When Hannah Mueller, a German immigrant, was 2 years old, she moved to & settled in New York City, along with her family, after World War 2. She somehow retained her German accent, even into adulthood. She married an Italian man, named Marco Minnelli, but he was a serial cheater. Eventually, they divorced. They had no children together.
This led Hannah, a homemaker, to be forced to be her own wife, husband & child. So, she took up opportunities to be both a substitute bus driver & a substitute teacher. She loved the flexibility.
One day, she was substituting a PE class for Coach Dietrich, who tore a ligament in his left leg from slipping on an icy sidewalk. She instructed the 4th graders to do their daily exercise routines. One girl didn't want to do pushups, & she kept playing around. She had slight behavioral issues because of having no father in the house. Hannah wondered if her punishment of making the girl run laps during the rest of the gym class, while the other kids played volleyball, was too harsh. The principal said that it wasn't.
The next day, Hannah did substitute bus driving for a high school. The children were rowdy & kept wanting to blast loud music from their phones. She said that she wasn't going to continue on driving until all of the students had their phones on mute. She warned them about being punished for being late for school. Some of the children cared, & others didn't. Eventually, they cooperated, & they arrived to school just in time.
After school, Hannah saw 1of the high school students from the bus while leaving the Bleecker St. subway station, with a bag of a subway sandwich in her hand. The boy asked her, "A sub for a sub, huh?" He looked her up & down & said, "From a substitute teacher to a subordinate teacher. From a subway station to a subway sandwich. Why does everything have to be sub___ SOMETHING with you? Next, will you go from a subpar human to a subhuman? I know what you did to my little sister!" & then he walked off.
Hannah was puzzled & tried to connect the dots. She didn't realize that the girl she punished in gym class was the boy's younger sister. After all, the principal told her that she did the right thing. Sadly, this turned out to make Hannah believe that American children are abusive, disrespectful bullies. She ended up moving back to Germany, hoping for a better life.
THE END