These Days

Teaching the Important Things

When the morning came John drove Hamish to school without a fight, Mary had suggested he spend more time with the boy and John was hardly going to argue. It seemed like now he was strangely attracted to the school, not for the beautiful building or the famous roses or anything, but for even the slightest glimpse of Mr. Holmes. John felt guilty of course, but there was nothing to be guilty about when you thought of it, he just wanted to say hi again and ask about Hamish's math. That's all, nothing more, just the math.
"Got your coat?" John asked as Hamish came in.
"Daddy it's still hot out!" Hamish insisted.
"Yes, but it's supposed to rain." John pointed out. "Which will be bad for business today." Hamish just groaned, but took his yellow rain coat off of the peg and threw it over his shoulder.
"See you after work!" John called to Mary.
"Bye dear, and Hamish have a nice day at school!" Mary agreed.
"If it rains I could probably pick him up, the worksite will be flooded." John insisted.
"Okay then, call me either way!" Mary said. John caught the slightest glimpse of her in the kitchen, cleaning up the breakfast dishes, still with her pajamas on and her hair in a bit of a rat's nest. Way back when that would've been a breaking point in John's self-control, but now he just sighed and walked out the door with a final wave.
"So, anything exciting coming up in school?" John asked.
"Well there is a rumor that there might be a school play, but they hadn't really told us yet." Hamish sighed, buckling up his own seat belt.
"That sounds like fun." John sighed, but he just knew it would be another terrible inconvenience to watch and record Hamish's one line from behind the seats. Mary loved to have all of Hamish's plays on tape, so that meant it was John who was sacrificed to do the work while she watched and rearranged the flowers she was going to give him. John drove up to the school, following the long line of fancy slick cars and rich people, sighing about how miserable they all were. It wasn't a fashion contest, it was school, red mini vans were about as much as you needed when you had a seven year old throwing Cheerios all over the interior. Finally they were in the lineup around the school and John could see all the pampered little kids being herded in by their equally pampered parents. John just sighed and opened the door for Hamish to scramble out, looking around to see if maybe Mr. Holmes' curly head could be visible in the crowd. In the end though, John decided that if he were there he would be tall enough to spot, so he turned the engine back on and drove off in defeat, not knowing why he was so disappointed. For once the weather men were right, because as soon as twelve noon came rolling around the hard hat on John's head only provided a use as an umbrella to the pouring rain. They rolled up their blueprints and rushed to get the sight cleared of all expensive technology and once again he was driving home, splashing through the mud and yuck to go kill some time before he had to pick Hamish up. So John went to the bar, not drinking anything but mostly just watching the sports, leaning back on his empty booth and phoning Mary.
"Hello?" asked her sweet voice at the other end.
"Hey, it's me, just wanted to say that we're out early and I can pick Hamish up." John sighed.
"Oh, brilliant!" Mary said happily.
"Ya well, don't get all excited." John muttered.
"Well I'm baking a cake, and I was kind of worried about leaving it in the oven for too long." Mary sighed.
"Well, in that case I'll be perfectly happy to pick him up as long as I get a nice big piece." John laughed.
"Certainly dear." Mary agreed.
"Alright, I should get going." John decided, even though there was nothing else he had to do.
"That you should, I love you." Mary agreed.
"Love you too." John muttered, ending the call and scribbling some more building plans on a little square napkin. Finally when it was time to go he collected his things and walked back to the van, in the parking lot/brand new swimming pool and drove to the school, the windshield wipers working overtime just to keep the road visible in front of him. What a nasty day it was. John was one of the first cars there, probably because most of the parents were too nervous to get rain on their fresh coat of fancy car paint, so they sent their kids home on the bus. Soon the door opened and Hamish came running out, his rain coat hood pulled up against the storm. John opened up the door quickly, letting the boy scramble into the dry warmth.
"Well, there's your shower for the week." John muttered.
"Really?" Hamish asked excitedly.
"No, of course not." John laughed, closing the door and starting to shift the car back into drive when there was loud knocking on the window. John looked over in fear to see Mr. Holmes, standing out in the rain with the top of his jacket pulled over top of his wet curls, knocking on the window. John quickly rolled it down and the man just stuck a folder into the car, an odd sort of feeling flowing through his veins at the sight of the teacher.
"Some more math for him, if you'd be willing to try it!" Mr. Holmes called over the rain.
"Of course!" Hamish said happily.
"Ya, we'll do it, thank you!" John called. Mr. Holmes gave a nod of reply and just scrambled off, his long coat billowing in the wind and deflecting the rain drops back onto the sidewalk. John rolled up the window and watched the teacher run back into the school, retreating to the safety of the dry lobby and not looking back once.
"We're home!" John announced, dumping Hamish's backpack on the coat rack and letting the boy run inside to find his toys. As promised the smell of homemade icing and cake was wafting through the house, making John's stomach rumble in anticipation. John walked in with a smile, kissing his wife quickly before sitting on one of the wooden stools next to the counter and looking at the folder Mr. Holmes had given him. There was a little sticky note attached to the outside, still with water droplets from the rain. Mr. Watson, I'm giving you some more math sheets for Hamish to work on, he is showing incredible results and I'm sure with a little extra guidance he could be even better- S. Holmes. John couldn't help wondering what the S stood for, but instead he started flipping through the folder, which had numerous papers of all types of math, he really outdid himself on this one.
"What's that?" Mary asked, hovering over his shoulder and examining the papers.
"Oh, it's some math worksheets Mr. Holmes gave me for Hamish to work on." John shrugged, closing the folder quickly as if it were some big secret.
"When did you see Mr. Holmes?" she asked curiously.
"Oh, when I picked Hamish up, he just handed it to me through the window." John shrugged.
"Well that's very sweet of him, it's nice to know someone else is watching Hamish's back." Mary said with a smile.
"Yes, I suppose it is." John agreed, not smiling back.