Page 110 of We Drank the Dawn

Cade and I worked through a couple more problems just as we did before, with him talking through his work out loud and me mentally following along. The rusty gears in my brain groaned from lack of use, but it felt so good to do what I loved. Endorphins raced through my body, limbering my mind like a long stretch after sitting all day.

I remembered Sarah’s young face twisting as she bemoaned the dreaded solve for x, and the way I walked her through the steps, pressing my shoulder against hers as I leaned over her math book. How I looked forward to those study sessions. How I watched her when she wasn’t looking.

Cade got another one right. Then another.

“There ya go, Cade. That one took you half the time.”

“Thank goodness,” he said.

Realizing I should capitalize on the opportunity to talk to him a little bit, I asked, “What’s your favorite subject?”

“Literature.”

I hummed. “I bet Hollie makes that fun.”

A smile laced his voice. “Defintiely. I like talking about books with her.”

Hollie said, “I like it, too.”

When Cade started another problem, Izzy piped up. “How do you know he’s getting them right?”

“Yeah!” Nora said. “How do you?”

Hollie gave a soft chuckle. “Girls, your Uncle Peter is very smart.”

“Like Jimmy Neutron smart?” Izzy asked.

A laugh exploded out of me. “Jimmy Neutron?” I directed my words at Hollie. “Sounds like you’re keeping the classics alive, sis.”

She giggled. “I love him.”

I answered their previous question. “I’ve always been able to do math in my head. So when Cade reads the problem and tells me what he’s doing then I know he’s getting it right.”

Nora asked, suddenly concerned. “Wait, can you still read?”

I turned toward Nora. “I actually have this screen thing back at home in Colorado that I place over a book and it reads the words and turns them into braille for me so I can read anything I want. But when I don’t have that”—I pulled out my phone—“I can use my screen reader.”

“How does that work?” Izzy asked.

I swiped to access the shortcut to My Sight and directed the camera at the front of Cade’s math book. A robotic voice read to us, “This is a yellow and purple textbook. Saxon Math Homeschool 7/6.”

The girls exploded in a chorus of amazement while Jesse and Hollie laughed at their enthusiasm.

Izzy asked, “Can it explain anything?”

“Basically. If I need it to tell me about my surroundings, I just point the camera around.”

“Do it!” Nora said.

I gave a few demonstrations, pointing the camera at the barn, cars, and even their faces. They loved it, drilling me with questions when I told them about the smart glasses I could wear that essentially did the same thing. I demonstrated how I used my phone then the conversation drifted to my cane, and I showed them how it worked and let them try to feel the echoes a few times. Suddenly, math was long forgotten, and the trio of kids moved into the barnyard, clacking the metal tip of my cane over the gravel and laughing.

Hollie’s voice sounded sleepy. “Look at you, Peter, making blind cool.”

I laughed. “They’re sweet kids.”

“Thanks for helping us.”

“Not a problem. It was fun. He seems like a good student.”