The Teacher [Watty Awards 2013] - COMPLETE

V - Word Problem

DEARBORN, MICHIGAN, 1993

“What happened to you?” Liam thought as he stared at Ethan who was staring down at the blank piece of paper on his desk. He remembered when he and Ethan were in fourth grade. They walked to school together and he used to make fun of Ethan for getting kisses all over his face from his mother every single morning. She was a lovely woman. When she passed, it seemed like Ethan built up a wall around him. He couldn’t hear anyone. He couldn’t see anyone. Liam had no clue of what went on with Ethan’s life ever since. Liam wanted to talk to him but he didn’t know what he was supposed to say.

“Liam, can you try to answer this question?” Mr. Ahmed’s voice shattered his thoughts. He didn’t even get the question that Mr. Ahmed was asking so he stared at Mr. Ahmed with a blank expression. “Come, try to answer this word problem on the blackboard.” Mr. Ahmed said. Then, Ethan stared at the blackboard and read through the question as he got up slowly from his seat. The question was ‘There are three boxes in the room. Each box contains 50 apples. There are x number of rotten apples in each box. Write an algebraic equation to show the number of good apples in all the boxes.’ Liam was now at the front of the classroom as he sighed, looking at Mr. Ahmed. “It sounds like a riddle.” He said. Mr. Ahmed chuckled and asked. “What’s the answer?” Liam stared at the blackboard and wrote, ‘x’, and he walked back to his seat. Mr. Ahmed smiled at the answer and he asked the whole class, “Does it really sound like a riddle?” The kids giggled over the question. Then, Mr. Ahmed erased Liam’s answer and said, “Ethan, can you please write the correct answer on the blackboard?”

Ethan raised his head to look at Mr. Ahmed. The whole class froze in silence. Then, Ethan stood up and walked to the blackboard. He wrote, confidently, ‘3(50 – x)’ and walked back to where he was sitting. All eyes were on him as he walked then they all turned to look at Mr. Ahmed, anxiously waiting for the right answer. Mr. Ahmed smiled and said, “Very good! This is the correct answer.” The whole class was astonished with Ethan’s action. The reason being he never responded to any question from any other teacher before. But the first time he did, he managed to give the correct answer. They were amazed, and so as Mr. Ahmed. Mr. Ahmed pulled out a small box of wrapped present from his suitcase and threw it towards Ethan, who quickly caught the gift with his hand. Ethan smiled a little at Mr. Ahmed. Then, the class resumed.

Liam returned to his thoughts as he looked at Ethan. He knew Ethan was always smarter than him. He wished that they were still best friend. But he knew that he could never measure the pain that Ethan went through. At least, he finally saw Ethan smiled again. Just that slight smile and Liam knew, “He can still be saved.”