THE first time I really knew about school was when I was five and Cookie came to visit us at home with Aunt Mamie and Uncle Les and her brother Rowdy and her sister Pearl.
“You and me have to go to school next ear,” she said.
“What?” I said. Cookie said we had to go to school in Kalamak where Dorothy and Rowdy and Pearl go when they’re gone for a long time. We were stunned thinking about going away from home. We couldn’t imagine what next ear could be. It sounded awful.
Then one day Dad bought me a suitcase, some new shoes and a wool snowsuit, green like fir trees. Then he drove me to Kalamak. Dorothy went ahead on the cattle truck the school sent to pick up students.
We drove for a long time. Then we came to this big building and Dad parked the truck. Mum walked in with me. The red doors slammed shut behind us and we walked down a long hallway. Our footsteps sounded hollow. When we came to the junior girls rec room we saw a whole bunch of little girls in a big noisy room. Some of them were playing. Some of them were sitting down on red benches with their suitcases, looking sad. A nun called Sister Maura came over and talked to Mum. Then Mum turned and left. I looked at her walking away from me. I heard her footsteps echoing, and I was so scared I felt like I had a giant bee sting over my whole body. Then I stopped feeling anything.
When Mum was gone, Sister grabbed my shoulder and shoved me over to a red bench. She told me not to move. I sat there listening to the girls playing and running back and forth in the rec room. That’s when this big girl called Edna came over with her fist raised. “What are you staring at?” she asked.
Just then Sister Maura came back with Cookie. Cookie’s eyes looked big and red, like she had been crying. I never saw her look like that before. Sister told her to sit beside me and wait. We were so happy to see each other that we sat on the bench close to each other for a long time.
When Sister Maura came back she made all the girls line up and she put coal oil in our hair to kill nits and lice, even though we didn’t have them. She made us get haircuts, take baths and put on smocks, bloomers and undershirts, all exactly alike. We had to put all our own clothes and things in our suitcases which she locked in a storage room. She gave us each a small closet where we put our coats and combs and things. Then she took us upstairs to make our beds. She kept yelling at us to hurry up or Sister Superior would strap us. Sister Superior carries the strap in her sleeve all the time. It looks like a short thick leather belt with a shiny tip. When someone is bad Sister Superior makes them put their hands out, palms up. Then she hits their hands with the strap usually about ten times. When you get used to it it doesn’t hurt that much but your hands sting, and you can’t help crying.
After that Sister Maura asked me what my name was. I said, my name is Seepeetza. Then she got really mad like I did something terrible. She said never to say that word again. She told me if I had a sister to go and ask what my name was. I went to the intermediate rec and found Dorothy lying on a bench reading comics. I asked her what my name was. She said it was Martha Stone. I said it over and over. Then I ran back and told Sister Maura. After that she gave me a number, which was 43. She got some of the older girls to teach us how to embroider. Then we had to chain stitch our numbers on all our school clothes.
That night, just before she turned the lights off, Sister Maura taught us how to pray on our knees with our hands folded. Then she told us about devils. She said they were waiting with chains under our beds to drag us into the fires of hell if we got up and left our beds during the night. When she turned the lights off I was scared to move, even to breathe. I knew those devils would come and get me if I made a sound. I kept really still.
Then I heard a small sound like a whistle. I wondered what it was. It reminded me of Spud our dog, the time he got porcupine quills in his nose. My dad told him to lie down and be quiet. Then my dad pulled out the quills with a pair of pliers. Spud kept making that whistling noise over and over as my dad pulled out the quills.
Someone was crying. I wanted to cry too, but I didn’t dare make any noise. A long time later I was still too afraid to get up to use the bathroom. In the morning my bed was wet and Sister Superior strapped me. I had to wear a sign to the dining room saying, I am a dirty wetbed.