It was eight am. The temperature dropped about ten degrees overnight. John was the first to get up followed by Bert. He grabbed some oatmeal he prepared the previous night and put some in a bowl with sliced apples for John. Bert walked out onto the front porch and grabbed the milk and the newspaper which were waiting for him. Yawning, Bert opened up the paper to check the news.
"The world is full of crazy people, John. This newspaper is proof of that." John continued eating his breakfast.
"You ever read the morning paper?" He pulled apart sections of the newspaper and gave John the page filled with advertisements.
"No,sir."
"Well, check these out and see what looks interesting." John quickly skimmed through the paper and then put it back next to Bert.
"That was fast,I must say." John shrugged his shoulders.
"What did it say?" John didn't reply. Bert looked at John like he had two heads and realized there was a problem at hand.
" You didn't read through those,did you?" He shook his head shamefully.
"I'm sorry,sir." Bert sat up.
"Thats okay,I'm not trying to pressure you." The nervousness on his face disappeared,but he still had his head turned away. Bert put down the paper and looked at John.
" Do you know how to read?" A tear flowed down from his eye. Bert motioned for John to come to him. He obeyed. Bert put his arm around him and smiled.
"Well, it's nothin' to get upset about. Not everyone knows how to read. It's okay." He looked into his eyes.
"Hey, I'll tell ya what. How about I teach you. Right now."
"Right now?" Bert pulled the newspaper in front of them.
"Yes,right now. Starting with this."
An hour later, Mary Poppins woke up to the end of John's reading lesson. He excitedly ran up to Mary and slowly read a sentence from the newspaper.
"' the weather today will be sunny with a fifty percent chance of rain. Tonight will be cloudy.'" He jumped up and down, ran to Bert, and gave him a hug.
"That's a good start. You have a while to go. I know you can do it." Mary bent down to view John's face.
"How about you clean up while I talk to Bert. We can figure out what is going on after that." He ran to the bathroom,leaving the two alone. Bert stood up and started to clean up the table.
"That was very thoughtful of you,Bert," Mary said.
"Just doing what I have to do." Bert came out of the kitchen and stood in front of Mary.
"I was thinking that maybe we could bring him to the candy store today. If that's okay with you." Bert's eyes lit up.
"Sounds like a plan." Just then, John came out of the bedroom ,all ready to leave. Bert crouched down to face John.
"How would you like to get some candy today." A big smile came across his face. Bert patted they boy's back and stood up at Mary's level.
"Maybe when we are out, we can even get you a new outfit or two."