Castles in the Air

One day Miss Mason carried a stack of books about castles into our class. She talked about castles, showed us illustrations, and then said, "I want you to build your own castle using any material you want. It’s due in two weeks.” I sat there thinking as the other students started sketching. I didn't want to do a variation of what everyone else did.
On project day the other students brought in beautifully designed castles made from every conceivable material. My choice was also a hodge-podge of materials - buttons, ribbons, boxes of various sizes, but also included was angel hair to simulate clouds. I had designed a castle in the air. It was fanciful and lop-sided, not practical in the least, but Miss Mason loved it. At the end of class that day, she and I talked for a long time. She asked if she could keep the castle to use as an example in her future classes. I was delighted that she valued my creation; not to mention relieved that I wasn’t the one who had to store it. When Shirley moved to Lexington a few years later, she took my castle with her. I think that castle was one of the reasons that she and I bonded. She saw something in me through the castle assignment that caused her to pause and consider the young woman who had designed it. I paused and saw a caring teacher who took the time to talk with me about what that castle in the air represented in my life.
I was a little older than most of Miss Mason’s other students. I was also depressed, dealing with the separation from my husband and trying to blend back into my parents' life; not an easy adjustment. Although I had grown up in rural southern Ohio, living out of the area for four years had changed me. I no longer fit in. Two years teaching in northern Ohio; another two years on an air force base in Turkey; both had broadened my narrow viewpoint. Shirley sensed that I was uncomfortable and troubled. I sensed that she too felt alienated by the culture and cliques that surrounded us. There was something about Miss Mason that let me know she would listen without judging. As we grew more comfortable with each other, I started attaching poetry to my art projects although that was not part of her assignments. Then, I started sharing my other writing with her. I needed someone outside my family circle to whom I could relate. Miss Mason stepped into the niche. My mother said she felt sorry for Miss Mason because she seemed like such a lonely person. I tried not to show how lonely I felt because after all I was surrounded by my family.
I continued to visit Shirley after our class ended that semester. She mentioned to me that she and two friends were working on a book. She did not give me any details. I graduated in the spring, and she wished me well. The next day I drove to South Carolina to re-join my husband and to teach there. I arrived the first week of June; the second week my husband received orders to report to Taiwan for two years. I was not allowed to go with him. The first of August I was back in Ohio where I was hired to teach fifth grade in my old school district near Columbus. I wrote Shirley to catch up on recent events, and she wrote back. That letter was the first one I received of what would become a twenty-eight year correspondence.