Learning: ONE PLUS ONE

Kindergarten class has a graduation party. Miss Rose, the round-faced pretty teacher gives each kid a Tootsie Roll, a lollipop and a paper flag she made with a big black one painted on. We march around the room, stop at the American flag, salute it and return to our tables. In September we go to first grade but I want to stay with Miss Rose, but can’t. I heard my mother talking to my Aunt Sarah that she is glad I will be in school all day and she won’t have to worry about keeping me busy in the afternoons.

 

Summer flies faster than Robert can run. Mother takes me to the 5 & 10 cent store and lets me pick out my first companion. I choose a red one that has 3 yellow pencils and an eraser on the top row and under that are crayons and white and colored chalks. Daddy lets me look at it again and again but I am not allowed to use it yet. He buys me a copybook with a picture on the cover of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They are standing in a class with other tiny mice saluting the American flag. Daddy sits me down at the kitchen table, opens my new copybook and hands me a pencil. ‘Take your time, Honey,’ he says. ‘Be slow and careful. Make a ‘D’ on this line.’ I try but my ‘D’ wiggles a little. ‘That’s pretty good, Dolly. Now stay on the line and finish your name.’ I make an ‘O’ and half is on and half is under the line. Daddy makes an ugly face and asks me what comes next. ‘Don’t tell me, I know, two els.’ I do them just right and Daddy claps his hands. ‘Please help me with the ‘Y’, Daddy. I get mixed up.’ He holds my hand and we do it together. I get a kiss on my cheek and return it to Daddy’s head.

 

‘Mother, Naomi sits behind me in class. We’re in aisle two. Today she tapped me on my shoulder and asked me if I know where I came from.
I told her nowhere. We’ve always lived in Rochester.  Miss Colbert, my new teacher, sent Naomi to the coat room because she couldn’t stop laughing. Why was our living here always so funny?’ Mother winks and tells me she has to fix dinner and will explain later. I do my homework, letter my name clearly 25 times and the alphabet A to Z twice. Daddy comes in, looks at my work, and tells me I will have to do better next time. I promise I will and ask him why what I said was so funny. 
Daddy says he has no idea why Naomi laughed. ‘Ask your mother, Child. She might know.’ ‘Daddy, I already did and she told me she’ll explain later.  Will you please do the dishes so Mother can talk to me?’ ‘Sure, Sugar Pie.’

 

Dinner is good. Mother broiled lamb chops, put green beans and little red boiled potatoes on our plates. She didn’t bake today but bought my favorite cake in Grayson’s, strawberry shortcake. I had a piece and a half and got to lick the whipped cream off the spoon.  Mother cleared the table and started to wash the dishes. Daddy told her he will do them because she said she wants to explain something to me.’ ‘Go ahead ladies, talk. I won’t bother you.’

 

Mother takes me to my room. She sits on my bed. I sit next to her, listen and laugh. I tell her I know babies are in their mommies’ bellies. ‘Mrs. Klein let me feel her baby kick one time. I remember asking her how the baby got inside and how it will get out. She told me to ask you but I forgot all about the questions.’ Mother looks a little strange to me. Her hands don’t stay still, her eyes close and don’t open right away. Deep breaths make her titties go up and down. Maybe I should call Daddy . At last my mother starts to talk and tells me how much she loves my father, how much my grandmother loved my grandfather.
I ask her what that has to do with Naomi laughing at me.

 

She gets up, goes in her room and brings a little book with her. ‘Look thru this, Dolly.’ The pages are small, the printing I can’t read at all except for words like be, the, dog. ‘I can’t read this yet, Mother, read it to me.’ ‘Im tired, Darling. Let’s forget the whole thing and I’ll tell you when you are eight years old.’ ‘Okay but don’t forget.’

 

Naomi didn’t wait until I was eight. She told me the very next day.