Chapter 40
Ron’s tutoring appointments were sporadic. The process was involved. He would get a call from the Learning Disabilities Testing Coordinator or the LDTC as she was known and then he would go in and meet with her to get his assignment. The length of time that the students were on what was called “bedside instruction” varied depending upon their injury or condition. In the winter months, he would wind up tutoring every afternoon and sometimes all day on Saturdays. The money was nice. It was far more than he was being paid at the school but there was a catch. Ron was not certified and Quimpy had made arrangements for this lack of credentials never to be mentioned. It was Quimpy whose job it was to keep a record of the certificates and so Ron’s was never mentioned. The plan was that if he was ever asked that he would admit that he had lied and Quimpy would say that he thought that his secretary had kept them all on file and would have mentioned it to him if there was a problem.
Mostly Ron was given the kids who had been excluded from school because they had drug problems. The Superintendent’s strategy was just to keep those kids on bedside indefinitely. But this afternoon’s case was different. Ron was ushered into the office of the school’s psychiatrist and sat with him and the LDTC.
Charles Rothstein had been doing the job of school psychiatrist for about twenty years. He was a thin man with a very short gray beard and closely cropped hair. He spoke with a New York accent that Ron placed somewhere like Brooklyn. Charley began by asking Ron about his other two cases.
“So how are the fuck-ups doing?”
Ron smiled and shook his head. “Well they show up most of the time, but the only work that gets done, gets done while I am there with them. They don’t really believe in homework.”
“If they understood what school was about in the first place they wouldn’t be in this situation would they, Ron?”
“I don’t know,” said Ron. “They aren’t bad kids. They’re just, like you said, fuckups.”
Charlie nodded and teased, “And that’s why Quimpy recommended you for them. He figured that if anyone would understand how to work with fucked up kids that it would be you.”
“Yeah, said Ron. “I’m not sure how to take that, but thanks.”
“If they give you too much shit, just remind them that this is their only chance of getting any credit for the year and to have a new start next year. You’ve got them over a barrel and don’t hesitate to use it if you have to.”
“I know.”
“Now, James Devin is a whole different matter. This kid is seriously fucked up. He’s a normal sixteen year old kid who is going through his father’s drawer one day looking for rubbers or who knows what, and he finds a picture of the old man dressed like a woman and sucking some guy’s dick.”
Ron involuntarily glanced over at the LDTC but her face was an inscrutable mask.
“How did the kid take it?” said Ron.
“Not very fucking well at all,” said Charlie with a bitter laugh. “He locked himself in his basement and he hasn’t come out since.”
“Oh Jesus,” said Ron.
“Now I’m trying to get him some good shrink help but we don’t make house calls and the kid refuses to come out. If we can’t get him some education, the boss wants to move on him for being an incorrigible truant and have him turned over to the courts. Which, I believe, will complete the job of totally screwing the kid.”
“Ok,” said Ron thoughtfully. “What do you want me to do?”
“Teach the little fucker.”
Ron laughed, but Charlie was no longer smiling. “I have spoken to his teachers and everyone is going to be cooperative here. Just give us something that we can use to say that the kid did some work and they will pass him. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have you made the teacher of record and you can give him his grades.”
Natalie, the LDTC, spoke for the first time. “We don’t think that it will come to that and we have seen some of the work that you have been able to do with kids that wouldn’t do anything for other tutors.”
“I’ll do my best,” said Ron.
“Just do enough to get it done,” said Charlie. “I think this is a temporary condition and if we can help this kid enough to get him into counseling by the summer time, I think he’s got a chance.”
“Where’s the father now?”
Natalie said, ”That’s the other thing, when James found the pictures, he brought them to his mother who had no idea,” at this point she dramatically rolled her eyes, “and she threw the father out. They are getting a divorce.”
Charlie broke in, “So now on top of everything else, the kid thinks that he was responsible for ruining his family.”
“I can understand that,” said Ron. “My parents are divorced.”
“But not cause your father sucked dick and had pictures taken of himself doing it,” said Charlie.
They gave Ron a pile of books and assignments and a phone number and then he left the office and walked out through the line of cubicles thinking about how much more professional this school looked than his did.
He drove back into Clifton’s border section with Paterson and rang the bell for his other tutoring appointment. Dennis Mooney was caught selling pot at the school. Ron had been working with him for about a month. Dennis was a blonde kid with a bad complexion and poor hygiene. Ron didn’t particularly like going to the house because it smelled bad and he always felt like itchy when he left. He rang the doorbell and heard movement inside, then Dennis’s face behind a curtain. Dennis said from the other side of the door, “I can’t do it today.”
“Come on Dennis,” you know what they said about missed appointments. They have to pay me anyway.”
“No offense Mr. Tuck, but I really don’t give a fuck.”
Ron shook his head. “Ok Dennis, see you next time.”
Ron got back into his car and drove home. He thought to himself that he shouldn’t care. He was getting paid. The school was just covering its ass because they didn’t want Dennis in the building. And Dennis didn’t give a fuck. Why should he? But images of a bleak future for the kid haunted Ron all the way back home. He stopped off at a new Chinese restaurant that had just opened up down the street from him and ordered some hit spiced shredded beef with carrots. He sat at the desk in his front room and ate the food out of the container while he reread Macbeth and thought about the next day’s classes.