Iris in Bloom: Take a Chance, Book 2 Read Free

erupted.
    “Okay. Anger’s an emotion. Work with that. Write about how stupid it is to have to redo an assignment, turn it into a horror story about how the new teacher gets tortured by aliens. I don’t know. Even if you read your story over and love it, that’s okay. But –“ He pointed at the Emerson quote, the old gray haired dude seeming to approve of him as he glanced timelessly back. “Take a chance, like Emerson says. Experiment. In my creative writing class I am more interested in the creative than the rules. Got it?”
    “Yes, Mr. McLeod.”
    “Okay, next class, bring me those stories. Rewrite the story you’ve got, write something completely new, but go to the edge. Jump over the edge if you like.”
    “And then we get to watch a movie?”
    “And then we get to watch a movie,” he promised.
    Of course, in that movie, one of the creative kids died and the teacher got fired.
    Experiments, he reminded himself, involved risk.
    As he walked out of his classroom at the end of the day he felt like he was making headway. He understood that the Mr. Bennett he replaced had been teaching at this school for thirty years. Geoff had a feeling the lesson plan hadn’t changed a bit in all those years.
    Well, he thought, things were about to change in the English department of Jefferson High.
    He was heading for the door that led to the staff parking lot, when a woman’s voice called, “Geoff.”
    He turned and waited as one of the science teachers hurried up to him. Tara. Her name was Tara something. She was smiling at him in a way that made him feel slightly harried. One thing he’d loved about being married was the barbed wire fence of safety it provided. He’d been hit on a time or two and always deferred to the ring. Now he didn’t have the protection of the ring any more.
    She was a nice looking woman. Hot in fact, with long stylish blond hair. He noticed she liked to wear tight clothes and clingy tops that were barely on the correct side of appropriate. Big smile. Friendly. He tried to convince himself she was only being friendly when she came right up to him and said, “Good, I was looking for you.”
    She had a Texas accent. “I was lookin fer yew .”
    “You found me,” he said, brilliant creative writing teacher that he was, so good with words.
    “Some of the younger teachers head to Eugene on Fridays after work. Have a couple of drinks, sometimes do dinner. We’re going tomorrow. I wondered if you’d like to come.”
    “Oh, thanks. Uh, I only got my stuff delivered yesterday. I’ll be unpacking tomorrow. But thanks.”
    “Well come next time, then.”
    “I will. Thank you.” Then, thinking maybe he’d been too abrupt, he said, “I already agreed to go to a vegan potluck, whatever that is.”
    She stopped to stare. “You’re going to the vegan potluck?” She said it as though he were going to worship Satan. Of course, being from Texas, steak capital of the world, she probably did consider vegans to be in league with the devil.
    “Yes. Ellen invited me. Seemed like a good idea to get to know the town.”
    “Well that’s good that you’re not sitting home alone all weekend.”
    She didn’t leave his side but walked with him to the teachers’ parking lot, chatting the whole way. How was he lahkin it here, did he think he’d stay lawng ?
    She was a nice woman, friendly. Sexy as hell. And he had zero interest.
    He wondered if he’d ever be interested in women again, then recalled that moment earlier in the Sunflower Coffee and Tea Company when he’d felt that flicker of awareness.
    Not that he’d be dating anytime soon, but maybe one day.

Chapter Three
     
    Marguerite Chance strolled into Sunflower later that afternoon. In her hands was an earthenware pot with paper whites just coming into bloom. A second pot held a robust basil plant, bursting with fragrant green leaves. “Oh, how pretty,” Iris exclaimed as she gave her sister a quick hug. “And thanks for the