The Bag

I reached behind the pile of clean clothes that needed folding and grabbed the brown leather bag. As I pulled it toward me, the smell of animal hide wafted through the air, and I breathed it in. I put it on my bed as my mind drifted back to the time that I had first held it.

I was sitting at a picnic table in downtown Homewood with my parents and Nathalie. The weekend of my college graduation was upon me, and I knew what was in the beautifully wrapped box that lay before me. I opened the box, and before I could even remove the paper the scent gave away what I could not see with my eyes. It was a leather messenger bag. The exact one I had asked for. It was constructed with all natural leather, brass buckles and rivets designed after old-fashioned mail bags for carrying letters when most postmen walked their postal route.

“What would you like for graduation?” my parents had asked as May approached.

“I think I want a leather bag for when I have a job,” I replied. “I am not going to want to take my backpack.”

While I had enjoyed my pack, it was not really nice enough to use in an office setting. Carrying my computer and book in it was fine for school, but a job is different. I wanted something more professional. Since receiving the bag I had to look for excuses to use it. I took it to Birmingham a few times, and even once to the beach, but not having a job made its use uncalled for the majority of the time. So there it sat in the corner of my room, under the occasional pile of clothes, until I retrieved it for my first substitute teaching assignment.

Around Christmas was the first time I had really accepted the idea as a possibility. Mom had brought it up a few time before but now other people were suggesting it.

“You should try subbing,” they told me.

Mom thought of it because when she is out she likes having good subs, and I had already taught some of her students the basics of parliamentary procedure last summer. She trusts me with them. I like pretty much everything but math, and I had enjoyed teaching merit-badge classes in Scouts so I figured I would give it a try.

Starting the process to become a substitute teacher is easy, and finishing it is not difficult; it just takes a long time. There are a lot of papers to fill out, a background check, fingerprint check, interview, online class, and orientation. I finally finished all of the requirements this past Thursday before I went to spend a few days with Nathalie’s family, and started checking the online scheduling system so see what classes I could pick up at the high school. The day after I returned home from my trip I logged on to find a two-day assignment and I scooped it up.

The night before my first day on the job I grabbed my bag and as I began to fill it with what I needed for the next day I smiled and kept breathing in its sweet leather smell.