A Last Good Bye

Lessons

Ch6
Tem

“Ok Tem, let’s work on your math”

I groaned and made a face at Uncle Mirmo.

“Oh come on, now. Math is not so bad.”

"Yes it is! Math is numbers and I don’t like numbers."

“We will do your lesson and then we can play and have fun.”

I asked Uncle Mirmo why we had to do the math.

“So you will become a great Jedi Knight like your Mom.”

I told him that Mom doesn’t use math. Mom is a Jedi. Jedi don’t need math. They have the Force.

“Your mom uses math all the time.”

I asked, " when?"

“When she is cooking, she has to figure how long to cook dinner, or when to set the timer. And.. Jedi might have the Force, but they need math as well. The Force cannot do everything.”

I told him the Force can do anything.

“But you cannot, and you cannot use the Force to do everything for you.”

I glared at him. He laughed at me and I glared at him more.

“Can the Force tell you what twenty two plus ten is?”

I opened my mouth to say yes and closed it. I didn’t know what it was.

“I thought as much. Until the Force can do math, you're going to have to do your lessons. So get your book and I’ll get the blocks and we’ll do this together. Before you know it, we will have fun.”

I didn’t believe him, but I got my workbook and brought into the kitchen. Mom likes to do math there. I climbed up on my chair and sat down. Uncle Mirmo looked through the book and stopped at a page. Mom had written something on there. I could tell because Mom’s writing is really curly and pretty.

“Hmm, it seems your Mom wants you to start on subtraction.”

I asked Uncle Mirmo what was that.

“You know what adding is?”

Yeah, adding is putting more of something together. I like it when Mom adds sugar to my drink or adds more time when I play.

“Subtraction is like adding, only it is opposite. You take away rather than add. Instead of giving you more time to play, your Mom would take away time.”

I told him I didn’t like subtraction. Uncle Mirmo laughed.

“Bad example. Subtraction can be good too. You know when you have been bad and your Mom makes you sit in the corner?”

I nodded.

“Well if you are good in the corner, sometimes your Mom will subtract how long you have to sit there.”

Oh, I guess subtraction isn’t so bad. I wish Mom would always subtract when she punishes me.

“I think Mom would like for you to subtract how bad you are. Your Mom does not like sending you to the corner, you know.”

I started to ask why does she send me there if she doesn’t like it, but Uncle Mirmo stopped me.

“Let’s start on the lesson and we can talk about this more.”

Mirmo pulled four blocks and put them in front of me. He then put the blocks in two piles.

“When you add two plus two you get four right?”

I nodded. That was easy.

“Well when you subtract two from four you get two. You see these four blocks? When I add two blocks to the other two blocks, I get four. Now if I take away two blocks, I get two.”

I watched him move the red blocks around. There were two blocks when he was done.

“Now suppose I have five blocks and I took away three. How many would I have left?”

I pulled out five blocks and took away three. I had two left.

“You see, you took away instead of adding.”

Then Uncle Mirmo got the book out. He pointed at the first problem. I was adding in that one.

“Now, what is twenty-two plus thirty?”

I did the math the way Mom showed me and got fifty-two.

“Very good. Now let’s change the problem a little and say thirty two subtract twenty two”

I looked at the problem, but I didn’t know what to do.

“If I had two blocks and I took away two blocks, what do I have?”

I told him zero. He wrote that down.

“Good, now what is three subtract two?”

I thought about the blocks and told him one.

“Very good. I think we can stop there and have snack.”

I shouted out in joy and leapt out of the chair. He put the math book away and I was really happy. We got all the blocks out and made stuff out of them for a while. Then we played on the computer before Mirmo had to make dinner. After dinner we sat down and I got to watch my favorite show on holonet. Mom doesn’t like me watching a lot of shows on holonet, but Mirmo will let me if he’s around. Mom only allows me to watch holonet if I’m sick or she’s sick and she can’t teach. Then Mirmo said it was bath time. I whined and told him I didn’t want a bath.

“But your Mom does and she will punish you if you do not take your bath and you will have less time to play tomorrow.”

I asked him if he meant subtraction.

“Yes I do. Now come on, subtract your stalling and then I will read you a story after your bath.”

I made a face at the bathtub, but went in and got clean. Yuck. I dried off and went to bed with my favorite nightclothes on. Uncle Mirmo tucked the covers around me even though I wasn’t cold. It never gets cold at the Temple and I like it. He got my favorite story out. It’s a true one about how when Mom was younger and was attacked and then fought a Jedi with a squirt gun and everything went wrong and in the end she won the fight.

“Once upon a time, your Mom was nineteen years old and very bright and wild like you. She went to this temple, a different one than this to train to be a Jedi. One day a little Jedi came up to her and squirted her with a squirt gun. Your Mom was very surprised and didn’t know what to do at first…..”

I closed my eyes and listened to Uncle Mirmo tell me about the fight. I fell asleep soon. It was a good day.