the shelf wasn't all that challenging. It was a romance novel and I was coming to a scene where a dark haired woman wearing a dark blue sundress was being swept up in an embrace by a well-built gardener.

Miss McCaffrey returned from the kitchen and bending in front of me, placed a tray with a sweating pitcher of iced tea and two glasses on the coffee table. I momentarily lost my place where I was reciting the passage at the sight of her breasts nearly falling over the top of her dark blue sundress. But, I recovered quickly, and continued reciting as she walked around and sat down beside me on the couch.

I used all my focus to not watch as she slowly crossed her long legs. But I did notice that my tempo had changed a bit. I’m sure she noticed it too. As I continued reciting the bodice ripping scene, Miss McCaffrey put one arm around me and her other on my shoulder. She spoke right into my ear "have you done much gardening Jeremy?"

"Umm, no, not really, Miss McCaffrey," I stammered once I overcame the suddenness of her touch, "But I did help my aunt with hers last year."

She let out a light bit of laughter. “The double meaning of words is one of the projects we will be working on today. And you will be doing some gardening here Jeremy."

She planted her lips lightly against ear, “All you need is a nice fertile place to begin…” It was at that point it began to register that her gardening project might not have anything to do with plants.