The Saviors of Maria

Chapter 3

"Chapter 3"

~2 years later~

Arthur sat quietly in the backseat of his mom's car, scratching and pulling at his tight collar and woolen slacks. His backpack was sat in the seat beside him containing the dreaded coloring books as well as colored pencils. Arthur thought tampering with the dark dignity of the pencil's graphite was blasphemous, even more blasphemous to continue to call it a pencil. He hugged his dictionary his arms with a scowl and looked into the mirror above the front window.

"Why didn't you let me wear my flannels today, Mother?" Arthur whined, repositioning his glasses.

"Because you need to look nice on your first day of school, Arthur." Charlotte responded.

"Flannels are nice, Mother." Arthur argued, continuing to pull at his Sunday best.

"They are nice for any day other than this one, honey." Charlotte continued, compromising. "I promise you can wear one of your flannels tomorrow. How does that sound?"

Arthur had at that time possessed around fifteen flannels, including the ones with sleeves that ran off his arms by a foot and was hemmed at his calf. By the time those flannels fit, Arthur will have completed junior high school.

Arthur looked out the window, staring at the pine trees passing by as his mind wandered. He thought about what he expected when he got to the school, the journals that his grandfather wrote when he was working on his scientific research on the human brain, how people treat his mother differently from the other mothers and why that could be, why people think that a father is essential for a child's development, why people think that a father is essential for his development, and many other thoughts that happened to pass through his mind during that car ride.

Arthur had seen a sky view picture of the school on the internet once. It was shaped like an X, each appendage for each grade level. He had examined the meticulous organization of the precise shape, thinking about the outcomes of it having extra arms on the east and west sides where there would be plenty of room for other halls in case it overcrowded.

Charlotte drove into the parking lot of the school, less marvelous from the ground. It was but one story high in colors you would find on a Valentine's Day card. It nearly scorched Arthur's senses.

"Are you excited, Arthur?" Charlotte asked him after she turned off the engine.

"I'm excited to learn something." Arthur grunted in frustration. "In preschool and kindergarten, all we did was color and play with the sandbox, and when the teacher was teaching something, I already knew it, like reading and adding and subtracting."

"That must've been terrible, honey." Charlotte responded like a young schoolboy trying to win the heart of a lady with the illusion of empathy.

"I know, Ma." He agreed, content with her response. "Hopefully, I will learn something useful, like how to balance a checkbook."

"They might not, but I could teach you." She offered.

"Really?" He exclaimed.

"Tell you what." Charlotte proposed. "If you ask your teacher if you are going to learn about something and she says you aren't, I will see to it that you learn it."

"Like double school?" Arthur exclaimed excitedly.

"That's one way to put it."

Charlotte and Arthur parked the car in front and entered the center of the X. Arthur clinged to his mother shyly as he spotted an array of children his age, especially one child in particular with fiery orange tufts of hair that flew backwards as he dragged his mother through the lower left arm of the X. The boy's high-pitched exclamations rang in Arthur's ears long after he left his line of sight. Charlotte left Arthur inside his classroom after exchanging pleasantries with his teacher, Ms. Stroud. She exited the middle of the X, getting in her car. She took deep breaths, trying to clear her mind.

"Love, acceptance, compromise." Charlotte chanted, a mantra she learned from Dr. Hall. "Love, acceptance, compromise."

Arthur's expectations for that day were not met. All they did that day was play games for sweets and fruitless bragging rights. The days dragged on through the first three months of first grade, that is until December.

~

"Hello, Arthur." Dr. Hall greeted him on the last day of November, reaching out his hand.

Arthur tilted his head to the side, unsure of his next action.

"You shake his hand, dear." Charlotte tells him. "I'll show you."

Arthur's mother demonstrated the common greeting of shaking hands with Dr. Hall, the foreign procedure soaking into his consciousness. From then on, when he held out his hand, Arthur shook it.

"Your mother has told me a lot about you, Arthur." The doctor said to him.

Arthur clinged tighter to his mother, his thoughts jumbled in his brain.

"It's all right, Arthur." Charlotte tried to reassure. "You can trust him."

"I just want to speak with you." He added in a soft voice. "I hear you enjoy learning about the brain."

Arthur's glinted at the statement. Arthur gave Dr. Hall his full attention.

"How would you like to learn more about what's in your brain, Arthur?" He offered.

"I know what's in my brain, doctor." Arthur protested, prepared for a long lecture. "There is the cerebrum and the cerebellum. The cerebrum is divided into four sections, the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the temporal lobe, and the occipital lobe. The frontal lobe is for-"

"I'm sorry, Arthur. I should have been more clear." Dr. Hall corrected himself. "I meant, do you want to know the facts behind feelings?"

"I know about that too." Arthur lectured. "The receptors in the temporal lobe release chemicals such as dopamine and oxytocin into your-"

"I was thinking about you, specifically." Dr. Hall corrected himself again. "I want to hear about your thoughts, your opinions, your point of view."

Arthur's smile grew wide, anticipating a great next hour.