I Love Corey : Chapter Five

His eyes lit up so we went in and booted up the computer. I showed him about Ebay and signed him on in my account and explained the proxy bidding. They have a lot of new stuff on and I figured he might get a couple of items. I went back to work in the kitchen. The phone started ringing as the guests started letting me know what they were bringing and it kept me busy for a while.

When things calmed down I went in to see how he was doing. You talk about tight. He had enough stuff that he had bid on to fill a closet. He didn’t look at new stuff but picked out things that looked pretty good. I asked him why and he said it was because he could get more that way. He still had seven dollars to go and he complained that there were no fancy briefs like I wear and wanted to know what search he should run to find them. After a little while I had to conclude that I didn’t know either. We had looked at a bunch of briefs but nothing sexy in his size. I finally gave up and grabbed the phone and called up a friend in San Francisco who works in the store I buy mine at and asked him if they were available in Corey’s size. He assured me they were and I told him to send up a half dozen pairs in sexy colors. I was surprised when he asked me what the wearer looked like. I told him blonde with blue eyes and he said he knew just what to send. Corey was worried that that put him over the hundred dollars. 

“Corey, you probably won’t win all the auctions. Even if you do it’s no big deal.”
He looked like a kid in a candy shop. (As it turned out he was only outbid on a couple of items) He grinned up at me and said “Now I won’t have to be ashamed of my clothes.”

It was time for a lesson. “Corey, there is no reason to ever be ashamed of not having material things. It doesn’t change who you are no matter what you wear. It is the internal and not the external that makes for a good person. While I’m white, a black man said it best I think. All men should be judged by the content of their heart and not the color of their skin. It’s the same with clothes.” 

About that time Vern and Nancy and their youngest son Fred arrived. Fred yelled hi and headed for the fridge to get some pop. Nancy started telling him he should ask first and I just laughed and asked why should he change now? He’d been dropping in for years and I had finally told him to just help himself and quit asking. Nancy shook her head and wondered how she would be able to properly raise him when he was under my influence. I told her that was her problem. We all laughed while she just shook her head again and then the others started showing up. 

I went out and fired up the barbeque. It would take a little over an hour for the salmon and just a few minutes for the hamburgers that most of the young people seemed to favor. I figured it would take about twenty minutes for the charcoal to be ready and that would put dinner about five thirty. That seemed about right. When I went back in I could see Nancy was in charge of the kitchen, putting stuff in the fridge and in the oven. I dug out some beer and started passing it around. Fred stuck his hand up and I just slapped it and went on. He broke into big boo hoos and all the time grinning and complaining that he was dying of thirst. I told him if he would act his age which was about four, maybe four and a half I might give him one. With everyone laughing he gave up. Poor Nancy, she just shook her head some more. 

The young people headed for the Playstation, the television, and the stereo and the adults wandered out to the patio where we sat around and batted the breeze. As most of us were in some way connected to the school it tended to be more about things in the education field. I suppose if it were a bunch in the high teck field it would be about computers or something. We bitched about the politicians and the lack of funding and all the usual things. There came one of those rare pauses and Jerry Mathers asked my how my latest crusade was going. He had a grin on his face so I wondered what he had in mind.
“Fine, I got the signatures and will turn them in tomorrow Jerry.” (It’s always Mr. Mathers at school and Jerry on social occasions.) 

“Have you looked at his transcript yet?” he asked.
I hadn’t had time and had to admit it.
“I think you’ll find it interesting” he followed up. 
Normally I’m the one that finds things like this so I think he was enjoying being ahead of me for a change. 
“If you need any help with tutoring let us know.”
That’s one of the things I like about my colleagues. They may kid me but they’re always willing to help when I need it. Obviously there were some things he’d found of interest in Corey’s transcript.

The conversation continued and I got up and put the salmon on. After a while I passed out another round of beer and finally the salmon was done. I set it aside to rest and went in and asked the kids what they wanted. Mike, Fred’s older brother had finally made it and was lodged in front of my computer showing Corey how to work it. I got their orders and noted that both Corey and Mike were going to have the salmon while the rest opted for hamburgers, some with cheese and some without. I threw them on the grill and Nancy, Maxine Mathers and Jessie Williams got up to help put the rest of the meal out. When the burgers were done I stuck my head in the house and yelled and the kids came streaming out. The table looked like a cloud of locusts had hit it. When things calmed down the rest of us got up and started in.

After dinner we were setting around, just relaxing and chatting in that mindless way friends will when they are content and happy to be around each other. I had fixed coffee and was leaning back and relaxing with a smile on my face when Jessie Williams surprised me
“You look a lot happier then the first time I saw you.” 
I tried to think when that was but drew a blank.
She could see I couldn’t remember.
“The day you interviewed for the school board.”

Now I remembered. I had been sitting in the outer office after the first part of the interview when she had come in.
“You ought to tell them about your interview” Jerry said.
“You tell it. After all you were conducting it” I replied.
A couple of them started trying to get us to tell the story as they could see Jerry was grinning and I was hanging my head.
I finally started in. “I could see the interview was going badly, they didn’t seem to be listening. I’m afraid I got a little emotional and shouted a bit.”
“Come on, you can do better then that” Jerry urged. “Don’t you remember what you said?”

What the hell, I might as well tell it as I remember it. 
“All right. It was about my third or forth interview for a job. I had all these grand ideas I wanted to talk about. You all remember Norm Perkins on the school board? Well, they didn’t want to hear about my grand ideas and he kept asking about things I didn’t consider important and then not even really listening to my answers. I could see the lack of interest on everyone’s face and knew I wasn’t going to get the job no matter what I said. I blew up. I slammed the desk with my fist, jumped up and gave them a lecture on what I thought was important.”

“Do you remember what you said?”
“Yes Jerry, I remember. It went something like this. I know I’m not going to get this job. Somewhere I lost you. You keep talking about things that are not important. What’s important is the student. They are growing up and my job as a teacher is to help them. While I teach math, I don’t give a damn if they never learn to solve a math problem as long as I teach them to think, to be comfortable with whom they are and to be a good person. If I manage to do that I will have succeeded no matter what their academic record is. Yes I’d like them to learn math, but in the long run if they wind up needing it they will learn it if I have taught them to use their minds.”

“Tell them the rest of what you said” he encouraged me.
One thing I have learned about Jerry is that he rarely does anything without a reason. I wondered why he was getting me to tell about this.
“I told them about how I discovered that I wanted to be a teacher.”
“Why don’t you tell the story again.”

“All right. Both my parents were teachers. All kids want to be like their parents. I had never given it much thought. I just figured I’d be a teacher. When the weather was nice, I’d ride to school with them. There was this area where the teachers could go outside and sit and drink coffee and work on lessons. It was surrounded with shrubs and had tables and chairs in it. Most times I’d set out there and read before the rest of the students showed up. On the morning this took place I was twelve years old. It was in the fall and warm and sunny. As I rounded the corner to walk in I could see Mr. Franklin was there. I was surprised as I had never seen a teacher there in the morning. I was just going to leave when I saw he was crying. Mr. Franklin was one of my favorite teachers and I wondered what would make him cry. With the brashness of youth I went over and asked him if I could do anything for him. He shook his head no. I couldn’t leave it alone. I told him I knew I wasn’t very old but sometimes just talking about something helped and I’d be happy to listen if he would like me too. He didn’t say anything and finally I started to go. He told me to set down and then he told me about this black from the poor area of town. His father was in prison and he was a poor student.