Friends on Retainer

 

The fifth-grade classes stood to follow their teachers back to their classrooms after their lunch. Almost all my class followed the expected procedure of lining up two by two, but not a group of five boys. They stood at the far end of a long cafeteria table.

            Urgency appeared in voices and expressions as if no one else stood near them. Every other student in our class stood waiting and watching while I walked to the boys. Only when I was right next to their little group did they stop their conversation and looked toward me.

            Scott tried to never break rules. Nam broke rules once in a while and tried to act like it didn’t matter. Tim had a similar attitude to Nam. Eli would make up a good reason for breaking any rule and smile like a charmer as he explained his reasons. Leon, the tallest, a popular and strong student always seemed to act honestly. He was also a natural leader. Boys and girls in his grade and others trusted him. Leon was not someone I would expect to see cry in school, but his eyes were full of tears. They just hadn’t spilled yet.

            “What’s going on?”

            “Leon lost his retainer.” Eli answered with emphasis that said, boy oh boy did he lose it!

            “I just got my retainer.” Leon added.

            “He put it on his tray while he ate.” Scott supplemented.

            “We’re the last lunch,” Nam told me as if I didn’t know.

            “He finished eating and dumped his tray stuff into the trash without thinking about the retainer.” Tim announced with obvious sympathy.

            Leon had managed to not shed tears from the water that filled his eyes. He stared at me. Clearly, he did not know if I understood how terrible losing a retainer could be.

 I looked around at the class. They didn’t seem to mind waiting. We were going back to have English class after lunch, and this week was grappling with grammar.

            “So, your retainer is in the trash.”

            All five boys nodded.

            “And the custodian has already taken the trash out to the cans and dumpsters.”

            More nods.

            “Is there a chance you could find the retainer, Leon? Is it a color?”

            “It’s clear,” Leon’s voice broke as he answered me.

            “Do you want to look for it? Go through the trash? The last lunch garbage taken out is in the trash containers. The first and second lunch trash is in the two big dumpsters.  I couldn’t let you near those, but since this lunch period has its garbage in the trash barrels, you could look for the retainer.”

            “You mean pick through all the trash in those big trash cans?” Scott had a trill of horror in his voice. His tone summoned visions of deep diving into smelly globs of food waste and liquid from saliva to spills, crushed napkins to milk cartons, straws, tissues, paper towels, juice boxes, snack bags and packages, grease, gravy, sticky, smelly, slimy trash.

            “That’s 10 big trashcans. They’re bigger than the recycle ones we have at home.” Nam announced.

            “Only two each,” Tim added, not happily, but it sounded like relief that no one would have to go through 10.

            It would be a dirty disgusting job for anyone to search careful through every item feeling and looking for that clear bit of plastic. At least it was a sunny low humidity day. Hardly a fun job, but what a revelation of friendship. Would they really all help Leon?

            “So, do you all want to help Leon find his retainer?”

            “My Mom is picking me up in 20 minutes. Remember my early dismissal note?” Scott asked with discomfort. He wanted to be a good friend and help Leon.

            “Okay, go get in line Scott. I’d forgotten you have early dismissal.”

            Now Nam looked like he might cry. “I’ll barf!”

            “I understand, Nam. Go get in line to be Scott’s partner. We have to leave to go upstairs. Leon, Tim, and Eli, you really want to tackle this and try to find the retainer?”

            Wide eyed, but realizing they would probably look through garbage for the rest of the afternoon, Tim and Eli both looked at Leon.  

            “We can do it,” Eli spoke with his usual enthusiasm for anything different in a school day. Tim nodded.

            “Thanks,” Leon said to his friends and me.

            “All right. You three better get to work. I will tell them in the office. They’ll let the custodian know, and Mr. Smith, because he’ll be taking gym classes out and he’ll see you by the trash. At least with our lunch set up you know there’s nothing sharp in any of the bags. If you have to work all afternoon, when you hear the 3 p.m. bell, go to the nurse and wash up with the really strong disinfectant soap that she has. If you finish earlier than the end of the day, go directly to the nurse to wash up before you come back to class.”

            With serious expressions and determination of tackling a crucial mission, Leon, Tim, and Eli left the cafeteria through the back door that went to the trash area. I joined the class that had grown quieter while listening to Nam and Scott explaining what Leon had done. Most of the fifth graders in our school did not have families with dental insurance. Few would see an orthodontist for years of treatment. Losing a brand new retainer after going through the pain of braces was big deal.

            Students had their special area classes toward the end of the day, art, music, physical education.  Leon, Tim, and Eli reappeared in my classroom near the end of the school day. I could smell them the minute they came through the door. Their shirts revealed stains from the variety of lunch trash. Their smiles might have been made of sunshine.

            Leon pointed to his mouth. I gasped out loud! That betrayed my fear that he had popped it into his mouth as soon as he found it.

            All three boys laughed at my expression

            “The nurse cleaned it and our hands and arms and faces,” Tim announced.

            “It was disgusting, but kinda fun,” Eli reported. “Leon found it.”

            “But you two helped him. He couldn’t have found it before dark by himself. You are the dirtiest three musketeers I have ever seen, quite a team. I hope you realize that everyone will be back soon, and I don’t think anyone will want to stand next to you when we line up for the buses.”

            “My Mom is coming to pick me up. The nurse let me call her and tell her what happened. My mom is going to give Tim and Eli rides home. Thanks for letting us search.”

            “Leon, you have some very good friends. Lots of people couldn’t find friends to spend an afternoon searching through barrels of trash for a little piece of clear plastic.”

            “It was totally gross,” Tim said with a long sigh. “My sister says best friends share lunches, but I don’t think she could imagine what we did.”

            Eli slapped him on the back. “We are best friends for sure, and we don’t have to imagine it, because we shared our lunches and everybody else’s!”