7
WHEN I GOT HOME I spent an hour sitting at the kitchen table talking to my mother about everything that had happened. My glass of milk and the cruller my mother had given me—a kind of which I was passionately fond, a thin fried cruller made of a yeasty dough twisted into the shape of a large pretzel and glazed, thickly, with sugar paste—lay untouched on the table while I went on and on. I hadn’t intended to mention the times tables at all, but when I got to the end of the day and remembered Mrs. Graham’s idea that Clarissa and I “practice” together, it suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t want Clarissa to see me fumbling through the times tables. I had to learn them before we began practicing them, so that I could pretend to learn them quickly with Clarissa’s help.
“I have to learn the times tables right away.” I said. “All the other kids know them already, and I don’t. I don’t even know what they are, except that they’re arithmetic.”
“Well, I guess your father and I could teach them to you,” said my mother, with little enthusiasm.
“You know,” I said, picking up my cruller and using it to emphasize the good sense of what I was going to say, “Mr. Beaker could probably help me out.”
“Oh, yes!” said my mother, brightening. “That’s just the right idea! I’ll give him a call right now.” On her way to the phone, she gave me a hug and said, “You’re a good boy, Peter.”
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