Miss Carlisle and Miss Fleming
by Mr. Haney
Miss Carlisle and Miss Fleming came to the high school in the middle of my sophomore year. Mrs. Jackson, the English teacher, had to quit to take care of her husband who'd been in an auto accident, so the school board called Louretta "Granny" Mottsinger to fill in. Mrs. Mottsinger had been a teacher for 40 years before she retired and was close to 80 now and deaf as a cement post. Chaos reigned supreme in the classroom. Billy Bob Tutwiler saw to that.
Miss Carlisle came to the English Department;; Miss Fleming became the girls' Physical Education teacher. We'd never had a girls gym teacher before. When Coach Ruffin filled, he'd just done the minimum'he hated coaching the girls, said it was sissy work
No one thought it odd that these two highly qualified teachers were suddenly available in the middle of the school year. Junior Perch, who was on the schbool boar, said they'd come from a school up near the Iowa line and that the town was damn lucky to have them.
Pauline Perch, Junior's wife, told her friend Fern Fitterling. "You know, the school board never planned to hire an instructor for girls' sports. They always got alone without one, but Miss Carlisle just refused to come here without her friend--and we had to have an Enbglish teacher. poor old Granny Mottsinger can't keep filling in forever.
" I agree, Pauline," Fern said, "I guess Miss Carlisle didn't want top be alone in a strange town, her being so quiet and not having any friends or family here. The two do seem close."
"Well," Pauline said, "I think it's nice that they have each other. Of cours, it won't be any time until all the local boys will be coming around, especially to see that Miss Carlisle. Saydo you know if that youngest Bodenhammer boy--you know, Mamie's boy--is he seeing anyone right now?"
Everyone fell in love with Miss Carlisle the minute they met her. she was a tiny thing--"no bigger than a minute," Henry Fitterline described her. She had a ready smile and a big mass of auburn hair she kept pulled back with differnt-colored ribbons. Her skin was as white and smooth as new dime store china and her deep-set eyes met you right on.
Miss Carlislt walked into that classroom the first day and quietly took charge. Billy Bob tutwiler was terrifying poor old Granny Mottsinger, but Miss Carlisle just looked him in the eye, then down at her seating chart and said, "William Robert, please take y our seat. I am Miss Carlisle, and today we're going to start on Shakespeare."
No one ever saw Billy Bob look so meek before, not even when his father, the preacher , looked down at hinm from the pulpit on Sunday mornings. Later, Billy Bob tried to tell Miss Carlisle that his name was not William Robert, and that like his father before him, had been named just Billy Bob. He even brought in his birth certificate to prove it. Miss Carlisle just smiled and went on calling him William Robert.
Miss Carlisle loved Emily Cickinson, Walt Whitman, and Shakespeare, and she saw to it that all her student learned to appreaciate them. She even got Billy Bob so interested in vocbulary building that he became quite good at using the big words no one else kenw the meaning of. If you asked him what a word meant, he'd say, "Look look it up. That way, it will stay with you. That's what Miss Carlisle says."
While Miss Carlisle was petite, Miss Fleming was tall, probably 5'l0" at least. She walked tall too, and carried herself with an air of a person who is proud of her height. She had close- cropped blonde hair and spoke in a deep voice that demanded respect.
Miss Fl;eming took the girls' volleyball team all the way to the state championship. There was a big write-up on the front page of the Star Journal and a large picture of Miss Fleming with her arm around Claudia Howard, ho was holding a hugh trophy. Claudia was the captain of the of the team and the high scorer for the s4eason. Everyone in town was very excited over winnint the chanmpionship--it was the biggest thing that every happened in Henry Country ,
Miss Carlisle and Miss Fleming rented an old house out west of townb that had been vacant for a long time, and looked it. The house, which belonged to Henry Fitterling, was basically sound, so the two teacher rolled up their sleeves and tave the house a coat of paint. They bought a garden tractor, planted a big garden with a crop of corn, beans and tomatoes. Later on, they got a big dog they named Bowser and a little red pick-up truck.
"Those girls r3eally fixed that place up," Henry Fitterling said, "Why, that Miss Fleming can fix a roof or set a fenxe post as good as any man. She'd strong for a woman; sure make some guy a good wife."
Fern Fitterling reported to Pauline Perch, "Miss Carlisle has painted the entire inside of that house the prettiest shade of peach and made the cutest curtains out of bedsheets. And the needlework she does--you can't image-=crewel, crossstitch, and Idon't know what all. Why, she's even doing a needlepoint rug --a rug ! She's doing a block on eacyh state of the union, with the state flower and state bird on it. She's been working on for two years, but she's only up to Nebraska. Such sweet girl, she and Miss Fleming."
"Wonder why they never married,"Pauline said.
The teacher did not seem to leave their house or have friends who visited. Rev.Tutwiler called on them and invited them to church.they said the'd some but they never did.
"Must be Catholic " Fern said.
"Bet you're right," Pauline said.
Then the news swept through town. Miss Carlisle was sick. Really sick. "Cancer ," Fern said
"Inoperative," Pauline said, "Going to have to have chenmotherapy, maybe has a year to live. She'd probably lose all her hair, and she has such pretty hair."
Miss Carlisle never said a thing, but she began to look tired and to miss days at school. Finally, she had to leave before the end of the term. Granny Mottsinger was called back to fill in.
Then Miss Carlisle was gone. There did not seem to be any familyk, for not even a cousin appeared at this time of crisis. Rev. Tutwiler came again and offered a prayer, but Miss Fleming declined.
But the arrangements for the cremation were made int he city, and Miss Fleming came back with a large bronze urn full of ashes. She also arranged for a dealer to come and buy the furniture. When everything was gone, Miss Fleming put Bowser, the bronze urn, and the unfinshed neeplepoint rug in the little red pickup and just drove out of town--"Going to California," she told people.
As far as I know, Claudia Howard was the only one who ever heard from Miss Fleming again. Claudia told me she got a note inviting her to San Francisco for a visit when school was out. Claudia said she was thinking of going.
"Such sweet girls," Fern said, "Like sisters."
"So devoted--wonder why they never married," Pauline said.