It had probably been a good fifty years since Helen Conway could say she slept in until 8 o'clock in the morning. Retirement unfortunately had a way of doing that to a person.
For years she'd wake up long before the Sun to help with the chores around the family farm and get her Husband fed before getting herself ready for her forty-year job as a teacher in the area. Ever since her retirement two and a half years earlier however, everything in Helen's life had seemingly gone haywire.
Her husband Bill had died of a massive heart attack just before Christmas the year before last. After the normal mourning process, Helen's ornery pride told her she could still run the farm. It didn't take long for her to realize she'd bitten off more than she could chew. Thankfully Helen's three grown kids had convinced her to sell off most of the land and equipment, leaving her with a few dairy cows and hogs she could tend to herself. Frugal to a fault, money was thankfully never going to be a concern, but with all that free time on her hands, and without the pull of a daily challenge, rust quickly began taking its toll, mentally and physically, on the 65 year old widow.
Even though the daily chores helped Helen keep a spiritual connection to her departed Husband, it wasn't long before her frail and aging body became overmatched. Within a year she'd sold off the remaining animals, and with all three of her children and six grandchildren living out of state, the walls of Helen's century old farmhouse began to close in on her.
Having been a dedicated wife, mother and teacher all those years, hobbies had been something of an afterthought. Considering the closest neighbor was over a half mile away, it gradually came to feel as if she was existing rather than living.
Helen Conway needed a new challenge and she needed it quick. Thankfully the downturn in the nation's economy, in a strange way, provided Helen with that saving grace.
__________________________________
28 year old Jess Tuttle was coming off the Summer from Hell. In late June his Wife of six years told him she was having an affair and was ready to file for divorce. Unfortunately, given the couple's financial situation, that wasn't going to happen until they could sell their house, and that wasn't going to be easy considering the state of the economy. The fact that his Wife's lover was also married and in a similar boat with his Wife created an air of perpetual purgatory around the Tuttle household. The strain of that uncertainty was also beginning to affect their two kids, five year old Justin and three year old Trina.
Professionally things weren't much better for Jess. Getting ready to start his fifth year as an 8th grade science teacher at the local middle school, the downturn in the State's budget had facilitated the need to close several schools, one of which was the other middle school in the county, meaning Jess' class size for the upcoming year was about to double even though his pay would stay the same given the statewide wage freeze.
Several teachers from the school being closed had agreed to come aboard to fill some gaps, but none of them in the science department. Two weeks before the start of classes, Jess got the phone call that the school board had hired a handful of retired teachers to work part-time as teacher aides, one of which was a 65 year old veteren of the area classrooms named Helen Conway.
Jess had never met Helen, but instantly detested the thought on several levels. While he was sure the older woman would take some of his load off trying to keep the extra students inline three days a week, considering what he was going through with his Wife, the female species wasn't very high on his Christmas list at the moment, and the last thing he needed was what he was sure was an uppity, know-it-all dinosaur coming out of retirement and taking over his classroom.
_____________________________
From the first day of classes, even for someone as pessimistic as Jess
was at that point in his life, he had to admit Helen's presense had been a benefit. For starters, Jess didn't realize the magnitude of having to deal with five classes each day with 30 plus students in them. It was akin to teaching in a large urban inner city with the swollen class sizes instead of the normal rural Montana classes he'd grown accustomed to.
For her part, Helen had also been the complete opposite of everything Jess had dreaded when first told about the idea. For a teacher that had full control of a classroom for four full decades, she'd shown an inspiring amount of grace allowing a young teacher like Jess to pilot the ship. Even though Helen had shown comfort sliding into the role as 'teacher's aide', Jess found himself marvaling each day at the older woman's ability to hold the attention, and respect, of the tide of 12 and 13 year olds that washed in and out of their room, often times doing it with a mere gesture, nod of her head or measured edict.
The more he got to know Helen in between classes and after school, the more he came to understand just how important it was for her to be back to work as well. As time went on sharing a classroom with Ms. Conway, Jess discovered as series of life lessons, both professionally and otherwise, that he would use for years to come.
By the Spring of their first year as teaching partners, Jess had even allowed Helen a chance to babysit his two kids on occassion when his Wife was away, shacked up with her lover. The environment around the Tuttle house had grown so toxic after the holidays, by the time the Winter started to break, allowing his Son and Daughter to run around and enjoy the expanse of Helen's farm seemed to give the kids a new lease on life, and with their grandparents living so far away, someone in a crazy way to fill that role as well.
Naturally, the time spent away from school built a fair amount of trust and camaraderie between Helen and Jess in the classroom also. Helen provided a mentor role Jess had never quite had, and in return he seemed to provide Helen with a youthful vitality she'd been yearning for without really even knowing it.
It was still two months however before the depth of their budding relationship became apparent.
___________________________________
It all started to come to the surface one Sunday afternoon in late April when Jess had brought his two kids over to Helen's after church. Jess' Wife was off on another one of her weekend trysts with her Boyfriend and he decided since the weather was starting to get nice to let his Son do some fishing on the small lake Helen owned while she entertained his Daughter with some crafts. Unfortunately, five year old Jacob Tuttle had started asking some tough questions about the comings and goings of his Mom.
Put in that difficult spot, Jess did his best to be as forthright as he could with his Son without completely throwing the boy's Mother under the bus. The rage, hurt and helplessness continuing to boil under Jess' skin the more his Son went on and on, he finally told Jacob to drop it, that they'd talk about it when they got home.
Not liking the answer his Father gave him, still in his church clothes, young Jacob proceeded to go on a tirade spewing a litany of not so pretty words he'd learned from other kids since starting Kindergarten that year, none of which he truly knew the meaning of. The fact that they seemed to push his Father's buttons was good enough for the time being.