#sol14 March 12 Mrs. Ferreri?

"Mrs. Ferreri?" he asked hesitantly.  It was clear he was not 100% sure that I was, but willing to make a stab at a chance encounter with someone he long ago knew. 

I'm sure I looked older than usual, and certain I looked older than the teacher that man-child remembered!  At that moment in the Shop Rite checkout line, donned in aging yoga pants, an ancient fleece and without make-up, I am sure I looked like someone I did not want to be.

I turned and looked at him; yet, it was clear to me I did not have a clue who this man, with a slightly familiar face, who was probably once a child at my reading table was!

Perhaps I squinted a bit, or furrowed my brow as I tried valiantly to remember.
Perhaps I stalled for a second or two as the marbles swirled in my head and I tried valiantly to remember.  Perhaps I smiled as I looked at his gleaming face. 

"Dad, can I get this Whimpy Kid book, please? the young boy behind him implored even before I could ask this man-child his name.  Now this young boy DID look VERY familiar, yet I knew with 100% certainly that I was not his teacher!

"Oh, Chris," that man child smiled, "I want you to meet MY reading teacher, Mrs. Ferreri.  Remember when I told you that I had a hard time learning to read?  Well this is the lady who for six years told me I was becoming a reader.  I did not really believe her at the time, but she never stopped believing that I would read.  She is the one who gave me that book about the dinosaur that you loved last year."

"Oh, XXXXX," I said, the words coming somehow from the deepest recesses of my memory, "you and your son have made my day. He is adorable and I love that he is begging you for books!"

"What you don't know," the man-child said, "is that Chris had a very had time learning to read, just like me.  I used to tell him stories about my days growing up as a struggling reader.  When he cried and did anything to avoid books, I told him stories about learning to read and the teachers who make your read even when you don;'t want to do so!  Somehow, I am not sure how this happened, but this year, he has turned it on and become a bit of a reader!  Chris's reading teachers says it is because his mom and I did not stop believing he would  become a reader.  I've thought of you a lot lately.  It's good to see you.  Thank you for believing in me."

I turned to wave after I checked out, but Chris and XXXX were talking about the Whimpy Kid.  "It was great to see you again," I said.   XXXX waved, engrossed in some savory chapter about some Whimpy Kid, it appeared, and I left Shop Rite, a bit wispy around the corners of my eyes!