Saving Maria

"I'll be here same time next year," I told him. "Will you?"

Johnny cackled a laugh. "I think I'm gonna like you teacher."

I turned back over to Sarah. "How would I go about getting a couple of good rifles without a lot of the government paperwork?"

Sarah went into the back room, then came out with an armful of guns. "These are all used, but they shoot good, and we have ammunition."

I looked them over carefully and selected a Winchester30-06 for Maria and a Browning .338 for me. I also bought cleaning kits and a dozen boxes of ammo for each.

"You can sight them in out at my place." said Johnny.

"We'll do that," I told him.

Josh helped us load out booty and drove us back to our place. We left the stuff in the living room and went with him to the Council building.

The main meeting hall was actually in the basement. Which made sense as the surrounding dirt a good insulator and was below the level of the storm winds that occasionally swept across the flat, open land.

The council was friendly and curious. They made Maria and me feel welcome without being too smothering.

The main thing they wanted to know was when I would start classes, "Day after tomorrow." I told them.

Maria and I walked back to the house after the council meeting. It had been a long damn day.

For the first time since this whole damn adventure began, I was able to sleep in a real bed, and not the seat of a car. When we woke up in the morning, it took us almost 2 hours to get everything squared away.

I had to show Maria how to build a fire in the wood burning furnace, and how to clear the ashes etc. from the pan below the grate.

Once all that was squared away, I went over to the school building.

It was colder than shit in there, and I wasted no time in getting the 3 wood burning stoves going to take the chill off the place.

Maria came over as I was sitting at the desk trying to make heads or tails out of the last teacher’s notes.

Maria got out a broom and a mop and started cleaning.

As I read, I became aware that Maria was humming a sprightly tune. I looked at her and saw the contented smile on her face.

"You sure are happy." I remarked.

"No one's trying to kill me. I don't have to have sex for money, and I have a house and a husband." she said.

Well hell, I could hardly argue with that.

"We'll see how you like it when there's snow deeper than a polar bears ass, and the polar bear comes sniffing around the door." I teased.

"Then you'll just make him into a rug for me," Maria said confidently.

I wished I was so sure that things would work out.

By the end of the day, I knew I'd have to scrap the whole damn curriculum and start over from scratch.

Maria cooked for me for the first time that day. She was actually pretty good.

There wasn't a whole lot to do in the evenings, no TV, that would come with the satellite dish. And the radio broadcasts were all in Inuit or some other native language

But we had a deck of cards, and we played Canasta until nearly 10 PM.

Maria snuggled close that night, and her warmth was welcome as the house cooled with the fires in the furnace banked for the night.

The next morning, I found the students already waiting inside when I got there at 6 AM.

I went to the front of the room and faced them. There were 17 kids ranging from 5 or 6 to about 16 or 17.

"You can call me Teacher, or you can call me Mr. Atreides."

(I picked a name from one of my favorite books)

My wife is named Maria. But you will call her Mrs. Atreides until SHE tells you differently."

I grinned. "But the good news is that I won't start classes until 7:30 in the morning."

This got broad smiles from several of the kids.

"Now the last teacher left their notes in a mess, so we will start over as of today." This got a few more smiles, and a couple of groans.

"I will be getting a big screen TV and a satellite dish so we can get educational programs from the lower 48 and Canada."

All grins now.

"And I will see if I can get some computers to teach you how the basics so that you can find work easier on the outside world."

Definitely a mixed reaction to that one.

"For today, I just want to get to know you. So relax, read, draw, whatever , and I will call you up one at a time to talk with me directly."

I started with the older kids first, having each one come up and sit next to my desk while we chatted and I took notes.

I could already see that I would have to tailor each kids study plan individually.

At lunchtime, Maria brought my meal to me

She was wearing one of the dresses that she had picked out at a Chicago thrift shop.

I hadn't really taken the time before to realize how nice she actually looked. Silky black hair down to the middle of her back, slightly slanted eyes, full firm breasts, a slim waist that flared out into sleek hips that were ideal for childbirth. . .

I realized I was staring when a couple of the kids had to stifle giggles.

I just looked out at them with a grin and a shrug.

That did it.

The gigglers laughed aloud, and Maria ruffled my hair affectionately.

She put an extra sway in her hips as she strolled out the front door, followed by the eyes of every post pubescent male in the room.

I cleared my throat, and the wayward eyes snapped to the front as their owners blushed.

Josh came by at the end of the school day. “So how are things going so far?" He asked as the students trooped off home.

"Not bad at all." I told him.

I explained about the satellite dish and TV for the educational programs. He liked the idea, especially since I was paying for it myself.

When I told him my plan for the used computers, he grunted. "Let me speak to the council about this tonight. How much would something like this cost?"

"Since we would be using used computers, several years old, probably about 4 thousand." "Is that all?" he asked in surprise.

"Unless you want a satellite uplink to the internet," I said. "Then it would probably be about 8 grand, and about $100 per month access fee. But maybe the company will give a discount since we are a school."

Josh nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe we can do this," he said slowly.

"What happened to the last teacher?" I asked him.

Josh made a face. "1 hoped you wouldn't ask that." He sighed. "The last teacher was Miss Mary Donovan. She was single, homely as a mud fence, and drank a lot. She went outside in a blizzard and we didn't find her until after the bears did."

He looked a little green at the memory.

"How long ago was that?" I asked.

Josh shook off the memory with a grunt. "That was last October."

And it was already September.

"Just when do the snows move in?" I asked Josh.

"I'm surprised that we ain't already hip deep in drifts."

The next day, I started the kids on reviewing the basics.

These kids were starved for knowledge. Even the youngest ones were reading at a level that their counterparts in the lower 48 states would have been hard pressed to keep up with.

I had to scramble to keep ahead of the students, something I tried not to make obvious.

Maria took to domestic life like a duck to water. She was invited to sewing circles, card games, coffee klatches, and still found time to help me out at the school.

Funny, I didn't remember picking up a girl from Krypton...

She ended up working in the store/post office with Josh's wife, Sarah. She enjoyed the work and the company, and the extra $$ came in handy.

A month after we arrived, She hitched a ride with a hunting guide back to Anchorage to see the doctor.

She came back on the same plane that delivered the Satellite dish and the TV.

"I got a clean bill of health!" she said proudly and shoved the doctor’s report into my hand.

Negative on all tests for VD.

She had to wait for Josh and I to get up the satellite dish and run the cables to the school and to the house. But when we were done, she chased everyone else out of the house and dragged me to the bedroom.

I didn't get out of bed until the next morning. Maria was still asleep, the sheets halfway to her waist, showing off her smooth tawny back as she smiled into her pillow.

I showered and made her some breakfast, then went over to the school.

When the students showed up, I had the TV all set and the satellite dish aimed. When I turned it on, the signal came in good and strong.

For the next couple of hours, the students watched educational TV and took notes. In the afternoon, I gave them a quiz on what we had just watched.

By the time school let out for the day, it was snowing, and Maria was outside building a snowman.

I had thought that Maria would want to watch some TV now that we hadone up and running.

She had other ideas, and dragged me to the bedroom again.

A month later, the council approved the purchase of the computers. I had to make a flight to Anchorage, and I took Maria along to let her do some shopping.

When we got back to Caribou Point, we had the used PC's with us. The satellite uplink would have to wait for the summer thaw.

It cost us a good chunk of my remaining cash, but I was able to fill a couple of large crates with canned foods, medicines, and some luxuries for myself, and Maria.

Back home, Maria was soon back to her routine, and the Council had the brainstorm of charging admission to watch movies on the big screen TV in the school room.

They made enough money in the first few months that they easily paid for the satellite uplink for the students and had enough left over to get a back up generator for town's electrical supply.

I had forgotten all about the mess in Cheyenne during the winter months.

I had never been happier. I had a respected position in the community, had a very loving wife, and I really enjoyed my work.

As the only person in town with anything resembling medical training, I took care of countless bumps, cuts, and other minor injuries.

Of course there was always a doctor supervising via radio, so I was able to avoid getting in over my head.

And at least twice, I was able to keep someone alive long enough for the medical plane to arrive and take the patient away.

One of those was old Johnny. I stitched and bandaged his leg, and Maria held his hand the whole time. After he recovered, we always got the extra wood for free.

Come summer thaw though, we had a little bit of trouble when the state inspectors came by.

Josh had long since figured out that I was likely wanted back in the lower 48. That meant little to him.

The fact that he had a teacher and medic in his town, now that meant a lot.

So when the inspectors came around, I was introduced as an adopted member of the tribe. The inspectors left, and life went back to normal.

I offered several times to send Maria out to Anchorage or even Nome if she wanted a vacation. But she always refused, saying she was satisfied where she was at.

I kept watch via the satellite connection to the internet for anything about Cheyenne and the situation there.

It turned out that there had been another witness to the killing of Jessie, and the surviving cop, Rosenthal, had been convicted.

Maria and I were still wanted, but not for murder as there were witnesses that said the other cop had pointed his gun at me without identifying himself as a cop.

No matter, No way I was ever going back down there.

I'm still teaching in Caribou Point, And Maria has given us 4 healthy children.

And when our bones lay in the small graveyard just outside of town, our kids and grandkids will know the peace and quiet of the arctic evenings, and not the steady gunfire that echoes through the streets of most American cities every night.

Oh yeah, our second winter here, Maria got her polar bear rug.