Falling into the Chaos

Seven: The stoneman is talking!?!?!

Zoya

"SO, based on what we've read, what would you say is the most important detail?" Cheeku dragged her tongue back and forth along her teeth as she studied
the book between us. "Blackbeard was a badass," she said.

I gave her a quick nod.

"Can you think of another way to say that? A school-friendly way?"

She thought about this for a minute. "Blackbeard was really good at being a ship captain and making pirate plans."

"Okay. Are there any details from the text to show this?" I handed her a stack of sticky notes. "Use these to mark the spots where you find evidence."

Last week, I made the mistake of arriving at our "playdate" with some early elementary storybooks.

Cheeku had zero interest in the classics and anything with the merest whiff of school halted our progress.

When I had told her I taught kindergarten, the betrayal was plain on her face.

I returned to the Mussoorie Public Library in search of books that would appeal to her interests. That I'd found a few titles on pirates and that they were even remotely appropriate for a six-year-old was amazing.

There were several mentions of beheadings but that didn't deter Gennie. If anything, it made her more excited to read.

I watched as she flipped through the book, carefully pressing sticky notes to the passages that proved her point. Each passage required a different colored note, which was no problem since an office supply store had exploded in Aditya 's kitchen in the past week.

Every time I visited, there were more goodies waiting on the table.... Markers, pens, crayons, and every sticky notes ... everything under the sun.

It was obvious ...Aditya wanted what was best for Gennie. Colored pencils weren't going to make up for the gaps in her reading skills but they'd make the practice more fun.

I gave him credit for that.

"There was a fox on the roof of the chicken house last night," Cheeku said as she ran her finger over a sticky note to secure it in place.

"A fox," I murmured.

"You'll have to tell me that story after we search for words that make the a sound, like in black."

"Like Blackbeard," she said.

"Exactly like that. Use these little sticky flags to point out those a sounds in the story."

"Like cat?" she asked. "Like my barn cats, Blackie and Brownie?"

"Yes, cat has the same a sound. See if there's any others in the story."

"What about bastard? Is that the same?"

I lifted my water bottle to my lips to drown out a laugh. Once I'd recovered, I said,

"Yes, you're right, though let's keep our words school- friendly."

"School isn't friendly," she mumbled.

I leaned down to catch her eye but she looked away, suddenly interested in finding those words.

"We'll work on that," I said. "It's going to get better."

"You don't know that," she said, the pout thick in her words.

"Actually, I do know it. When I was a kid, I moved and changed schools a bunch of times. It was really hard. It took me a long time to make friends and I was always the new kid. But it got better."