June 23, 2005 - Thursday
Jeremy had his last cello lesson this afternoon. It wasn't an official lesson, because aside from make-up lessons for those who needed them the semester was over. Awkwardly, neither Kate nor I had known that at the last lesson or at the recital, but Kate was kind enough to see him one last time to just kind of give Jeremy an ending (I think he likes Kate and it would have been odd for him to just never see her again and not know why). As a thank you, I made a print of this picture of her and Jeremy together, framed it, and wrapped it in yellow tissue paper. Jeremy and I gave the picture to Kate at the end of the lesson.

The story here is that it really was both Jeremy and me that gave her the present and it struck me has something very different than what Harry would have done, a noticeable difference in their respective personalities. Fortunately, Harry's teacher, Abe, happened to see us on the way in and asked whether Harry might not like to do his lesson right away. Apparently, Abe had a cancellation and it meant that Harry didn't need to try to sit quietly in the corner of Jeremy's lesson as he'd been doing all spring. Curiously, Harry resisted at first, I think because he was worried about missing the stickers that Kate always gave both of them.

If Harry had been there, even though Kate wasn't his teacher, I'm pretty he might have given away the surprise pretty quickly. But not Jeremy. In fact, as Kate was saying her goodbyes to a previous student outside the room and as we were going in, Jeremy actually told me to hide the present. That is absolutely something Harry would never have done. Harry's gotten a little more patient about secrets over the last year, but if anything words about anything were to come out of Harry's mouth in such a circumstance, it would be because he couldn't resist telling something, if only some kind of hint (which, of course, would probably give away the secret). When Kate did come in, Jeremy just played it cool and started his lesson. Then, at a moment about half way through when Kate probably would have needed to start really trying to keep Jeremy's interest and attention, I motioned for him to come over. He knew exactly why and I handed him the present. He handed it to Kate with a smile. It was very charming.

There was something else, too. At the time, Kate said something "I think I'm going to cry." I wouldn't have thought Jeremy heard it, let along understood it or would remember it. But when we were talking about it much later around the dinner table with mommy, that comment is what Jeremy brought up, with a clear understanding that it was a good thing. I'm pretty sure that Harry would have remembered something different if it had been him. I'm not sure just what, but something other than that emotional component.


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