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Her mother survived cancer, her father didn’t and now she clings to me as if I may be the next to go. At recess she follows me like a little auburn haired shadow and she would hang on my arm all day if I let her. I find myself having to push her away and then feeling like a jerk for not giving her something to lean on. She needs someone desperately and I’m just a teacher with an entire class to care for. I can’t devote all of my attention to Starr no matter how badly she needs me.

For my birthday she handed me a small package about the size of a plumb delicately wrapped in tissue paper. She watched me nervously as I opened it. It was a rock with amber quartz crystals in it. Beautiful. I thanked her sincerely for the curious choice of gifts then asked her where she bought it. She told me that it had been her father’s, but that now she wanted me to have it. I said that I couldn’t accept something so special but she insisted. So my list of treasures has grown. Added to my family heirlooms, letters from former students and pictures of my own father now long dead, there’s added one small amber colored rock given to me by a little girl who needs me to be more than just a teacher.

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