“Yeah, but she said I should do it anyway.” Jack sighed again. “And then we did math for babies. It’swaytoo easy.”
The worst thing for five-year-old Jack was to have to do something he thought wasfor babies.The best thing was doing something a superhero would do — Jack loved superheroes and supervillains more than anything. He’d watched every superhero movie Nina could get her hands on and read a huge stack of comic books, sounding out the words to himself when Nina was too busy to help.
“Sorry, buddy,” Nina said. “Did you ask Miss Lucy if you could read or draw when you finished, like we talked about?”
“Yeah, but she said I was finished too fast, and I needed to look at my numbers again.” Jack shook his head. “They were all right! And at recess, the swings were all broken and someone stole the chalk.”
Nina winced. Jack attended an underfunded and overcrowded public school. The lessons didn’t challenge him, and he didn’t get much attention in a class with thirty-five kids. When she’d visited on parents’ night, she’d been sad about the run-down playground and classrooms that lacked materials, but she couldn’t afford to send Jack to a better school.
With her freelance phone sales job, she could barely afford to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table, and new clothes on Jack, who was always growing. Even before he grew out of his clothes, they usually ended up stained and full of holes from his superhero play at the playground and general rough-and-tumble personality. Last year, he’d gone through a pair of shoes in just four weeks after a growth spurt and a particularly busy summer of skidding his feet on the ground when he jumped off the merry-go-round.
“Sorry, buddy,” she said. “But don’t worry. It’s nearly October. You’ve been in kindergarten for less than a month, so it mightstill get better. Give Miss Lucy time to get to know you, and in the meantime, we can keep reading and doing math at home, too.”
“I hate school.” Jack kicked a pebble.
“Oh, don’t say that.” Nina squeezed his hand. “Hate is a very strong word.”
Jack looked up at her with his big blue eyes, so like her own. “Sorry, Mom.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She squeezed his hand again. “It’s okay to have your feelings, but don’t get discouraged. How about we do something fun this afternoon? We can go to your favorite park and pretend some supervillain with a big, scary mask is trying to take it over.”
Jack brightened a little. “And I can be a superhero?”
“Of course.” Nina smiled at his enthusiasm. “Come on, we need to go this way.”
“Okay, then.” Jack grinned. Then, in an adorable low voice, he added, “I am SuperJack!” SuperJack was the superhero Nina and Jack had invented together, a young boy with a seemingly endless list of special powers who could face anything, even a difficult day at school.
“You sure are.” Nina ruffled his hair. Just then, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She glanced at the screen and saw that it was her landlord calling. “Just a minute; I need to take this. Stay right by me, okay?”
“I’m not a baby,” Jack grumbled, but he walked beside Nina as she answered the call.
“Mr. Pasternak,” Nina said as she answered. “It’s nice to hear from you.” It was not nice to hear from Mr. Pasternak. He was a grouchy older man who refused to help when there were problems with the apartment. But the apartment was affordable and in a safe and nice neighborhood, so she put up with it.
“Nina,” Mr. Pasternak said. He always called Nina by her first name, though she’d never been privy tohisfirst name. “I have some news.”
“Okay,” Nina said as pleasantly as she could, though her skin began to crawl with nerves.
“The rent’s going to increase by twenty percent starting next month.”
“What?” Nina quickly took a deep breath and calmed her tone. “I mean, that’s a big increase, and really soon. What happened?”
“Listen, Nina, out of respect for you and your son, I haven’t raised the rent in five years.” Mr. Pasternack sighed. “But I could make a lot more money with another renter, and I can’t afford to keep the charity going. So, pay the increase or leave so someone else can.”
Nina’s heart constricted. “I understand, but can we at least have a few more months before the increase? Just so I can get my finances in order? My son just started kindergarten, and supplies are expensive—” She hated sounding like she was begging, but if they lost this apartment, or had to pay so much more, she wasn’t sure how they’d make ends meet. The familiar panic of being a single mother without a steady income was back, clutching at her chest.
“Sorry, Nina. Let me know what you decide.”
“Wait, Mr. Pasternack—” But the line was already dead. Nina’s knees went weak.
She’d managed as best she could since Jack was born. She’d gotten her phone sales job so she could stay home with him as much as possible, since daycare would have taken most of her salary if she’d worked outside the home. She’d put in extra hours every night after Jack went to sleep and before he woke up in the mornings. But everything was so expensive, and some months meant better income than others. Over the summer, she’d earned less while Jack was home, but she’d planned to make that up now he was in school. It sounded like she wouldn’t have the chance to replenish her savings before having to pay much higher rent, though.
Not for the first time, Nina was angry with Tom. Tom had been her long-term boyfriend and Jack’s father. He’d seemed unsure about committing to Nina, and when she’d gotten pregnant, he’d wavered even more, worrying about the impact a baby might have on his burgeoning law career. Then, one night, when she was eight months pregnant, he’d left to get milk and had never come back. Since then, Nina had been on her own.
“Hey!”
Nina heard a crash up ahead and snapped out of her worry spiral in time to see Jack run smack into a businessman. The man’s phone flew out of his hand and landed on the pavement, and the man whirled around to stare at Jack like he’d never seen a kid before. Nina’s heart constricted again, and she hurried over, taking Jack’s hand.
“I’m so sorry,” she told the businessman.
