I am determined

Little Jeffy stared at the avocado green refrigerator. On a tablet posted on the lower door, Mr. McCartney had leaned down and written 4 on one row, 5 on another, and he’d put a plus sign next to the 5 and drawn a line under it.

“Tell me what the sum is, Jeffy. What are 4 plus 5?”

9, of course, Jeffy thought. So he took the pen from Mr. McCartney and wrote 9 under the line.

“That is correct, little man,” Mr. McCartney said. “I will tell your mother to give you an extra helping of ice cream.”

Chocolate chip ice cream, Jeffy hoped. It’s my bestest favorite in the world, he told Mr. McCartney. And boy, that wasn’t hard at all. A piece of cake, just like Gaddy was always saying – but this time, he’d get ice cream.

“Now, young man, I want you to do another problem.” So Mr. McCartney erased Jeffy’s 9 answer and he erased the 5. Then he wrote a 7 in its place. “Go ahead and figure this one out.”

Oh, that’s easy, too, Jeffy thought. 4 plus 7, the answer was – Hey, this isn’t fair! This is a trick! Something’s wrong here. You can’t add these two numbers and still get a number cause 9 is the biggest number! Why is Mr. McCartney laughing in that funny way?

So Jeffy took the eraser from Mr. McCartney’s hand, wiped out the 7, and put the 5 back in its place. And then he took his marker and wrote a 9 under the line again.

Mr. McCartney put his head back and laughed like a monkey at the zoo. “Oh, Jeffy, you can’t do that!”

“But can I still get my chocolate chip ice cream?”