Thursday was the last of our summer workshops, and we miss our students
already. There are fewer uncapped ballpoint pens lurking in the shadows
between chair legs, but there are also fewer small voices clamoring to speak.
It has seemed especially quiet around here ever since our now-legendary Three
Hour ‘Zine workshop. After those three rollicking hours of conceptualizing,
creating, and assembling a 20-page publication — Monimals: The Species
Unknown, an in-depth account of monster-animals in nature, the movies, and
imaginations — I don’t think any of us will ever be the same. There is no
going back.
So here, in this gray-skied, lawn-smelling interlude between summer and school,
we are waiting and smiling to ourselves. Even with all these colossal Crayola
rooms, the five of us still crowd into Amy’s turquoise office to type lightly
on keyboards like toy pianos. We laugh loudly. Amy reaches around long yellow
paper pads to find her glass jar of watery tea; John sometimes crawls under her
desk to work when he has a headache. We pass jotted addresses back and forth
on bright post-its, and Reese’s Pieces back and forth in warm palms. We are
getting ready for what’s coming next.