On Tuesday I went to eat lunch with my boys at school. This was the first time this year, and obviously the first time ever for my kindergartener. He has the first lunch–10:45 to 11:15. My older son, a second-grader, has lunch from 11:34 to 12:04. So I was there a little while, which plenty of time for people watching.
Most of the way through my little one’s lunch, a first grade teacher I’d remembered from last year came in with her class. She was wearing a black t-shirt, low-rise tan capris, and those little squatty heels. I thought nothing of it.
People passed, kids left, only to be replaced by another round of kids, and I said goodbye to my little one.
My older one shows up, and about ten minutes behind him, that same first grade teacher comes in again. But this time she’s wearing a white sweater, low-rise black capris, and different (I’m pretty sure) squatty heels. Her hairstyle, however, is unchanged. So I’m staring at this woman, wondering why on earth she’s gone to the trouble to change her clothes. Admittedly the kids are supposed to bring an extra outfit for any possible accidents, but I never imagined the requirement would extend to teachers.
So I lean in to my second grader, who is absorbed in people-watching himself and barely speaking to me, and say, ‘Isn’t that Ms. Tan*?’ He glances over, says, ‘No, that’s Ms. Black*.’ and glances away again. Ms. Black? Who is this Ms. Black that looks exactly like Ms. Tan? So I ask him, ‘Don’t you think she looks a lot like Ms. Tan?’ His answer? ‘No, her hair is different.’ Just barely different. I spend the next several minutes trying to convince him that these two women look exactly alike, but he denies it. I ask if there’s any relationship between them–maybe sisters. My son–always up on all the school gossip–denies it.
We’ve been reading a lot of Encyclopedia Brown books, and he’s hooked on them, so I nudge him again and suggest he conduct a mini investigation, find out if there’s any connection between these women. He smiles at me, but I can’t tell if he’s patronizing me or actually inspired. And it’s killing me.
At the end of lunch his first grade teacher from last year shows up, and I fall on her, morbidly curious. Turns out they’re sisters–I knew there had to be something. I’m actually a little shocked they’re not twins. My son was a little stunned by this information, but I feel confident he will do his duty and enlighten all uninformed second graders.
And I can now get on with my life.
*names not real but color-coded.