We say "Pan". What do you Say?

            “Now that you’re half way through third grade, there’s no more ‘catchies’ in handball.”  The class groaned.  Jorge Molina raised his hand and complained that then they’d always get out.  Mrs. Jimenez smiled.  “That’s the idea, Jorge.  You hit the ball so the others will miss and get out.  You all need to learn strategies for hitting whatever comes.  We’ll practice during PE”.  The boys and girls looked at each other and groaned again.

            Pratima Patell raised her hand.  “But not Hana right?  She can still catch the ball first, can’t she?”  The teacher nodded.  She saw a shy smile spread on Hana’s face.  Of course she would allow Hana to catch the ball first.  Cecilia Perez patted her friend’s back softly.

            Late October Hana Park walked into Mrs. Jimenez’s classroom third grade ESL class clutching a Korean/English Dictionary in her left hand.  She held her right hand behind her back.  “Class, please welcome Hana Park.  “The children all said, “Hello, Hana.”  The small girl held her head down, and her cheeks turned bright red.  Mrs. Jimenez found an empty seat for Hana, and gave the girl a collection of books and supplies.  When she looked about her new classroom, Hanna found the Korean word for welcome, 환영, among many other words under a photo of multi-ethnic children holding hands. On the colorful walls the she saw international flags and other artifacts filled all spaces not covered with children’s work.   The environment felt welcoming, yet at first, Hana kept to herself on the playground and ate alone always hiding her deformed hand which resembled a claw.  The other children tried to encourage her to play, but Hanna politely declined.

            A few weeks later, Cecelia entered the class and sat in the empty seat next to Hanna.  That first day, Cecelia put her head on the desk and cried.  Hana looked at her desk mate.  She drew something on paper and handed it to Cecilia.  It was a drawing of a blue flower and a red heart.  Cecilia took the drawing and smiled.   She looked up a word in her Spanish/English dictionary.  Then she pointed to Hana’s hand.  “What?” she wrote on the same paper.

            Hana covered her hand, lowered her eyes, cleared her throat, and said in a hoarse voice, “Born”.  When Cecilia saw the tears roll down Hana’s face, she looked for another word in her dictionary.  Cecilia wrote “friends” on the paper and pointed to herself and Hana.  After that, she hugged Hanna. 

            The girls became inseparable.  They used their dictionaries to help each other with English and soon began giggling together over shared jokes.  Mrs. Jimenez sometimes had to remind them to work quietly.

            At first, Cecilia offered to help Hana with difficult tasks, but Hana actually demonstrated a great deal of proficiency in using her afflicted appendage once she felt more comfortable exposing her hand to others.  She could do almost anything that the other children did.  She could pass papers, hold a pencil and even play handball if allowed to catch the ball first.  Before long Hana and Cecilia joined their classmates at play but always remained special friends.  No one ever mentioned Hana’s hand, but when some playground bully made fun of her, Hana’s classmates screamed, “Get out of here!”

            Sometimes the two friends stayed in at recess always whispering and writing in notebooks.  They seemed to be engaged in a secret project.  Overcome with curiosity, Mrs.  Jimenez asked what the girls spent so much time doing.  “You will see,” smiled Cecelia.

            Finally, after several weeks, Hana shyly handed some stapled pieces of paper to the teacher saying only, “You read?”  On the pages in carefully crafted English, the girls had written story of their growing friendship called, “We Say Pan.  What do You Say?  It began, “My friend and I come from different places in the world.  In America, We learn English, but we also speak our mother languages.  We teach each other our languages while we help ourselves learn English….”  The story went on to speak about how sharing their home cultures with each other made them feel less sad about having left family and friends behind. 

            Mrs.  Jimenez read the story.  She smiled at the two friends.   “In a few weeks, our school will celebrate “International Day.”  Would you girls like to read your story at the assembly?” 

            Three weeks later, Hana and Cecilia walked up to the stage of the school auditorium holding hands.  They alternated reading from the paper they held together.  Hana didn’t hide her hand.  They finished reading their story to thunderous applause.  In the audience, one beaming teacher whispered, “Welcome to America.”