“Now… is the time… for retribution!!!” the big voice boomed in the teacher’s mind.
“No…,” the small voice softly begged inside. “That would be wrong…”
“SHUT UP!” she inwardly shouted and squeezed her eyes shut to clear her mind.
The teacher, Miss Benida Enriquez, tried to block the disturbing voices in her head. That afternoon was the final examinations in Mathematics for the 8th graders. She needed to concentrate on watching over the examinees but as the final examination drew nearer, so did the bickering between those voices in her mind intensify.
“WHAAAAT? Will you just let the sinner go unpunished?” the big voice demanded.
Miss Enriquez’s face contorted as her inner conflict escalated. When she opened her eyes again, she focused at thirty young minds working hard on 8th grade-level Math problems. Like a camera with zooming lens, her gaze zeroed in on the petite and ever-cheerful Emily Simon, the best pupil in class and granddaughter of her life-long enemy.
“Please…. leave the child alone… She was not part of this,” the small voice implored.
“SO WERE YOU!!!” the big voice countered. “Was it your fault that you were born to Filipino and Ponapean parents? Was it your fault you were born to an impoverished family? Your being a ‘half-cast’ and poor caused Emily’s grandmother to cheat you of the medal you deserved and awarded it to your rich and pure-bred classmate.”
Then, painful memories flashed back to Miss Benida Enriquez.
Dhekla Simon, their 6th Grade class adviser and Emily’s grandmother stiffly told the young Benida Enriquez, “So, it turned out you are Best in Math, Benida… I never expected a half-…” Mrs. Simon stopped in mid-sentence and then hissed, “Just make sure somebody will put this medal on you.”
Despite the Mrs. Simon’s harshness, young Benida Enriquez was happy and proud of herself. Although she was good in Math, she did not expect she would earn the medal. All she did was study hard and practice solving problems everyday. Thank God, she got the award. More importantly, the Best in Math medal would be the first and only medal in her whole life.
She was overexcited at her achievement and so, she asked her mother to accompany her to the School Year Closing Ceremonies. Her mother begged off because she recently gave birth to a daughter with her current American beau. So, young Benida requested her biological father to take a leave from work so that he will be the one to put the Best in Math medal on her.
At the ceremonies, when Mrs. Simon announced that Marie Isaac, the First Honor, was Best in Math, Benida’s father glowered at her, demanding answers. On their way home, he reprimanded her, “Next time, do not pull this prank on me, Benida. Now, I lost some time at work for no good reason.”
The day after, young Benida came back to school to get the bag she left behind. She heard voices from the classroom.
“Benida appeared heart-broken yesterday,” the 7th grade class adviser remarked.
“Serves her right,” Mrs. Simon sneered. “She is such a trying hard half-breed bastard. She should never hope she’d be the best of anything. Her family could hardly pay for her schooling…Her father should be sent back to sow his bad seed in hell where he came from and her mother should have her brain transplanted to her hips.”
Cruel laughter followed.
“Hey, take a look at the bracelet Marie’s mother gave me yesterday…” Mrs. Simon boasted, “Marie’s family was so thankful I was too honest to admit to the Principal my ‘mistake’ in computing their grades in Math. Had I not done it, Marie would have never gotten the Best in Math and the 1st Honors medals,” and meaningfully added, “You know what I mean…”
More nasty laughter.
“Goodness, Dhekla,” the 7th grade class adviser gushed. “It is real, isn’t it?”
“Of course, it is real… do you think they can’t afford…”
She did not bother hearing the rest. All she did was run away.
That was the first time she ran away and she spent the rest of her life running away from everything unpleasant to her. She devoted much more time on her studies and never gave any attention to awards and unkind remarks of other people around her. Books and the voices inside her head became her only friends.
Miss Benida Enriquez, the teacher, snapped her attention back to the present. As she paced about in front of Emily’s chair, a crumpled piece of paper fell from her pocket. The next time she passed by the same place, her foot purposely stepped on the same crumpled paper. She picked it up and read what was written on it. It bore all the formulas for computing areas and volumes of various shapes, written by Emily’s distinctly meticulous handwriting.
“Is this yours, Emily?” Miss Enriquez demanded softly at Emily.
“Yes, Ma’am, but…” Emily meekly started.
“You cheated!” Miss Enriquez loudly accused and pointed a finger at Emily.
With one accord, all the others turned at furious Miss Enriquez and the now red-faced Emily.
“You just go on answering your examination, class,” the Miss Enriquez advised, “Only Emily,” she continued with an accusatory glare at the student, “has to stop answering because… she CHEATED.”
Because of the school’s zero tolerance on cheating, Emily would get zero in the final examinations. She would not pass the course because the examinations comprise 30% of her final grade. She would not graduate.
“Ma’am, … please believe me, I did not cheat. I have been missing that paper for days. I did see it until you waved it to me just now…” Emily tearfully protested as she slowly sank to her knees in supplication, “Please… Ma’am, I beg you, let me continue. I need to graduate…”
Miss Enriquez mercilessly pushed the weeping Emily out of the room. The girl gripped the grills of the classroom’s window as her tears kept on falling.
As though she was not aware of anything happening outside, Miss Enriquez stapled the crumpled sheet of paper to Emily’s examination paper and pointedly stared at the rest of bewildered examinees. The remaining students stole confused glances in Emily’s direction and at Miss Enriquez’s stony face until the bell signaled the end of exams.
“CONGRATULATIONS!!!” the big voice shouted in Miss Enriquez’s ear as soon as she went out of the classroom. “You have just exacted your sweet revenge upon the heartless Dhekla Simon. Let us see how that woman will grovel at your feet, so that her precious lovely granddaughter can graduate… let alone pass this course… Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Then, Graduation Day came. Just as soon as the last strains of the graduation song was heard, happy family members proudly escorted their young graduates out of the Catholic Church, where the Commencement Exercises was held.
A girl screamed. A terrible uproar was heard outside the church.
Miss Enriquez, hearing the commotion, rushed outside.
From the lowest branch of an avocado tree, Emily Simon hanged pale and lifeless. Her eyes bulged from the sockets and her tongue stuck out of her once pinkish lips.
Miss Enriquez could do nothing else but stare at the results of her handiwork. Because she planted the evidence and made it known to the whole school community that Emily cheated, the girl was shamed, did not pass 8th Grade Math and did not graduate from Elementary School. Although she knew some Ponapeans commit suicide when severely punished, she never thought Emily would go that far.
“Killer… killer… killer…” the voices kept on ringing inside her mind. Her head ached as the accusations kept on and on and on until she could not take it anymore.
“NOOOOOOOooooo!” Miss Enriquez screamed and went down like a log to the ground.
“Ma’am…” small hands shook her.
Miss Enriquez slowly opened her eyes and saw curious young faces looming over her. She looked around and realized she was inside the classroom.
“Ma’am, are you alright?” a sweet voice melodiously tinkled. “You fell asleep for a while and screamed as you fell.”
“Emily!!!” Miss Enriquez thought as she heard the voice and she saw Emily smiling at her as the child held her hand.
“Shall we call someone?”
“Please ask Sister Andrea to come,” Miss Enriquez said and slowly stood up to sit on her chair. “I am not feeling well.” She reached inside her pocket and crumpled the piece of paper, which bore Emily’s notes in geometry and which she stole from Emily’s bag days ago.
As soon as Sister Andrea came, Miss Enriquez apologized and went straight home.
She hurriedly lit a fire to the crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. As she watched the paper burn, she felt a hand pull out a huge thorn from her chest. She never heard voices in her head from then on. She found peace.
“No…,” the small voice softly begged inside. “That would be wrong…”
“SHUT UP!” she inwardly shouted and squeezed her eyes shut to clear her mind.
The teacher, Miss Benida Enriquez, tried to block the disturbing voices in her head. That afternoon was the final examinations in Mathematics for the 8th graders. She needed to concentrate on watching over the examinees but as the final examination drew nearer, so did the bickering between those voices in her mind intensify.
“WHAAAAT? Will you just let the sinner go unpunished?” the big voice demanded.
Miss Enriquez’s face contorted as her inner conflict escalated. When she opened her eyes again, she focused at thirty young minds working hard on 8th grade-level Math problems. Like a camera with zooming lens, her gaze zeroed in on the petite and ever-cheerful Emily Simon, the best pupil in class and granddaughter of her life-long enemy.
“Please…. leave the child alone… She was not part of this,” the small voice implored.
“SO WERE YOU!!!” the big voice countered. “Was it your fault that you were born to Filipino and Ponapean parents? Was it your fault you were born to an impoverished family? Your being a ‘half-cast’ and poor caused Emily’s grandmother to cheat you of the medal you deserved and awarded it to your rich and pure-bred classmate.”
Then, painful memories flashed back to Miss Benida Enriquez.
Dhekla Simon, their 6th Grade class adviser and Emily’s grandmother stiffly told the young Benida Enriquez, “So, it turned out you are Best in Math, Benida… I never expected a half-…” Mrs. Simon stopped in mid-sentence and then hissed, “Just make sure somebody will put this medal on you.”
Despite the Mrs. Simon’s harshness, young Benida Enriquez was happy and proud of herself. Although she was good in Math, she did not expect she would earn the medal. All she did was study hard and practice solving problems everyday. Thank God, she got the award. More importantly, the Best in Math medal would be the first and only medal in her whole life.
She was overexcited at her achievement and so, she asked her mother to accompany her to the School Year Closing Ceremonies. Her mother begged off because she recently gave birth to a daughter with her current American beau. So, young Benida requested her biological father to take a leave from work so that he will be the one to put the Best in Math medal on her.
At the ceremonies, when Mrs. Simon announced that Marie Isaac, the First Honor, was Best in Math, Benida’s father glowered at her, demanding answers. On their way home, he reprimanded her, “Next time, do not pull this prank on me, Benida. Now, I lost some time at work for no good reason.”
The day after, young Benida came back to school to get the bag she left behind. She heard voices from the classroom.
“Benida appeared heart-broken yesterday,” the 7th grade class adviser remarked.
“Serves her right,” Mrs. Simon sneered. “She is such a trying hard half-breed bastard. She should never hope she’d be the best of anything. Her family could hardly pay for her schooling…Her father should be sent back to sow his bad seed in hell where he came from and her mother should have her brain transplanted to her hips.”
Cruel laughter followed.
“Hey, take a look at the bracelet Marie’s mother gave me yesterday…” Mrs. Simon boasted, “Marie’s family was so thankful I was too honest to admit to the Principal my ‘mistake’ in computing their grades in Math. Had I not done it, Marie would have never gotten the Best in Math and the 1st Honors medals,” and meaningfully added, “You know what I mean…”
More nasty laughter.
“Goodness, Dhekla,” the 7th grade class adviser gushed. “It is real, isn’t it?”
“Of course, it is real… do you think they can’t afford…”
She did not bother hearing the rest. All she did was run away.
That was the first time she ran away and she spent the rest of her life running away from everything unpleasant to her. She devoted much more time on her studies and never gave any attention to awards and unkind remarks of other people around her. Books and the voices inside her head became her only friends.
Miss Benida Enriquez, the teacher, snapped her attention back to the present. As she paced about in front of Emily’s chair, a crumpled piece of paper fell from her pocket. The next time she passed by the same place, her foot purposely stepped on the same crumpled paper. She picked it up and read what was written on it. It bore all the formulas for computing areas and volumes of various shapes, written by Emily’s distinctly meticulous handwriting.
“Is this yours, Emily?” Miss Enriquez demanded softly at Emily.
“Yes, Ma’am, but…” Emily meekly started.
“You cheated!” Miss Enriquez loudly accused and pointed a finger at Emily.
With one accord, all the others turned at furious Miss Enriquez and the now red-faced Emily.
“You just go on answering your examination, class,” the Miss Enriquez advised, “Only Emily,” she continued with an accusatory glare at the student, “has to stop answering because… she CHEATED.”
Because of the school’s zero tolerance on cheating, Emily would get zero in the final examinations. She would not pass the course because the examinations comprise 30% of her final grade. She would not graduate.
“Ma’am, … please believe me, I did not cheat. I have been missing that paper for days. I did see it until you waved it to me just now…” Emily tearfully protested as she slowly sank to her knees in supplication, “Please… Ma’am, I beg you, let me continue. I need to graduate…”
Miss Enriquez mercilessly pushed the weeping Emily out of the room. The girl gripped the grills of the classroom’s window as her tears kept on falling.
As though she was not aware of anything happening outside, Miss Enriquez stapled the crumpled sheet of paper to Emily’s examination paper and pointedly stared at the rest of bewildered examinees. The remaining students stole confused glances in Emily’s direction and at Miss Enriquez’s stony face until the bell signaled the end of exams.
“CONGRATULATIONS!!!” the big voice shouted in Miss Enriquez’s ear as soon as she went out of the classroom. “You have just exacted your sweet revenge upon the heartless Dhekla Simon. Let us see how that woman will grovel at your feet, so that her precious lovely granddaughter can graduate… let alone pass this course… Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Then, Graduation Day came. Just as soon as the last strains of the graduation song was heard, happy family members proudly escorted their young graduates out of the Catholic Church, where the Commencement Exercises was held.
A girl screamed. A terrible uproar was heard outside the church.
Miss Enriquez, hearing the commotion, rushed outside.
From the lowest branch of an avocado tree, Emily Simon hanged pale and lifeless. Her eyes bulged from the sockets and her tongue stuck out of her once pinkish lips.
Miss Enriquez could do nothing else but stare at the results of her handiwork. Because she planted the evidence and made it known to the whole school community that Emily cheated, the girl was shamed, did not pass 8th Grade Math and did not graduate from Elementary School. Although she knew some Ponapeans commit suicide when severely punished, she never thought Emily would go that far.
“Killer… killer… killer…” the voices kept on ringing inside her mind. Her head ached as the accusations kept on and on and on until she could not take it anymore.
“NOOOOOOOooooo!” Miss Enriquez screamed and went down like a log to the ground.
“Ma’am…” small hands shook her.
Miss Enriquez slowly opened her eyes and saw curious young faces looming over her. She looked around and realized she was inside the classroom.
“Ma’am, are you alright?” a sweet voice melodiously tinkled. “You fell asleep for a while and screamed as you fell.”
“Emily!!!” Miss Enriquez thought as she heard the voice and she saw Emily smiling at her as the child held her hand.
“Shall we call someone?”
“Please ask Sister Andrea to come,” Miss Enriquez said and slowly stood up to sit on her chair. “I am not feeling well.” She reached inside her pocket and crumpled the piece of paper, which bore Emily’s notes in geometry and which she stole from Emily’s bag days ago.
As soon as Sister Andrea came, Miss Enriquez apologized and went straight home.
She hurriedly lit a fire to the crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. As she watched the paper burn, she felt a hand pull out a huge thorn from her chest. She never heard voices in her head from then on. She found peace.
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