Connie wanted to call after the woman, find out her name, who she was, but a wild bunch of children ran by going towards the sharp plunge steps.
Connie screamed, “Stop!” but they didn’t listen.
They went tumbling down the steps, slamming into each other, screaming.
Connie saw them, and it was such a perfect example of what the woman had described she wanted to show her, but the woman was gone.
The words the woman had said remained. She listened to those words over the screams of the children and decided not to continue at the school. Not to waste her time.
The old woman was right about the school, the parents, the kids. The children she taught were just like those plunging down the uneven steps; how could they function in the real world?
The words Real World covered Connie as she made her way home, no longer depressed.