Month Thirteen

"Hey Kaw, what up? Are you ready to read?"  I asked, feeling a little sleepy but happy that while the rest of the teachers weren't at school, I didn't have to be there either after we rearranged the testing schedule.  
"So, what do I need to bring to school tomorrow?"  he asked.  
"Don't worry, you know, your Chromebook, the charger....."
"Wait, stop!"  he announced, and turned his camera on.  I saw his book bag, sitting on a chair.  
"Go slower!"

I slowed down.  The Chromebook.  The charger I bought him, in case the charge goes down.  Some paper.

"This paper?!"  he called, turning his camera on again.

"That'll work, but don't worry, if they say you don't have what you need, I'll bring it to you.....look in that green bag, the one I dropped off.  Get the paper out of there, the pencils, too.  If they aren't sharpened, we can do it at school... I know they aren't sharpened...."  

"Okay, do I need the math books, both big and small?"

"Put it all in there, you're good."  I replied, trying to get on with the reading lesson.

"Okay,"  he responded.

"Do it again."

And, we revisited the list again, two, three times, until he felt like his bag was packed and ready for school.  And then, we read.

It was a book about Mars.  Over and over again he asked me if people live on other planets.  Science isn't really my jam, but I explained that all the planets are either too far away for us to reach, or are too cold or too hot, and that humans can't figure out how to breathe there.  

Every time we talked about a new planet, he would ask the same questions.  

I kept thinking about the moon.  A silly rock that only reflects the light of the sun, but cannot generate its own light.  And that is the only place we've been to. 

We watched a You Tube video of the February rover landing on Mars.  

Mars has two moons.

"Why haven't we gone to their moons?"

"That's a good question," I answered.

"I don't know why."

Moons are beautiful, was all I could think, but apparently without a lot of purpose.  

Kaw kept pushing, asking where extraterrestrials live.  I kept telling him that I didn't know, that so far, there is no evidence of life on other planets, but that our solar system is only one that we sort of know about and who the hell knows.  

"Area 51"  he finally announced.

"That's where they are."

We finished the lesson, after nearly two hours.  And then, he made me help him set up his Instagram account, so that he could contact Prem via messenger without having service.  Prem's message came through, finally:

"Do you want to play COD?"

"Let me in the call."

I added Prem to Kaw's Classroom and they started chattering.

"All right, friends.  I'm out.  Don't kill everything."  I announced.

"Oh no,"  they announced. 

"WE SUCK!"  

And started laughing hysterically.