Jubal: Distant Melody
Copyright  © 2011 Faeriemage
All Rights Reserved.
A bit of hope comes into Jubal's life.

---

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I briefly considered skipping this story and getting on to the next one in the Jubal cycle. Unfortunately, that would have left me with two tragedies in a row. I need something a little lighter in tone.

I would like to publicly thank everyone who sent me notes of encouragement. It has been a rough day for me, mostly of my own creation. That you all for your support.

A NOTE ABOUT GRAMMAR SCHOOL: This may or may not be accurate to today's world, but this grade school environment Jubal attends is based loosely on my own. We had a single teacher who taught us English, science, math, and social studies. Most of the time it was just English and Math. The two Ss were on a more periodic basis; every other day for a couple of hours I think.

Computer science, art, music, and gym were with other teachers, in other rooms. They were even less frequent than science and social studies.

Without further ado, I give you Jubal.

ADDENDUM: I realized only after I was working on the next story, that one of the names in here was wrong. Silly author. Made the changes to obscure Harold's boss' name until later.

---

Harold Carson was not the most emotional of men. He looked at the world and tried to fit it into one of his spreadsheets from work. The hazard of the data analyst.

Jubal did not fit into any of his rows or columns. He was not a boy. She was not a girl. It still brought a smile to his face thinking of those blue eyes when he'd told the child that they had a place for him in their lives.

As they walked up to the boy he tried to hide behind his raven locks.

"Would you like to come home with us, Jubal? Or do you prefer Marie?"

"Would I have to forget about my parents?" There were some tears in his eyes as he asked this

Sarah had kneeled down next to the boy and looked him in the eye. "Jubal, honey, we would never replace your parents. You would only be with us as long and you want to. I would love for you to stay with us, though."

"Would you love ME? Even if I'm a freak?"

"You are never a freak. Why would you believe that?"

"Mrs. Limon told me that Jesus hates me because I am an abomination. I don't want to be an abomination. Father Kenny told me that my parents went to heaven, and if they're there, I can't believe that Jesus is. They wouldn't let anyone hate me."

"Oh, dearest. Mrs. Limon doesn't know Jesus if she thinks that, and I am sure that he doesn't hate you. Jesus loved everyone, and I'm sure he's comforting your parents right now. He's keeping them company until you are old and grey and go to meet them."

"Really? You really think they're waiting for me?" A spark of hope ignited in his eyes. They would put sapphires to shame.

"Of course sweetie. I can't believe that this life is the end. And if the soul goes on, then the relationships that we form in this life must go on as well. My soul soars whenever I look at Mr. Carson. How can that end with this life."

"Is that true, Mr. Carson? Really?"

"I hope so, Jubal. I do."

"Harold, if you're done staring off into space, you can probably head home for the day. I know you finished the analysis for the Parkinson account yesterday. . .don't even try to deny it."

"Sir, I can explain."

"I know. You have a new child in the house. You've always done more work in three hours than most of the rest of these clowns do all week. That's why we're cutting their maximum hours, and putting you on salary."

"Sir, I don't know what to say."

"Say goodbye, and see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye, sir. I'll see you tomorrow."

"That's the spirit. Say hello to that new son of yours and your beautiful wife. One of these days I'm stealing both of them away from you."

Harold left as he grabbed his coat and headed for the door. He had usually clocked out as soon as his work was done. He'd never felt right about being paid not to work. That had been fine when it had just been the two of them and Sarah had still been working, but since Jubal had come to live with them? . .

Even so, he'd spent the time quadruple checking his numbers and facts, making one thousand percent sure that everything he was submitting was correct. He'd made no corrections, nor had the information needed any.

***
"Honey, I'm home."

"Harold, what's wrong. I thought that you were going to stay the entire day today?"

"They put me on salary. That will likely mean they are going to start giving me more work, but in the short term I get to spend more time with you and Jubal."

"Mr. Carson, can we go to the library again?"

"We are able to go to the library, Jubal." Susan said.

He blushed lightly. "May we go to the library, Mr. Carson."

"I think that can be arranged. What happened to the books we got for you two days ago?"

"I finished the last one this morning after I went running."

"Running?"

"The last words Mommy said to me were to run and play, so I try and run every day for her. I know now it won't bring her back. She didn't leave because she was mad at me. It just makes me happier to do something she asked me."

Harold gave his wife a squeeze and a kiss before whispering to her, "tough morning?"

"No more than any with Jubal. The boy is just so smart. It's like having a ten year old with the emotions of a five year old. He is so articulate that sometimes I forget how little he really knows."

"I'm great at listening too," Jubal whispered up at them.

Harold and Susan laughed and Harold grabbed Jubal up into a flying hug. "That you are, my little man. You are a wonderful listener."

"Higher, Daddy, Higher."

Susan's eyes widened a bit, but Harold just complied with the request and tossed Jubal lightly into the air.

When Harold's arms grew tired, he lowered Jubal to the ground and tickled him until he said stop.

Susan sat down of the floor and looked Jubal in the eyes. "Why did you call Mr. Carson, 'Daddy'?"

A little fear crept into Jubal's eyes. "It wasn't wrong was it? I heard the two of you talking about adopting me, and that means you are going to be my Mommy and Daddy, so I tried it out to see how it works. I can stop if you want."

A couple of tears came to his eyes, and Susan wrapped him in her arms.

"It's never wrong to call your Mommy and Daddy by their real names."

"It isn't betraying my first Mommy and Daddy is it?"

"Never. They are still your first Mommy and Daddy. They will always love you."

"Okay. I love you, Mommy. Thanks for explaining everything to me. You are an even better teacher than my first Mommy."

Susan just hugged him and the tears began to flow from both of their eyes.

"I love you to, Jubal."

Harold wrapped them both in his arms, hugging them. "And i love you both."

Jubal accepted the hug for a few seconds and then began to squirm. "Can we go to the library now?"

Susan laughed as Harold replied, "yes, we can go to the library now, Jubal. Get your book bag."

***
"Hello, Jubal. Didn't I just see you and your family on Monday?"

"Yes, Ms. Bonny. But I finished the books already."

"All three? In just two days?"

"Yeah, they were too short."

Bonny Roland laughed at this. "They were fifteen pages each. But I guess our little man is just too old for little kids books. So, what type of stories do you want next? Snow White? War and Peace in the original Russian?"

"Silly, Ms Bonny. You know I don't read Russian yet. Do they have War and Peace in English?"

There was a bit of a shocked look on Bonny's face, she knew that Jubal was precocious, but. . .

Jubal smiled up at her, "Actually, I want to read The Boxcar Children. Mommy read it when she was a girl, and it sounded more fun than Little House on the Prairie or Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew."

"Okay, then. We have a copy right over here. This should keep you a couple of days all by itself."

She handed a copy over to him and his eyes got large. "It is so much thicker than my other books. Thank you, Ms. Bonny. Thank you a bunch."

"Thank your Mommy. She was the one who suggested it."

"Thank you, Mommy."

"You're welcome, dearest."

***
Harold growled as he hung up the phone, forcefully. "What is wrong with these people. Jubal is smarter than most of the kids his age, and our money is as green as anyone else's."

"That was Charleston Academy for Boys?"

"Yes, they told me that only boys are allowed to attend school there."

"And the last one said only girls, and the one before said that they had no openings. . .after we explained his condition."

"Maybe he'll just have to go to a public school. The private ones seem to discriminate against those of ambiguous gender."

"But, Harold. You know that a public school won't be able to handle a child as bright as Jubal."

"I don't know what else to do."

***
"Harold, it isn't like you to turn in shoddy work like this, what's wrong."

"Sir, I'm so sorry about the file. I'll fix it."

"It was only a minor error, already fixed, but you never make errors. What's wrong, son."

Harold looked down at his desk, staring at the photo of his wife standing with Jubal. He really did care for the boy. How could he take care of Jubal when no one else wanted to allow him.

"None of the schools I talked to in our price range would allow Jubal to attend."

"Why not?"

"Because he's intersexed."

"That's right. Ambiguous. I'd think that any of these establishments would love a guaranteed graduate, especially one who will likely be as famous as your Jubal. That boy is going places."

"You only spoke to him for a couple of minutes at the Christmas party if I recall."

"Listen to what you're saying. I had a conversation with a 5 year old, Harold. A full blown conversation. If I knew they came in that model I might have considered having some of my own."

"Thank you, sir. I'll tell Jubal you remember him."

"Harold. Stop worrying. I remember that you told me that there was a trust for the child when he turned twelve?"

"For costs that would be incurred resulting from surgery and other incidental expenses arising from his intersexed status."

"Is that something close to the exact wording?"

"Yes. One of the points of the will stipulated that any foster or adoptive parents read and sign a form stating they had no interest in Jubal's money, and that the full will needed to be read to them first."

"Interesting. You are a valued employee when your head is in the game. You closed accounts worth over ten million dollars to the firm last year. I'll have the legal team look into it, and see if we can't supplement your school budget from the trust. Failing that, I think that the firm can provide a scholarship for the boy."

"Really, sir? you would do that?"

"Harold, I consider you my own flesh and blood. Yes, I would be happy to do that for you."

***
It was almost a week later when his boss was able to speak to him again.

"Harold, my legal team went over the wording of the will, and there is nothing we can do.

His boss held up a finger to forestall any arguments from him, "however, my accountants went over the regulations, and we can get a major tax break for offering a scholarship for your son."

His boss smirked at his own thought, "well, unless there is another intersexed child out there that is smarter than Jubal. For right now I think we will just offer the one scholarship, but. . .it just feels right to me somehow."

"Thank you so much, sir."

"You're welcome, Harold. More than welcome. I only ask one thing."

"What, sir?"

"Call me Brad."

"Sure thing, Brad."

***
"Jubal, now, we don't normally do this for a child your age, but your parents insisted, so we're going to give you a placement exam."

Jubal frowned for a moment and then looked up at the woman standing over him, "where is this test supposed to place me?"

Her shock was evident, but she covered it quickly, "It will tell us which grade we should start you out in."

"Ok. Sounds fair to me. So, when we're done I get to go to school here?"

"Yes, Jubal. You get to go to school here. When I tell you to begin, open up your booklet and begin reading the questions. You'd want to fill out the answer on this bubble sheet. Only fill one letter per question. Some of them may seem like they're right, but only one of them will be correct."

"Mrs. Presman? I may be a child, but you don't have to treat me like one. When you told me to only answer one bubble per number, I got it. This test is supposed to place me in a grade level. I don't think you explaining it to me is a valid testing protocol."

She blinked a couple of times at Jubal and then smirked, "you may begin, then."

Jubal opened the book and began to read. It was as easy as he'd thought it would be. He zipped through the English section.

It was only in the last couple of pages that he began to get a little less confident. They began asking him to analyze this or that passage, and he wasn't sure of the criteria he was supposed to use to analyze it. It confused him a bit, and the questions they asked didn't help either.

He figured it must be something he hadn't learned yet, so he just moved on to the math section.

Math didn't come as easily to him as English did. Or maybe he just hadn't spent as much time working on it. He got plus and minus, and that multiply was just adding repeatedly, but divide didn't quite make sense to him, and he had no idea how to do math with letters in it.

He began to get down a bit, and then something occurred to him. This was a placement test. He was supposed to fail parts of it so they knew what to teach him. He left everything he really didn't know blank after that.

He really didn't know anything in the social studies section, and the science section looked really cool. The questions were interesting anyway, but he just didn't know the answers. He really hoped they gave him some science classes.

***
Mrs. Presman sat down with the Carsons and Jubal after running his test through the grading machine.

"First off, let me say that I am very impressed with Jubal. He is one of, if not the, brightest students in his age group I have ever had the pleasure of placing. His reading is well above a sixth grade level, and his comprehension is right up there as well."

"His Math scores place him in a third or fourth grade level, and his other classes are about where we would expect of a child his age."

"However, with his comprehension where it is, we can assume that he would do well in any class we put him into. We're going to put him with the third grade, at least to begin, and go from there. We will give him some 'remedial' science classes, as well as social studies. He will be coming in halfway through the year, so there may be a period of catchup he needs to do, but from what we've seen here it should be fine."

She turned her attention to Jubal, "Now, Jubal. If at any time you have a problem with the classes, you let me know, okay? I want this experience to be as good for you as it possibly can."

"Okay, if I have any complaints about the class, I talk to you. Thank you, Mrs. Presman."

"You're very welcome, Jubal. Welcome to Griffin Academy."

***
"Class, I'd like you all to welcome Jubal. He'll be joining us for the rest of the year."

"He's such a shrimp!"

"I'm not a shrimp. I'm five."

There were some sounds of surprise in the classroom.

"Methink we hath a twit amongst us."

"It would actually be methinks, and have, as hath is an antiquated for of the third person singular of to have. I'm not aware of there being a similarly antiquated first person plural version of to have."

"You didn't say anything about twit, twit."

"I find myself unable to tell you whether or not you find me bothersome."

The class laughed and the boy blushed bright red. Something about the situation told Jubal that he was in trouble, but that could wait until later.

For right now he simply wanted to find a seat and learn something.

***
"Jubal, could I speak to you for a moment?"

"Of course."

"I can't accept this worksheet. It's not in English."

"Of course it's in English. That is the English standard phonetic alphabet. I figured that you, as a teacher would be able to read it. I'm sorry that I assumed wrong. I guess that I'll have to rewrite it. Sorry, Mrs. Wilson."

"Wait, just a moment. . ." She looked at it a moment, before a smile spread on her face. "Why it is phonetic. I'd assumed. . .very impressive, Jubal. Where did you learn this?"

"My first parents let me read the Dictionary. At that point I didn't realize that no one else learned the phonetic alphabet as well as the standard alphabet. They were both new knowledge to me."

"You have such a vocabulary, Jubal."

"It comes from reading the dictionary, twice."

Mrs. Wilson laughed at this. "Well, go have fun at recess."

"Okay."

***
"I've been looking for you, Shrimp. You and I have unfinished business."

"What? I didn't forget some of my work, did I?"

"Nope. I'm going to pulverize you."

"Oh. Ok. Well, since I don't like pain." Jubal was running even before he finished talking. The older boy raced after him, but he was no match to the training that Jubal had already put his young body to. The other boy was huffing and puffing long before Jubal even wanted to slow down.

Jubal stopped and looked at the older boy. "Aw, I was just getting warmed up."

"You're dead, Jubal, as soon as I catch my breath."

"Why?"

"Because you made fun of me."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. What can I do to make it up to you?"

The older boy blinked at him, opened his mouth, blinked, and then said, "Um, never mind. You really didn't want to make fun of me?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm almost eleven and still in third grade?"

"I'm five and in third grade."

"Yes exactly."

"But, you took the same placement test I did, right?"

"Yes. . ."

"So, we did the same on the test. That's so cool."

"You're weird, Jubal, but I kind of like you."

"I don't think I'm weird, but thanks anyway."

Something dawned on Jubal, and he looked concerned when he began talking again, "why did they put you in third grade? If you're older shouldn't you be further?"

"Now the kid gets it."

"What did Mrs. Presman say about your test scores?"

"I had difficulty retaining what I read."

"Oh, I don't know what to say. She told me that I was good there."

"Jubal, um, I know this is weird, but, could you sort of, um, tutor me? They told my parents that I was at grade level everywhere else, but without the ability to retain what I read. . ."

"I'm five. I've never tutored anyone before."

"Well, we could at least try."

"Okay. Let's go back to the classroom."

***
Mrs. Wilson walked back into the room to prepare for the return of her students and was startled to see Jubal and Gregory already there.

"So, when you're reading, you do what again?"

"I form a scene in my mind with the items from the text. You know, here where it says that the clearing in the woods as filled with little yellow flowers. You form the picture of some woods. You have the trees in your mind?"

When George nodded, Jubal continued. "Now, cut down some of the trees."

"I see stumps in the woods now."

"Remove the stumps, and add some flowers. Make sure they're yellow."

"Wow, I see it. I see the clearing."

"Okay, you try it on your own."

"Wow, I understand. All words do this?"

"Some things are a lot harder to do this with. You know, when people are talking to each other. But mostly there, I just remember it as a conversation. Imagine two people talking to each other."

"But, that's so simple."

"Yeah, the longer that the passage goes, the more difficult it gets."

"Hey, can we practice this every day before my test?"

Jubal looked sadly out the window, but then looked in George's face.

"I can run anytime. I'll help you during recess, George, okay?"

Mrs. Wilson backed out of the room with a look of wonder on her face.

***
"Mrs. Presman?"

"Yes, Jubal come in."

"I wanted to talk to you about my classes."

"Okay, I expected you sooner than this. You've been at the school almost a month now. Are they too hard for you?"

"Oh, no. The science classes are interesting, but a little easy. I'm not sure why we have to learn social studies, but I guess you must have a good reason. Those are too easy also. If I'd known it was simply reading about kids in other countries, I might have tried to see if I could guess on the test."

"Um, well. . ."

Mrs. Presman had to stop for a moment and let her brain shift gears. She'd been prepared to move Jubal back a grade or two, but forward? She'd already been a little worried about putting him with children that much older than himself in the first place.

"I think we need to offer something else entirely for you. You just don't fit into our normal categories. I think that we'll have to do something a little more personal for you."

"What does that mean?"

"We'll keep you with the class for the social activities like music, gym, and art, but we'll be putting you into a tutor environment for all of your other classes. How does that sound?"

"Will I get harder science?"

"Yes, Jubal. You will get harder science."

"Wahoo!!!!"

Mrs. Presman just smiled at his enthusiasm. Jubal's personality seemed to fill spaces that his small body didn't.

***
"I've really enjoyed teaching you over the last three months, Jubal. You're a really bright boy."

"You're acting like I won't be seeing you again. Won't I be back next week?"

"I'm sorry. I forget sometimes that you're so new to all of this. Tomorrow is the first day of summer vacation, Jubal."

"I know, but why does that mean you stop teaching me?"

"Because there's no more school until this fall."

"Oh. Okay. Well, see you in the fall then?"

"I'm not qualified to teach seventh grade. We might need to cover a little bit of work when you get back, but you were just too bright. You learned what I had for you too quickly."

"I'm gonna miss you, Mr. Evans."

"I'll miss you too, Jubal."

***
Art would be his last class for the year, and he was trying hard to be like the other kids and happy about it. Inside he just felt like crying. Learning was just so fun for him, and it opened up a world of possibilities.

He walked into the room and George stopped him, "What's wrong, Jubal? You aren't getting picked on by Stacey again are you. I told you she just thinks you're cute."

"No, George. I'm just sad because the school year is over."

"You would, Jubal," the older boy said with a snort. "Oh, I took my new placement test last night. They're moving me to seventh grade next year. I'll miss you, but I really wanted to thank you for all the help you gave me."

Jubal began to smile. This was the best news he'd heard all day. "We'll be in the same grade again!"

"Jubal, if I didn't like you so much I'd really hate you right now."

He tried to hold a severe look on his face, but he couldn't. He broke out into an infectious laugh, and Jubal joined right in. Jubal still didn't get what a lot of things were about, but at least he had a friend.