Disclaimer: Hello, it's me again playing in the big sandbox. The sandbox does not belong to me and so does the sand in it. But I own the shovel I use to dig around and mess with it.
Ms. Kelly is a character of my imagination and any similarities to existing persons are unwanted and by accident.
All mistakes in grammar and spelling are mine. Please consider them a tribute to Charlie.
I still don't have a beta but I'm looking for one. If you have interest please send me a message. Thanks in advance and now I stop babbling and let you read. Have fun with my little story.
Homework champion
Don hated to do his homework, at least his homework for math. Not that he was bad in it; he just didn't have fun doing it. They always got something to do in this subject. They never even got one free day. What a total waste of time. He would rather use it to practice his skills in baseball or some other sports. His dad had just installed a basketball ring in front of the house and he had tried to teach his little brother how to throw the ball correctly so that it would land in the net. His parents had explained to him that Charlie was way too young to play this sport but Don knew that his little brother was way better than the other toddlers. Charlie already knew exactly what he had to do... he just fell over trying to do it half the time… right on his backside. Then he would not cry like the others, just look up to him with his huge eyes, smile and say that he would practice more. His little brother was the best. Thinking of the little curl head… footsteps came through the room.
"What are you doing? Can we play?"
"I can't play with you right now."
"Why?"
"Mom won't let me until I have this finished" Don indicated at his work book.
"Is this fun like playing, too?"
"No. This is math. No fun. And I have to do it now so I can do something else more fun later."
"Why you do this when it's not fun?"
Don rolled his eyes on his little brother.
"I have to do this Charlie. This is homework and you need to do homework when you are big kid and go to school. "
"I am a big kid too. I want to do this too. "
"Be happy that you don't have to."
"But I want too. " Charlie looked up to his big brother with glistering puppy dog eyes.
"Come on Charlie. Go somewhere else; go playing I need to get this finished."
With that Don looked down on his paper to the next equation he had to do. With a little help of his fingers it was solved in just a few minutes.
"Put a three in the next one. Three is a cool number."
"I can't just put any number in there. It has to be the correct one."
"How did you know which ones is the correct one? Charlie asked.
Don knew that now he had no chance of getting him to go until he had explained everything. Charlie was way to curios for his age sometimes. But he also was smart and loved to learn and deep inside Don had to admit that he liked to teach Charlie. So he grabbed a new blank piece of paper and quickly explained how to add and to subtract.
When Charlie asked about how to do the other ones: to multiply and to divide (something he had seen on the site next to what Don was doing right now) Don only knew how to explain the very simple equations. They only had done these ones so far and he had still some problems with it. When he had finished the explanation he ripped out a site of his workbook which was holding easy equations from the previous two years gave it to Charlie and told him to solve those for him. Thank god Charlie already knew the small numbers till ten and some a little farther. He had not needed to start explaining with those.
With that page of first and second grade problems the little kid was gone happily with his task to help Don doing his big kid homework. As quickly as he could Don now did the rest of his own exercises. Not really caring if everything was correct. When he was done he put his school stuff in his room and looked for his mother to ask her if he was allowed to go out to his friends' house to play with him. He answered correctly that he had finished all of his homework and got the okay he had wished for. Going up again to his own room to grab his baseball bat he noticed that Charlie still sat in his child room doing hard work on the page Don had giving him earlier. The bat on his shoulder he knocked on the door to make his appearance known but his little brother was too focused to notice so he just let himself in.
"Don't have to do all of it, buddy."
"I want to. This is fun."
"Interesting definition of fun you have there. I go out and over to Keith to play some baseball. See you at dinner …or you want to join me?"
He had whispered the last part of the sentence having no real interest in more teaching and less playing this afternoon. He didn't even got an answer so he just ruffled his brothers hair goodbye and was gone. Back in the kitchen were his mother was preparing dinner he took the garbage bag he had agreed to carry out with him.
"I'll be back for dinner around seven."
"Ok. What is with your brother? You asked him to join you?"
"I did. He said he didn't want to." The seven year old said trying not to sound too annoyed.
"Ok. Than have fun. See you at seven and be on time. We won't wait with the best pieces." Margaret indicated the meat she was working on.
"I will. Bye mom." And with that he was out the door.
An hour later Charlie had really found out how to do the numbers Don had given him. And it was way more fun than the painting books he had. He wanted more of it. He ran down the hall to Dons room to ask for more but noticed then that his brother was gone. He remembered that he would be gone for longer, all the long time until evening. He couldn't read the clock yet so he didn't knew how long exactly it would be. He was disappointed and had no idea what to do now. He wanted more fun with the numbers. His brother had a lot of these papers in his book. He sure would not bother if he would do some more of it. He said that he didn't like to do it anyway. He would be happy that Charlie had helped him. So he said down on Don's big desk chair took out the work book and his colored pencils and started his mission.
Charlie came out of his concentration when the doorbell rang and Don and his Dad appeared for dinner. He closed the book took his pencils back to his own room so that Don would not again complain about the mess he had made and then run down to say Hello to Daddy and Don.
The dinner was delicious as usual and after cleaning the dishes they played a few board games before it was already time for the boys to go to bed. Excited as the evening was Charlie totally forgot to tell Don how he had helped him.
The next morning Don got up for school. He packed his bag and was out for the bus before Charlie had to be woken up for kinder garden. His first lesson today was English. After that followed art, math and then sports. Everything got okay till math. The first look on his paper told him that Charlie hadn't stopped with what he had given him. His whole homework was covered with colorful numbers.
"Charlie..." he was muttering to himself. Those were a nice thank you for explaining math to him and sacrifice his time to teach him. His neighbor noticed to and started laughing.
"Ah I see a volunteer for giving the homework to me." And with a thank you his teacher math Ms. Kelly picked up Dons work book and took it with her to the table to control his results.
Damn. His little brother would pay for that. To his horror the teacher not only looked at the page with his homework. Instead she scrolled trough the whole book pausing from time to time to use a calculator and kept the book with her the entire hour.
Like he had expected she asked him to stay after the lesson. She indicated in the book on all the colorful numbers.
"Who did this?"
"I'm sorry. I explained my little brother how I did my homework yesterday afternoon and gave him some equations to do so I could do mine. When I got out later I left the book on my table. I didn't look inside again until the beginning of the lesson. I didn't noticed what he did"
"Your brother did this? How old is he?"
"Three. I'm sorry. I will erase this out and tell him to not do it again. Please don't tell my parents. He won't do it again. Can I go now? Please? " he added quickly. He didn't liked what Charlie had done but he didn't want him to get punished either.
His teacher just looked down at him.
"Your three year old brother did this?"
She looked speechless. "Did he use a calculator?"
Don looked at her with a question in his eyes.
"No? ... I don't know..." He scratched his head and checked his watch before looking back up at Ms. Kelly's face. " But I don't think so. I don't think that he knows what a calculator is and we didn't have those lying around." He knew that one for sure. He had looked for one more than once.
Don looked again inside the work book. A side at the end lay open and was also full of colored drawings in his little brother already chaotic handwriting. His teachers would have fun with his little brother when he was old enough for school. It was a side at nearly the end and the equations looked complicated. He hoped he would not need to solve this soon and it was in the fourth grade part. The space alone left free for the solving approach was intimidating enough. His little brother had used the entire space and had written a single thick row of numbers through the whole box. He grinned on that and hoped his parents would buy him a new book if the rest looked like that, nearly inerasable. This one would join the row of drawing books.
"So your three year old brother did this on his own without a calculator or help of an adult?"
"Probably…"
He didn't know what she was up for with these questions. He had already explained this and he was sorry. What else did she want? He just knew that he didn't want to miss more than he already had from his next and last class: sport.
"I need to talk to your parents about this, ok?" Seeing his shocked face she added:
"You did nothing wrong don't worry".
And with that she was out making a call to explain why he wouldn't appear on his next lesson and to his parents to invite them over.
Half an hour later all four Eppes were sitting in Ms. Kelly's office the book on the table between them. Don had just stopped again explaining what had happened last afternoon. Now they were looking at Charlie waiting for his explanation. Instead he looked like he was about to cry.
"I'm sorry Donnie. I just wanted to help you. Said you don't like to do this and I thought we could play more together if I help you with it."
"You did this by yourself?"
Charlie refused to look up to Ms. Kelly and didn't answer so she tried again.
"Did somebody help you?"
He shook his head a quiet no.
"Did you use a calculator?"
"What's a calu… calcucator?" He looked up a little at her still shy but now also curios.
"It's something like this." Ms. Kelly took one out of the desk drawer.
"He can do numbers. "
Charlie grabbed it greedily and started tipping the small buttons like she told him to do.
"Wow"
He looked at it all excited. It was obvious that he had never had one in his hands before.
"So I guess not. " Ms. Kelly mumbled.
Charlie just shook his head.
Margaret looked from her happy playing Charlie to her confused looking older kid Don her husband and then she looked at the teacher.
"What exactly is the problem?" Margaret Eppes asked.
"Oh sorry I totally forgot"
Ms. Kelly blushed, and again indicated the numbers in the book.
"Take a look at these."
Margaret and Alan did as they were told, looking grinning at the colorful pages again.
"We buy a new book for Don. Charlie won't do this again."
"Have you looked at it closely? These are all correct solutions!"
The smile fell of the Eppes faces except of Charlie's who hadn't listened and still played with the calculator muttering some numbers to himself.
"These are correct? These are tree digit number multiplications... How should he have done this?"
"I guess there is only one possibility to find this out. " And with that all four of them looked at Charlie again.
"Charlie?"
He looked up at her halfheartedly. He rather would continue playing but that would be rude.
"Yes Ma'am?"
"It's Ms. Kelly if you want to." She smiled at him.
"I am Charlie." He gave her his hand and grinned at her. The ice was finally melting.
She took his hand and said hello to him again. He was a really cute kid
"Can you explain to me how you did that?" he looked at the page she showed him.
"Donnie told me how to do it. He said if I have two apples and have another two that this would be the same like two and two and that this would equal four. And that I could also say that it is two times two. That would also equal four. "
He grabbed the book of the table and showed it to her like a teacher would do.
"But how did you do this with the big numbers on these sides? She asked him now indicating at the tree digit equations on the last pages of the workbook in the fourth grade section.
"Just the same?" he looked unsure of what to answer.
"So 114 times 272is just 31008 …like two and two equals four?"
Charlie gave it another short thought.
"1-1-4 times 2-7-2 …It's 3-1-0-0-8."
"And what about this 48 times 186 that's …" he didn't even let her finish.
"8-9-2-8. I love playing numbers can I have more? "
They were all looking at the result and then him with their mouths hanging open.
"I'm sorry. Can I have more, Please?"
"You can still remember that? No wonder you always beat me at concentration." Don was impressed but not more.
The adults were acting a little weird
"Charlie can I have this one back for a second."
"Ok. " He said sadly and gave the calculator back to Ms. Kelly
In a serious tone she talked to him now.
" I have new numbers for you to play with."
His face got back to happy now.
"What is263 times 294?" She now used the calculator but waited after finishing tipping with the solution.
Don wanted to say that she shouldn't be so mean with his little brother that he was way too small to know something like that. He had to because he had no idea how to do something like that even with pen and paper he would be helpless…but too late. With his small but clear voice he heard Charlie say: "7-7-3-2-2"
Ms. Kelly pushed the solution button. Her eyes got big and then she just turned around the machine in her hand so the three older Eppes could see it. Charlie was uninterested since he already knew the solution. The display said 77322. He was right.
Margaret looked down shocked on her little one.
"Yeah. I want more. "
Charlie loved that all of them were playing with him. He just didn't understand why they were not smiling, too. This was so much fun to do.
"More?" Ms. Kelly just asked and started to think for another equation…and then another .
After trying more equations with the same results of Charlie being correct they all just said there stunned by the miracle they had just witnessed. Charlie had the calculator back and tipped random numbers in it to bet the machine solving them.
"I give you the telephone numbers for some persons to talk to about that."
Ms. Kelly was still shocked the same as Margaret and Alan were. Don just watched his little brother. He was having the calculator in his hands now and gave his little brothers numbers to solve. He was happy expecting his next math homework already. With Charlie's help he could finish math in no time now. That would give him more time for playing baseball with Charlie and his dad. And mom would be able to watch them and after that they could do picnics. Everything would be great now.
After an eternity of minutes the adults had finally finished their talk. His school day would have ended long ago and it was already getting dark.
"Can we go home now I'm hungry?" Don asked.
"What did you guys think of pizza?" Margaret asked.
Two sets of screams of joy felt the room.
Margaret just knew that she was in no form to cook this evening and Alan looked okay with her decision too.
Don almost forgot that he missed his favorite subject today over this take out invitation. Going out for pizza was a special thing that only happened on special occasions.
"I call you with some concrete numbers and names as soon as possible" said Ms. Kelly to Alan. Then she shook the hands of the adult's goodbye.
"See you tomorrow Don. Have a nice evening and thank Charlie for letting me forget to give you all some homework for tomorrow"
"See you tomorrow Ms. Kelly." Don said with a smile. She was right and he hadn't even noticed till now that he didn't have any homework for her to do for the first time this year.
Then she leaned down to Charlie.
"Good bye Charlie it was a pleasure to meet you." She also shook his hand goodbye.
His other was still holding the calculator that he had taken back from the table were Don had laid it down so he could continue playing when the others said their goodbyes.
"Good bye Ms Kelly."
With a last sad look on it he gave her the calculator back.
She took it up again immediately and tried to give it to back him.
"You can keep it." She said and laid the machine back in his small hands. He looked at her quizzically not sure if she was serious about it. This thing was a treasure after all.
"It's for you." She said again with a smile.
"Thank you." He jumped up with a million watt grin and hugged her, then taking the calculator out of her hand like it was the Holy Grail.
" I'll be careful with it."
Ms. Kelly looked at Don ones more.
"And this is not for your homework young man."
Don flinched. How could she know that plan already not even being his mom?
"... Okay" he said slightly disappointed and followed his family out of the door. At least he would get pizza tonight.
When the Eppes were out, Ms. Kelly said down on her chair behind the wooden table still surprised and shocked by today's discovery. That was something she defiantly hadn't expected the day to reveal. It was a miracle; more than just a talent, maybe even a real genius that they had discovered today. And she would need to buy a new calculator she added grinning to her mental to-do list.
The next day she sends a letter with addresses and phone numbers home with Don and ask him how the pizza was. He smiled at her telling that it was the best he had ever eaten in his whole life and that they even got ice cream after that. Also his parents had bought him a new work book to use in class. He still was all excited about the abilities his little brother seems to have.
He raised his arm today in class when he knew the answer. The fun about math his brother had seemed to have infected him too.
Don had made a decision yesterday: He liked Charlie and Charlie liked math. So he gave it a try. After all Ms. Kelly wasn't that bad as he had thought. She had not punished him or Charlie or made his parents punish them. They even got a reward.
He would do it like Charlie with the sports. Charlie was not good at it but enjoyed to do it because Don liked it. It would be another something they could help each other with and do together.
He raised his arm again to tell Ms Kelly the solution of her last question and was proud that he could answer it correctly. He stands up to write the result on the blackboard in the front of the classroom.
Ms. Kelly watched her small student writing the equation down next to her on the wall. He looked happy and all excited. She hoped with the discovery that had happened yesterday and all that would follow it now, it would stay like that between the two little brothers for a long time. She couldn't wish for something more at this moment when Don laid the chalk down to walk back to his place and join his classmates for the next round of questions.
After all he was also just a small boy that deserved nothing more than attention and love.
End
This it is. Thanks for taking the time to read it. If you got a minute let me know what you think. And sorry that it took me so long to post something again.
...and yes I did use a calculator.