Commencement

by Lawrence Cherry

Allen squirmed around in his seat. He was beginning to get a little anxious. It was 10:25 and he was starting to worry. Tamiko was always on time for her appointments. Allen checked his smart phone again to see if he had gotten any messages from her. Then he saw it.

  I’m in the library. But where are you?

  In the back, all the way back, Allen tapped into his phone feeling a bit of relief.

  Allen got up from where he was sitting and went to the corner where he knew she would be able to see him. It took a few moments before they spotted each other. Even on the weekends when she was supposed to be laid back, Tamiko still looked prissy. She was wearing a beige button down shirt under a light orange v-neck sweater, coffee colored corduroy skirt and high heeled coffee colored boots. She looked like something out of a Brooks Brothers ad. Looking at her, Allen felt like a slob in his wrinkled gray sweatshirt, jeans, and vintage Jordans.

  “Sorry I’m late, but I had trouble finding parking and the tourists are pouring in right about now.”

  “You took your car? Why didn’t you just take the train?”

  “Because I’m going by B.J.’s later to get some things for the ice-cream social the children’s church is having. Anyway, what’s this all about?”

  “Someone I know desperately needs a tutor, and I thought you may be able to help me since you’re a teacher and all.”

  “Honestly, Allen, with the way things have been going with my teaching career, I’m probably the last person you should be asking for help.”

  “C’mon, Miko. Even if you don’t know a lot, you do know something. That’s more than I know right now.”

  “Fine. Who is it? Does your new girlfriend have a kid or something?”

  “This has nothing to do with Holly. Besides we’re pretty much over.”

  “Really, Why?”

  “Jim and Tim blabbed about where I worked at the Election Night party, and that was the end of that.”

  “If she’s that shallow, you didn’t need her anyway. Now back to business. How old is this kid? What grade is he or she in?”

  “He’s about 24, and he’s trying to get his high school diploma.”

  “Allen, are you serious?! I’m an elementary school teacher! I have a certificate in elementary education, as in grades 1 through 6. I have no idea how to help someone that old!”

  “C’mon, Miko. You have some experience in that area. Remember when we used to be school tutors in high school? That wasn’t that long ago”, Allen reminded her in an attempt to calm her down.

  “So why don’t you just tutor him yourself if that’s the case? And who is this guy anyway?”

  “He’s a guy I know from work. His name is Davis Martinez.”

  “This isn’t the guy that you said looks like he’s straight out of ‘Con Air’?!”

  “That was before I got to know him. He’s a really good guy. He’s had a rough life, but now he’s trying to turn things around.”

  “What do you mean, ‘you got to know him’. You’ve barely known this guy a week! Who knows what he’s really like. What if he’s mentally unstable? What if he has no intention of studying, but wants us to write

  his papers for him, and then if we don’t cooperate, threatens to shoot us or something?”

  “Miko, are you listening to yourself?”

  “No, have you been listening to yourself?”

  “I just have a good feeling about this guy. Anyway, he needs our help and we are in a position to help him. What do you think God would have us to do?”

  Tamiko paused for a moment. Allen had made a valid point.

  “O.K, when you put it that way... but you still haven’t told me what

  I’m supposed to do? After all he’s your pupil, isn’t he?”

  Silence from Allen.

  “Isn’t he?”

  “You see, Miko. It’s really complicated because I work with him everyday. I don’t want to make things uncomfortable between us. It’s a guy thing, you know? But if you were to step in at some point, being a girl and all, I think our friend would be more amenable to…..”

  “Allen!”

  “I’m going to be here with you two. Sometimes.”

  “Sometimes!” said Tamiko, her eyes widening in shock. I’m going

  home!”

  “C’mon, Miko. You’ll both be in a public place. I mean it’s the library! What could happen here? And besides I’ll pick you up and take

  you home if you need me to.”

  “I won’t need you to, because I’m not staying!”

  “Miko, please. C’mon. At least stay for today. He’s going to be here

  in a minute.”

  Not long after Allen had uttered those words, did Davis appear before them. He was wearing a black wool jacket with a black hoodie underneath, baggy jeans and sneakers. He was also carrying a black canvass school bag on his back.

  “Wassup, Al?” then, after noticing Tamiko’s expression, he added “I’m not late, am I? You said 11:00 right?”

  “Of course not. You’re just in time, man. But first, let me introduce you to my friend I was telling you about. Davis, this is Tamiko Bynum. She’s a public school teacher. Tamiko, this is Davis, my colleague from work.”

  Tamiko couldn’t help her open-mouthed stare. However, she managed to shake herself out of it to stammer a few words.

  “Nicet to meet you, Davis”, she said weakly as she offered a slightly trembling hand.

  “Same here”, replied Davis giving her a firm, but quick shake.

  “Now that we’ve gotten over the formalities, how about we sit down and get down to business?” said Allen trying to break the ice. They all sat down at one of the rectangular tables. Allen sat opposite Davis and Tamiko sat next to Allen.

  “So, Davis, you told me you were having trouble with your English classes, but now we need to find out what your specific problem is. Do you have any of your papers or class work that we could have a look at?”

  “Uh, yeah, like I got this paper I did for class last week. I didn’t get a very good grade on it, but the teacher said if I could fix it up, he’d score the second one and do like an average of the two grades, but to tell you the truth, like a lot of the comments, I don’t get what he’s talkin’ about. I don’t know where to start.”

  Davis opened his backpack and took out a very smart looking blue vinyl folder, opened it and took out a paper at the front of the pile within, and handed it to Allen. Allen received it from him, and Tamiko peered over Allen’s shoulder. They both tried not to seem too startled at the grade (a D-), and then the sea of red ink that covered the paper. In any case, Davis could read their faces despite their attempts to cover their reaction.

  “I told you it wasn’t good”, Davis said looking at his hands.

  “What was this paper supposed to be about?” asked Tamiko hesitantly.

  “It’s suppost’ to be about different kin’s of heroes and how this guy Achilles is one kin’ of hero and how he compares to somebody like this guy named Tom in this other book.”

  “Tom, who?” asked Allen.

  “The guy in this book about these poor people who move to Cali, lookin’ for work.”

  “Do you mean the “Grapes of Wrath”?” asked Allen as he handed the paper over to Tamiko, who was hogging it. It seemed that her teacher’s instinct was kicking in, and overriding all of the other feelings she was having at the moment.

  “Yeah, that’s the one. So whaddoyathink?”

  “From what I have read so far, your ideas aren’t really that bad. It’s just that they need to be organized or arranged a bit better. And they could stand to be a little more developed. But these aren’t the biggest issues. It’s your grammar that’s going to be the real challenge”, suggested Tamiko.

  “What’s grammar?”

  “Like the way you put a sentence together.”

  Davis gave Tamiko a very blank look. Allen and Tamiko looked at each other with grave expre
ssions. Tamiko then tried to explain.

  “It’s just that you write the way you speak.”

  “What’s wrong wit’ that. Ain’t you suppost to? That’s what my teachers in school taught me when I was little.”

  “Actually, you’re not. I mean it’s okay for little kids because they’re just learning how to get their ideas down on paper, but once you get older, there has to be a shift in your approach. The way most people talk is very ungrammatical. The only reason it makes sense is because the context of conversation has so many other variables that communicate what our words don’t. When you write, you have to be more precise or specific with your meaning, otherwise people won’t understand you.” explained Tamiko, hoping she didn’t sound too much like a nerd.

  “You make it sound like I gotta to learn another language”, breathed Davis, a little discouraged.

  “Kind of. But it’s not that hard. I mean we can start by working on fixing this paper.”

  “But you think there’s hope for me?”

  “Of course! Like I said before, your ideas are very good.”

  “She’s right, and you just need to use more precise references from the book to support your ideas”, said Allen.

  “O.K. so, you just show me what I gotta do and I’ll do it.”

  “Great. Let’s get started.”

  The three of them spent the next three hours helping Davis develop an outline for his new paper, and helping him with deciding on different quotes from the text that would better illustrate his points. All throughout, Davis took notes that he would use to help him to re-write the paper. Then they discussed how when Davis had finished re-writing the paper, he could drop it off with Allen who would deliver it to Tamiko at school, who would then help Davis edit it for spelling and grammar. Then Davis would re-write this draft and hand in the final version to his teacher. All throughout their session, Davis demonstrated a great work ethic. He seemed genuinely interested in learning more about writing than in trying to get either Tamiko or Allen to do his work for him. Allen was impressed by his organization, and his willingness to learn, not to mention his intellect. Reading Davis’ paper, Allen realized that Davis was not as ignorant as his speech seemed to indicate. In fact, Allen began to wonder why Davis felt like he didn’t understand his reading. The ideas in his paper seemed to be spot on, and Allen was a little jealous about all the different tenets Davis was able to tease out in two really challenging texts. Davis had just as much intellect as he had. He may not have had the opportunities to exercise that intellect as Allen had, but he had just as much potential as Allen did. Tamiko, seemed equally impressed with Davis’ intellect, as well as his other more superficial qualities. In fact, she spent a lot of the time wondering about the impression she was making on him.

  “Thanks for helpin’ me. I really ‘preciate it”, said Davis when they were done.

  “It’s no problem man, anytime”, replied Allen.

  “So how much I owe you?” asked Davis.

  “Oh, no! You don’t have to pay us anything! Really!” exclaimed Tamiko.

  “But I don’t like takin’ advantage. I know I gotta pay my own way. You feel?”

  “But we’re all friends here, right?” asked Allen, hoping Davis would accept his offer.

  “Yeah, man”, smiled Davis “At least lemme get you something to eat. I know you must be hungry by now.”

  “Sure. How about we get some pizza?” suggested Allen.

  “O.K.”

  “Is that good for you, Miko?”

  “I would love to hang with you guys, really. But I have to run some errands for my dad. It was nice meeting you, Davis. I hope you’ll hang out with us sometime. Maybe you could go with us to the movies one Saturday when you’re free.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t know. I kinda have my hands full right now wit’ school and all.”

  “I understand”, said Tamiko trying to hide her disappointment.

  “But we’ll see.”

  “O.K. Bye”, waved Tamiko, bumping into a table behind her on her way out.

  Allen and Davis waved back. When Tamiko was out of sight…

  “Your friend is really pretty. How old is she?”

  “She’ll be 22 in December. All the guys think she’s pretty.”

  “She got a boyfriend?”

  Allen hesitated for a moment. At first, he didn’t really know what to say about that given recent developments among their set.

  “No.”

  “For real? Why? Somethin’ wrong wit her? She crazy or sumthin’?”

  “No. She just has a lot of standards.”

  “Does that mean she likes the chedda, too?”

  “No way. She’s not like that at all. She just has a lot of moral standards that most guys have a hard time getting with.”

  “Like what? She don’t sleep around?”

  “Yeah, but that’s just the start of it”, laughed Allen. “You’re not interested in her, are you?”

  “Nah, man. It’s like I tol’ you before, I got too much goin’ on right now to get involved with any females. I was just curious that’s all. She’s not like any of the girls I know from round the way. She seems real classy.”

  “Yes, Tamiko is truly one of a kind. But if you hang around us long enough, you’ll find out all about her for yourself.”

  “Doesn’t sound like a bad idea, man.”

  Thirty-Six