Sleepy Bois Inc Everything and Anything: aka place where I put whatever I want

Finding Them Pt.16

        Today was planned, Tommy knew he would be taught by Phil. Though he had a sneaky suspicion that it wouldn't be just him and Phil. Not like the last two days with Techno and Wilbur. After all, leaving the other two to their own devices was an accident waiting to happen.

For the second day in a row Tommy changed into clean clothes, something he had never done before. He enjoyed being privileged. He reminded himself that this was only temporary. For the second day in a row Tommy went down for breakfast. He ate as much as he pleased. Phil's cooking was his favorite, warm and loving, but Tommy reminded himself that it was only temporary. For the third day in a row Tommy would be taught how to read and write. The past two days had been fun to the boy. His brain finally had something to do, a challenge. He was finally learning, a step up from being a poor boy. But Tommy had to remind himself that this was only temporary.

"Alright, today we are all going out. Mainly because I don't know what would happen if I let you two into town together, and I know if I leave you here the inn will be on fire by the time we get back." No one argued.

Soon the four were off, going to the same place Techno had taken him on the first day. Tommy had quickly learned that Phil was much better at teaching than the other two were. Once Techno and Wilbur had gotten bored of doing whatever they were doing they came over to help Phil. This was just a bad idea.

"No, it's spelled like, t e c h n i c a l l y." Wilbur spelt out.

"Tommy if you don't get this next one right, you're doing 37 pushups."

"Take your time, you'll get it eventually. Just retry this one." The three were telling him multiple things, ways to do things. They contradicted each other, and it only made Tommy more confused.

"Stop! I'm just never going to learn how to read!" Tommy stormed off. He was frustrated, so frustrated. Why couldn't he be better? Why couldn't he understand this? When he was learning one on one, he was at least grasping some of the information. Why was he having such a hard time now?

Tommy ran until his legs burned. How far had he run? He was still along the river side. So, either not that far, or the river was just very long. Tommy took a seat on a rock, curling his knees to his chest. He sat and he thought.

"Did we make him mad?" Wilbur asked. Phil sighed.

"I think we just overwhelmed him. Let's go find him."

"Tommy!"

"Toms!" The three split up as to cover more ground, where did the kid even go?

"Tommy, hallo?" Techno walked about aimlessly. Tommy couldn't have gotten that far, could he? Step, step, step. Nothing. He tried in the other direction. Still nothing. Walking a couple of feet away he heard something. 'chht, chht, chht, plunk.' It repeated. It sounded like a stone being skipped across the water. Techno followed the sound, sure enough he finally found the boy, sat on a rock, skipping stones. He walked over to him, purposefully stepping on louder leaves to make himself known. Tommy didn't even spare him a glance.

Techno took a seat next to the boy. He still made no signs of acknowledgement. Why did I have to find him? What am I supposed to do? Techno wasn't good at consoling people, or apologies. Why couldn't Phil have found him? Techno wasn't cut out for this. Just because he wasn't good at it didn't mean he couldn't try. For Tommy, he would try.

Techno wordlessly and carefully placed a hand on Tommy's shoulder trying to gage how the boy would react. Tommy subconsciously leaned into the touch a little bit. Taking this as a go ahead, Techno wrapped the child in a hug. Finally, Tommy gave him acknowledgement. The two sat on the rock, looking out over the lake, Techno liked this. It reminded him of when he would go outside to look over the valley of hills when he was a child. But this was so much better. It wasn't as big, intimidating. It was just nice and peaceful.

"I'm sorry for overwhelming you Tommy, we all are. And I'm sorry for being harsh on you, I guess I just didn't know how to teach someone so I used the only example I had," Techno tried explaining, he hoped this would be a good apology. Tommy hummed in response, shuffling his head a bit closer to the older man.

"It's okay, I just wish I could be better." Techno was taken aback by this. Tommy was doing so well already. He hadn't even had lessons for three full days, yet he was doing so well.

"What are you talking about? Tommy you're already done with the basics of letter sounds, that's pretty good for three days' worth of lessons," Techno tried explaining to him. Tommy shook his head.

"Well, you don't have to believe me, but have some faith in yourself. And don't give up either, because as Socrates said, 'The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing.' You can really only go one way from here Tommy, and that way is up." Techno really hoped that helped Tommy. He would never know it, but it did.