فصل بیست و هشتم

Chapter 28

Bradley lay on his bed, on his stomach. He chewed the end of his pencil as he looked hopelessly at the arithmetic book, opened in front of him.

Next to the book was a piece of paper. In the upper right-hand corner he had written: Bradley Chalkers

Homework

Arithmetic

Page 43

Red Hill School

Room 12

Mrs. Ebbel’s class

Last seat, last row

Black eye

His handwriting, which was messy anyhow, was made worse by the fact that he wrote with a dull pencil on top of a soft bed.

He had stayed in Mrs. Ebbel’s class as long as he could after the bell rang.

“Bradley, it’s time to go home,” Mrs. Ebbel finally said to him.

He looked outside, unsure if Jeff and his gang of bullies were waiting for him. “Um, I have a question,” he said.

Mrs. Ebbel eyed him suspiciously. “What kind of question?” He tried to figure out what kind of question he had. “An asking question.” “I see,” said Mrs. Ebbel.

“May I ask it?” he asked.

“O-kay,” she said reluctantly.

He asked his question. “What page is the homework on?” “The homework? Page forty-three.” He wrote “43” on the top of his sneaker so he wouldn’t forget, then took his arithmetic book and stepped outside. Jeff and his friends were playing basketball. He ran home.

Now he looked hopelessly at Page 3, shook his head, and sighed.

Question 1. What is three-fourths of two-thirds?

It was the most impossible question he’d ever seen. His mind wandered.

“Hey, Bradley, what are you doing?” asked Ronnie.

“Homework.”

“What’s homework?” she asked.

“It’s work you do at home.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?” she asked.

“No, really. That’s what they do at school. They give you work to do at home and they call it homework.” “You’ve never done it before,” said Ronnie.

“I’m doing it for Carla. Now leave me alone so I can concentrate.” Question 1. What is three-fourths of two-thirds?

“Why are you doing it for Carla?” Ronnie asked.

He sighed. “Okay, I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone.” Ronnie promised not to tell.

“We’re in love.”

“Really?” exclaimed Ronnie. “How do you know?” “She kissed me.”

“Oooh, that means she loves you!” said Ronnie. “Are you going to marry her?” “Maybe, when I’m older. First, I have to do my homework.” “I’m going to marry Bartholomew,” said Ronnie.

“I know,” said Bradley. “Now let me do my homework.” Question 1. What is three-fourths of two-thirds?

“Hey, Bradley, what’s going on?” asked Bartholomew.

“Leave him alone,” said Ronnie. “He’s trying to do his homework. He can’t concentrate when you’re talking to him.” “Maybe I can help,” said Bartholomew. “What’s the problem?” “What is three-fourths of two-thirds?” Bradley asked.

“Three-fourths of two-thirds,” Bartholomew repeated. “That’s a tough problem all right. Three-fourths of two-thirds. Let’s see. You divide four into—no, you multiply two times, no …” “Of means divide,” said the donkey. “Like if you take half of something it means you divide by two. You divide three by two and four by three.” Bradley started to write that down.

“No, of means times,” said the lion. “You have to multiply everything.” “First you have to reverse the nominators,” said the fox.

“You don’t reverse, you inverse,” corrected the mother cocker spaniel.

“I think you have to find a common denumerator,” said the elephant.

“Not for multiplication,” said the hippopotamus. “That’s only for addition.” “Multiplication is the same as addition,” said the fox, “only faster.” “You cancel out the threes,” said the kangaroo. “You always cancel out threes.” “You multiply the threes,” said the lion.

Bradley kept erasing and rewriting and erasing and rewriting until there was nothing but a big black smudge covering his paper. On top of the smudge, he tried to write 3 × 3 = 9, but as he did so, his pencil tore a hole through the paper.

“The answer can’t be nine,” said Ronnie. “If you start out with fractions, you have to end up with fractions.” Bradley slammed the book shut. “None of you know what you’re talking about!” he cried out in disgust. He took the book, paper, and pencil, and walked down the hall to the dining room.

His mother was sitting at the table working a crossword puzzle from the newspaper. He plopped down next to her and sighed.

She looked at him inquisitively.

“I can’t figure out how to do my homework,” he complained. “Will you help me?” His mother smiled. “I’d be delighted. Let me see.” He pushed his arithmetic book in front of her. “Page forty-three.” She opened the book to that page and looked at Bradley’s torn, smudged paper. “Okay. First let me clear away this newspaper so we can have a nice, neat place to work. While I do that, I want you to get a clean sheet of paper.” “I don’t have any more paper. This is all I brought home.” “There’s some paper in your father’s desk. Get a sharp pencil, too.” He looked at her in disbelief. He wasn’t allowed to touch anything on his father’s desk.

She nodded.

Bradley felt a little scared as he walked into the extra bedroom which his father used as an office. He opened the top drawer of the old oak desk and carefully took out a pencil and a piece of paper. He shut the drawer, looked around, then hurried back to his mother.

She smiled at him.

He sat down and wrote, much neater this time: Bradley Chalkers

Homework

Arithmetic

Page 43

Red Hill School

Room 12

Mrs. Ebbel’s class

Last seat, last row

Black eye

“You have to put all that,” he explained, “in case it gets lost.” She read the first question aloud. “ ‘What is three-fourths of two-thirds?’ “ He shrugged.

“Okay,” she said, “the first thing you want to do is write the equation.” He still didn’t know what to do.

She wrote it for him.

“Whenever you see the word of, it means you multiply,” she explained.

“Of means times,” he said.

“Right,” said his mother.

That was what the lion had said.

“Now you can cancel out the threes,” said his mother.

That was what the kangaroo had said. You always cancel out threes.

Neither of them noticed that Claudia was standing behind them, watching. “That’s not how you’re supposed to learn it,” she said abruptly.

Bradley turned around and glared at her.

“You have to explain why you cancel them,” said Claudia. “And they don’t call it canceling. It’s called dividing by one.” “I just know the way I learned it,” said Mrs. Chalkers.

“If you want, I can show you, Bradley,” said Claudia.

He looked at his mother, then back at Claudia, then at his mother.

“She knows the way they’re teaching it now,” said his mother.

“You’ll help me?” Bradley asked his sister.

“Sure, why not? I got nothing better to do.” Mrs. Chalkers stood up, and Claudia took her place. “Don’t do it for him,” said Bradley’s mother. “Make sure he knows how to do it himself.” Claudia worked patiently with Bradley for the rest of the afternoon. When he said he understood something, she made him explain it to her. That was harder. He understood it when she did it, but then he had trouble when he tried to do it himself.

By dinnertime, they were only a little more than halfway through. Bradley wanted Claudia to help him after dinner, too, but she had her own homework to do.

“You know how to do it,” she told him. “You can do it yourself.” “I need help,” he complained.

“I’ll help you,” said his father.

“You will?”

“Let’s go to my office. We can work at my desk.” Bradley couldn’t believe it.

They worked together. Bradley was surprised by how much his father knew. He made all the hard parts seem easy. Bradley was a little disappointed by how quickly they finished. He had liked working with his father.

He brought his finished homework back to his room.

“Oh, I get it, Bradley,” said Bartholomew. “You multiply the numerators and denominators separately. But I still don’t understand reducing.” “It’s easy,” said Bradley. “Here, let me show you again.”