This angered me. When I hung out the attendance slip, I underlined Venus’s name and wrote “AGAIN!” in big red letters, hoping it would spur someone in the office into checking on what was going on. However, with the other children there, at that point I was unable to look into the matter myself. After morning recess I was settling the boys with their folders to do math. It was about 10:40 and I was with Zane, doing counting, when there was a heavy knock at my door. I rose and went over. Wanda stood in the hallway. She was totally inappropriately dressed. Even though we had reached mid-March, the temperature remained below freezing and there was still snow on the ground. Wanda, however, wore what looked like an old-fashioned housedress – the sort made of printed cotton that snapped up the front – and a cardigan. No coat, no hat, no gloves. And on her feet she was wearing pink fluffy slippers. This, however, was nothing compared to how Venus was dressed. Venus did have a coat on.
