Miss Lucinda Crabtree and Alice.

She was only five years old. It was her first day at school. All the other kids came from nice homes. She could tell, because, well, they all had shoes. She was from back in the Holler…and shoes, well, those were for Sundays. But not Summer Sundays. Mrs. Simpson always wore shoes. But Mama said that was because she was Lace Irish. She didn’t know what that meant.

She stood in the doorway. Her Mama had given her an apple. A whole apple.

“That’s your lunch. Don’t you be giving it away…or trading it for a gaudy.”

She knew better than to disobey Mama. And she had never had a gaudy. She knew that anything sparkly, shiny, or useless... could be a gaudy. But she didn’t know anybody but Mrs. Simpson who wore anything like that.

“You must be Alice.”

The little five year old snapped out of her thoughts. She looked up at the towering woman who had spoken to her. She took a small swallow of surprise.

“Are you a giant?”

The woman laughed with an openness that made Alice feel it was safe to laugh too.

“No. No. No. I am six foot tall. It runs in my family. My sister Emily is even taller!”

Alice’s eyes grew wide enough to be the inspiration behind the Strawberry Girl drawings that would be all the rage in about fifty years. When the tall lady knelt down to look Alice in the eyes…well, they both stared wide eyed for a bit.

Alice made her laugh again:

“ How tall are your Mama and Papa?”

“Mama, is about my height. My Papa…hmm…he is six foot eight inches tall. Just picture me with another head on top.”

Alice fainted.

*****

When Alice woke up, everyone in the small Schoolhouse was staring at her. A short older man was just putting away his instruments. She knew what he was called. A Doctor. She had seen one when Uncle George cut his finger off on the grinding stone. And another one when Old Lady Mason tripped and broke her ankle. So she got scared for a second. It must have showed on her tiny face…because the Doctor turned and patted her arm for reassurance.

“Now. Now child. Don’t you go to frettin. You are just fine. In fact, you are as pretty and healthy as any First Grader I have ever seen. You just gave yourself a scare.”

She had never been called pretty before. It made her smile. She knew she was healthy, because Mama told her that the sassafras tea would keep her healthy. But she was still a bit scared.

The Doctor reached in his black bag. He pulled out a sucker. She pulled in her breath. A Candy! She had one last Christmas. He handed it to her with a solemn grace, like a Minister giving a blessing.

“Here you go, child. Now don’t you go eating too many of those. That’s bad for your teeth…after a while.”

She looked at the Candy. Then at the other five year olds. There were six of them. She sighed. And handed the Candy back. The Doctor stared at her.

“Why would you give it back? It is yours for being such a good girl.”

Alice really wanted the Candy. But she couldn’t share it with the other kids. Her Mama told her never to drink behind somebody, or lick their spoons. You could come down with a flux. Everyone was waiting for her to say something. So she told the truth:

“ I can’t eat that if’n the other kids don’t have one.”

The Doctor slapped his knee. The tall lady broke out in a smile bigger than Mrs. Ledbetter’s face had when she found out Tommy Tucker had built her a new outhouse.

“Well, if you aren’t the kindest little girl. Well…(reaching in his bag) he pulled out six more of the Candies)…there you go! You make sure and thank this little angel. “

As he stood to leave, he winked at the tall lady.

“Here is one for you too. After all, the little angel might give you hers if I don’t. “

And for a while, everyone just enjoyed their candies.

Later, just before lunch, the tall lady, who turned out to be the Teacher. Her name was Miss Lucinda Crabtree. She pulled Alice to the side and asked her quietly.

“Why do you think you fainted?”

“Because you said to add another head…so I did. And it scared me.”

Perplexed, she asked Alice what she meant?

Alice screwed up her face …and it was adorable. It was all Miss Lucinda Crabtree could do to not sweep her up in her arms in a hug.

“When people say things, I see them. And I can draw them.”

“What? What do you mean? You mean you saw me with another head on top of mine…and you …you can draw that?”

“Oh, sure. Mama gives me chalk, or a piece of coal…and I draw on the boards outside. “

“Can you use a pencil?”

Alice turned red. Almost ready to cry.

“What’s wrong, Alice? It is okay if you don’t know how to use a pencil.”

She shook her tiny head.

“It ain’t that Ma’am. It is just …just…my Daddy, he got mad at Mama for buying me a pencil and paper. He said we don’t have money to waste on paper and pencils. "She can do her silly drawings on the old boards outside.” Mama cried for a long time. “

Miss Lucinda Crabtree kept her thoughts to herself. But her hand tightened into a small fist. She had met many men like Alice’s Dad who thought nothing of destroying a girl’s dream. And even less about Education.

“Well, here we have plenty of pencils. And pens. Once you learn to write…well, we will give you all the paper you need. “

Alice surprised her with her next words.

“Oh, I can already write letters. I can’t read…but I can write.”

Miss Lucinda Crabtree, for the second time in the conversation, looked around her brain for any thing that might make sense of the words she just heard. Finally she decided to just ask.

“Can you show me, if I give you a pencil and paper?”

“Sure. I think. I never got to hold a pencil before.”

Shaking her head, the tall Teacher went and got a pencil and paper.

“You hold it almost like you do chalk…see?”

Alice stared intently. Then she took the pencil, and moved it around her hand a bit. It felt…nice.

Alice put the paper on a slight angle on the desk. Holding the pencil lightly, she let it glide over the paper. She heard Miss Lucinda Crabtree suck in a large hunk of air, but Alice kept writing. Then she heard the tall Teacher gasp. She looked up to see that the tall Teacher had covered her mouth with both her hands. Alice did not know why.

Miss Lucinda Crabtree gave a “keep writing “ wave with one hand freed from her mouth. So Alice did just that.

And then, there it was. The entire Alphabet with Capital and Lowercase Letters…in Cursive. And the numbers one thru ten, drawn just as elegantly. The tall Teacher looked over at the chalkboard. Above the chalkboard was a banner with the alphabet and ten numbers…all of which exactly mimicked the letters and numbers the little five year old girl had drawn.

She couldn’t speak for a second. Maybe longer.

“When did you learn to write like that?”

Alice shrugged.

“My cousin Suzie brought over a book from her 2nd Grade Class…and it had those letters on the cover. Once I see something, I can draw it. And letters are just little drawings. “

The whole Class had come up and were stunned into silence. They were too young to know what was going on, but old enough to know something was.

“Well, here is another sheet of paper. Can you draw me, with another head on top?”

Alice nodded.

“It won’t scare me this time. I already seen it. It won’t scare you …will it?”

“I …I…er…I don’t think so.”

“Okay.”

For almost a half an hour, a half dozen or so five year olds, sat perfectly still. And one very tall Teacher too. Amazed into paralysis…or stunned into awe. Take your pick. Because what Alice drew that day…is now in a museum under bullet proof glass and security systems so sophisticated that even air can’t sneak in.

When she was done, she looked up.

Miss Lucinda Crabtree was pale and shaking. Alice thought she had scared her. Two heads on one body would scare anyone. She started to cry.

“I didn’t mean to scare you…I can rip it up.”

Miss Lucinda Crabtree clutched the stunning drawing of herself…with two absolutely life like heads comfortably attached to the top of her tall body…and said to Alice.

“I am not scared. I am honored. “

“What, what is honored mean?”

“You will find out. Later. I have to make some calls. You need to go to another school?”

Alice was afraid. Her Mama used her pin money to pay for this school. She knew they were too poor to pay for any other school.

Miss Lucinda Crabtree-carefully placing the drawing on her desk- reached down and picked Alice up in a giant hug.

“Alice, don’t you worry about paying for school…or anything else. I will talk to your Mama after school today. I will teach you to read…and then you are going to go to Art School. We will work it all out.”

“Art School? But I don’t know what Art is!”

Miss Lucinda Crabtree tapped the picture that Alice had drawn.

“Yes, you do. I don’t know if they can even teach you. You might just teach them.”

And she did.

Forty six years later, to the day, Miss Lucinda Crabtree donated that first drawing to the National Art museum. Alice was there when she gave it to the Curator. Everyone got a Candy.