Oh goodness.
“Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Frankie Jane, but people called her Frankie Four Eyes because of her gigantic, purple glasses.”
Apparently, all of his stories started out with the same sentence.
“One day, Frankie was at a concert seeing one of her favorite boy bands. She managed to sneak backstage and was so excited, she nearly peed herself.”
Everyone got a kick out of that.
“Frankie found a private bathroom that was supposed to be for employees only. But before she could sit down, to her dismay, her glasses suddenly fell into the toilet bowl.”
The kids thought that was hysterical.
“This was a conundrum because—”
“What’s a con eardrum?” one of the students interrupted.
“Not con eardrum. A conundrum. And that’s a very good question. A conundrum is like a difficult problem…hard to solve.”
Mack repeated his previous line, “This was a conundrum…because Frankie was a germaphobe.”
Mack looked out at his audience anticipating a question.
A boy named Cayden raised his hand. “What’s a germaphobe?”
“Good question! A germaphobe is someone who is afraid of germs.” Mack continued, “Frankie didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to stick her hand down the dirty toilet to get the glasses, but if she didn’t, she wouldn’t be able to see. She was also embarrassed, so she chose not to yell for help. Frankie ended up keeping herself locked in the bathroom for several minutes. This was another conundrum. If she opened the door, someone would see her glasses in the toilet. If she didn’t, she’d be stuck in that bathroom unable to see.” He put the book down momentarily. “What do you think Frankie should do?”
“Call for help,” someone yelled.
“Yes. Let’s read on and find out what she does.” Mack turned the page. “Frankie didn’t have to decide, because there was a knock at the door. It was one of the singers from the band who needed to use the bathroom. She once again didn’t know what to do. This was another…” He paused.
The class answered in unison. “Conundrum.”
“That’s right.” He continued, “Before Frankie could open the door, a boy barged his way in. Frankie squinted to see who it was. Turned out, it was Mackenzie Magic, the lead singer of the band. Not only was Frankie embarrassed, but she was starstruck.” He turned the page. “The boy noticed Frankie squinting then looked down and saw her glasses in the bowl. Without thinking twice about it, Mackenzie Magic reached into the toilet, retrieved the glasses, and cleaned them off with soap and water. Not only that, he even joked about it, making Frankie laugh. She never expected that someone as famous as Mackenzie could be so nice. Later that night, he even ended up calling Frankie up on stage during the evening performance. Frankie realized that sometimes help comes from the least likely of places and sometimes—with the right person—a conundrum can turn into something great. The End.”
As the children clapped, Mack’s eyes darted toward me to gauge my reaction. He chuckled when he realized I was smiling. He knew he’d once again brought back a memory for me.
Mack spent the next several minutes discussing the theme of the book with the children.
While he was wrapping up, the mother I’d had my eye on waltzed her way over to him. Clarissa was going in for the kill. Straining my ears through the noise of the class, I struggled to hear what they were saying.
She held out her hand. “Clarissa McIntyre, Ethan’s mom.”
“Mack Morrison, Jonah’s dad. Pleasure to meet you.”
Just seeing her hand in his made my skin crawl.
“I’ve been meaning to look you up in the directory. Ethan’s been telling me how much he’d love a playdate with Jonah sometime.”
“Really? That’s interesting, considering my son generally keeps to himself.”
“They have similar personalities. I think that’s what appeals to Ethan, actually.”
Sure, it does.
She continued, “You’ll have to give me your number. I’ll program it into my phone. Maybe sometime later this week?”
“I’m actually only with Jonah on the weekends. His mother has a nanny who’s with him after school.”
“The weekend would actually work better for us.”
I bet it would. Much better for your purposes.
Mack was non-committal. “Alright, well, maybe.”
“Okay, I’m ready for your number whenever you are.”
She was so pushy. I watched as she entered his digits into her phone.
Mack then walked toward me without saying anything further to her.