Cathy's Creative Corner: "So…Both of Y’All are Stupid”
Every time I think of this, it feels like it happened yesterday. I can remember the tears swelling in my eyes and seeing my sister ball her fist. The vision of her beating Eddie Davis into a pulp ran through my mind, although it didn’t happen. I knew what she was capable of but with Eddie being a boy and me being her big brother, I couldn’t let it happen. What if she didn’t win and what if Eddie ended up hurting her? I’d never have forgiven myself! Also, I would’ve never lived it down that I let my baby sister fight my battles.
“Hold up, Trina,” I remember saying. “Don’t do it. Don’t start this year in the principal’s office on day one.”
“Yeah, you better call off your watchdog!” Eddie smirked. “What I said is what everyone else is thinking. We’ve been with your sister, watching her color and draw her way through classes for six years. Now here you are. How both y’all end up in the same grade and you’re not twins? Oh, yeah, because you flunked, Big Boy. So, I’m right in saying both of y’all are stupid!”
With that, I spun Trina around and headed towards our next class. “Why you let him talk to you like that, Gordon?” she asked. “I just wanna stomp him ‘til he ain’t nothing but dirt!”
“He’s just a bully and that’s how he makes himself feel good. I feel good when I don’t respond and by not letting him get under my skin,” was the justification I gave my sister.
“But it hurts your feelings. I can see it in your face. And if one of those tears EVER hits the floor, I’m on his-”
“Trina, you better not say it! You know these teachers got keen ears and can hear EV-ER-E-thing!” I said in jest as I tried to lighten her mood. However, Eddie was right. Trina and I weren’t the sharpest pencils in the box. In that sense, we could’ve been twins. It must’ve been something in our genetics that prevented us from absorbing material we read like our classmates. Trina could be distracted by the least little thing in class. At the drop of a pen, her attention would be on to something else. It was then when she would resort to drawing and coloring anything from clothes to cars. I just idled in a nearby seat and took in what I could. I was a terrible speller, a slow reader and not good at comprehending what I read. Even with all our difficulties, my sister and I were C students and hardly missed any days from school. We looked forward to walking across the stage our senior year. After receiving our diplomas, we said good-bye to all the Eddie Davises in our lives. No college plans for us. We just wanted to enter the working world and start making money.
I enjoyed working outdoors and using my hands. The small landscape company that employed me had been around for years and really needed new equipment. I had to dismantle parts on a daily basis to clean or repair. That’s when I noticed the same breakdown occurring within the gear shaft. When I used a certain technique, I never had to repair that part again. A talk with a teacher in the mechanics department of the local community college put me in touch with people who could help me blueprint my idea. Once I received the patent for my technique, I had no problem getting companies to look at it. Now, it has become the basis all companies use in their startup process. Pretty good turnaround for a C-average undiagnosed dyslexic student.
Trina went to work as a seamstress for a clothing manufacturer. She made notes about changes or improvements for some of the outfits she came across. After crafting an outfit according to her specifications, she’d assure it was still durable and appealing to the eye. She then sent the information to the designer in the hopes of a chance meeting. To her surprise, she received an invitation to a prestigious fashion show in New York to meet the designer. She left that meeting as an apprentice fashion designer! Now she gets to sketch and color while earning the big bucks! Pretty good turnaround for a C-average undiagnosed ADHD student.
This year will be our thirtieth class reunion. The sponsor is GTC Stud Enterprises (Gordon & Trina “C” Student Enterprises). We’re looking forward to seeing our classmate Eddie Davis.
