Healing Hannah's Heart by Preslaysa Williams

Author:Preslaysa Williams [Williams, Preslaysa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780578801797
Publisher: Blasian Chic Media

Chapter 15

Jake

Hannah was going to tutor Tim. Perhaps dreams did come true.

Maybe I sounded a little too Kumbaya for my own good, but her willingness to help with Tim’s homework was huge. Once she started tutoring Tim, I’d be free to focus on some father-son bonding, and we’d no longer butt heads over school.

Better yet, once Hannah started tutoring, we’d all bond. Now that was dreaming. I smiled at the thought. In the meantime, I’d brought Tim to the office with me today in the hopes of inspiring him to think about his future possibilities, possibilities that didn’t involve gangs or jail time.

“Tiny space you have here.” Tim shoved his hands in his pockets and surveyed my office, which teemed with unpacked boxes.

“Yep.” I heaved a banker’s box from the seat and dropped it on the floor. “Although it’s better than trying to meet with clients at our new condo. That wouldn’t appear too professional. This new rental space will have to do. When I signed the lease for the condo closer to Hannah, I knew I’d end up renting an office too.”

“Is the rent expensive?”

“Always, but I have some contracting work lined up here in New Brunswick, so no worries.” I cleared the cardboard boxes from my desk and tensed. Until Hannah started with Tim, I was the interim tutor. “Ready to work on some algebra today?”

Tim rumpled his brow, then twisted his mouth.

“I want to see you excel at school. If we have to stay here all day until you figure out these math problems, we will.”

“I’m not so sure about all day,” Tim said.

“Hey, man, whatever it takes, you and I have to keep pushing.” I scanned my phone for the assignments given by Tim’s teachers so he wouldn’t fall behind. After reading the document, I flipped open his textbook to the correct page. When I did, my skin went cold.

Lines were scribbled all over the place—angry, slashed lines. Looked like an overzealous toddler had drawn on the pages—at least I hoped an overzealous toddler had taken over the text. The stick figure drawings illustrated images of getting stabbed and shot and maimed. It was as if Tim wanted people to think the worst of him when they connected the owner of the textbook to the illustrator of these disturbing images. He was asking to get permanently expelled for defacing school property. “What’s this?”

“Dunno.”

“Dunno? What kind of answer is ‘dunno?’” I faced him, and our gazes did more than meet. They were at a standoff. Yep, I was ready to fight over this blatant act of self-sabotage.

I could’ve been more empathetic and worrisome. I could’ve asked, “What happened? What was going on with you?” I didn’t. Tim didn’t need understanding. He needed a swift kick. When I was on the verge of ruining my life as a kid, my father didn’t play nice and understanding with me. He knew the world would be ten times harder on me, a Black man, and so I wasn’t going to be easy on Tim.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.