tabar looked up from the path
and saw mary by the window

he knew what was coming next

he squinted his eyes and looked at the
house
it was a brown shingled house
with one window on the second floor

that was the window where they blew the
whistle from

one day the whistle would not be found
he would take it and bury it in the woods.

mary was nine and she stood on a stepstool
made by pa especially for the window
so if any of the young ones had to blow the
whistle they could reach the window.

mary knew how much tabor hated the whistle
and she hoped he would not blame her for the
sound.

the sound meant different things to the children
pa blew it when it was time to get up

there was no soft voice telling the children time to
get up and have breakfast

no, it was just this shrill sounding noise
ordering their life around

time to get up
time to eat breakfast
time for the bathroom
three short shrills
and it was off to school.

all five of them would charge down the
stairs to the first level
and then stand in a straight line for inspection.

make sure their socks were white
make sure their shoes were polished
make sure their dresses were clean
make sure their trousers were pressed.

mary was the youngest she was 9
and trev6r was the oldest he was 17.

in between there was
mikey who was 11
lisa who was 13
and lucy who was 15.

they were called the murphy kids
in school
which kind of brought a lot of snickering
because they weren't irish

at least mary didn't think they were irish
she'd never seen and black kids with a last name of
murphy
anyway that's what her friend meghan had told her
on her first day of class when she was entering the 5th
grade.

how did she put it.
mary thought for a second

"i never done seen no black kid with the name of murphy.

mary had taken it as an insult

and raised her hand and smacked meghan right across her cheek
and left her hand print on that little white face.

her father had been summoned promptly to school
and he hadn't been happy one bit.

they had to go find him
and he wasn't home.

he was down in the back digging a hole.

max the truant officer had found him.

sir you need to come to school your daughter has a bit of a problem

don't tell me, it's mary, right
said the father

yes, sir, fraid it is

what's she done this time.

hauled off and hit a classmate right across the face.

the man in the hole wiped his brow
with a large brown handkerchief that was hanging from his belt.

mind if i ask you what you are digging for sir.

yeah, i do mind
said the man in the hole
i mind a lot.

the truant officer thought to himself but didn't say it out loud
no wonder the daughter's got problems.

like father like daughter

the man in the hole had a shovel
and the truant officer thought
he could damn well hit me with that shovel
just the was his daughter clobbered that nice
white girl in fifth grade.

all right, sir, i just wanted to tell you that they
are expecting you to pick up your daughter.

what if i don't pick her up

what do you mean if you don't pick her up

you heard me
what'll happen if I don't pick her up.

are you going to keep her

well, i don't know
what will happen
no one's ever asked me that question.

well, listen son
why don't you go up to the porch and sit on
one of the rocking charis for a while and
ponder the question
what'll happen to mary if i don't pick her up.

the truant officer stood there sweating in the hot sun
thinking to himself they don't pay me enough to do this job.

but he said yes, sir,and walked towards the front of the house

the man in the hole watched the truant officer walk back to the house
and watched him as he picked up a blade of grass from the path.