All Write, Already!

     I was not allowed to attend Grammar school with children my age.  When I asked my very distant father on this matter, he told me that it was for my protection.  Somehow I did not feel that he was being honest with me even as my young age.  My beliefs were confirmed when I unintentionally overheard my parents arguing in their room about me.  Mother, a former school teacher herself, insisted I get a former education.  Father did not share her convictions.  I remember him stating it would be a waste of time because I would never amount to anything because of my deformity.  He suggested they put me in a home, away from the world.  Thankfully, my Mother won the argument.  But it was at a severe cost.  I would see my father about five times a year after that.  He still lived with us but it was plain that he avoided me.  I'm sure his embarrassment was too much of a burden.

     Shortly after their argument, Mother introduced me to my tutor, Miss Weatherly.  She was a friend of my Mother's during her time as a teacher and they worked together.  When I realized I would be getting an education, I set myself to the task.  I remembered what my father had said about my future and I wanted to prove him wrong.  I wanted to show him I could be a learned man, maybe even a doctor.  I learned to love my time with Miss Weatherly, studying topics as quickly, and even more so, then she could present the material.  She often told my Mother I was an able student.  As I got older, she even suggested that I would finish my education earlier than others my age.  Mother would have none of that and I continued to study with Miss Weatherly until I was the proper age for university even though I had learned much more than my peers.