Bit o' Honey

Bit o’ Honey

I shuffle from one foot to the other and wait. If they’re all right, I’ll get the prize. One wrong answer, and I have to do the walk of shame all the way back to my desk. First grade is tough that way.
I can feel their eyes burning into me. They want it as badly as I do. But I’m always the one who gets here first.
“Okay,” she says finally. “Looks like you’ve done it again. 100%. Here you go.”
She inches the candy across her desk in a slow-motion kind of way.
I clutch my prize, tear off the wrapper, and pop it into my mouth. I savor its honey sweetness as I ease back to my seat. All the other kids give me the stink eye, but it doesn’t faze me one Bit o’ Honey—because I got the prize, and they didn’t.

For the first three months of class, everything was going aces.
Then, he shows up. The new kid.
I’ve never met anyone from Korea before, and a part of me wishes I never had. From that day on, I never got another Bit O’ Honey. He is always first.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out how he does it. Before I am even halfway done, he is already standing at the front of the class. And without fail, he gets 100%, just like I used to.
Now, I’m no hater—but I come pretty close with him.

There has to be some kind of trick. Maybe he is cheating, I wonder.

I endure three months of humiliation before I get my answer. It takes him that long to learn English.

At last, when he’s ready, I ask, “What’s your secret? How are you able to do all those calculations so fast?”
At first, he just looks puzzled, and I think maybe he doesn’t understand. I repeat it again, slowly.
He cuts me off mid-sentence. “I heard you the first time. I’m trying to decide if I want to tell you. If it will make any difference if you know.”, he says.
“Please”, I smile.
He shrugs. “All right. It’s easy—I use the multiplication table.”
“The what?” I say.
“Here, I’ll show you.” He grabs a piece of paper and draws a 5x5 grid, then fills in the numbers.
“I’ve never seen one before. How does it work?” I ask.
“Okay, fine—but it’d be cheating to use that.”
“Not if you keep it in your head,” he says, like I was missing something obvious.
“Well, how do you do that?”
He shrugs and turns away.

I fold it up and slip it into my pocket.
I do what he implies and memorize it.
Years later, I use it to build a castle.