Lucan was sitting on the stairs as Lillian came around the corner of the building. She jerked to a halt.

"I wasn't expecting you until two, Mister Hayes," she said glancing up at him.

"Clock stopped". Lucan grinned. "I took a guess."

Lillian's heart skipped when he smiled. She reprimanded herself for her unrestrained reaction. Once inside she placed her satchel on the table and said, "Would you sit, Mister Hayes, while I get myself organised?"

Looking around the room, Lucan said, "I'm thinkin' I won't fit at one of them desks, Miss Rowles."

She placed a slate and two leads on her table. "Oh no, of course you won't. Silly me." She blushed and added, "I'll go and get another chair then we can both sit at my table."

Lucan watched her scurry from the room. She was back in a moment with a chair so he took the chair from her and carried it to her desk.

Sitting across from him, Lillian smiled and brushed hair from her face. "Well then. Let me see. Can you read or write anything at all?"

"No, Miss."

"Not even your name?"

"Just placed me mark."

Lillian almost corrected his speech but thought better of it. There'd be plenty of time for that later. "I shall start you with the alphabet."

"What's that then?"

"Oh... the alphabet are letters, there are twenty-six of them. We shall start with the first." She paused in thought, and then continued, "When these letters are put together in different sequences, they make words. For example, your first name, Lucan, is made up of the letters L...u...c...a...n."

Lucan watched as she wrote each letter of his name on the slate with the lead. He smiled as she looked up at him.

Again, Lillian's heart skipped and her head seemed to fill with fog. She cleared her throat hoping the fog thinned. "Would you like to try to write your name?"

He nodded so she handed him the lead. Lucan grasped it in his fist.

"No! No!" she shrieked waving her hands at him.

Lucan jerked his head back and stared at her.

Her face flooded with colour. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell, but you don't hold the lead like that." She reached out and took it from him. "Like this. A pinch almost. Using your thumb, pointer and index fingers." She smiled, telling herself he wasn't a child and therefore she must not treat him as one.

Lucan took the lead in his hand and tried to hold it as she said, but fumbled.

"It's not so easy is it, Mister Hayes?" Lillian said suppressing a giggle. "You have rather large fingers."

Chuckling, Lucan said, "No it ain't easy that's for sure".

"Isn..." Lillian stopped her correction midway. "I suppose I should have shown you first. I'm not being a very good teacher, am I?"

He smiled and held her gaze.

Lillian swallowed the lump in her throat, and then took his hand in hers. She manoeuvred his fingers into position, and then looked back at his face.

A warm feeling flowed through Lucan's body at the touch of her hand. He held his breath trying to remain detached.

"There we are. How does that feel?"

"Strange, but I guess I'll get used to it," he said.

"Now see if you can write your name by copying what I've written," Lillian encouraged.

Lucan pressed down on the slate. The lead snapped. "Shite. I'm sorry, Miss Rowles," Lucan gushed. "I'll gladly pay for it." He swallowed and added, "And I'm forgetting I'm with a lady, I hope you forgive me for me language."

"It's alright, Mister Hayes." His language was another thing she'd have to subtly change. She said, "The children will write with it. Next time don't press so hard. You only need enough pressure so the lead doesn't slip. Just enough to keep it firm." She gave him a patient smile and added as an afterthought, "Perhaps it would be best if I start you with a sandbox." She got up and went to the corner of the room where rectangular shaped boxes were stacked one on top of the other. Each one was filled with sand and contained a stick. Lillian brought one back and put it in front of Lucan.

"Broken sticks are simpler to replace," she said as she smiled and sat down. "We smooth the sand out and use the stick like we do the lead. It's easier to rub out the mistakes and great for beginners. You have a try."

Lucan nodded as Lillian slid the box closer to him. This time he did as she said. When he was finished writing he studied the sandbox. Though his letters weren't perfect he beamed with pride.

His grin reminded Lillian of the children she taught. They too smiled after writing their name for the first time. "Very good, Mister Hayes. Do you remember what each letter was called?"

Screwing up his mouth, Lucan's smile turned to a grimace as he shook his head.

"I'll tell you again." She pointed as she spoke. "L...u...c...a...n, now your turn. Touch each letter as you say it." She smiled. "It'll help you remember them."

He nodded. "L...u...c...a...n."

"Excellent. Each letter makes a sound, that's where speech comes from." She looked at him to make sure he understood what she was saying. "For example, the letter L says lll... as in LLL...ucan. Can you hear it?"

Lucan nodded.

"It gets a bit tricky at times because sometimes the letters don't make the basic sounds that I'm going to teach you. For instance, the letter U says Uh! As in uncle but in your name, it's saying oo... LLL... oo... can. Do you understand, Mister Hayes?"

Lucan released his breath. It all seemed complicated to him. "Yes and No."

Nodding her understanding, Lillian said, "I'm going to teach you the alphabet and their basic sounds. Once you master those we'll move on to double sounds, so don't panic about it." She smiled and patted his hand. "I'm sure Covey will be able to help you practice. He knows all the letters and sounds now." She smiled once more and waited for Lucan to say something. He just nodded so she continued, "So the first letter of the alphabet is A and the sound A makes is A... as in the word apple. Can you hear the sound, Mister Hayes?"

Lucan nodded and said, "So apple starts with A."

"That's correct and this is how you write A." Lillian used a slate and lead to write down the letter. "When we've finished today you can take this slate home. I'll lend you a sandbox so you can practice. I don't think it'll take you too long to learn them all."

With a doubtful smile, Lucan said, "I hope not, Miss Rowles, but you might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks."

She murmured, "I can teach any old dog, Mister Hayes, as long as he's willing to learn." Lillian blushed and knew she was flirting. She couldn't believe how forward she was being.

*****

By the time Lucan left he had a slate full of letters and a head full of sounds. He wasn't sure he'd know them all by the next week, but he felt a spring in his step and wished that next week was tomorrow.

How do you think this lesson went?

Photo copyrights - Top - Object Lessons - this is a slate and lead in case any of you don't know what one looks like.  Now you're probably not going to believe me but I used one of these when I was in my first year of school.  We didn't start using paper and pencil until the next year.  It's not that I'm ancient, older yes, but the reason was that we were very backward in the Far North of Australia and so resources got to us slower than it did the big cities.  My husband is from Sydney and a little older than me and he had never used or seen one.

Photo 2 - Scholastic. com