Jake found Judith waiting in the carpool outside school and got into the car
"So, how was tour first day honey" she checked on him while driving amongst the sea of parents waiting for their children
"Fine, our teacher is Mrs. Patterson, nice lady. We talked about the cognitive framework of grieving dog, and price elasticity in the bussines world."
With the plan of leaving elementary school as soon as possible, jake started to "reveal" his true intelligence.
"Say what?" Judith just seemed confused at the set of "nonsensical" words coming from her son.
"Oh yeah, Mrs patterson mentioned a test, somethig about giftedndess or something like that."
"Ok, Why don't you start from the start honey"
Jake then started talking about the detail of today's class.
...
After narrating his day for the third time, Judith finally let him go.
With nothing else to do and seeing his bike in the garage, he decided to take it in stroll, with his mother's permission of course, one of the so many "perks" of being a child.
As he was riding, jake took a look at the houses on the block, they were all variations of the same house. Single story, front lawn, two car garage, a tree that was either a liquid amber or a sycamore depending on the yard. Some had basketball hoops, other one had a boat in the driveway that appeared to have been there for several years.
The street was mostly empty as Jake rode at an easy pace, no particular destination, just moving through the blocks the way you could when you had a bike and nowhere to be.
In his last life he liked to travel, but due to work, health or other things, he never ended up traveling much. Retiring early and then traveling the world, that was one of his goals in his last life, he was gonna make sure of doing it in this one.
Wth those thoughts he turned left on Moorpark and rode the sidewalk past a few more blocks of the same quiet Sunday morning. Sprinklers. A garage door open with someone moving around inside. Two girls drawing on the sidewalk with chalk who watched him go by without interrupting what they were doing.
He turned around at the stop sign and came back a different way, down a street with bigger trees that made a canopy over the road and dropped shadows across the pavement in long strips.
He rode through them slowly, standing on the pedals for a stretch, then sitting back down.
Nothing was happening yet with his plan, the school had not called, Mrs. Patterson had not said anything further. These things moved at their own pace and pushing them moved nothing faster, he had alredy set the mechanism in motion and now it would run.
He turned back onto his street and coasted down the slight slope toward the house, letting the bike carry him without pedaling.
He walked the bike back into the garage and went inside to wash his hands.
In his bed jake was exploring Argus capabilities, there seemed to be more than the capabilities he had discovered earlier, particularlythe "modules" that any user could develope, while doing that, dinner came by before he noticed it.
Judith had made chicken.
Alan, who just came from work,was cutting his with the focused attention of someone who had something to say and was waiting for the right moment to say it, Jake just ate and watched him do this and said nothing.
"So," Alan said finally.
Judith looked up.
"I won the San Fernando Valley Chiropractic Association award." He said it casually, which was undercut slightly by the fact that he had clearly been holding it in since he got home. "The, uh, the excellence in practice award. For the valley."
Alan took brief pause.
"They gave me a plaque."
"That's wonderful Alan," Judith said, in the tone she used when something was fine but not extraordinary.
"It's a pretty big deal in the chiropractic community."
"I'm sure it is."
"There's a dinner in November. At the Sheraton."
"We'll go."
Alan nodded and cut another piece of chicken, satisfied. He glanced at Jake. "Pretty good huh buddy."
"Congratulations Dad," Jake said.
Alan pointed at him with his fork. "Thank you. Thank you very much."
"Mrs. Patterson called me recently." Informed Judith
Alan looked up. "Jake's teacher?"
"Yes." She looked at Jake with an expression that was not quite readable. "She says she's been noticing some things. She wants to refer Jake for a gifted evaluation."
Alan put his fork down. "A gifted evaluation."
"A test essentially to assess whether his current placement is appropriate."
Alan looked at Jake. Jake ate his chicken.
"Did you know about this?" Alan asked him.
"She mentioned she might call," Jake said, which was true enough.
Alan nodded slowly, still processing. Then something shifted in his face and he sat up a little straighter and looked at Jake with an expression that was uncomplicated and entirely genuine.
"So let me get this straight," he said. "I win the valley award today and my kid might be a genius."
"We don't know that yet," Judith said.
"But she thinks he is."
"She thinks it's worth finding out."
"Right but—" Alan gestured vaguely at the table, at the room. "That's a pretty good day. That's a really pretty good day." While tri g to hold down a giant grin, he was still beaming with happines.
Jake looked at him.
Alan pointed at him with his fork. "I'm just saying. Award winning chiropractor. Gifted kid." He nodded to himself. "Not bad for a Monday."
He picked up his fork and ate with the quiet satisfaction of a man who had decided this was one of the better evenings he could remember in some time, and nobody was going to talk him out of it.
Jake just watched him with a grin,for a moment and then went back to his chicken.
As they finished eating, they started to watch tv, and Jake's bedtime quickly came.