Page 29 of Look Again

“What?” I can hear the word slide up in pitch and volume. “What does that mean?”

She glances over her shoulder just long enough to make a second of eye contact. Just long enough for me to see that she looks disgusted. She turns away again and shakes her head.

She’s gone.

Over the next two hours, I leave two voicemail messages on her classroom phone, one on her cell (which she gave me after our meeting with Dr. Moreau), send three emails and I would rather not say how many texts.

I do not understand what happened.

A compliment, and then an insult, and then she ran.

Is she that unused to giving positive feedback? I’d hate to be a student of hers, just waiting around for her to say one kind thing. But she doesn’t seem like that with kids. She was gracious with the kids at our meeting today. Maybe not effusive, but she was giving praise when they said smart things. Even paying as little attention as I was, I could tell she was great with them.

Maybe she just didn’t want to give me too much positive feedback because she thinks I’m arrogant. Ha. Maybe she thinks that if she lets me know it’s good, I’ll be unreceptive to editing changes later.

Maybe she’s just nuts.

I let my head fall onto my arms. I will never understand what women want. Once I thought it was only one woman I didn’t get, but now I’m pretty sure it’s the whole lot of them. Fully half the human race is impossible to figure.