Eleventh grade English teacher Amanda Smith was grading papers on a Saturday afternoon when she suddenly felt the need to escape her lonely apartment.
A local park was nice this time of the day, so Amanda grabbed the stack of papers she was working on and hurried out the door.
There were only a few people in the park and Amanda quickly found a bench and resumed grading her student's writing assignment.
Most of the essays from the girls in her class was the same romantic nonsense that she herself had believed in at one time, but Amanda learned long ago that there was no Prince Charming.
Once the assignments were all graded, Amanda set the papers aside and absently watched the ducks down by the lake until she slowly drifted off to sleep.
Sometime later, Amanda was awakened by a touch on her shoulder. "Do you mind if I sit here?" a teen-age girl asked.
Still a little groggy from her nap, Amanda motioned for the girl to sit down.
"Do we know each other?" Amanda asked the young woman.
" I was in your class a few years ago." the girl answered. Amanda didn't remember the young lady, but there had been so many faces.
"Mr. Harris in the math department likes you" the girl announced out of nowhere.
"How could you know that?" Amanda asked with more anger than she intended.
"Since I went away, I've learned many things. I'm not sure that I understand it all" the girl said glancing at a family having a picnic.
Amanda looked more carefully at the young woman and remembered a horrible car wreck that took the life of one of her students.
"Thank you for coming back, Susan." Amanda said to her former student.
The girl waved goodbye as she slowly faded away.
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