One On One

by Don Aker

  “Sorry, Coach,” Mark said.

  Jamieson shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. Be smart. Play smart.” He looked at his watch. “Okay, two laps and then hit the showers.”

  Although every player wanted to groan, not one of them made a sound. No matter how gruelling the practice, Jamieson always wrung one last burst of energy from them. “You’ll never know how strong you are if you don’t push yourself,” he’d told them their first afternoon practising as a team. At the time, Jared’s knees were buckling and his arms felt like lead bars, but he’d run laps with the others and was surprised at how much more he could coax out of his weary body.

  Halfway around the gym now, Jared felt the familiar click inside like the switch on a hidden reserve of strength, and he pushed himself harder until, at the end of the first lap, he was at the front of the group, with Mark Kowalski. The two teammates grinned at each other, put on one more burst of speed, and raced the final length of the gym shoulder to shoulder. A few of the remaining spectators cheered them on. Just as the runners pounded down the final few metres of the second lap, Jared saw Rafe standing by the bleachers, apart from the others. Rafe wasn’t cheering. His hands were jammed in his pockets, his arms like exclamation points against his sides. But it wasn’t his body language that spoke loudest to Jared. It was his eyes.

  “Did y’see Rafe at the practice?” Steve asked later, as the two rode the bus home.

  Jared nodded. “Was he there the whole time?”

  Steve shook his head. “Just at the end. I heard his dad was meetin’ with the principal after school.”

  Jared grimaced. “I thought he already met with Jamieson.”

  “He did,” said Steve. “And accordin’ to Keith, it was a real shoutin’ match.” Keith Baxter, one of the other seventh-grade players, had gone to see the coach after school about a brace for the knee he’d twisted during their first practice. He’d stood outside the gym office, waiting for Jamieson, and although the door was closed, he could hear the raised voices behind it clearly. “Keith said that Rafe’s dad was pretty upset, yellin’ about all the computers he’d donated to the school.”

  Jared had already heard all about it, but it continued to be a hot topic of conversation among the Cougars. “Do ya s’pose the principal will make Jamieson put Rafe on the team?”

  Steve shrugged. “I dunno. Seems like that’s the coach’s decision, not the principal’s.”

  “Yeah,” Jared agreed. But he’d overheard Rafe telling some guys one day about how his dad and the principal went way back, how they’d known each other since they were in university together. Which was one of the reasons his dad had donated the computers to Cornwallis Middle School. That and because Rafe went there. He told Steve what he’d heard.

  “Look,” Steve said, “it don’t matter what the principal does. Me and you are Cougars, right?”

  “As long as I keep my marks up,” Jared reminded him.

  “Right. And after that quiz last week, you sure don’t gotta worry about that.”

  Jared wasn’t convinced. “We got a big math test comin’ up. On all the stuff we been doin’ since school started. It’s worth a big chunk of our report card mark in November.”

  “Which is when basketball season starts,” Steve observed.

  “Right.”

  “So what? After all that extra work you been doin’, buddy, you’re gonna do fine.”

  “I hope so,” Jared replied, but he wasn’t so sure. He certainly seemed to understand the work much better since Ellie had begun tutoring him, but could he keep it up? And how much longer would she be tutoring him anyhow? She’d been putting in more than the required number of hours each week, so she couldn’t be far from getting her extracurricular credit. What would happen then?

  “So, you got another math session this afternoon, huh?” asked Steve.

  “Yeah.” Jared stared out the window at the blur of buildings and people they passed. Funny how things could be so clear one moment and so fuzzy the next. Like these sessions with Ellie.

  “You ain’t been complainin’ about it as much,” offered Steve.

  Jared stared at him. “What’s that s’posed to mean?”

  “Nothin’. I just ain’t heard you grumblin’ like you used to.”

  Jared felt a heat work its way up the back of his neck. “You think I’m enjoyin’ it?”

  Steve snorted. “Yeah, like I’d think that.” He hoisted his gym bag over his shoulder as the bus pulled up to their stop. “I’m just sayin’ you surprised me. I gotta hand it to you. I know how much you can’t stand Ellie Brejovic. Must be tough havin’ to spend so much time with her.”

  Jared didn’t say anything, just stood and followed his friend off the bus.

  Waiting for Ellie to arrive, he thought again about what Steve had said. His friend was right. He hadn’t been complaining as much about the sessions. But that didn’t mean he was enjoying them. What he enjoyed was the time they saved him. After all, what wasn’t there to like about getting help with homework that would have taken him a whole lot longer by himself than with Ellie?

  No, you certainly couldn’t say he was enjoying their time together. But yes, he liked how Ellie made math mean something, how she could take a question about probability or proportions and make it into something he cared about, like basketball or soccer. He liked how she didn’t make him feel stupid when an answer was staring him right in the face and he couldn’t see it. How she never lost her patience, how she seemed genuinely happy for him when he finally found his way through the maze that was his math homework. That’s what he enjoyed.

  Halfway though their session that day, though, he began to wonder if that was entirely true. Besides her knack for making math seem real, even interesting, she had a quirky sense of humour that reminded him of those old British television shows he sometimes watched on the Comedy Network. Most of the kids at school thought they were dumb, but he found them weirdly funny. Ellie’s peculiar slant on things was much the same. He hadn’t noticed that during their first few sessions together.

  They finished a few minutes early and, rather than immediately packing up and saying goodbye, Jared found himself asking Ellie if she’d heard about class clown Jimmy Stoltz’s latest practical joke on Mr. Grady, the head janitor. Jimmy told some of the boys in 6K how he had tied a pair of women’s underwear—a lacy black thong, to be precise—to the end of the long-handled duster he’d found in the janitor’s supply closet. Far from ambitious, Grady was well known for the careless way he worked. He was usually absorbed in some talk-radio program he listened to with a headset as he haphazardly cleaned his section of the building, and he’d been warned at least twice by the principal to improve his performance. Jared and the others who knew about Jimmy’s prank were waiting to hear if Grady had even noticed the underwear.

  It turned out that Ellie had first-hand news of the outcome. She’d stayed after school for a few minutes to update Mr. Keaton on her tutoring, and she’d passed the janitor on the way out. Earphones firmly in place, he had been lazily swiping the duster—and, of course, the thong—back and forth across the glass in the atrium. And with all that afternoon sunshine streaming in on him, he’d looked like he was performing onstage in a spotlight. Jared found Ellie’s description of the moment hysterical, and it was only a coughing fit that brought an end to his laughter.

  That had led to conversation about other people at school, like Ms. Curtis, the teacher of the class across the hall from theirs. “You know she has a huge crush on Mr. Keaton, don’t you?” asked Ellie.

  Jared was incredulous. “You’re kiddin’. Ms. Curtis?”

  “You’ve never seen?”

  “Seen what?”

  Ellie grinned. “How she always comes to Mr. Keaton when her whiteboard marker’s dried up or she’s low on printer paper.”

  Jared rolled his eyes. “Oh, right, all the signs of true love.”

  Ellie wagged her pencil at him. “It’s not the stuff, Jared. It’s the excuse
it gives her to come to his room.”

  He wasn’t convinced. “Teachers borrow from each other all the time.”

  “You haven’t noticed how she leans over his desk and laughs at everything he says?”

  Jared thought for a moment, and a memory of a recent recess surfaced: Ms. Curtis throwing her head back and laughing loudly at something Mr. Keaton had said about teaching fractions. He remembered thinking at the time how nothing about fractions could ever be that funny. Could Ellie be right? “Keaton don’t seem to notice,” he said. “Maybe he’s married.”

  “Divorced. No kids.”

  Jared whistled under his breath. “Wow. You work as a private investigator when you aren’t tutoring?”

  It was Ellie’s turn to laugh. “Nothing like that,” she explained. “I was in the office once and overheard him asking the secretary about changing the bank account that the school board deposits his paycheque into. He told her he’d done it a couple years ago when he got divorced but he needed to do it again.” She looked closely at Jared before continuing. “What was that like for you, Jared?”

  “What was what like?”

  She reddened and looked down at the table. “I can’t believe I asked that. Sorry. It’s none of my business.”

  Then he understood. “You wanna know about my mom’s divorce.”

  “Really,” she said looking up again, “you don’t have to tell me.”

  “No, it’s okay.” Besides his mom, Steve was the only person he’d talked to about it. No one else had ever asked. “I guess things started to go wrong after I was born. Maybe because I born.”

  Ellie looked at him, a pained expression on her face, and he smiled. “I guess some guys just aren’t cut out to be dads. Mine wasn’t. I don’t remember him much.” But he told her what he did remember—about the tall man with the big laugh who used to carry Jared on his shoulders so his head almost touched the ceiling. And about how the man started to laugh less and less and then, one day, left without even saying goodbye. They hadn’t heard from him since. And didn’t need to. His mother had built a life for the two of them that was just fine.

  He stopped, surprised that he’d said so much. He thought of how awkward he’d felt talking to Samantha and Erica in the hallway that morning a couple weeks ago, and so instead listened to them chatter endlessly about fake fingernails. He’d never talked this much to a girl before. “What about you?” he asked. “It’s just you and your dad, right?” He knew Ellie’s mom had died, but he didn’t know how.

  She told him how her family had lived in Mostar, a wartorn city an hour’s drive from Sarajevo, in Bosnia. Her mother had been leaving a bakery near their home when a car bomb exploded, instantly killing her and three other people. It was her dad who’d found Ellie’s mother, had gone looking for her when she hadn’t come home. Ellie, whose real name was Illyana, was only a baby when it happened. Immediately after the funeral, her father had applied to emigrate to Canada. He had a cousin already in Nova Scotia who sponsored him, which cut down the wait time. He couldn’t leave Bosnia fast enough, couldn’t bear the thought of maybe one day losing his daughter, too, and Canada seemed like a place where she could grow up safely.

  But even now, her father didn’t really feel any place was safe for her, which was why he’d always kept her close, why she was always with him at the deli, why he’d homeschooled her for the first few years rather than enrolling her in the public system. She’d learned to read when she was four, and books became her only companions. She was smart in book things, Ellie said, but not so smart when it came to kid things, being around people, making friends. Which was why her dad had finally decided to send her to public school the year before. She didn’t think it had helped much. Even Felicity Flowers wasn’t really a friend, just someone who sat with her on the playground sometimes because she liked the lunch Ellie’s dad packed for her.

  But she said none of this in a please-feel-sorry-for-me way, just answered his questions, told him what he wanted to know. Jared, though, felt humbled when he thought about how his father had chosen to leave while Ellie’s mother had had the choice made for her—by someone she’d probably never even met.

  Their conversation drifted to other topics. Jared asked Ellie about the music she liked to listen to, the type of movies she liked to watch, the food she liked to eat, and he was surprised they liked some of the same things. A lot of the same things, actually. He was even more surprised to glance at the clock and see that more than two hours had passed since Ellie had arrived.

  When she saw the time, she nearly leaped from her chair. “I’m really sorry,” she told him. “You probably have a ton of things to do.”

  “Not really,” he began, but she continued to gather up her things in record time, apologizing twice more before she got her coat on and made it out the door.

  This time as he watched through the window, he didn’t see the Sherpa he’d imagined before. Sherpa mountaineers carry other people’s loads up those slopes. Ellie carried a load all her own.

  CHAPTER 15

  “I’m home!” Jared called as he came in the back door, dropping his backpack and gym bag on the bench. He could hear the shower running.

  Cal followed him inside and headed immediately for his dish, then gave Jared a look of disappointment when he found it empty. “You’re gonna have to cut back, Cal,” Jared said. “You’re startin’ to pork out in the hind end.” The dog just stared at him.

  “How was practice?” his mother called.

  Jared poured himself a glass of orange juice and went to stand outside the bathroom door, taking gulps between play by plays of that afternoon’s action. “I can’t wait till the season starts,” he said. “I wanna see how we do against another team.”

  He heard the water shut off and his mother pull back the shower curtain. In a moment, she came out into the hall in her bathrobe, towel-drying her hair. “The nurses on my floor can’t wait, either,” she said, grinning. “I’ve been bragging up my son, the Cougar, so much that a couple of them said they’re coming to your first game if they’re not working.”

  “Jeez, Mom,” Jared said, “no pressure or anything.” But he smiled in spite of himself. There were plenty of Cougars who were every bit as good as—in fact, better than—he was, but leave it to his mom to make him the team star.

  “Ellie called,” she told him, heading into her bedroom. “She said you’ll have to go to her place this evening for your math session. Something about her dad being under the weather.”

  Jared thought about Ellie’s father and wondered what bug could have affected such a hulk of a man. He was about to ask when his mother reappeared wearing a green dress he’d never seen before. And her best shoes. “Gee, you look nice,” Jared told her.

  “Hey, don’t make it sound like such a surprise,” she scoffed.

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “I know, sweetheart. I’m just teasing,” she said, putting on a pair of earrings. “I made up a plate and left it for you in the fridge. You just have to zap it in the microwave for two minutes.”

  “You already ate?” he asked, following her into the kitchen.

  She looked at her reflection in the mirror by the back door. Seemingly satisfied, she turned. “No, as a matter of fact, I didn’t. I have a date.”

  Jared’s jaw dropped.

  “I know,” she said, “an old woman like me going on a date. Who’d have thought? But I’ve got my pension cheque with me, and I promise to take my walker.” She picked up her purse. “Oh, Steve’s mom said he could come over and watch some TV with you, but I told her you were going out for your math session.”

  Jared closed his mouth, then opened it again. “Who—?” He didn’t even finish the question.

  “Just a guy.” She glanced at the clock and turned to kiss her son. “I’m going to meet him at the restaurant. I left the number on the counter.” She opened the door. “Don’t worry, I won’t be out late. You know how us old folks need our rest.”


  Jared didn’t know if he should ring the doorbell or knock. He didn’t want to disturb Ellie’s dad, but he wasn’t sure anyone would hear him if he knocked. He was still making up his mind when the door opened.

  “Hi,” Ellie said. “I heard you on the stairs. Come in. And don’t mind Jacques.” She pointed to a large iguana draped over the back of the sofa in a room off to the left. “Mrs. Finkleman, that’s our housekeeper, she makes me put him in his cage when she comes to clean, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly.” She grinned. “Well, actually, he would hurt a fly. He loves ‘em. But he wouldn’t hurt people. He’s too lazy.”

  Jared entered the foyer of the apartment above Bre-jovic’s Deli. He’d wondered on the bus ride over what to expect, but he’d never in a million years have thought of an iguana. He wasn’t surprised, however, when he saw plenty of pictures on the walls. Along the hallway she led him through were several photographs of an attractive young woman. “Your mother?” he asked. When she nodded, he said, “She was real pretty.”

  “My father says that I—” Ellie began, but then she stopped, embarrassed. “We can work in here,” she said, leading him into a brightly lit kitchen. “Papa, this is Jared. The person I’ve been tutoring.”

  Ellie’s father sat in a rocking chair in a room just off the kitchen, a small, glassed-in area that looked out over the tops of trees and the small yard below. A portable television sat on a table in the corner, its volume down low. The big man had his right foot up on a stool, and it was wrapped in an icepack. “I am remembering you from the deli,” he said, his thick accent filling the room. “Sorry to be not getting up.” He nodded toward his foot.

  “He sprained his ankle,” Ellie explained, “climbing on the shelves in the cooler. Not using the stepladder like I’ve told him a hundred times.” These last few words were directed sternly at her father.