Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Lynnea, a young black woman, moves to Baltimore from Kentucky. She went home after college but became frustrated working in the Quickie Mart and with the fact that there were very few African Americans there. Lynnea chose Baltimore on impulse. Three months later, Lynnea is tired of struggling and joins a certification program to become a teacher. In class, the instructor tells the teaching students to disappear, much to the confusion of Lynnea and one of her classmates, Robert, who is a police officer. Jake Bonza, a veteran teacher who is aiding the instructor, explains that they will have to become the students for each other so they can practice teaching, which means misbehaving and being “the kind of fucked-up students you know y’all were or wanted to be” (58). As they each take their turns, Lynnea is horrified at the behavior of her classmates, certain that her students will be different.

At the end of the certification program, Lynnea takes a job teaching English and finds it impossible to control her classroom. No matter how much she yells or disciplines them, her students mock her and refuse to listen. On Fridays, Lynnea goes to a bar with her teaching school classmates. Robert the Cop complains that he just wishes his students would listen. Jake Bonza enters, and Lynnea is offended when he asks if she thinks she’ll make it through teaching, as if he knows that she is having trouble. At school a few days later, one of the girls in Lynnea’s class start brazenly doing another girl’s hair while Lynnea is trying to teach. Angrily, Lynnea sends them out of class. One girl, Ebony, refuses to leave. After Lynnea grabs Ebony’s shoulders, Ebony slaps her and then walks out. Later, the principal lectures Lynnea about her classroom management.

Unsure what to do, Lynnea calls Jake Bonza. He shows up at the school, and they go for a walk. Lynnea doesn’t understand why none of her students have a “light in their eyes” when she teaches (65), and Bonza laughs, suggesting she needs to care more about the students. Then Bonza tells her that Robert the Cop quit teaching. Lynnea isn’t surprised. She remembers how well Robert managed his fake classroom, but after that day, he went to the black neighborhood to give out speeding tickets and arrest vagrants as “payback” for the bad behavior of his students. Bonza comments, “Robert didn’t have the heart for it. Not like you, hon” (67). Bonza then kisses Lynnea, who pushes him off and reminds him that he has a wife.

Two weeks later, Lynnea gets a new student, a girl named Sheba who previously stabbed a teacher and who lives in a home for girls called Our Lady of Perpetual Peace. Lynnea is less than enthusiastic, but when Sheba arrives, she commands the class, demanding that the students stay quiet and pay attention. Although Sheba keeps the other students in line, she goes to see Lynnea to tell her that they’re all bored. Sheba suggests that Lynnea incorporate some class participation—let students pretend that The Great Gatsby is a soap opera or that they’re on a talk show. Lynnea does, and her class and her stress levels begin to improve.

Eventually, Sheba’s attendance becomes sporadic, and she becomes quiet. The class becomes louder and louder without Sheba’s intervention. One day, Lynnea tells one of the louder students, April, to leave the class. Sheba speaks up, asking why Lynnea is punishing April when everyone was talking. Lynnea is surprised that Sheba is being adversarial, and although she badly wants to tell Sheba to stay, she yells at her to leave instead. However, the guidance counselor comes to Lynnea’s classroom to get Sheba before Lynnea can kick her out because she has a doctor’s appointment. After Sheba leaves, the class tells Lynnea that Sheba is pregnant.

One day after school, Lynnea spots Sheba and offers her a ride home. Lynnea is stunned to realize that Our Lady of Perpetual Peace is a detention facility. Lynnea offers to help Sheba if she needs it, but Sheba rejects her. Before driving away, Lynnea tells her, “Take care of that baby” (78), realizing after that this was the wrong thing to say to someone who didn’t want the baby. On her way home, Lynnea is pulled over for speeding. She is pleasantly surprised to see Robert, but he acts as if she means nothing to him and gives her a ticket. Angrily, she speeds home. She sees two teens crossing the street and impulsively speeds up, determined to make them get out of the way. Instead, she hits them. Lynnea panics, praying that they’re alive. She discovers that one has an injured foot, but they appear to be otherwise fine. Knowing that her teaching career is over and leaving the scene of an accident is illegal, Lynnea speeds off anyway, feeling ridiculous for believing that she could reach Sheba or help her.