Israelcraft

Angelina was harried but nonetheless delighted to see Johannes with his notebook. She would have liked him to sit down beside her, but she had her hands full and was surrounded. She thanked him and told him she would take good care of it, and return it before long.
As the children were restless and ornery, she opened it up straight away.
The first sketch was of two kit beavers playing among the water lilies.

The children had little patience left, and it was dwindling quickly. It wasn’t really fair to be showing Johannes’ sketches to children who were tired and hungry.

But amazingly, they forgot about themselves and became excited when they saw the kits in the lilies. Angelina told them what Johannes had told her earlier: that there was a beaver dam on a stream that flowed into the river not far from where they started their excursion. “And these are the baby beavers that live there; six all together. They are called ‘kits’”. One of the kindergartners misunderstood and said, “Baskets, baskets”, and all the kindergartners joined in.
This was one of those moments when Angelina was overcome with love for her kindergartners. Sometimes they surprised or delighted her, or made her laugh so hard it changed her world.
Not that they couldn’t be very naughty when the had their minds set on it.
But they were generally putty in her hands.
Angelina was being paid to do something she loved.
Living in her world usually brought her great peace and joy; and for that, she was grateful.
She was a one of a kind kindergarten teacher.
She knew that an easy going atmosphere brought the best results, so she turned many learning tasks into rhymes and games; and the children loved rhymes and games. And because they loved rhymes and games, and she loved rhymes and games; they loved coming to kindergarten. Life was generally just one big party, when she was around.
While Angelina was busy getting the most out of her kindergartners, they had no idea how much she was conniving to wrap her required educational goals into rhymes and games.
The most available and obvious example is the kindergartners here and now, at their lowest ebb, exhausted and hungry and ready for their naps; having new life blown into them by Abigail, with the help of Johannes sketches.

It continues:

The kindergartners were enthralled as Angelina opened the notebook randomly to an otter diving into the water. Angelina asked questions about each sketch. The children were giving their opinions and describing what they saw in short little sentences.
The next sketch she opened to was of Stubbytail asleep in the Public Garden. The children noticed she had no tail. Annie wanted to color Stubbytail.
Now Angelina went through the sketchbook one sketch at a time so they wouldn’t miss any. She was having as good a time as the children, if not better.

Johannes was watching Angelina leafing through his sketchbook with the kindergartners. He thought she was truly an angel. He knew he’d forever regret it if he didn’t come up with something soon.
But what?
Johannes hadn’t thought much about the ramifications of being a time traveler. But it made a difference; all the difference in the world.
Would he tell to her about it? It was an excellent question, and he needed to think about it. But Johannes was getting ahead of himself.
This first step was the step he was having difficulty with at the moment, and if he didn’t get this one right; there wouldn’t BE anything other.

Angelina, meanwhile busy with the children, was even busier trying to figure out what to do about Johannes. The tour was coming to an end soon. The boat had passed the vehicle bridge and two swinging bridges. Her time window was closing.
Perhaps he would meet her one evening after she trained in the gym?
She took a stray piece of paper from her bag; and wrote: “Perhaps we could meet sometime after I train? You can call me, or just come.” Below that was the gym address, days, and times she finished there, with her full name and phone number. She opened Johannes’ sketchbook and stuck it inside partly sticking out, so he wouldn’t miss it.

It wasn’t like Angelina to make such a bold move; but it had been beyond her to leave things as they were. She knew it was useless to put up a fight.
As a matter of fact, she was a lot like Stubbytail when it came to knowing when it was useless to put up a fight.

But surprising Angelina’s usually confident self, she botched it; like, totally.
Looking into Johannes eyes as she was returning his notebook and thanking him, she got lost there, and forgot to tell him about the note inside.
Johannes noticed her nervousness and wondered about what. She couldn’t be more nervous than I am, he thought, and put the notebook into his bag.
This didn’t stop his thoughts from dancing around Angelina.

There was finally a moment of quiet after the kindergartners descended. Johannes felt like touching the notebook that had been so recently in Angelina’s possession.
He took it back out of his bag. There was a corner of paper protruding from between the pages, which looked like a bit of trash gone astray. He was about to crumple it up into a ball and shoot it into the trash bin by the cargo boxes, when he noticed there was writing on it. There were some words, times and days, the word ‘gym’. Angelina’s name was clear enough: Angelina Timberland. And there was a phone number. Johannes had figured out what a phone was, volunteering at the Animal Shelter. He knew people took photos with them, as people had photographed him. He also knew people talked with each other on them.
(In his opinion, people were overly attached to them.)
She wants to see me again. He thought, and realized she had solved his problem.

The captain was on the megaphone drawing things to a close.
Angelina was helping the children with their jackets and backpacks; making sure they left nothing behind. Angelina’s co-worker was packing two large plastic carrying bags full of the primary colored folded plastic boxes that the kindergartners had used to make the magnificent structure that Johannes had eternalized by drawing it in some detail, behind the kindergartners, as he executed his first paid commission.

The boat docked by the swinging bridge where the tour began, on the opposite side of the river. The captain helped Angelina and the kindergartners over the gap to the dock. Just to complicate things, Annie wasn’t leaving Angelina’s side. One kindergartners’ backpack almost fell into the water but was retrieved in the nick of time. The last of the tourists said goodbye.
The captain had asked Johannes to wait on the dock for him. As Johannes was waiting, he reflected. He urgently needed drawing paper, but he didn’t want to sound foolish, as he knew nothing about anything. He decided that from here on out, he would keep his eyes open, and his mouth shut.
He also decided the money he had gotten for his first paid commission, would most likely suffice for whatever he needed in the way of art supplies. And if he was wrong, he would just deal with it.
And right before Captain Bowditch left the boat for good, THE ONLY OTHER CAT IN THE VICINITY jumped the gap, and made his way off in the direction of the Animal Shelter, wagging his tail.