Button - 9. A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

“Get outta my room,” Graham heard Button shout. The boy was so loud it cut through the whir of the sewing machine. He’d been struggling with the lining of Button’s Minnesota pageant costume for the spring program at school. Graham felt the frustration of the sewing mixed with the kids’ antics.

“What’s going on in there?” he shouted towards the bedrooms. “Sarah?”

“Pop, she keeps touching my stuff,” Button’s head popped out from behind the door. “Make her stop it.”

“I wasn’t doing nothing,” Sarah said walking out from Button’s bedroom. Her brother gave her a thunderous look.

“I don’t know why I wanted a sister,” he said and slammed the door.

Graham could sympathize. While they usually got along so well, lately Sarah had been deliberately provoking her brother. He supposed it was only normal for siblings to torment one another. He could recall a few times he’d done just that to his brother Curtie.

“Just leave him alone,” Graham said gruffly but noticed Sarah was getting teary eyed. Button’s comment about not wanting a sister had been overly harsh. Graham got up from the table to comfort her. It was hard for her.

“Button hates me,” Sarah said as Graham picked her up and soothed her. “I didn’t do nothing wrong.”

“He shouldn’t have said that,” Graham said softly. “He doesn’t mean it. You know your brother loves you very much.”

Sarah nuzzled the man, her tears easing. Sometimes she just liked to get a rise out of Button. It was just kind of fun. It felt good.

“I’m sure he’ll say he’s sorry,” Graham whispered to her and set her back on the floor.

“What’s for dinner hot stuff?” he heard Craig call out as the front door shut.

“I’m in here,” Graham said. “I haven’t started it yet.”

“Hi there Gray. Can I get a welcome home smooch?” Craig asked.

“What are you doing here?” the big blond man asked fingering the muslin and looking at the stitching.

“I’m trying to get the liner of Button’s costume sewn but it’s not going so well,” Graham said chewing his lip. He was hoping Craig would take over. Surprisingly, the only nerdy thing about his jock husband was his love of the theater. Craig had starred in a couple of musicals and had helped with the costumes. Graham wasn’t entirely shocked about Craig’s dramatic side, after all his husband was a big old ham.

“You’re using a chain stitch. That will never hold with this flimsy fabric,” Craig said thoughtfully. “We need a good sturdy zigzag that can handle Button’s running around in it. Just run it across a couple of times and…”

“How about you finish the sewing and I’ll get dinner started,” Graham interrupted. “Oh, and you get to handle the fight between Sarah and Button too.”

“I guess that’s ‘welcome home’ huh?” Craig muttered but he was already changing the setting and lining up the fabric. He loved the costume Button would be wearing. It was pretty cool.

*********************

“Your Dad is finishing up your costume and we’ll bring it by tonight after school,” Graham said to Button as the boy struggled with his backpack. He took out the sack with his lunch and rooted around looking for something. Graham looked around at the school parking lot. There were parents dropping off kids and racing off. Kids were milling around laughing with their companions.

“Did you get that?” Graham said to his distracted son. “The pageant is tonight and we’ll bring it here, okay Button?”

“Don’t call me that here,” the boy said finally finding his yo-yo. He held it up but frowned at his Pop. “Remember. You can’t call me Button here.”

“I won’t. Now did you hear what I said about your costume?” Graham said urgently. “I don’t need a frantic call later because you think we forgot about it.”

“I heard you. It was only that one time,” Button pouted. “I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s okay,” Graham said and watched as the other children with their colorful backpacks swarmed around the car. Behind them an anxious mother was honking at them. He needed to get to the store and then…

“Bye Pops,” Button said with a grin as he inspected the yo-yo. Andy was bringing his and so was Josie. They were going to have a contest at recess. They’d all been practicing and Sid was gonna judge who did ‘cats in the cradle’ the best.

“Okay, you got everything?” Graham asked as Button opened the door and got out. He waved and shut the door.

“Now, first I better head to…” Graham muttered but then he saw Button’s lunch sack sitting next to the seat. “Oh, crap.”

Graham got out of the car and held up the bag. “Button, you forgot your lunch.”

Button’s face fell to the ground. He looked nervously around but no one seemed to notice him. He went over to his father and took the bag. All the blood in Graham’s face had drained away. Button took the bag, with his head down walked around the car towards the school door.

The last thing Graham heard as he closed the door to leave was, “Hey there Button. What’ve you got in the bag Baby Button? Is it a wittle bottle for the baby?” It was the voices of young boys and it didn’t sound playful.

“Oh shit,” Graham swore to himself. This wasn’t going to be good.

*******************

“Hey, Baby Button!” Craig heard someone call to him from down the hall. “Do you need your diaper changed?”

It was Kevin Dooley. Oh shit.

Kevin Dooley was the class clown and everyone loved him. He was funny, energetic and a born leader. He also didn’t like Craig for some reason. The boy could never figure out why. He’d tease him mercilessly whenever their paths crossed and now Pop had given him new ammunition.

The name “Baby Button” wasn’t just used by Kevin either. He’d been plagued with it all day.

Now it was lunchtime and everyone else would hear about his name too. It was so embarrassing.

“Hey, Baby Button,” Kevin puffed as he came to a halt in front of him. “Do you need to be burped after you have your bottle?”

“Leave me alone,” Craig said and left to join his friends at their table. Andy was hunched over his school lunch as usual. Josie was chewing on a carrot stick when he sat down.

“Kevin bugging you again?” Josie asked.

“Every day he bugs me but Pop called me “Button” right in front of him this morning,” Craig groused. “He hasn’t let it go all morning.”

“Just ignore him. I do,” Andy said with a mouth full of French fries. “He’s an ass.”

“Yeah, well I hope he just forgets about it,” Craig said taking a bite of his turkey on focaccia. Pop did make the best lunch.

Kevin didn’t forget about it. Not in the least.

After lunch, Craig went back to his third grade classroom and got ready for their math lesson. He liked math, it came easily to him. For some reason math made sense to him. The numbers were easier than words. They were equations and so there was always a right answer.

The only part of math he didn’t like was when Ms. Lund put problems on the board and made kids come up in front of the whole class and solve them. As much as Craig liked numbers, he hated people staring at him while he worked. Today the slender brown haired teacher was writing problems on the whiteboard for the students to solve. Craig shrank down into his chair just thinking about it.

“Hey, Baby Button!” Kevin whispered to him. “Where’s your blankie?”

Craig ignored him as Andy sat down in the desk next to him. His friend just shook his head at Craig as the rest of the class filed in. It was gonna be a long afternoon.

One by one, Ms. Lund called kids up to the front to do the problems on the board. Craig breathed a sigh of relief as the last one was done and he hadn’t been called. After the incident in the parking lot this morning and Kevin’s taunting at lunch, he finally had something go his way.

Well, not entirely.

“Okay class, we’re going to have just one more problem to solve today. Craig, will you do the honors?” she said writing in red on the board.

Craig’s heart sank. He could hear Kevin and his buddies murmuring to each other excitedly. Suddenly the room got really hot and Craig could feel the sweat on his forehead. He didn’t look but he knew Kevin, Caleb, and Brent were all snickering about him. They felt so much bigger than him. Or, it could be Craig felt he was shrinking. It was hard to tell.

The boy got out from behind his desk and walked to the front, his head hung low. It sounded like everyone was talking in harsh whispers behind him. Craig picked up a marker and looked at the numbers. ‘That didn’t look so hard,’ he thought.

6439 + 4010 =

He’d done some of those larger number problems with Dad just last night. They were a little tricky but if you lined up the numbers, it was simple addition.

Craig’s hand started toward the board to start writing when he heard it. It was only a pretend cough with the words, “Baby Button” snuck in. His palms felt sweaty and itched. Craig felt like the numbers were starting to move around as his eyes began to water. He hesitated and tried to see. Even pushing his glasses up his nose didn’t help. It felt like he was stuck and couldn’t move.

“Craig, are you okay?” Ms. Lund asked. She sounded alarmed. What was he going to do?

“Are you feeling alright?” The teacher was at his side. Craig knew the whole class was thinking he was stupid. He closed his eyes and opened them and the numbers stopped moving. He wrote 10,449 on the other side of the equal sign. Craig breathed again.

“Correct,” Ms. Lund said taking the marker from his hand. “I knew you could do it.”

As Craig returned to his desk he could see Kevin whispering to Brent who was giggling.

“Nailed it,” Andy said and put out his fist. Craig bumped it and slouched into his seat. That had been awful.

***********************

“You really did a good job with it Craig,” Graham said as they settled in their seats. The auditorium was almost full and excited parents were holding phones and camcorders up to get good angles of the stage.

“The key was getting just the right shades of yellow and red so you could tell what it was,” Craig grinned. He’d been working on the papier –mache costume all day, carefully applying the sodden paper on the chicken wire form. Then Graham had watched as his husband painted it.

“How much time did you spend on it?” Graham asked.

“Not much,” Craig lied. He’d spent three days working to make it just perfect. When Button said he wanted to go with such an elaborate outfit, he had first refused. But when the boy looked into his father’s eyes and asked again, he couldn’t say no. He just couldn’t.

“He’s gonna have the best costume up there,” Graham said looking at the stage. A large banner was hung over the top and read, ‘Made in Minnesota’. All the parents and grandparents around them were twittering with enthusiasm. This was going to be a great pageant.

The lights dimmed and the music started. The audience hushed itself as the program began. It was narrated by Button’s teacher, Ms. Lund. The entire third grade at Heartland Elementary was participating. The curtain opened and it began.

Craig and Graham watched as the children came out one by one to portray their parts. There were a lot of interesting getups. There was a little girl dressed as Dorothy portraying Judy Garland from the Wizard of Oz. A little boy was dressed in Polaris snowmobile gear ready to hit the snow. There was even a small band of kids dressed as Ojibwas pretending to gather wild rice.

Then, near the end, out came their little boy. Button was encased in an apple costume, a Honeycrisp. He looked absolutely adorable with a little stem hat and everything. His glowing red and yellow paint glowed in the lights of the stage. Graham heard a few people whisper how real it looked. He took Craig’s hand and kissed it.

“You nailed it honey,” he said to Craig. Craig was flushed with pride. Button looked awesome.

********************

“Look guys, here comes old snail brain,” Kevin said loudly as Craig walked out the back door of the school toward the parking lot. He tried to ignore the boy but he got right in his face.

“Maybe he’s not just stupid but deaf as well,” Kevin said his spittle hitting Craig’s nose. “Two plus two equals…um, I don’t know.”

“Leave him alone,” Andy said stepping up to Kevin. Brent and Caleb moved in and pushed at him.

“Shut up Butterball,” Kevin scoffed. He was still wearing his Ojibwa costume as were his two friends.

“Don’t call him that,” Craig said and lifted his chin in defiance.

“I’ll call him whatever I want to,” Kevin said.

“Yeah,” Brent said. “’Sides, who goes on stage as a stupid apple anyway?”

“Kids who are too dumb to know it,” Kevin said grinning evilly. “Old fat Crisco here couldn’t fit in the suit so his snail brained friend had to.”

Craig saw Andy was shaking. “Shut up you sum’ a bitch,” he yelled.

“Oh, I see the dumb apple can swear,” Caleb mocked. The three boys danced around Craig and Andy and laughed at them.

Craig felt one of his fits coming on. He could see little flecks of red out of the corners of his eyes. He reached into his pocket for his stress ball but it wasn’t there. But his yoyo was there and he pulled it out and started squeezing it.

“What’s you got there snail brain?” Kevin said and lunged toward him. “What’s a loser like you doing with a nice toy like this?”

“Give it back,” Craig shouted. “It’s mine!”

“Come and get it,” Kevin said holding it up for everyone to see. “Try and get it from me.”

Craig stepped toward the other boy and tried to grab it from him. Kevin calmly tossed it to Brent who Craig could see was smirking at him maliciously.

“I’ve got it. Come and get it snail brain,” Brent snickered and then threw it to Caleb. Caleb held it up and by now a small group of children were gathered watching the event. They laughed as Craig ran from one boy to another trying to get back his toy. The red specks were becoming sparkles and getting closer to him. He could feel a tantrum approaching.

Craig stopped and heard his Pop’s voice. “Count to three and breath.”

Closing his eyes he tried that, desperately hoping it would work. He could hear the three boys mocking him though. Their words were getting through to him. It made the red fog come more quickly.

That’s when he heard his Dad’s voice in his head. “If counting doesn’t work, walk away. Just walk away.”

Craig turned and ran back into the school leaving Andy, his yoyo, and the bullies behind.

*********************

Graham was about to climb out of his skin he was so furious. Natalie laid a hand on his arm and patted it. Across from them at the school office was Kevin Dooley’s mother. She was calmly looking at her phone and ignoring them. When he and Andy’s mother had walked into the office, he tried to greet her but she just looked at him with coldness and Graham thought contempt. Now he was trying not to cut the bitch.

“How is Tessa’s recovery going?” Natalie asked.

Graham thought about it. Of course Natalie would want to know how Button and Sarah’s alcoholic grandmother was doing. As a recovering drunk herself, it would make sense that she’d care. He considered his words carefully though.

“She’s doing okay I guess. She’s had a rough time of it so far,” Graham said watching Natalie’s reaction.

“It’s been a year Graham. Has she been falling off the wagon or something?”

“You could say that. It’s been hard on Sarah especially,” Graham said.

“What happened?” Natalie said gently. “You know I only mean the best for her.”

“She’s out of rehab for the third time, but Craig and I decided to take it slow for Sarah’s sake,” he said softly. “The first couple of times Tessa got out she told us Sarah would come back to live with her. Unfortunately, she got so wasted we didn’t leave her there.”

Natalie carefully assessed Graham’s tone. It was clear he was disgusted by Tessa’s behavior.

“You know it’s a disease. She’ll never be “well” from it. I know. I’ve had my own relapses,” she said taking his hand. “What are her stressors?”

“Sarah and Button,” Graham said around the lump in his throat. “Every time she sees them, she goes back to the bottle. It hurts them so much because Sarah just worships her and keeps asking to ‘go home with grandma.’

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Natalie said. Graham believed her. She was sorry. It was two kids who had to wrestle with Tessa’s demons and not just Tessa.

“If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know,” Natalie offered.

Graham thought about it. If anyone could get through to the kids’ grandmother, Natalie would probably be it. It was worth a shot. He slowly nodded his head.

“That would be very kind of you,” he said.

“Good,” Natalie said. “We’re all in this together.”

“Principal Hall will see you now,” the receptionist said from the doorway. “Please come in.”

The three of them walked into the office. Graham was dragging his feet. Natalie held her head high. Mary Dooley had a painted smile with her teeth set on edge.

“Please sit down,” Cynthia Hall said standing and gesturing toward the three chairs in front of her desk.

Graham sat in the farthest right hand one. Natalie sat in the middle one. Mrs. Dooley quietly slid the left hand chair even further away from them. Her body language was very wooden. The principal could see this wasn’t going to be easy.

“We can’t have children fighting and calling each other names,” Ms. Hall said. “So what do you think the solution is?”

Mary Dooley moved to the edge of her chair. “Is this really necessary?”

“Of course it is. Mr. Holden and Ms. Johnson said Kevin was calling Craig and Andy names. According to Mr. Holden, Kevin took Craig’s yoyo and played keep-away with it.”

“This is silly. Boys tease and taunt one another. It’s part of growing up. I don’t see why this is such a big deal,” Mary said through clenched teeth. “Kevin said he was just kidding around with them.”

“He called my boy a Butterball!” Natalie said loudly. “Why shouldn’t he be disciplined for that?”

Mary Dooley shook her head and smiled. “This is hardly a federal case.”

Graham couldn’t restrain himself any longer. “He called But- I mean Craig a ‘snail brain.”

“Aren’t your boys in special ed?” she asked quietly. “I think sometimes children who are special get coddled a little too much.”

“Coddled? Your brat stole Craig’s yoyo and taunted him with it,” Graham roared.

“Now there is no need for name calling Mr. Holden,” Principal Hall said sternly. “I believe Brent and Caleb said Craig called Kevin a ’sum of a bitch.’ That sounds vaguely familiar.”

Graham grunted and slid back into his chair. “This is ridiculous. Kevin was tormenting Craig all day. Maybe you should teach your son to be nice to people.”

“Principal Hall. This is going nowhere fast. Maybe if we just kept the boys apart this wouldn’t happen.”

“I don’t like disrupting the class like this,” the principal said sitting back in the chair. “We prefer to resolve issues between children.”

“Special needs children are so vulnerable in mainstream classrooms,” Mary Dooley said. “I don’t know why you don’t just keep them safely away in their own space.”

“Andy and Craig are doing quite well academically,” Principal Hall said. “We don’t believe it’s good for children to be segregated like that.”

“Well, when incidents like this happen, we shouldn’t be surprised,” Mary Dooley said coolly. “When children are treated with kid gloves they never learn how to handle social situations.”

Graham wanted to grab his chair and pound it over that horrible woman’s head. Instead he just glared at her.

“Good parenting includes teaching your children to be polite to others and not to take what isn’t theirs,” Natalie said. “I don’t believe you’ve done your job well at all.”

Mary Dooley snorted. “Kevin even offered to apologize to your “special” boys but I see that’s not good enough for you.”

“No. We think Kevin should be disciplined like his buddies Caleb and Brent. After all, Kevin was the ringleader,” Natalie said calmly.

“What does that mean?” Mary asked the principal.

“We are moving them to other classrooms, splitting this little gang up,” Principal Hall said. “I don’t think they are a good combination when together.”

“You’re punishing these boys for some little harmless fun?” Mary Dooley said. “That’s pretty harsh.”

“It’s only fair,” Principal Hall said. “I didn’t want to do it until I spoke with you. Obviously you will do nothing to curb Kevin’s behavior so he’ll have to be moved to a different class.”

Mary Dooley looked at Graham and Natalie with a poisonous glare. “Always the special ones that cause the problem isn’t it?”

Graham wanted to slap the woman silly. He bit his tongue as Natalie touched his arm. They’d gotten what they wanted. No need to make things worse.

He’d love to see her perfect little hairdo on fire though. Graham kept his mouth shut and enjoyed the vision of it.

***************

That night Button lay in bed thinking about how he handled Kevin Dooley and the other boys. It was embarrassing to have his Pop confront the principal but he knew it had to be done. He’d been so mad, his eyes were fiery with anger. It was kinda scary.

Button wondered why Kevin hated him so much. What had he ever done to him? All Button knew was what Kevin had said to him in the playground after the big meeting. Kevin called him a ’tattletale’. Was he a snitch? Button fell asleep and he had disturbing dreams that he couldn’t remember.