For He Will Surely Rise

(Autograph Book Story #3. The introduction to this series is here.)

Audrey and Elise couldn’t stand Mr. Ratcliffe. Audrey would have been content to never learn another thing about history if it meant never having to endure the likes of Mr. Ratcliffe again.

They disliked his overly hearty manner, which they knew concealed a nasty streak. They hated the way he talked down to the girls in the class — and only the girls — if one of them didn’t know an answer. They hated the way he smelt of eggs and old coffee when he leaned over their desks.

They were sitting together in their classroom waiting for him to arrive one morning when Elise yelped.

“Ouch!”

“What’s wrong, Lise?”

Elise tugged at the sleeve of her dress and pulled out a pin.

“Mum must have forgotten to take this out when she was mending.” Her blonde ringlets bounced as she shook her head. The two girls studied the pin.

“We should leave it on Ratlips’s seat,” Audrey muttered.

Elise snickered. “Oooh, could you imagine? Grabbing his fat behind, calling out to God …”

Audrey pictured Mr. Ratcliffe sitting down on Elise’s pin and then soaring straight through the ceiling as the class howled with laughter. She had to stifle her own giggles as Ratcliffe himself walked in.

And then Elise leaned over and murmured in Audrey’s ear.

“Blessed be the one who sits on this, for he will surely rise.” She brandished the pin to make a point.

The two girls spluttered behind their hands, trying to compose themselves at Ratcliffe glared over at them.

“Something amusing, ladies?” He raised an unfriendly eyebrow.

“No sir,” Elise said. They knew that if they didn’t calm down, the next thing they’d likely get would be a crack across the knuckles with Mr. Ratcliffe’s ruler. Elise’s shoulders shook with suppressed laughter every time Audrey took a peek at her. If they so much as made eye contact, it set off a whole new round of giggles they couldn’t quite hide.

And finally Mr. Ratcliffe slammed down the book he carried.

“Misses Glenister and Smith! You are excused from this classroom. Your parents will be getting a note.”

Audrey and Elise hustled into the hallway and nearly collapsed with the force of the laughter they’d been holding back. Audrey knew she wouldn’t be laughing later on when Mum and Dad found out about this. But for now, she and Elise were sharing what felt like the best joke in the world.

Several months later, Audrey’s mother picked up an autograph book at a church flea market and gave it to her. The book already contained a few drawings, and Audrey marveled over a small but beautifully detailed pirate ship drawn by one D. Harron.

Audrey didn’t consider herself much of an artist, but she wanted good memories in the book to go along with the lovely pictures and cartoons. She wanted to collect happy quotes and poems, things she could turn to the next time she heard Mum and Dad fighting.

Elise and her family were going to be moving away at the end of the summer, and so she took the book to Elise’s house.

“Write something in it, Lise.”

“Like what?”

“Something for me to remember you by.”

“I’m just moving away, Aud. I’m not dying.”

“I know. But still.”

Elise thought about it for a second and then grinned. “I’ve got it.” She wrote a message in the book, and then she went to her dresser, rummaged around in a drawer, and returned holding something pinched between two fingers.

And then she stuck a pin over the top of her quote.

Audrey looked at Elise’s handiwork. And once again, both of them dissolved into fits of giggles.