The Children (inspired by Jim Heynen’s The One Room Schoolhouse)

In Papua New Guinea they let the children run around barefoot. Nobody wears shoes to school, not even the teachers. The children don’t notice. They’re too wrapped up in catching mice to feed the tenth graders’ snake. Last week they let us skip class to watch him swallow one whole.

The children don’t like going to the market. Leaving the base at all meant putting on shoes. The boys don’t mind when their toes come back stained black and red from the pools of chewing betel nut. The girls wear the rain boots the church gave everyone.

The children are allowed to stay out past curfew on Friday nights. The older kids teach us younger kids how to play cops and robbers. I hid behind the Australian girl’s house for thirty minutes one time. I can’t remember if we won.

The water is so clear, even kicking up the sand couldn’t blur the spotted starfish the children jumped over like some sort of ocean-hop-scotch. They traded sand dollars for popsicles. Our parents gave us funny shaped coins to give to the natives in the markets. They always smiled back, their mouths stained black and red.