My name is Lori Stevenson, I was a first grade teacher at Jacobson Elementary School. At the time, I was fresh out of college and eager to teach my students many of the new techniques that were taught since I was in school. Jacobson Elementary School was just like many other schools in the suburbs of Virginia. The quaint red brick exterior seemed much smaller than the winding interior would suggest. The halls were lined with painted white cinder block and frequent bulletin boards of information and art.
The children were always fond of running their fingers between the cracks of the white cinder block as they walked the halls. Going from the course texture to the very smooth lines in between. I observed this behavior and always found it funny. One day I even decided to join in and run my fingers across the creases between the blocks. I didn’t know why I enjoyed it, as I expected the kids probably didn’t understand why they enjoyed it, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. That was until I glided my smooth fingertip across a booger on accident and quickly wiped my hands on my floral dress. I never did this again.
Nothing pleased me more than watching my children play during recess. I enjoyed the change in my children from something of stress in trying to maintain their attention to something unencumbered and playful. I was always amazed by the children’s ability to run at full speed or use their amazing imaginations to put themselves in worlds that I could not see. I really wanted to capture that and put it in a bottle for myself.
One day, during recess it was raining and the children had to remain inside unfortunately. I knew that my class had to find a way to get some of that excess energy out of them. I asked the gym teacher, Mr. Jenkins, if there was any equipment that I could use that might speak to my younger crowd but also be useful getting them tuckered out for nap time. Mr. Jenkins thought hard about it and realized that there was indeed something that the children could use that he had tucked away in a dark corner of a closet. Mr. Jenkins waded through the closet in the back of the gymnasium and pulled out a bundle of rainbow colored fabric. The old tattered fabric was patched with duct tape, dirty from disuse, but overall seemed perfect for an activity I remembered when I was a child.
Around 11 a.m. I gathered my class in the spacious gym. The floors were made of wood perfect for a game of basketball , kickball, or even dodgeball but today I wanted to show my class something that would be fun, energizing, and hopefully inspire them to come up with some new games of their own in the future. From my bag, I pulled out the multi-colored fabric balled up in my hands. I placed it on the floor and asked all the children to grab one edge of the fabric and start walking away from each other. The children were amazed by how large the item was and the colorful nature of the cloth. Echoes of laughter filled the gym as the fabric was pulled tight.
One of the children asked loudly, “What is this Ms. Stevenson?”
“Well Billy, this is called a parachute,” I replied with a smile.
“What’s a purashooo?” another child inquired.
“A pARAachuTE is something used when someone jumps out of a plane to fall safely to the ground,” I responded kindly.
My class “oh”’ed in unison with smiles and shook their heads.
I doubted half of them really knew what I meant but it really didn’t matter.
I joined in and grabbed my own edge of the fabric.
“Okay class,” I began, “now we’re going to lift the parachute above our head in one motion. On the count of three I want you to grasp onto your edge and pull it up above your head but don’t lose your grip.”.
“One…..,Two…, AND….. Three!”
With a loud whoosh and a lot of laughter the parachute flew above the childrens’ heads; and amazingly no one lost their grip. The children were in awe over the colors and how fun it was to look underneath the parachute and see their classmates on the other side with the fabric lingering above their heads.
“Okay class, next we are going to take the parachute back down and stretch it out as far as we can stretch it out flat.” They began to do as I asked. “That’s right just like that. Now hold tight on the parachute, and I want you to make waves.”
I demonstrated by moving the fabric in concentrated waves.
“I want you to go crazy and use your arm muscles and I want you to make as many waves as possible and shake it out.”
The fabric waved and the children screamed with laughter as they saw the fabric ripple.
“Oh yeah this will wear them out for a nap,” I mused to myself.
As the waves continued some of the children were trying to get their classmates to drop it by shaking extra hard or extra big. Eventually the laughter died down and I asked my class to relax and let the fabric just lay flat in their hands.
“Okay class, the last thing we’re going to do with the remaining time is I’m going to ask all of you to take the parachute and just like last time we’re going to throw it up high above our heads but don’t lose grip and then when I say so I want you to sit on your edge and just hold it there.
The class looked at me very confused; but they waited until I counted to three and they did exactly as I asked. They raised it above their head and quickly sat down on their edge when I indicated to do so.
This was a little bit scarier than the last activity because this took the class and put them in a bubble of darkness, but there was a little bit of light from the very top where air gets slowly released from the parachute. There were a few screams of excitement and laughs but overall the children were nicely sitting in a circle staring at each other in darkness with a bit of filtered colored light coming through.
“Okay class, what I’m going to ask you to do is I am going to ask you and a partner to stand up one at a time and you will each run across the center of the parachute and switch spots with your partner. If you are not being asked to run across the space I need you to hold on to your place extra hard to make up for the loss of the person sitting next to you. Does everyone understand?”
The children all in unison said that they understood in varying tones of loudness or however they wanted to agree.
“Yes”
“Yes Ma’am”
“I have to pee”
“Okay”
“I think so.”
I chose two names at random.
“Let’s try our first pair. Billy”
Billy stood up in the darkness.
“And Jenny”
Jenny stood up from the opposite edge.
“Okay Billy and Jenny, on the count of three I want you both to run across the center of the parachute; High-five each other; and then go sit in the spots that the other person was sitting in. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“Okay, One….Two…annnnnnnd Two and a half….” I teased.
Billy false started but stopped when everyone started to giggle.
“Missssss Stevenson…….” Billy bemoaned.
“Annnnd 3!” I shouted.
On three Billy and Jenny started running at full force towards each other.
From the sounds of the force behind their feet, at first I was a little afraid they were going to run into each other and hurt themselves.
When they met in the middle they did as they were told. They high-fived, there was a brief loud crack of their hands meeting in the middle of the lit area in the center and then as they separated from the lit center towards the dark corners.
Staring out towards the center in the light I couldn’t see or hear their feet anymore.
“Billy?…. Jenny?” I waited with no response.
“Whoever was sitting next to Billy or Jenny… did either of them ever make it back to their spot.” I asked aloud.
Four small voices, all said varied degrees of “No Ms. Stevenson.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I said to myself.
I stood up from my corner and walked to the lit center for the parachute bubble. I scanned the edges to see if I could find the two children who were not responding. As I looked at the edges I saw small eyes staring back at me, but they weren’t the children’s eyes I was used to… these had a dim red glow. As I started to focus on what I was seeing, a low menacing laughter began to emanate from the children.
Overwhelmed by what I was witnessing, I closed my eyes as the laughter crescendoed louder and louder. I took a deep inhale trying to clear my mind. When I opened my eyes a moment later and looked around again, the red eyes were gone. I was standing in the well lit gymnasium in the hole at the center of the multicolored parachute…. alone.