"What was it Mr. Jenkins wanted you to pick up, Jason?" Natalie asked quietly, but with a firm tone in her voice. She hadn't had Jason as a student yet, but since the classes changed every week, she would doubtless see him in the classroom soon, and there was no point in letting his adolescent interest get out of hand.
"The… um… his… The thing that he uses to test for poison… I mean, the book…" The teenager's face was beginning to flush with embarrassment, as he groped his stunned young mind for the object of his visit. He raised his eyes to look pleadingly into Natalie's lovely face for help, but when he met her big, doe-like brown eyes he quickly averted his own. In his fresh young mind he didn't know what was bothering him, but he knew that he had forgotten completely what the nature guide wanted him to pick up from his wife.
"The poison plants book?" Natalie guessed. "Or was it the guide to edible foliage?" Although her husband had told her by intercom that he was sending a boy to the teachers' and counselors' cabin for something, the ancient communications equipment was so unreliable that his voice had been completely obscured by static. All she knew was that Jason Powell was coming for something.
But the poor lad was at a loss for words. Although he was a good head taller than the young woman, Natalie suddenly had the urge to wrap her arms around him and comfort him in his distress. She knew it was a motherly response, and inwardly she wondered if she would ever have children of her own.