Intervention: A Science Fiction Adventure (10 page)

The move went smoothly.
Mary went right to work cleaning the closets and emptying the drawers
in preparation for their belongings. She set Mickey’s uncle’s
clothes and things aside to box up to go to Goodwill. He was much
shorter and heavier than Joe, so none of his things would fit.
Meanwhile Joe brought the food in to go in the refrigerator first,
then the boxes from the car, setting them in the living room to sort
out as they went. In no time at all, Mary had neatly put all their
clothes and personal belongings in their proper place. While Joe and
Christopher were busy exploring every little nook and cranny, Mary
moved into the kitchen to start setting up shop. She cleaned and
sorted and moved things around over and over until everything was
just right.

“Mary, come here and
look at this!” Joe hollered from the living room. “Mary?” he
repeated.

“Yes, yes, I’m
coming, I’m coming.” Mary continued as she entered the living
room. “What is it, honey?”

“Will you look at
this? It works!” Joe said as he played with the adjustments on the
television. “Hey! Look, it’s Ed Sullivan. Son of a gun.”

“Ed Sullivan.”
Christopher echoed.

“Better be careful,
honey, there’s an echo in here.” Mary warned as she sat next to
Joe on the sofa for a moment to enjoy the moment together.

“How are you coming
in the kitchen, hon?” Joe asked.

“Well, I guess I’m
finished for tonight, at least enough to get through till tomorrow.”
Mary sat back with Joe’s arm around her shoulder. “Joe, I love
you.” She snuggled up close, and sighed.
Could
life be any better than this?

Monday morning Joe was
off to the office to meet with Mickey to make arrangements for the
house and to find out about his new territory. Mary went about
getting better familiarized with their new home. Christopher was
busily looking around, exploring every corner. As always, he found it
necessary to understand everything he possibly could. He seemed to
adapt to their new house as if it was supposed to be this way all
along.

After a few hours of
sorting through things and re-arranging, Mary went into the kitchen
to make lunch for herself and Christopher. There were many things on
her mind as she and Christopher ate. The most important was making
arrangements for school for Christopher. He would be turning five
this year and Mary was determined to get him accepted. If the people
at the school would just meet and talk to Christopher, they would see
he didn’t need to get any older to qualify. Mary felt sure once
they met with Christopher and talked with him, they would agree.

Suddenly, the light
bulb went off in Mary’s head. With the excitement of the new house
and moving, Mary just realized the house was in the same area as the
special school she had written to. In a flash, Mary was looking for
where she had put the letter she received from the school. She had to
stop and think for a moment. In the old flat, she would have known
right where to look, but with the packing, unpacking, and moving
things around, it took a few moments to sort through her mind and,
bingo!
—the shoebox.
Her own personal file for important papers was in the bottom drawer
in her newly acquired chest of drawers in her new bedroom. Pulling
open the bottom drawer revealed the shoebox just where she had put
it. At times like this, Mary thanked God that she was an organized
person. She removed the shoebox and headed into the living room to
search for a city map she had found in Mickey’s uncle’s things.
Locating the map, shoebox in hand, she headed for the kitchen.

“Christopher, would
you help me and put the dishes in the sink? Thank you.”

“Sure, Mom,”
Christopher said as he proceeded to take the dishes from lunch into
the sink.

Mary wiped the table
clean and spread the map out on the table. She set the shoebox on the
map, pulled the letter from the school out of the shoebox, and
proceeded to find the location of the new house on the map. Then she
looked for the street the school was on. Just as she thought, the
street the school was on was on the northern fringes of the city not
far from their new home.

Mary’s thoughts were
interrupted by a knock at the door. She opened the door to a woman
about 30 years of age standing on her porch.

“Hello. I’m Linda
Cunningham. I live in the yellow house right there,” she said as
she turned and pointed to a yellow house down the hill in front of
Mary’s house. “I saw you moving in yesterday and just thought I’d
come by and introduce myself, since we’re going to be neighbors.”

Mary smiled. “Hi
Linda. I’m Mary, Mary Adams, and this is Christopher. Would you
like to come in?”

“Thank you,” Linda
replied as Mary pushed open the screen door. “Come into the
kitchen. I was just looking at a map trying to figure out where this
school is.”

Linda glanced at the
map. “Which school are you looking for?”

“Here,” Mary showed
Linda the envelope with the school’s return address.

“Oh, that’s just
right down the road here. You could practically walk there. Well, not
really, but almost. Why?”

Mary hesitated for a
moment. “I’m trying to get Christopher in that school. He’s a
very smart child. I’ve been working with him every day for the last
couple of years. He’s not quite five years old and he can read and
write and do basic math already. Plus he seems to have this natural
ability to solve puzzles of all kinds. He just can’t seem to get
enough of them.” Mary paused for a moment, and then continued. “I
wrote to them a year or two ago to inquire about getting Christopher
in, but they wrote back saying they wouldn’t consider it until he
was at least five. He will turn five this year, but not until
winter.”

Linda looked at Mary,
“Why don’t you take Christopher to the school and let them meet
him. It couldn’t hurt to try. I could even drive you there if you
like.”

Mary’s eyes grew
large, “Would you? That would be so nice of you.”

“What are neighbors
for anyway?” Linda responded. “You say when and we’ll go.”

Linda and Mary went on
to get acquainted for over an hour. They found out they had a lot in
common and were fast becoming friends. The time flew by as they
talked. “Oh my lord, look at the time. I’m keeping you. I’m
sure you must have a million things to do. Let me leave you my
number, and if you need anything, anything at all, you just give me a
call.”

“Thank you, Linda,”
Mary responded. “I might just take you up on that offer to drive us
to the school sometime if it isn’t too much trouble.”

“You just say when. I
know you’ve still got some settling in to do, but when you’re
ready, you just let me know. Okay?”

“Thanks, Linda. I’m
really glad you stopped by. It will be nice having you for a
neighbor.”

Linda smiled. “You
too, Mary. I’ll drop by tomorrow and say hi if you don’t mind.”

“That would be nice.
I’ll see you then. Bye now.”

Mary stood in the
doorway as Linda walked down the slight grassy incline toward the
little yellow house. It was more than the afternoon sun on her face
giving her that warm feeling. Mary knew she was going to enjoy living
here. She took a deep breath of air and slowly let it out. Looking
down the hill she could see Linda arriving at her house, turn around,
and wave to her. Mary returned the wave and smiled—she had found
her first new friend in the new neighborhood, or rather, her first
new friend had found her. In any case, it was a welcome friendship
that Mary knew she would cherish for many years to come.

Mary was standing at
the sink in the kitchen preparing dinner when something caught her
attention. She looked out the window to see Joe driving over the
little wooden bridge and up the driveway. She instantly stopped what
she was doing and went to meet him at the front door. As Mary opened
the front door, Joe was just getting out of the car.

“Hi, honey,” she
said as she opened the screen door.

“You’re a vision
standing there like that,” Joe said as he walked up the two steps
onto the porch, “how about a big hug?” he asked as he put his
arms around Mary and held her close. “So, how was your first day in
the house?”

Mary told Joe about
Linda and the nice talk they had, and her plan to take Christopher to
the school since it was right down the street. “I’ve never been
happier Joe. You’re the best.”

* * *

“I must admit, Mrs.
Adams,” said Mrs. Albright, the school administrator. “You’re
more than right. Christopher is exceptionally gifted. I’d like to
have him take some tests so as to better place him where he will
benefit the most. The fall term starts in two weeks. I would like to
see him start then.”

“I would like that
very much, but,” Mary hesitated. “Well you see, there’s a
problem. I don’t have any way to get Christopher here or to pick
him up after school.”

“That won’t be a
problem,” Mrs. Albright responded. “We have transportation
available for people in just such situations. The school provides the
service for free.”

“That would be
wonderful. When do you want to give Christopher these tests?” Mary
asked.

“He can take them
right now, if you’d like. They’ll only take about an hour. I’ll
tell you what—I’ll have one of our teachers take Christopher to a
vacant room and give him the tests, and while he’s taking the test,
I’ll take you to the cafeteria and we can have some lunch. That
will give us a chance to talk about his future.”

“My neighbor brought
us here today. She’s waiting in the lobby. Let me check with her to
make sure she doesn’t mind waiting.”

Mary was barely able to
fix dinner before Joe got home. Christopher was upstairs playing with
one of his latest puzzle books, so Mary took the opportunity to tell
Joe of the day’s events.

“So while Christopher
was taking the tests, Mrs. Albright, Linda, and I went to the
cafeteria. She told me of several special advanced programs that
Christopher could possibly qualify for in the future. She even told
me that, when he’s ready, the top colleges and universities will
compete for him to attend their school. She said from what she saw
today from talking to Christopher, and from the test scores, we can
expect him to be high school level by the time he’s ten years old,
and maybe college level around twelve or thirteen. Can you believe
it, Joe?”

Joe looked both amazed
and concerned. “Are you sure we’re not pushing him? Shouldn’t
he be playing with other kids his age?”

“That’s one of the
best things about the program. Christopher will be with other gifted
children his own age. He’ll be able to relate to these other
children at the school more than the children he’s known before.
Plus, they’ll pick him up in a special bus every day and bring him
home, too.”

“It sounds great,
honey,” Joe replied. “Are you going to be all right alone every
day?”

“Oh, it will only be
for a few hours, and besides, I can take care of the housework while
he’s at school. Then when he’s home, I can spend more quality
time with him, right?” Mary replied.

Two weeks later, Mary
walked with Christopher to meet the bus in the morning after Joe left
for work. They stood and waited on the little wooden bridge at the
end of the driveway until the bus arrived. Mary gave Christopher a
big hug and a kiss on the cheek before he boarded and was off to
experience his first day at his new school.

Later that afternoon,
Mary returned to the bridge to wait for Christopher’s bus to
arrive. She did this each school day afternoon. She always greeted
Christopher with a similar hug and kiss on the cheek. She made her
dinner preparations while Christopher was at school so she could help
him with his homework until Joe came home each night. Mary and
Christopher grew closer with each passing day.

After dinner each
night, Christopher would finish any remaining homework, then go
upstairs to his hideaway to work on puzzles. This left Joe and Mary
alone together for some time to themselves. Weekends were family time
together. Joe always seemed to find something everyone would enjoy.
There were state fairs, carnivals, picnics at the beach, drive-in
movies, and baseball games. Joe was never at a loss for something to
make their weekends special.

Days turned into weeks,
weeks into months, and months into years. These were wonderful years.
Joe and Mary watched as Christopher grew with each passing day. He
matured so quickly. As it turned out, Mrs. Albright was right on the
money when she predicted Christopher would graduate from high school
when he was only twelve. Even before his twelfth birthday, offers
were rolling in from colleges and universities all over the country.
And not just any schools, but offers came from the best. He received
letters from West Point, Notre Dame, MIT, Harvard, and Yale, just to
mention a few. It was no surprise. He was a straight A student with
an IQ practically off the scale. He also had a near photographic
memory. Yet with all this, he was still a humble and somewhat quiet
person, with a strong set of morals. Joe and Mary made sure of that.

“Mom?” Christopher
looked up from his desk as Mary entered his upstairs room. Joe had
turned into a combination bedroom and study over the years. “Can
you help me?”

“Sure, Christopher.
What is it?” Mary responded.

“Well, all these
offers from the different schools are all so nice. They all offer to
give me a private room and all my books and study materials free.
It’s so hard to decide which would be best for me. None of them is
anywhere near here. If there were one near, I’d choose that one so
I could be close to home.”

This was the first time
Mary saw Christopher confused about what to do. The thought of
Christopher being away at school probably bothered Mary more than it
did Christopher, but she would never let it show.