Darryl
XXIV
I know, I know, it probably would of been nicer to stay at the hospital longer. And yes, in case you’re wondering, I lied about the FTK closing early. But for good cause!
Sanjit still had his Reading class. And I was the teacher.
We wanted to keep it private; no point in him getting bullied. So everyday at seven we snuck up to the roof and had a half-hour study session.
We had passed the simplest lessons, and were now on the more complex words and the silent letters. He also had to work on his pronunciation of some words.
So in my defense, my lying was for a good cause! Besides, Sanjit wants to be a doctor when he grows up. And he wants to own an orphanage. He wants to make sure that those who went through the same fate as him don’t suffer as badly. By suffering he means not being allowed two helpings of dessert.
In many ways he is stupid.
Carlos was also a big factor to me leaving early.
I had grown to like Carlos even more. Somehow he was still here. But it wasn’t ‘adopting season’ until summer, so thankfully for me, he was with us for an extra month. Yippee?
Man, I’m gonna miss that guy when he leaves. He’s like really smart. And his drawings are like wow! I can’t believe he’s only six! His drawings are a whole lot better than mine. And he uses this kind of watercolor effect, that makes you think it’s a blank paper, but when you look closer you see that there’s someone hiding in it. He’s amazing!
He said he was highly influenced by Vietnamese artists. Those guys are amazing at art! Especially paintings, there city paintings and trees are amazing. They also use the watercolor effect.
“Hi Darryl!” Carlos walked over to me, a big, fat smile was planted on his face.
“Hey little guy!” I responded, ruffling his hair a bit.
Carlos backed away from me. A serious look was on his face. “I’m not little! I’m almost seven!”
“I know! You’re a big boy!”
That made him smile a bit. “Do you really think so?” he asked.
“Of course!”
“Thanks! Most people don’t. You’re nice, Darryl!”
I smiled, “Hey, no soy bueno! Sólo digo la verdad!” I told him I wasn’t nice, I was just telling the truth. Carlos smiled, he liked it when I spoke Spanish. Not many people here are fluent at the language.
“Gracias!” he told me.
“De nada!” I replied.
Carlos’ green eyes twinkled with joy. I felt a brotherly emotion to him. I prayed that whoever adopted him, as someone was sure to do, would adopt me as well. The chances were very rare, but as I’ve said before, a boy can dream. Especially a deprived one. I would hate to see Carlos go. It would kill me!
“Darryl! Come see my pintura!” I smiled as he led me to see his latest painting. As expected it was amazing.
“Carlos,” I began. “You’re one increíble artist. My personal Picasso!”
Carlos beamed brightly at my compliment. He opened his mouth to say something else, when Sanjit came marching down. A scowl was planted on his face. The scowl made my brain turn.
The session! I had forgotten about! It was all I could do to not swear. “I’m so sorry, Sanjit! Can we do it now?”
“Forget it!” He said. “I have better things to do. Keep hanging out with Carlos” He said this in such a spiteful way that Carlos’ eyes started tearing up. Soon he was bawling.
My brotherly instinct forced me to comfort him, despite how much I wanted to slap his stupid face! How dare he hurt my pequeño compañero? Was he really that jealous that I was spending my time with Carlos, instead of him?
I stepped closer to him, so Carlos couldn’t hear me, “Our little friendship is over! Goodbye,”
I took ahold of Carlos’ hand and led him away. I didn’t look at him. I didn’t want the tears to show. I started blinking really fast to try to rid my eyes of the tears. It was working, but it made my vision blurry.
That was how I ended up in the hospital again.
“... and at school, my teacher said that my painting was really nice!” Carlos told me excitedly. “I’m gonna paint her!”
“I bet it’s gonna be the most amazing thing ever!’ I said.
“Thanks Darryl!” he beamed his famous beam.
I had only been here for a day. School was over in three days, so I wasn’t missing anything.
Besides, around this time the dances happened. Hopefully I’d be here long enough to miss the last dance of semester, but short enough to go to the awards ceremony.
Based on my encounter with Mrs. Kaminski, I was certain I was top of Honor Roll. In fact even without being told about skipping a grade, I’d still make it to Honor Roll. I mean, I do every year! As well as get gold in all academic affairs. Not meaning to show off, but I’m pretty smart! Even more so with my little soda boost! I smiled devilishly.
“Why are you smiling?” asked Carlos. “Did you like my joke?”
“I loved it!” I assured him. “I’ve never heard anything funnier in my entire life! Please tell it again!”
“Okay,” Carlos said, smiling. “Why did the one-handed man cross the road? To get to the second-hand shop!”
I burst out laughing. More out of my brotherly love for Carlos, than because of his funny joke.
“Did you really think it was that funny?”
“Sí!” I assured him.
“Thanks!” he said.
“Tell me another!” I ask him. “A knock-knock joke?”
“Um… Okay!” he scratched his head. “Knock-knock?”
“Who’s there?”
“Cow goes.”
“Cow goes who?”
“Coes don’t who, the MOO!” We burst out laughing, all giddy and excited.
Nurse Kate walks in. “Sorry guys, but please be quiet. People are trying to sleep.”
We whisper sorry, trying to control our laughter. When she leaves we burst out in silent laughter.
Hey, who can blame us? We’re kids! Add the nearness of summer to the mix, and we’ve got perfectly acceptable summer behavior.
I love summer!