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He glanced around, seeing nothing but ht on snowcapped mountains, an e cabin on the far side Somewhere behind the schoolhouse was the river “Because there is nobody anywhere”
“That’s why they’re talking about closing the school Fifteen years ago kids from six or seven fa fah children to make it hile, but today it’s just four ser economical”
“So they’d bus the kids into Marietta?”
She nodded, leading the way up the s the front door “But bus service up into the mountains is treacherous in winter, which is why they left the school open as long as they have” She turned on the lights and stepped aside to let him enter the school
Shane closed the door behind him They were in a little enclosed entry lined with hooks and wooden cubbies on the ground “This is where the kids keep their lunches, snow boots, and coats,” she said, before heading through a wide opening into the main room “And this is where I teach”
“It’s like a freezer in here”
She nodded “It’s cold”
“Where is your heater?”
“We have an old furnace in the back and then I’ll plug in a space heater on really cold days”
“I’d plug in more than one”
“If you do that, you’ll blow a fuse Electrical is old, too That’s why I can only have a erator and a loatt microwave”
His gaze swept the tidy rows of desks There were about twenty desks “You have twenty students?”
“We had thirteen That faone as of last week, so we’re down to twelve”
“What happened to that student?”
“The Hainsleys decided to try a new Christian acadeston”
“Is there a bus to that school?”
“No, the parents are going to drive Jaht it would be better for her I think they hoped a Christian curriculum would be preferable”
He shot her a narrowed glance “Why?”
“They don’t believe in evolution, or sex education”
“Ah” His brorinkled “Do you teach sex ed?”
“To the older ones, yes”
“And what do the younger ones do while you teach the birds and the bees?”
“Work at their desks”
“Wouldn’t they be listening in?”
“I teach the health stuff in a very quiet voice” Her cheeks turned pink
“How I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that,” he answered
She ht “Thank goodness you’re not It takes a lot of work for me to be really calm and matter of fact”
“But as a farirl, I’m sure you’re comfortable with…the mechanics”
She choked on a sh and then shook her head “That’s terrible, but you’re not far off These are all children of ranchers They’ve grown up hunting and fishing and helping out on the property Sometimes I feel like they know more about the real world than I do”
“I know you’ve only been here for a little over a otten a sense of the importance of this school? Is it an archaic way to teach, or is there a value to keeping the school open…beyond the obvious that it’s historically significant?”