MAY 5TH

By Roger Esty

"So who can tell me what Cinco De Mayo stands for?"
Half the hands in the class went up. That was a first for me. I'd been teaching U.S. History at the school for nine years. I'd never seen so many hands go up. Since Maximillian's rule in Mexico was not a part of my curriculum,I'm not suppose to teach about it. But on May 5th I always allow myself the opportunity.

"Manny. Your hand was up first."
"It was about the battle of Puebla," he answered.
Manny was a heavy set Mexican kid. Round face. Always cracking jokes.
"Did you learn that here or in Mexico?",I asked him.
"Mr. Wasson told us about it in 1st period English class today."
"Do you know who the Emperor's name was?"
"I forgot",he said with a big grin.
"Does anyone know who the Mexicans fought?"
"The Americans,"yelled Yolanda from the corner of the room.
"No,it was...anyone?"
"I think it was the French",said Manny with a laugh.

I thought that that was about it for Cinco De Mayo.
"What do we need to know that stuff for?"snarled Yolanda."It's a waste of time."
In back of where Yolanda was sitting several students broke out laughing.
"What's going on?" I said in my stern voice.
"Oh,"said Yolanda with a big smirk. "Joey farted."
The class started to laugh.
"Come up here Yolanda. Here's an after school detention slip."
Yolanda trodded up to my desk.
"What did I say?" as she rolled her eyes.

Just then the bell rang to end the period. The kids rushed out the door noisily. It was now 3rd period. My class preparation period. But I did all my prep work for the day early in the morning before school started.Before the other teachers got there. That way I could rest. Doze off during 3rd period.

I locked the door from the outside. Turned off the lights. I put a CD in my little boom box. Charlie Parker recorded at The Rockland Palace in Harlem. 1952. I guess that night some fan had brought a tape recorder to tape the sessions of Charlie Parker and the Quintet that night. The tapes weren't discovered until 20 years after Parker's death .They were in someone's attic. Historians guess the was played around 3 or 4 in the morning. The sound is distant. Sounding far away. You can here the noise in the backround of the people talking,shouting. A constant hum of human sound being carried along by Charlie Parker's alto.

Parker started the set off with one of his mainstays,"Out Of Nowhere." I've listened to it a thousand times. As I sat back in my chair with the lights out and the door locked ,I closed my eyes. I didn't turn the volume up too much. The notes from the alto echoed across the darkened classroom. My nose began to tingle. It souded like something from out of nowhere.