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- 05/11/2021
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Adam Blake - 2. Chapter 2
Mom was home, as soon as I entered I could hear her playing her cello. She must have a concert coming up, she has been practicing every day for the last two weeks. “Mom, I’m home.” Of course, she didn’t hear me, so I walked to the refrigerator for a glass of iced tea. That she heard.
“Is that you Adam?”
“Yes,” I walked into the family room with my glass of tea. “Do you have a concert coming up?”
“Yes, in two weeks, we’ll be kicking off the fall program. How was school?”
“Mrs. Cheston was rushed to the hospital today. I guess it was very serious. I was asked to tutor one of the school football players. They pushed for me to do this saying if he doesn’t pass math he won’t be able to play and may not have the chance to go to college. A lot of pressure to put on my shoulders. The problem is he can understand football plays and they can be complicated. I need to find the key to his math problem.”
“I think you already have. If the football plays are complicated and he can understand that maybe you can show how the math can relate to his football plays.”
“You may have something there. I have his test papers. Also to save face we’ll be doing the tutoring here. They practice football before school starts and after school. I think he feels a little ashamed at needing a tutor.”
“I’ll stock some extra food for when he’s here. I think that you volunteering to tutor him is great.”
“I didn’t volunteer, I was asked.”
“Will have dinner as soon as Dad comes home.”
I took the papers and my books to my room. I had a history paper to do and then I could concentrate on Jerry’s tests. Mom said to relate math to football. When I reviewed Jerry’s math tests he seemed to get the first part but had trouble finishing it. I think to start I’ll review his tests with him maybe that’ll give me a clue where to start. I finished my history paper, I heard dad drive into the garage.
“I washed up and went to the kitchen to help Mom with dinner.
Mom was telling Dad about me tutoring one of the football players in math. “So you have become a teacher?”
“No Dad, a tutor works from past to present and a teacher works from present to future. I just hope I can help him. He’s a nice guy and I think he’s ashamed that he needs help.”
Dad hugged me, “You’ll do fine.”
The love my parents had for me was never a question. Being the only child one would think I’d be a spoiled brat. But that wasn’t the case, my parents always told me that I was fortunate and that fortune I should share with others. Most of the kids in elementary school, in our neighborhood, came to me with their problems rather than their parents. I always took the time to spend with them and help as best as I could. When I heard their problems, I realize how blessed I was.
“Thursday morning as Billy and I were running our course he kept asking who I was tutoring. I wouldn’t tell him and this made him more determined to find out. “Billy, don’t worry about it. The person I’m helping is very sensitive, she may not want anyone to know.” Billy’s eyes got big when I said she, I did that to throw him off and it seemed to work. He started, is it Mary, I said no. I know it’s Ann, I said no.
“It has to be Martha, she's on the basketball team and said she was having problems with Calculus.”
I didn’t bother saying yes or no. “I’ll see you on the bus,” as I headed home to shower and dress for school.
I watched as he got on the bus, he had that, ‘I know’ look and I said nothing.
I went to Mr. Cheston’s office to pick up the day's math assignment and a copy of the math book being used. “You ready for tonight?”
“Yes, I think I may have a way to get him through this. I hope it works.”
After lunch I passed the coach’s office, “Coach, this is my home address, please give it to Jerry.”
That night when I arrived home, Mom was in the kitchen cooking. “Are we having guests?”
“Aren’t you tutoring tonight?”
“Yes”
“Well, invite him to have dinner. He’ll be here after practice and I’m sure he’ll be hungry. Maybe if we feed him first he’ll be able to concentrate more on his work.”
“Smart, Mom, but make a lot because he probably eats a much as all of us. He’s a big guy.”
I took everything up to my room, tidied up a little, and laid out his tests. I wanted to review them with him first as that will give me an idea of where he needed help. I remember Dad doing it with me when I had a difficult problem or didn’t understand something.
I heard Dad drive up, he was talking to someone as he came in from the garage. I went into the kitchen, he had Jerry with him. “Hi Jerry, I see you met my dad, this is my mom."
Mom gave him a hug, “I’m glad to meet you Jerry. Adam, show Jerry where he can wash up, dinner is almost ready.”
Jerry looked at me, “Come on Jerry. Bring your books to my room and you can wash up in my bathroom.”
“Adam, I didn’t expect dinner.”
“It’s ok Jerry. Mom likes to cook and this is our dinner time. So just roll with the punches. After dinner, we’ll work on your math.”
I showed Jerry were to wash up and waited for him in the hall. When he came out, we walked to the kitchen for supper. Our home had a formal dining room but we always ate in the kitchen, unless we had company, I didn’t consider Jerry as company.
Mom outdid herself. Stuffed pork chops, mashed potatoes with gravy, and buttered green beans. When she put the platter of pork chops on the table, I looked at the amount, looked at Dad and he just smiled. Mom took the initiative and placed two on Jerry’s plate and one on my plate. Passing around the potatoes and vegetables, Mom kept insisting for Jerry to take more.
Dad got into a discussion with Jerry about football. Mom and I just stayed quiet as they talked. You could see that Jerry was really into it. He never noticed Mom putting another pork chop on his plate. That boy could eat.
Finally, Mom started taking the empty bowls to the sink to rinse before putting them into the dishwasher. She then got out an apple pie and ice cream. Jerry no sooner finished his dinner, when Mom placed a large piece of pie with ice cream in front of him. Dad and I got smaller pieces.
I looked at Mom and got a wink back. “Jerry, I hope you enjoyed your supper. I look forward to seeing you regularly. Cooking is a hobby of mine and these guys don’t do justice to my cooking skills.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Blake. It was delicious.” Mom was all smiles.
“Jerry, do you want to wait a while before we hit the books are do you want to do it right now.”
“I think we should do it now. I need to get home before too long. My dad will wonder where I am.”
“He doesn’t know about you being helped?”
“No, he would be angry and ask me to drop football. He thinks school is more important than sports. I told him sports would get me a college education, he said I didn’t need it.”
I then knew part of the problem was no support at home. “Ok, let’s go to my room and we can start.”
Jerry picked up his book bag and followed me to my room. “Jerry these are the tests you took this year. I thought we could review them and then do your homework. Is that ok?”
I could see that he felt defeated. I took out his first exam, “Jerry, you started this problem but didn’t finish. What you have is correct, what was the problem?”
“I couldn’t remember what was next.”
“Ok let’s try this, let X be our team and Y be another team. Now the rules state that the total goals allowed are a maximum of 24. That will be split between the X team and the Y team, but the X team has a star player who always got two extra goals than the Y team. How many goals did the X and Y team get so the total was 24.”
Jerry looked at me, and was ready to speak, “Put it on the paper.” And he did, he wrote down the correct answer for X and Y. He smiled at me and we tackled the rest of the problems in the same way. As long as I could relate the problem to football, he could understand what to do.
The next morning I took the test papers in and gave them to Mr. Cheston. “I reviewed all of his test papers yesterday and he corrected all of the problems he missed.”
“What was the key and don’t say it was magic.”
“No, all I need to do was to relate the problems to football plays. Once he was in football mode everything clicked. I’ll continue this with him till his grades come up. I did not help him with any of those problems or give him an answer. He isn’t dumb and I also found out he gets no encouragement from home.”
“When is your next session?”
“Tonight, we’ll work on his homework.”
So after talking to Mr. Cheston I went to see the coach. “Coach, I think Jerry will do ok except I’m a little worried about his dad. He gets no encouragement and in fact, he’s being discouraged. We went through his homework and past exams. He completed them perfectly. I think he needs a little more time on his tests, he clinches up and is worried about finishing so he moves on whenever he gets stuck. I think I’ll get him to a high C and maybe a B before too long.”
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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