Indigo Summer by Monica McKayhan

to me. “Say hi.”
    â€œHi,” Justin said.
    â€œHey, Justin, what’s up?” I asked.
    â€œNothing,” he said, and then took off running, and jumped back onto his bike.
    â€œThat boy is so full of energy. I wish he would devote that much energy to his schoolwork. Especially math. He’s flunking math.”
    â€œOh, that’s too bad,” Pop said, as we followed Beverly into her house. “Maybe Marcus could help him out a little bit. He’s a whiz in math.”
    I wanted to shut Pop up. He was always volunteering me for stuff.
    â€œThat would be so nice, Marcus,” Beverly said. “Could you take a look at his math homework and make sure he did it right?”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” I said reluctantly, not really feeling this whole trip. Couldn’t understand why Pop didn’t just hire someone to unclog toilets and fix pipes and such, instead of running all over town doing it himself, and then dragging me along for the ride.
    Pop headed for Beverly’s bathroom to unclog her toilet. Beverly disappeared into a back bedroom and came back with Justin’s math book in her hand. She handed it to me.
    â€œHere it is, Marcus. You can just have a seat right here on the sofa while you look it over,” she said. “Can I get you something to drink? I have Coke and grape soda.”
    â€œI’ll take Coke,” I told her, and then found a seat on the dull, brown sofa that seemed to sink down in the middle.
    I opened Justin’s workbook and began reviewing his math problems. Over half of them were wrong, and when I told Beverly so, she called Justin into the house.
    â€œNow you sit right down there next to Marcus, and he’ll tell you what you did wrong.”
    Justin plopped down on the sofa next to me, and I went over his math problems with him.
    â€œLook, man, this is the deal. When you subtract big numbers like this, you have to make sure you reduce.”
    â€œReduce?”
    â€œYeah, let me show you.” I worked through the problems with him one by one and tried to make him understand.
    Told him what he did wrong, and how to do them correctly. He listened, erased the wrong answers and changed them to the correct ones.
    â€œYou understand now?” I asked, after we worked through each problem.
    â€œYep. Now that you walked me through it, I understand,” he said, “but when my teacher tells me, or my mom tells me, it doesn’t make sense.”
    â€œWell, just remember what I said, and you’ll be okay.”
    â€œOkay, Marcus,” he said. “Can you come help me with my homework tomorrow?”
    â€œI don’t know about tomorrow, little man, but…”
    â€œCan you come by a couple of times a week, Marcus, and help him?” Beverly asked before I could finish my sentence. “I really would appreciate it. And I will pay you.”
    â€œOf course he can,” Pop said, coming out of the bathroom with his tools. “He’ll be happy to help out.”
    â€œCan you, Marcus?” Justin was bouncing up and down. “Please?”
    â€œOkay, yeah, I can come by, maybe next week sometime and help you out.”
    â€œThank you,” Beverly said, smiling. “And thank you for fixing my toilet, Rufus.”
    â€œNo problem,” Pop said. “Let’s go, Marcus.”
    I stood and followed Pop out the door.
    â€œIt was nice to meet you, Miss Beverly,” I said. “I’ll see you next week, Justin.”
    â€œBye, Marcus,” he said, and held on to to his mother’s hand as Pop and I climbed into my Jeep.
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    The day hadn’t been a total loss. At least I helped some kid learn math, and that made me feel good. That made me feel real good. As Pop tuned my radio to the oldies station, some tune by the Temptations rang through the speakers. Pop sang along as we drove home with the windows down catching a cool breeze.
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    After I loaded the