Little Man Tate Page #2

Do me a favour. I had a bad night. Go get your mother a Coke, OK?

Come on, I'd do it for you.

This jerk, he's got all his stuff separated into whites, off-whites...

...whites with stripes, whites with polka dots.

He's got ten dryers all to himself. Drivin' me crazy.

So you know what I do?

I go outside and I kick his car so that his siren goes off.

So the alarm's goin' off. He comes back in screamin' and he goes...

..."Hey! What happened to my briefs?"

So you know what I do? I start talkin' like I don't speak English.

- Hey! Did I hit anybody? - I'm trying to read.

What are you such a crabby appleton for, huh?

"The Mathematician". Any good?

"The MatheMagician". It's Jane Grierson's new book.

Oh.

Jane Grierson again. Great!

This boy, Damon Wells, can multiply two columns of -digit numbers...

...in five minutes.

Oh.

When Jane Grierson found him, he was living in a foster home.

Now he travels all over the place.

Really?

Dr Grierson played the violin for the Cleveland Philharmonic when she was .

Is the book about her or the kid?

Looks like a real bozo in that cape.

Quit it.

You got no sense of humour, you know that?

All right, you win. Come on, let's go. Put your shoes on. Come on!

Hi. Garth Emmerick. I'm Dr Grierson's assistant.

Dede Tate. The place is... It's nice.

You must be Fred. All set?

Dr Grierson likes to meet the children by themselves.

Feel free to wander around. The interview should take a while.

It's OK, Fred. I'll meet you right back down here when you get out.

All right? OK?

We wouldn't want him to come down with some ear infection and miss the test.

I'm sorry. I realise at some schools letters of recommendation carry influence...

...but here it's really test performance that determines admission.

Did Garth give you a copy of our pretest diet?

Well, you have to make sure he stays on that diet.

We'll see you in two weeks.

Hello, Fred.

I'm Jane Grierson. Do you know why you're here?

How do you feel about it?

I'm hot.

Dominum. Domino.

Now, Fred. What's wrong in this picture?

This?

- This? - I wake up in his paintings sometimes.

Van Gogh.

I wonder why he only painted one iris white.

Because he was lonely.

Let's look at May.

I like Sunflowers best.

I understand you're quite a pianist.

Check!

That was lovely.

Thank you very much. I really enjoyed that.

Hey, Fred. I gotta go to work. Come on.

Ms Tate. I'm Jane Grierson.

Please, come in. Sit down.

- Your son is very talented. - Yeah, I know.

Every year, I take five students to compete in "Odyssey of the Mind".

It's a kind of mental Olympics, if you will.

They're going to Disney World.

That's not the first thing I would have told you, but it's true.

We stop many places along the way, including my ranch in Virginia.

I like to pack as much learning experience into the three weeks as I can.

Yeah, well, I gotta go. Gettin' late.

Ms Tate. Ms Tate, please.

I didn't make myself clear.

I'm inviting your son to come with us.

If he enjoys himself, he'll be free to enrol in my school in the fall.

Wait a minute. Um... I don't even know you.

Why would I let you take my kid on some trip, let alone enrol him anywhere, huh?

I see.

Well, in this case, I'm sorry I wasted your time.

Goodbye, Fred.

You may keep this calendar since I won't be seeing you again.

That way, you can look at Sunflowers any time you want.

Come on, kid.

Jesus, Fred! What do you think you're doin'?

- I was just... - You were just gonna walk into the street!

You know better than that. You always look first.

Who can tell me how many of these numbers are divisible by two?

Anybody?

- Fred! - Hm?

I know that you can tell me how many of these numbers are divisible by two.

Um... All of 'em.

Hey, check it out.

I thought we could make our own invitations, huh?

- Invitations for what? - For your birthday party.

Why don't we just go to McDonald's like we did last year? That was fun.

Oh, yeah? Fun for whom? You threw up all over me, remember?

I had to burn my favourite shirt cos of you. Stinky!

- The mail's here. - Let's see if your chain letter paid off.

What have you got? The phone bill, gas bill, water bill.

- Throw this one away. - How come?

We left 'em a deposit. They can just take it out of that.

Fair enough.

So, what do you want for your birthday this year?

- Nothing. - Nothing?

Oops.

How about one of those Lego things? Hey, what's the matter with the toaster?

Nothing. I was fixing it.

Fixing means to repair something that is broken.

Not to break something that works just fine the way it is.

We'll get some hot dogs. Ice cream and cake. Pin the tail on the donkey, huh?

It's next Saturday at o'clock at my apartment.

Give me that. Hey!

- Come on, guys!

Many gifted children go through some period of existential depression.

Pain of the mind can often be worse than pain of the body.

There is some ground for belief that genius is touched with madness.

No! Dede! Dede! Dede!

Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Ssh.

It's OK.

Did you wake up in another painting?

- Cortin. - Cortin, huh?

Hm.

I don't really know his work. Cortin?

It's a secretion that comes from some gland.

I forget which one.

It can turn a little kid into an old man, Dede.

Oh, yeah? You don't seem to be secreting anything now.

I tell you what, though.

Tomorrow, after your birthday...

...we'll go to the library and we'll look it up, OK?

What about work?

Don't worry about work.

All right? Try and get some sleep. You ain't been sleepin' enough lately.

- I can't. - You can't, huh?

- You wanna do shadows? - OK.

All right, we'll do shadows here.

All right.

Mm. How about that one right up there?

It's kinda pointy, see that one?

A man and a boy in a clipper ship.

Yeah. How about that one next to it with the little round circle on the side?

Let's try the other side now. See right there in the corner?

Kind of round things all on the side?

Got three little points. What's that?

I don't want a birthday party, Dede.

Course you do. Every little kid wants a birthday party.

- Hello. - Uh... Jane Grierson, please.

Speaking.

Hi. This is Dede Tate. I'm Fred's mom.

Yes.

Yeah. I was just, uh...

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