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Chapter 5: The curse of electronics
Diana whizzed through the front door and
shed the raincoat that was partially covering her and the basket of freshly
laundered clothes. She was beginning to think that it was never going
to stop raining. She smiled as she heard Ike playing the keyboard
and Taylor’s clear young voice singing out the simple words of the song
‘Jesus Loves Me’. She checked the baby lying asleep in its basket
and continued her way onward into the kitchen. Ike was standing at
the counter with slices of bread spread out before him and jars of peanut
butter and jelly, busily making sandwiches.
Diana smiled at her son and then it occurred
to her that she was still hearing the keyboard. She peeked around
the corner of the living room and found her middle son Taylor sitting by
himself playing the rudimentary tones and singing.
“Hi, Mommy,” Taylor exclaimed interrupting his song.
“Honey, when did you learn to play notes?” Diana asked knowing fully well that she so far had only been instructing her older son on the keyboard.
“Ike showed me,” the now six year old explained and then let out a wail as the batteries suddenly died and the sound stopped.
“Its okay, honey,” Diana said soothing her son. “I have one more set left, but I think we should save them for later. Would you like Mommy to teach you too?”
The smile she got from her son was all the answer she needed. Diana smiled back but her smile was a little worried. Living in South America was beginning to wear on her nerves. For the first several months they had almost roasted from the heat, now the rainy season was trying to drown them. Batteries were becoming the most sought after and critical item needed for the Hanson family existence. She managed to buy as many as the market managed to order and Walker was ordering a supply directly from the office. They needed batteries for the cassette player, and the video games and keyboard and even though they tried to limit the time that the boys spent on the various pieces of electronics, they seemed to devour the batteries.
Diana sent the boys to play quietly so she could began dinner preparations only to have to stop when she heard loud shouts and screaming coming from their small bedroom. As she crossed the short distance, the door opened and three year old Zac barreled into her screaming “Mommy! Mommy!”
She swept him up in her arms and in three steps was in the bedroom to find Ike and Taylor rolling around on the floor, flailing at one another.
“Stop that! Right now.” Diana demanded and the boys rolled apart immediately, both red-faced and angry.
“Mommy, he started it!” Taylor wailed.
“I did not!” Ike denied. “Tay used
up the batteries. Now I can’t play the keyboard!”
“That is enough out of both of you.”
Diana exclaimed. “You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You
are brothers, and you’re acting like hooligans!”
Both boys hung their heads.
Diana set Zac down on his feet and gripped each boy by the shoulder and marched them out into the living room.
“Isaac, you get in that corner, Taylor you get in that one. Sit down like an Indian and face the corner.” Diana ordered and both boys walked quietly to their designated corners. “I don’t want to hear a peep out of either one of you, until I say so, and while you’re sitting there think about the fact that you are brothers and you should be acting like friends and not enemies.”
Diana bent down to Zac and asked him in all seriousness. “Were you in on this?” to which shook his head.
‘No, Zac wasn’t arguing or fighting.” Ike admitted.
“Fine, then you come help me, while these two are sitting out their punishment time,” Diana said lifting her small son up in her arms.
* * * *
As Walker entered his house he only heard one set of running feet and then Zac came speeding around the corner and jumped into his one available arm. The other was full with two cardboard boxes. He peered around the corner and saw Ike and Zac sitting back to back along one of the living room walls. He knew what that meant. The boys were in trouble for something. Taylor started to get up but Walker shook his head at his son.
‘Oh, no you don’t. I didn’t put you there, I can’t get you out.” he said and watched the boys separate and go back to their separate corners. Zac was wiggling and he was losing grip on the boxes so set his son down and got him by the hand and they went to the kitchen.
Diana left the stove and kissed her husband a welcome home. “What do you have?” she asked motioning the boxes.
“Haven’t opened them yet.” Walker admitted. “One is from home, the other is from The Association of Home Schooling.”
“Terrific! Open them.” Diana exclaimed.
“You’re like a kid at Christmas every time a package comes in.” Walker teased as he cut the tape on the boxes with his pocket knife.
“Want to see too!” Zac shouted from below and Walker lifted his son up and sat him on the countertop. He opened the box from their family first. There were letters on the top from various members of their family and then under some bubblewrap there was a layer of superhero action figures, one for each of the boys, and then under that was a box of toiletries that they found hard to find in the market and then at last they pulled out several packages of rechargeable batteries and a box that was a battery charger complete with a electrical converter so they could use it.
“This is going to be a lifesaver!” Walker exclaimed taking the battery charger out of the box.
“You have no idea.” Diana commented. “That’s why the boys are in the corner now, they were fighting over the fact that Tay was the last one to use the keyboard and the batteries went dead!”
Walker looked up. “I didn’t know Tay was playing.”
“Actually, neither did I, but Ike apparently has been showing him the notes and just like singing he’s taken to it naturally. Both of them are absorbing music faster than I can teach it to them.”
“Daddy, can I have my toys? Please?” Zac asked holding the three action figures in his arms.
Walker looked over at his wife. “Do you think they’ve been in the corner long enough?” He peered around the corner and motioned his wife over and she joined him. “What do you think they’re doing?” he asked.
Ike and Taylor were back to back again, their arms outstretched and aligned together as they slowly moved them up and down together almost as if they were pretending to fly in slow motion.
“I have no idea,” Diana admitted with a smile. “But as long as they’re not fighting I don’t care.”
Diana raised her voice. “Ike, Tay, you can get up now. Come see what Grandma and Grandpa sent you.”
Both boys scrambled and were in the kitchen in seconds. They spotted the action figures immediately and let out whoops of excitement that were immediately mingled with wails from Zac as he realized that he didn’t get to keep all three toys. It took a few minutes to make the three year old understand that he had to share and then Ike and Taylor became excited as their Dad explained the rechargeable batteries to them. He showed them how to put the batteries in the charger and sent them off to plug it into the current.
Diana really wanted to open the other box, but dinner was to close to being ready so she put it off. Then as the evening progressed one thing after another delayed her until finally it was late evening and the boys were in bed. She carried the box out and set it up on the kitchen table and started separating the materials.
Walker joined her and started reading the literature.
“Sheri is amazing!” Diana exclaimed. “I asked for information and look at this. We have curriculums, and books and booksheets and everything we need to start home schooling the boys. The material is complete from Kindergarten through the fourth grade, there are even forms that we have to fill out to send to the State of Oklahoma. I guess, we don’t have to do that until we get back. We can pull the boys out of that school.”
“Why don’t we wait another month, give us time to study up on the subjects and then when we get to Ecuador, we can start home schooling.” Walker suggested.
Diana looked up. “You got your orders!”
“Yup,” Walker admitted. “Three months in Ecuador, two in Trinidad and then we go home.”
“Five months.” Diana exclaimed and kissed her husband. “Home. That sounds so good!”