Jack nodded and handed me a book. "You can have this one. I don't like it."
I glanced down at the book. It was full of numbers, all drawn to look like cartoon characters with big eyes and funny gloved hands. Inside the numbers were doing math problems.
"Why don't you like it?" I asked. I had a sneaking suspicion it was because math was involved.
"Because math is dumb," Jack said, looking up at me, his eyes full of what he thought to be knowledge. "I'm never gonna need that."
I managed to keep a straight face as a future business owner told me he didn't need math. Math like addition and subtraction. He was going to have a heck of a time with payroll when he got older.
"That's too bad. I have a cool magic trick, but you have to be able to do math for me to be able to show it to you," I said, picking up a crayon. I started to color the number four a nice shade of purple.
"A magic trick?" Jack asked. He stopped coloring, obviously interested.
"Yeah. I can tell the future. But, it involves math, so you probably wouldn't like it," I said, switching my purple crayon for a blue one.
"But I like magic tricks," he said, a pout crossing his face. I knew I had him. No kid can resist a magic trick. "I wanna see your magic trick."
"Well, I guess I can show you," I replied, making sure to exaggerate my shrug. I heard the secretary snicker at her desk, a knowing smile on her face.
"Yeah! Show me! Please!" Jack came around so he could sit closer to me. I found a blank page in one of the coloring books, and ripped off a corner before handing it to Jack.
I leaned in and starting explaining the directions carefully. "Okay. I want you to think of a three digit number that's digits are decreasing. It can be any number you want, but it can't be the same written forward or backward. So, 432 will work, but 121 or 456 won't. That make sense?" I handed Jack a crayon and he nodded.
"I am going to write down what your number is going to be in the future." I wrote down '1089' on my ripped corner, then turned it upside-down on the table in front of Jack. "That is going to be your number. Now you write the number you have in your head down on this piece of paper."
"Ca
n you see the number?" He asked, carefully hiding his number with his hand.
"Yes. Since I already wrote down what your future number will be, I can see it." Jack had chosen 431. "Now, subtract the mirror of this number. So subtract 134."
Jack carefully wrote out the numbers and began working his way through the problem. I helped him cross out the numbers and borrow from the bigger column. It took a moment but we got to the correct answer of 297.
"Is that the number you guessed?" Jack asked excitedly.
"We aren't done yet. We did subtraction, now we need some addition. We now need to add the mirror of this number." I watched as he furrowed his brow in concentration and looked at the numbers.
He carefully wrote 792 with a plus sign.
"Perfect. Now add them together, and I will show you that I knew the future," I whispered dramatically. Jack went to work, using his fingers to help him add, and without any help from me, he proudly displayed the number 1089.
I flipped the ripped piece of paper over, revealing the magic 1089 number I had written to begin with, and Jack clapped his hands in delight. "How'd you do that? You really must be magic!"
"It's just math. Still think it's stupid?" I asked.
He gave me a thoughtful look. "Maybe not all math is stupid. Could you show me another one?"
I laughed. "How about I show you how I did that one?"
He nodded furiously and I was about to get another piece of paper when the door behind the secretary's desk opened and two businessmen walked out. A handsome third man followed, his features strongly resembling Jack's.
"Daddy!" the young boy cried out, the magic math problem forgotten as his father welcomed him into a hug.
"What are you doing here, young man?" The older Saunders gave his son a warm smile. The stress sluiced off of his shoulders as he held his young son.
"I came to bring you a present. I got lost, but Ms. Rachel helped me," Jack said, pointing back to where I still sat surrounded by crayons.
"Well, that was very nice of her," Mr. Saunders said. He walked over to shake my hand. "I don't believe we've met."