The Black Pouch

Last week I was at school, gleefully sorting through six new boxes of books that had made their way from Strafford, Missouri to our library here. In the midst of my complacent state, one of the teachers entered the office with a request; the deputy principal wanted me to go through her purse and give him her digital camera. I began going through her cluttered bag with only a vague idea of what the case looked like. Soon I came upon a black pouch which I assumed to contain the camera. I opened in and instead found…a gun.

To put it mildly, I was in shock; what in the hell was a teacher doing with a gun at school? I quickly pushed it aside, found the camera and handed it off to the teacher as he left the office before I collapsed in my chair to contemplate…

In this situation, what do I do? Technically, I should have never found it in the first place. Now, looking back, I wonder if I just imagined the entire thing. The whole situation seems too fantastic to be a reality. Do I say something to her, a woman I find incredibly intimidated, especially now that I know that she feels the need to carry a gun to school? I suppose my only real fear, because I don’t think she plans on using it, is that the weapon gets in the hands of a student. Yet, this is only a vague fear as students have almost no access to the principal’s office. How is it that I’m in this ridiculous conundrum to begin with?