The Five Pearls

by Barry James Hickey

  “What kind of help can I provide?” Wirtz was incredulous. “It’s you five who must learn the material. What can I do?”

  “Study guides, research material,” Amber suggested.

  Julio was getting angrier by the minute. “Are you gonna help us or not?”

  “Oh, I'll help you all right!” Mr. Wirtz laughed. “Believe you me.” He pulled out a thick stack of booklets from a filing cabinet and dumped them on his desk. “There you go. Good luck!”

  The Tadpoles sifted through the stack. There was a lot of reading.

  “When do you plan on taking this test?” Mr. Wirtz asked.

  “We have until April,” Toby said.

  “Oh! I see! You five are on a deadline! How intriguing!” He sharpened a pencil and glared at Amber. “How far along are you?”

  “Five months.”

  “And you want to have your diploma before you have a baby. How adult. Even better, maybe the baby can take the test for you!”

  Julio reached across the desk and grabbed a hold of the teacher. “You have no right to talk to her or any of the rest of us like that! You understand?”

  Wirtz smugly looked down at the angry hand clutching his shirt. “I apologize. Now I suggest you release me before things get out of hand, Mr. Ramirez.”

  “Let him go, Julio,” Amber ordered.

  Julio released the teacher and sat down.

  “Okay,” Wirtz decided coolly. “You guys come to me every Friday after my normal classes are out to exchange workbooks. If these are done to my satisfaction, I'll give you more. If they’re not, you don’t get any materials until the old ones are turned in. You say you want to take the test in April. Fine. If you pass it, you move on to college or a car wash and I get to wash my hands of you. Everybody wins. If you fail...”

  “We won't fail,” Toby promised.

  “Oh really, Mr. Chambers. Why won't you fail?”

  “Because we’re five pearls.”

  “Like uncut diamonds,” Marie said.

  “Very cute,” Wirtz frowned.

  Marie pointed a finger at the man. “Know what your problem is, Mr. Wirtz? You never saw us for our potential.”

  “Gee, I guess I didn't.” He loved sarcasm. “But do any of you know the first thing about English, Math, Science and Social Studies?”

  “We had a good teacher.”

  “Mr. Battle, I presume?”

  “He taught us not to be afraid of trying,” Julio said.

  Matt added, “And that’s why we know that we can pass the GED exam.”

  “Remember this,” Wirtz said as a reminder. “You may study together, but in the end you take the test alone. And be aware of this as well, little pearls. By law, you have to drop out of high school before you’re allowed to take the test. Once you drop out, I think you’ll find it very, very difficult to get back in.” He stood and clapped his hands together, then picked up the stack of study guides, offering them to the group. “Enough food for thought. I wish you all the best of luck.”

  Toby took the stack and nodded towards the door. “Let’s show him what we got.”

  After the students left his office, Wirtz dropped into his chair, oddly relieved. “Whatever that damned Battle did to those kids, I want some,” Mr. Wirtz laughed.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  It was a bitter cold day in late January. A hard, cruel wind blew against the backs of the Five Pearls sitting along the old log with study guides on their laps.

  “Can it possibly get any colder?” Julio complained. “I can't even hold this book,” Matt protested.

  “Why don't you wear gloves?” Toby asked.

  “That would require my getting a job to earn the money to

  buy the gloves,” Matt said.

  “Why not steal a pair from the mall?” Julio said as a matter

  of fact.

  “Malls are for losers,” Matt explained.

  “Let’s face it. We need a warm place to study,” Marie

  realized. She dropped her book on her lap and looked at

  Amber. “This can't be good for the baby.”

  “I have a place for us to study,” Amber clucked without

  looking up from her reading.

  “You do?” Matt jumped up. “It’s a thousand degrees below

  zero and you hold out on us?”

  “It’s the library, isn’t it?” Marie guessed.

  “Not the library,” Amber smiled. “You may not like it.” She

  rose from the log and started up the trail. “If you’re brave, I

  mean truly brave, follow me.”

  “She’s whacked,” Julio growled as he shook his head. “I can’t hear you,” Toby said loudly. “My ears fell off.”

  The five freezing Tadpoles stooped at a convenience store to warm up before continuing on to Amber’s mystery location. Inside the store, Julio made a weak attempt to steal candy bars from the shelf but the savvy store clerk had watched his every move.

  When Amber stopped at the front gate leading up to Loomis House, her friends practically fell over each other.

  “Um, Amber?” Matt suggested. “We robbed this house, remember?”

  “I know. Follow me, please.”

  She brazenly swung open the gate, skipped up the walk to the front door, climbed the steps and rang the doorbell.

  Julio lowered his head. “This is embarrassing.”

  “Come on, everybody!” Amber called back.

  One by one, the boys, with hands in their pockets, drifted down the walkway and onto the front porch. Marie was the last in line. She hurriedly removed her newly acquired hat from her head and stuffed it in her bag.

  Mrs. Powell answered the door. She was wearing a pair of oven mittens. “Well, well, well!” the old woman said. “This is encouraging, Amber! You managed to snag the whole crew just like you said you would! Come in, come in! I have brownies in the oven.”

  Toby whispered to Matt. “Brownies?”

  With a nudge to each young person’s shoulder as they passed, Mrs. Powell scuttled the Tadpoles into the familiar hallway. “You may call me Mrs. Powell.” Her voice sounded delighted.

  “Are you Mr. Battle’s mother?” Matt asked.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Then, how did you know him?” Marie asked.

  “All your questions will be answered in due course.”

  “So, lady. You gonna give us a lecture?” Julio asked.

  “About what, dear?”

  “Breaking and entering...”

  “You left out burglary, young man…”

  “Oh, yeah. That, too.”

  “No… A lecture would be a waste of time,” Mrs. Powell reasoned. “Don’t you agree?”

  Her steady eyes moved from kid to kid. All had downcast eyes and seemed extremely embarrassed.

  “You gonna call the cops, then?” Julio asked.

  “No,” Mrs. Powell said with assurance. “Even though it did cross my mind, I figure you owe me one now. You certainly owe Mr. Battle one. Follow me into the kitchen. It’s time we chitchat like adults.”

  While the teens munched on warm sweets and cold milk, Mrs. Powell quizzed them.

  “So... Amber says you all want to get your General Education Diploma by April. That doesn’t give you much time. She says you need a safe house to study together. Not to play or horse around, but to study. Is this correct?”

  The kids agreed.

  “What’s your plan of attack?”

  “We don’t have one,” Amber said. “That’s why we’re here.”

  “What are your strong suits?” Mrs. Powell asked.

  “I’m good with facts and dates,” Marie spoke bravely. “I could do some timelines.”

  Julio interrupted. “What’s a timeline?”

  “You know, like how things happened in history in chronological order.”

  “What’s chronological order?” Julio followed up with a silly grin.

  “Julio,” Mrs. Powell interjected, “are you
so ignorant that you bully others with your own stupidity or are you so smart that you can’t stand the mundane?”

  “What?” he said.

  “I think you heard me,” Mrs. Powell replied sternly. “You don’t have to play the fool anymore. At least not in my house. It’s very irritating.”

  “I was just messin’ with her,” he explained.

  “You were messin’ with her self-esteem. And if I recall from my own youth, most teenagers don’t have all that much self esteem to begin with.” She looked around the table. “Other strong suits?”

  “I’m pretty good at Math,” Matt suggested.

  “I know how to read things backwards,” Toby said.

  “And I have the vocabulary of a sixth grader,” Julio said with defeat.

  Mrs. Powell cleared her throat loudly. “Okay, let’s back up. What is the exam supposed to be about? That comes first.”

  Amber gave her a two-inch thick manual. “This is a sample test.”

  Mrs. Powell flipped through a few pages. “Ah,” she smiled. “Here’s an overview of how the GED works.” She grabbed a spiral notebook and pen and fished through the manual for information, jotting down pertinent information as she went. “The GED measures the major academic skills and concepts associated with four years of regular high school instruction. One out of every seven high school diplomas issued each year in the United States is based on passing the GED tests. If you pass, it’s the equivalent of a high school diploma.” She looked at each of the kids. “Guess how long the test is?”

  “An hour?” Marie said hopefully.

  “Try seven.”

  “Seven hours!” Julio whined. “Nobody can take a test for seven straight hours! It’s, it’s unconstitutional!”

  The white-haired matron ignored his barb and read on. “The test battery includes five areas of knowledge; Social Studies, Mathematics, Science and Language Arts. Plenty of multiple choice, lots of reading and writing.”

  “Writing,” Julio moaned.

  “Writing, Mr. Ramirez. Is that a problem for you?”

  “I’m extremely lazy.”

  “I can tell,” she said bluntly.

  Mrs. Powell dropped the manual on the table and crossed to the stove. Her tea water was boiling.

  “And the rest of you? Are you going to give up as easily as this young man does? Because if you are, there’s no point in continuing.”

  “We’re not all like Julio,” Toby said with a mixture of politeness of excuse.

  “Julio?” she asked. “If Mr. Battle were here, do you think he’d think you can’t pass?”

  “Mr. Battle was an extreme optimist,” Julio said. “He’d think we can do anything.”

  “We can!” Amber said. “I know we can.”

  “Anybody else?”

  “I’m willing to try,” Toby said.

  “Us too,” Matt and Marie agreed.

  Amber glanced at the stack of study guides in front of her. “I think our problem wasn’t about the subjects. Our problem was about how we dealt with authority figures. Until Mr. B came along, we thought teachers were our natural enemies.”

  “Yeah,” Matt said. “Like dogs and cats.”

  “Julio?” Mrs. Powell pressed. “Are you in or out?”

  The boy groaned, feeling the old lady’s eyes on his back. He finally caved in. “What do I have to do?”

  His friends clapped their hands. “Right on!”

  Mrs. Powell looked at her notes. “Your goal in the test is to be able to read, interpret information, and express yourself in writing on a level comparable to that of sixty percent of graduating high school seniors in the United States.”

  “That’s easy,” Julio said. “Most kids are stupid.”

  “The test isn’t about what you know, it tests how you apply basic thinking skills to real-life situations. The best way to prepare for the test is to practice with actual questions in the test areas and learn how to improve your guessing ratio and how to eliminate the wrong answers by comprehending, understanding, interpreting and applying logic.”

  “That sounds easy enough,” Julio said. “Except for Marie. She’s pretty far down on the logic food chain.”

  Mrs. Powell crossed her arms and glared at the boy. “Once again… I’ll have none of that in this house. Do you understand? Real friends don’t tear each other down. They build each other up. This isn’t some game you’re playing, Julio Ramirez. It’s an opportunity to change your life or continue as you are.”

  Julio hung his head. “I’m sorry, Marie.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I may be stupid, but at least I’m not fat.”

  The old woman scowled. “There you go again, kids. Right for the throat.”

  “It isn’t like that, ma’am.” Toby stood up defensively. “You see, we’ve all known each other for four years. We’re like brothers and sisters.”

  “It’s what families do,” Matt said.

  “Not this family,” said the woman. “If you want to study in my house, you give each other hope and trust and understanding. Am I clear?”

  “Clear,” replied the kids.

  She seemed satisfied with their answer. “Moving on about the test… You have to familiarize yourself with charts, graphs, maps, figures and tables. Get ready for statistics and probability. Analyze multiple choice questions for the best answer by using induction and deduction. In the Math section you can use a calculator provided by the test center. You’ll need to review measurements, calculations and geometry. You’ll have to write essays, too, so you’ll need to review punctuation and spelling, revision and editing.”

  “There’s no way we can do all this in a few months,” Marie said. “All we got is these manuals.”

  “All we have are these manuals,” the woman corrected the girl’s grammar.

  “Didn’t I just say that?” Marie looked at her friends for confirmation.

  “No. You said, ‘all we got is these manuals,’” Matt said. “But I can help you fix that.”

  “Did anyone notice the library while you were vandalizing my house?” Mrs. Powell asked.

  “Yeah. Cool room,” Toby said.

  “And…?” Mrs. Powell hinted.

  Toby snapped his fingers. “And it’s got tons of books!”

  “Tons!” Mrs. Powell yelled with glee. “Follow me.”

  She led them into the study. They stared at the volumes on the walls.

  “There is a treasure chest of knowledge inside these four walls for the willing.”

  “Can we get started today?” Amber asked.

  Mrs. Powell smiled. “Start with Language Arts. On your mark, get set, go!”

  The Five Pearls ran to the kitchen, retrieved study guides and headed into the library.

  An hour later, Mrs. Powell checked in on them. Julio was sprawled out on the sofa, shoes off, taking notes. Marie and Amber were on the floor; heads propped on angled arms, scribbling away. Toby was pacing the room, mumbling back the definition of a paragraph that Matt was reading aloud from behind the big desk.

  “It’s a group of sentences written about one topic or idea,” Matt said. “It has two important parts. A topic sentence and supporting sentences. You get it yet?”

  “I need an example,” Toby’s voice seemed deflated.

  Matt thought of an example. “The fat cow jumped the fence and trotted down the road. When the cow came to the cattle guard, it got its foot stuck in the metal grate. A truck came along and smashed into the cow, killing it.”

  “I get it.” Marie looked up from her notes. “But you messed up.”

  “How?”

  “Cows don’t have feet. They have hooves.”

  “Right on, Marie!’ Said Toby.

  “I forgot to mention something,” Mrs. Powell interrupted.

  “What’s that?” asked the teenagers.

  “The test costs sixty five dollars. How do you plan to pay for it? Does anyone have a job?”

  “I was thinking about getting one,”
Toby said.

  “Me too,” Matt said.

  “My old man will pay for the test,” Julio said. “Nobody in my family ever got a high school diploma.”

  “I’ll ask my grandparents,” said Marie.

  “Amber?” The old woman held back a smile.

  “I have access to money,” Amber said.

  “Baby Beulah’s got money? How?” Julio bellowed. “Some kind of orphan or unwed mother fund?”

  “Yeah,” Amber said.

  “Okay,” Mrs. Powell interrupted, “I want you all to tackle Social Studies for the next hour.”

  Julio moaned. “You’re killing me, Mrs. P.”

  “You slay me, Julio,” she laughed. “Now get busy.”

  She returned an hour later, tapping her wristwatch. “Done for the day, gang. Let’s clear out.”

  The pearls stood and stretched.

  “Man, that Thomas Jefferson dude was tight,” Julio said.

  “Hard to imagine Albert Einstein working as a clerk before he discovered E=Mc squared,” Matt said.

  Toby held up a book. “This chapter says Edgar Alan Poe was a crack head!”

  The teens circled around Marie. “What did you learn today that was new and exciting?”

  Marie took a deep breath before she blurted out; “Charles Darwin laid the foundation of modern evolutionary theory with the concept of the development of all forms of life through natural selection. He was born in England in 1809, the fifth child of a wealthy and sophisticated family...”

  “Wow!” Julio said. “Marie swallowed a smart pill!”

  The kids picked up their personal belongings and started out.

  “I don’t think so,” Mrs. Powell said with a waving finger as she blocked their exit from the library.

  “What did we do now?” Julio groaned.

  “I expect this room to look like you found it,” Mrs. Powell advised. “Books back on shelves, chairs rearranged, dishes back in the kitchen.”

  “Amber and I got the dishes,” Marie volunteered.

  “Amber and I have the dishes!” Matt corrected her.

  “Isn’t that what I just said?”

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Short days and weeks leaped into months at the Loomis House as the bite of winter slowly loosened its grip.

  Inside the confines of Loomis House the pearls heatedly discussed and argued their way through reading materials, charts and maps provided by the private library and the institutional vaults of pessimistic Mr. Wirtz. The band of five turned in writing assignments and multiple choice practice tests on a semi-daily basis faster than he could read them.