It’s not a question. She’s standing in the doorway with her notebook and stub of a pencil. Dad’s sick in bed with a cold, and Mom’s teaching his English class. I am going to have to do this.
“I came because I need help with my English homework.” she says.
“Come in. Um, sit down here,” I say, pushing my own schoolwork away, clearing some space on the dining room table.
“Welcome.” I say awkwardly. My Spanish grammar and pronunciation is horrible. Even I can know how awful I sound. But I’m going to have to make it work.
“So, you’re Christian’s sister,” I say.
She nods. Christian has been here for English help before. Except that was when Dad was doing the helping. I’m on my own this time.
“I’m Diana.” she says.
I take a deep breath. “Okay, Diana. So, let me see your homework problems.”
“This is the first part. I just don’t get it,” she sighs.
It’s: List three things you can do.
“So… what can you do?” I ask, when we’re done translating the question.
“I can swim.” she says without hesitation. Although it looks like she thinks it’s a pretty dumb question to start with.
“I… can… swim,” I read aloud. “See? Yo puedo nadar.”
Diana copies what I’ve written. After making sure it’s a C, not an O, and a M, not a N. (After I’m finished apologizing for my lack of handwriting skills.)
We finish that and move on to translating digits into English written numbers.
“Why?” she asks. “Why do you write o’clock? What does it mean?”
“I… it, uh, it doesn’t mean anything. Neither does the line between the 20 and the 5 in twenty-five. It’s just there.” I answer. Hey, that’s my take on it.
Diana isn’t too impressed.
We look at the words we drop in English that we need in Spanish. I learn a thing or two.
“I’ll come back if I need more help,” she says as she packs up.
“That’s fine. Sounds good. I have English class for girls on Tuesdays, if you want to come,” I offer.
“Thanks.”
I’m pretty sure I’m not a good teacher. But I don’t think Diana minded.
-Madeline Studebaker