Private Sessions

At the door, she ran her hand over my cheek, smiled into my eyes and said, "Well, you must be happy that you're getting to keep your place on the football team, now that you've gotten a passing grade in English."

Funny thing was, until she mentioned it, I'd almost forgotten keeping my place on the team was supposed to be the only reason I was here.

I nodded and said, "Yeah, and thanks for everything you've done for me, Miss Wentworth. If you ever need anything, just call me okay?"

When she stepped back with a quick nod, looking like she was trying not to cry, I walked out. And that I was the last time I saw her.

When I walked past her office one day a few months later, tempted to knock just to hello, another professor stopped me and said, "If you're looking for Miss Wentworth, she's gone."

Confused, I turned and looked at him. "Gone where?"

"She was having health problems and it doesn't look like she'll be back."

I couldn't believe my ears. "What do you mean, what happened to her?"

He lowered his voice and quietly told me, "Not many of us knew, but she's been battling cancer for a couple of years now, and she's decided to end her days with her sister out west. Shame, too, because from what I'd heard, she was an amazing teacher that never gave up on a student."

With my heart in my throat, I nodded. "I know, because she never gave up on me."

When our football team won the championship that year right on our own campus, as we doused each other in buckets of Gatorade, I kept thinking that if it wasn't for my amazing tutor, I wouldn't even be finishing my school year, never mind celebrating this victory with my team.

Funny how things happen sometimes, making you realize that things aren't always what they seem. Who knew I'd meet the most amazing women I'd probably ever have the privilege of knowing, while she was teaching me about more than just how to comprehend and write about what I was reading. But even more importantly what it meant to really appreciate every aspect of a woman and not just get caught up in her looks.

Yeah, I sure learned a lot from Miss Wentworth, not the least of which was: Never judge a book by its cover. Or you might just miss out on something really special that could change your life in ways you never imagined.

Hopefully, thanks to her, I'm more than just a dumb jock, since I realize that everyone I meet could be someone as important to my life as she was. And I'll be grateful for that. As well as the fact that I'll never forget my first time, that I know will last with me forever, with the way she made me feel, like I was best she'd ever had. Because I already know she was definitely the best I'd ever have, as a teacher and mentor and also amazingly my first love...