Naughty by Nature (8 page)

Wolf rested his
chin in his palm and looked into her eyes and on his face was an expression of
total satisfaction.  “One plus one is-”

“More than two,”
she said, finishing the thought for him.  Then an idea jumped up and slapped
her right in the middle of the forehead.  She couldn’t keep it to herself. 
“Wolf, what if I told you I’ve got lots more ideas where those came from?  What
if I told you I think you and I could make a great team?”  Tessa held her
breath, watching his face, trying to gauge his reaction.  But his face, now
closed and thoughtful, was unreadable.

She bit her lip
and drew back ever so slightly in her chair.  What if he thought she was being
presumptuous for even suggesting that they become a team?  He had years of
experience in the field.  Why would he even need her?  He probably had his pick
of a thousand teachers who would jump at the chance of collaborating with him. 
And he would choose to work with her, a known prankster?  Not very likely.

Disappointed, she
gave him a wry smile and waited for the excuses to come.  She was sure he could
find a hundred and one reasons not to work with her.  But wouldn’t it be great
if they could have given it a shot?

She’d always
wanted to find a great way to motivate kids, lots and lots of them, not just
the ones she taught in high school.  At one point she’d even toyed with the
idea of being a motivational speaker, traveling from city to city.  But she
didn’t have a name.  She was just a regular high school teacher.  Who would
come out to listen to her speak?

But television –
that was a whole different ball game and far more effective.  She could work
behind the scenes doing lesson plans, maybe filling in as a part-time producer,
and she could make a difference in thousands or maybe millions of lives.  Wow! 
It blew her away, just thinking about it.  But would Wolf give life to her
dream?  She didn’t dare look at him.

“That was an
awe-full idea.”  Wolf’s voice was firm and strong.

Tessa’s gaze flew
to his.  It may have been ambitious, audacious even, but awful?  Then when she
saw the wide smile on his face she frowned in confusion.

“I knew that would
get you.  Awe-full, Tessa, as in full of awe, deserving of awe, wonderful.  Which,
by the way, was the original meaning of ‘awful’.  Centuries ago, if something
was awful that was a good thing.”  He was laughing now.

Tessa almost
rolled her eyes.  A lesson in etymology in the middle of their discussion?  Come
on. 

“Okay, Tessa, in
twenty-first century slang, it’s awesome.  I love it.”  Then he reached for her
hand and she did not object.  She gripped his tightly, relief flowing through
her like a cleansing stream.  Wolf was going to give her the chance she’d been
awaiting so long and she could not stop smiling.  If he wasn’t careful she’d
probably do something stupid like lean forward and give him a kiss right on
that smiling mouth of his.

Be good, Tessa. 
You don’t want to spoil this
.  And so she kept her
butt in her chair and celebrated with Wolf with smiles and laughter and after
they’d remembered to let go of each other’s hands they’d raised their glasses
in a toast to their new-found alliance.  After that, neither of them ate much
and even when the server came with a tempting array of desserts on a tray both
of them passed.  There was just too much to think about, too much to discuss.

Too soon it was
nearing the one o’clock hour, the time when Tessa would have to leave.  She
didn’t want to go, and it looked like neither did he.  They’d reached a place
where they wanted to rush off together, right away, and brainstorm.

But it was not to
be.  Duty called and Tessa had to be back for her next class at one-thirty. 
She waved the server over and took care of the bill despite Wolf’s protest.  “I
invited you to lunch, remember?  Now let me handle this.  Please.”  It took
that reprimand to shut him up.

They were just
about to go when they were disturbed by a buzzing sound.  Wolf’s cell phone.  He
gave her a look of apology then raised his eyebrows when he saw the number.  He
pressed the button to answer.  “Hey, Mom.  How’re you doing?” he said with a
smile Tessa knew would only be reserved for his mother.  It was a ‘mama’s boy’
kind of smile.  But then that smile disappeared and in its place was a look of
horror.

Tessa gripped the
arm of her chair and frowned as she watched his face.

“Dad?  What’s the
matter?  What happened?”

There was the
distant, tinny sound of a voice on the other side but Tessa was too far away to
make out the words.  All she knew was, whatever news Wolf was getting just
then, it was not good.  His face said it all.

“A stroke? 
But…how?”  Wolf had one hand to his forehead while the other clutched the phone
to his ear.  “I…don’t believe this.”

So that was it. 
Wolf’s mother had suffered a stroke.  Tessa could only imagine how he felt just
then.  She couldn’t even bear to think of her own mother, all the way in
Florida, suffering the same fate.  Feeling helpless, she could only wait until
Wolf had finished his conversation.  Only then did she speak.  “How is she?”  Her
voice came out tentative and hoarse, probably due to her nervousness.  She
hoped things weren’t as bad as they’d sounded from her overhearing only Wolf’s
side of the conversation.

“I have to go to
India,” Wolf said and his voice was brusque.  He was probably trying to get a
handle on his emotions.

“India?”  Tessa
stared at him.  “That’s where your Mom is?”

Wolf nodded.

“But I thought
your family came back to Canada when you were eighteen.”

He nodded again. 
“We did, but Mom and Dad went back five years ago to teach part-time.  They
loved New Delhi and I guess they missed it.”  Then he heaved a sigh.  “But now
Mom’s had a stroke and she’s thousands of miles away.  My brother's all the way
in Japan, working as an engineer.  He's got a young family so it's my job to
deal with this.  I have to go and get my parents.”  For the first time since
the call he looked Tessa in the eyes.  “I'm sorry, Tessa.  I didn’t mean to
spoil your afternoon.”

“No, not at all,”
she was quick to reassure him.  “You have absolutely no control over what happened.” 
She was rising as she spoke.  “And yes, you have to go to your mother.  You
need to be with your family.”

He nodded and got
up to stand beside her.  “I’ll be heading out first thing in the morning.” 
Then he took her elbow and directed her toward the door.  “Come, let’s get you
back to school.”

That afternoon as
Tessa stood in front of her class she was hardly conscious of what she was
teaching.  She just kept seeing Wolf’s face and the pain that had carved itself
there.

And that night as
she curled up in bed she kept thinking about Wolf, wondering if he was having a
sleepless night.  She knew she was, just thinking about him and his family.

She felt sympathy
for him, yes, but to the point where she could not sleep?  She hardly even knew
the man and she certainly didn’t know his family.  So, for the life of her, she
couldn’t understand why her heart ached at the thought of his pain.

 CHAPTER FIVE

Three days had
passed since Wolf left for India and Tessa had not heard a word from him.  Of
course, he was under no obligation to call her.  Who was she, anyway, but an
acquaintance?  But still…if only he would call, just so she knew he was all
right.  And his mother, who he obviously loved dearly, she just prayed she was
recovering.

She’d been walking
around in a funk since Wolf’s departure, not wanting to admit to herself that,
strange as it seemed, and sudden as it was, in some small way she’d begun to
care for him.  And the more she kept telling herself, ‘buck up, Tessa; you
hardly know the man’, the more concerned she became.

Finally, despite
her fears that it would seem strange for her to be so affected by the news,
Tessa decided to call Stone.  He was Wolf’s friend.  He was bound to know what
was going on.

“Not at all,”
Stone said when Tessa enquired with a quick apology in case Wolf wanted the
information kept confidential.  “The news is not great, I’m afraid.  Mrs. Spencer
is paralyzed all down the right side of her body, from her face and arms to her
legs.  As you can imagine, Wolf is quite distressed.  He and his mother are
very close.”

“I…I can imagine,”
Tessa said in a whisper, wishing she could say more, ask more, but that was not
her place.  Instead, she bit her lower lip and swallowed the questions fighting
to spill out.  When she spoke it was only to say, “When you speak to
Wolf…please tell him he and his family are in my thoughts.”

“I’ll do that,”
Stone said.  “I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.”

And Tessa had to
be satisfied with that.  But she knew her spirits would never be settled until
she could speak to Wolf again.

******

“Come over on this
side, young man.  Come where I can reach out and touch you.”

“Mom,” Wolf
groaned, “I’m twenty-nine.  Isn’t it time you stop calling me ‘young man’?  And
anyway, I have a name, remember?”

“Come here, you,
let me pinch that cheek of yours for talking back.”

And, like a good
little boy, Wolf went over to receive his pinch.  He was a mama’s boy and proud
of it.  And as much as he complained about the titles by which his mother
addressed him – young man, young sir, dear boy – he loved it.

It was a special
teasing point between his mother and him and he never tired of pulling her leg
about it.  She’d begun calling him those names when, as an adolescent, he’d
complained about the name he’d been given – Wolfgang Armando Spencer.  He’d
suffered his fair share of teasing at school for what the boys called a sissy
name.  When he’d demanded to know why his mother had saddled him with a name
like Wolfgang she’d told him that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was her hero and she’d
hoped that one day he, too, would have been a world renowned pianist.  Good
luck with that, he could have told her.  It never worked out.  His attempts at
piano lessons had been failure after failure until finally he’d refused to bang
his way through another lesson.  Five years of it was enough.  And Armando?  He
still shuddered when he remembered his mother’s response to his query on that
one.  A neighbor had a parakeet with that name and she’d fallen in love with it
instantly.  He knew he could never let it be known that he’d been named after a
parakeet.

As Wolf sank into
the chair beside his mother’s hospital bed he reached out and took her good
hand in his.  He’d been joking with her, accepting her ribbing and even getting
in a few jabs of his own.  They’d laughed together like always, and if you
didn’t notice that Lydia Spencer’s face pulled to one side when she smiled, no-one
would know anything was wrong.  On the surface they seemed so jovial.

But inside, behind
the brave façade, Wolf was mourning for his mother.  How could this have
happened to her, a strong fifty-six year old woman who exercised every day, ate
the right foods and had never smoked a single cigarette?  Strokes were for old
people, weren’t they?  His mother shouldn’t have had to fear being touched by
such an attack, not until she reached about seventy.

But here it was,
an otherwise healthy woman knocked on her back by a sickness without rhyme or
reason – at least in this case.

And it was not
just his mom who was suffering.  His dad was, too.  He looked over at the man
who stood on the other side of the bed looking down at his wife with a mixture
of bewilderment and concern.  With the shock of his wife’s illness he now
looked a lot older than his sixty-three years.  He looked lost and helpless, a
man who’d always been so dominant and bold now reduced to a state of confusion
and fear that his vibrant wife would never recover.

Wolf knew that he
had to be strong for both his parents and so, whatever he was feeling inside,
all they saw was the smile on his face and all they felt was the firmness of
his grip and the warmth of his hug.

“By tomorrow
you’ll be back in Canada,” he said as he squeezed his mother’s hand.  “I know
the doctors here have done a lot to stabilize you but now I want you home where
we can do more tests and get you the therapy you need.  I want you home, Mom,
where I can be there for you.”

“You know that’s
not necessary,” she said, smiling. “I’ll recover, whether it’s here or back in
Canada.”

“Mom, you're
coming home with me and that’s final.  It’s time to stop playing the tough girl
and let Dad and me take care of you for a change.”

“I agree.” 
Previously quiet, Ruben Spencer now spoke up as if awaking from a daze. 
“Listen to the boy, Lydia.  He can talk good sense sometimes so we have to
listen.”

Wolf gave his
father a look.  Sometimes?  But he didn’t have the heart or the strength to
tackle him on that one.  So he simply said, “Then it’s settled.  Two against
one.  We leave tomorrow.”

******

“In analyzing this
poem what are some of the literary techniques we can employ?” Tessa’s eyes
skimmed the faces of her twenty-four eleventh grade students.  Her gaze settled
on one who had his head down, fully absorbed in what looked like a graphic
novel.  “Franklyn?  What do you think?”