(Continued from Pages 11-15)
Tanaka’s final answer came out to be 1196x2+825xy+231y2. “Wow, Dad. That was more of a mind-bender there. Everyone has limits ‘cept God Himself I suppose. That took me a while. Your battery could’ve gone out, ya know.”
Tanaka’s final answer came out to be 1196x2+825xy+231y2. “Wow, Dad. That was more of a mind-bender there. Everyone has limits ‘cept God Himself I suppose. That took me a while. Your battery could’ve gone out, ya know.”
“You didn’t have to worry about that, our little Samurai. I keep the camera charged through a power cord. Satoru, are you still recording?”
“Yeah, Dad. You want it off now?”
“Sure, Satoru-kun. We have all we need. I now have to send this off to MENSA! Our Tanaka-chan may not need to fill out a formal application after all.”
Tanaka finished the rest of his orange juice, then as he started heading upstairs, told, “Okay. Wow, that kinda felt too much. I’ll stick with easier junk for a while, just to have fun. I’ll be upstairs. Call me down when the party’s ready.”
“Sure, no problem, genius boy.” Satoru responded.
“I’ll send him after you,” Dad said.
As Tanaka was headed up the stairs, he realized, “Oh, the underwear. I need to find some real ones. This is too embarrassing.” He opened and closed drawers in his room, then found a few briefs. He placed it in front of himself and realized. “Whoops! WRONG drawers!” They were a few sizes too big. Tanaka opened the neighboring drawer, and found some more. “Too kiddish, but they’re better than THIS. Okay, time to throw this one out.” He tossed the other, embarrassing undergarment in a pail. Tanaka found the right sizes of real cloth briefs. They were his.
After Tanaka changed, he went back on Mom’s computer, and checked his emails and Facebook again. There were a few more of the usual condolence messages. He felt tempted to respond to them a few times, but realized at the last seconds that this would make things extremely awkward. Then he started back on his blog at http://TanakaToday.blogspot.com and made two more entries – one about what happened, and what he plans to do with his new parents, and another about his plan about how he should be paid his allowances. During this time, he noticed a vehicle approach below, and looked out the window.
“Huh! Cool Volvo!” The SUV slowly pulled under.
Some time later, Mom called Tanaka down. “YOUR PARTY’S ALMOST HERE, TANAKA-CHAN. COME DOWN AND GET READY!”
After Tanaka raced and slid down the stairs, he exclaimed, “Ah, I’m here now! So, now what?”
“Now we wait.” Mom explained.
“So Mom, when’d you get that cool Volvo SUV?”
“Well, Tanaka-chan, it was your Dad’s gift to me this Christmas. It’s supposed to be the safest SUV model ever made. Its electronic stability keeps it from rolling no matter what.”
“Leather heated seats, Mom?”
“Yes, and lots of other options. You fell in love with it when we all went for a test-drive. Though you kinda fought Satoru and Chihiro for apparently squeezing you in the middle, you still thought it was great.”
“I guess I’ll fall in love with it all over again then. And I’ll call dibs on the edges. I like window seats best.” At that point, the clock struck Noon. Dad came toward the door.
“I’ll check to see if they’re here.”
“Can you pick me up, Dad, and lemme see through the peephole? Please?”
“Okay, here you go, Tanaka.” After lifting Tanaka and having him see through the peephole, Tanaka could see vehicles pulling up on the driveway and curbs, and kids running out with their presents. None looked any taller than Tanaka himself. One sprinted up to the door ahead of all the other kids while the parents calmly walked in the chilly weather toward it.
The doorbell rang.
(END OF CHAPTER 1)
This is getting exciting.
ReplyDeleteTanaka will be having a party.
And the Volvo car and the testdrive was well-written.