Flying Lessons & Other Stories

Content Warning: The source material addresses parental death and depicts alcoholism.

Baptist’s story, narrated in the first-person perspective by the protagonist Isaiah Dunn, contains informal dated entries, making the entire narrative feel like a diary. The first entry is on New Year’s Eve, beginning at the stroke of midnight. Isaiah, a fifth grader, is with his mother and his friend Sneaky, who is sleeping over. Isaiah’s mother rejects the boys’ conventional declaration of “Happy new year,” asserting that the upcoming year will not be a happy one. Isaiah feels weird and notices that his mother is sad, but he opts not to say anything because Sneaky is there.

Mentioning that they should not wake Isaiah’s sister, Charlie, nor should they stay up late, his mother heads to bed. Though she has ripped the labels off the bottles, Isaiah can see that she is drinking alcohol. Soon after she leaves, Isaiah hears her crying and assumes it is because she misses his father, who recently died. Isaiah turns up the TV so Sneaky will not hear.

The next entry is dated January 3rd. In this one, Isaiah recalls waking to his little sister asking for breakfast. Charlie is four but still sucks on her fingers. Isaiah gets up and toasts frozen waffles for her. When he drinks orange juice right from the carton, Charlie threatens to tell their mom. Isaiah fires back that he will tell on her for sucking her fingers. Despite their bickering, Isaiah takes good care of Charlie, getting her food on her Dora the Explorer plate, urging her to say grace, and cutting the waffles into small pieces.

Isaiah brings food to his mother’s room and sits next to her on the bed. She stays still beneath the covers, refuses the food, asks Isaiah to get Charlie ready for school, and indicates that she will be out soon. Isaiah chooses not to remind her that it is Sunday. As he takes a bite of a waffle, he sees a few empty bottles on the floor and one of his father’s gold notebooks. After grabbing the notebook, he returns to his sister. She eats a mushy banana, and they watch cartoons all day. Their mother never leaves her room.

On January 5, Isaiah returns home from school to see papers taped to the door. Without realizing that they are an eviction notice, he brings them to his mother, who is lying on the couch watching TV. She does not even glance at the papers before putting them aside. Isaiah notes that there are no bottles lying around.

When Isaiah asks where his sister is, his mom shares that Miz Rita, their neighbor in the apartment downstairs, is doing Charlie’s hair. She gives Isaiah $20, telling him to go get Charlie and pay Miz Rita.

Miz Rita’s daughter, Shayna, opens the door and directs them to the kitchen. As soon as he steps inside the apartment, Isaiah notes that it is “warm and cozy inside, and unlike our place, [he smells] food cooking” (92), implying that his family has fallen on hard times. Charlie shows Isaiah her new cornrows, and he tries to give Miz Rita the money. The woman refuses and directs Isaiah to give it back to his mom.

After thanking Miz Rita and heading for the door, Charlie asks if she can have some of what the woman made for dinner. Isaiah is embarrassed at her boldness, but Miz Rita offers them a plate of food, only if their mom won’t mind. The kids feast on chicken, rice, gravy, corn bread, and string beans. Miz Rita fixes a plate for their mom before giving the kids pound cake and butter pecan ice cream. As the ice cream lingers in Isaiah’s mouth, he thinks of his father, who loved that flavor.

The apartment is dark when they return, so Isaiah turns on the lights and finds his mother in bed again. He puts the food on the counter for his mom, gives Charlie a bath, puts her to bed, and then watches TV. He falls asleep there. Waking up in the middle of the night, he notices the food is still on the counter, so he puts it in the fridge. Before falling asleep, he thinks of his father and how he would not have let things get like this.

On the afternoon of January 10, Isaiah goes to the library after school because his mom planned to pick him up there at five. He has a lot of homework, but instead of starting it right away, he opens the gold notebook hidden in his father’s bag. When his dad was alive, he told his son that it was not ready to read yet, but sitting here with his heart racing, he imagines his father smiling next to him, encouraging Isaiah to start reading.

When Isaiah opens the notebook, he sees his own name in the title, handwritten by his dad: The Beans and Rice Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn. In the different stories, the title character gains superpowers every time he eats his mother’s beans and rice. His namesake is sent all over the world by the president to help kids in need. Isaiah is so entranced by the stories that he loses track of time. The library closes, and he realizes it is long past five o’clock when he steps outside into the dark and cold. When his mom finally arrives, he hurries to tell her about the stories but immediately forgets when he sees that the car is full of their belongings. Isaiah realizes that they have been kicked out of their apartment.

On February 7, Isaiah endures relentless teasing from Angela Atkins, a classmate, who complains that he smells like smoke. He tries to ignore her but reflects on the reality: his family has been staying at the Sleep Inn for three weeks and their room reeks of cigarette smoke. After enduring taunts all day, Isaiah retaliates by throwing a wadded-up drawing at Angela. The teacher, Mrs. Fisher, demands that he apologize or go to the principal’s office. When she asks if he understands, Isaiah is not sure why, but he responds by insulting Mrs. Fisher. The class and teacher are stunned, and Isaiah is sent to the principal’s office.

Isaiah’s punishment is detention after school, which he does not mind because it means he can stay away from the inn longer. However, his mother yells at him when he gets in the car. Although he apologizes, he silently blames his mom for the struggles that led to the detention and for always being late to pick him up from the library.

At the library on February 10, the same librarian who always tells Isaiah that it is closing time interrupts him again. He asks if the boy likes to read and introduces himself as Mr. Shephard. When he sees the notebook, he asks if Isaiah is a writer. The boy says no but that his father is. Mr. Shephard retrieves a flyer about a writing contest. The deadline is in two weeks. Isaiah does not have the heart to tell him that his dad used to write. However, when he sees that the prize is $300, Isaiah plans to enter one of his father’s stories.

On Valentine’s Day, Isaiah’s mom makes the kids heart-shaped pancakes on a hot plate in the hotel room, and then asks him to take Charlie outside to play so she can rest. It is cold outside, though, so once Isaiah cleans up, he gets Charlie a coloring book of Disney Princesses and he watches a kung fu movie on TV. He remembers enjoying these films with his dad. When the movie is over, Isaiah and Charlie hang the princess pictures all over the room. Then, he makes his sister rice and beans, wishing they really did give him superpowers. Both kids are tired of eating rice and beans, but Charlie eats her entire bowl.

Two weeks later, on the 23rd, Isaiah begs his mom to take him to the library. He worries that he will miss the contest deadline. When Isaiah asks to eat cereal instead of rice and beans again, his mom gets angry. She accuses him of being ungrateful and tells him that when he gets a job and buys groceries, then he can decide what to eat. Without thinking, Isaiah asks his mom when she will get a job. After a moment, she slaps Isaiah and says his father would not like him talking like that. Yelling, Isaiah retorts that he misses his father too and that the man would not want their family living in this motel, running out of money because she spends it all on alcohol.

Before she can respond, he grabs his backpack and leaves, running most of the way to the library. When he gets there, he finds a computer and types as fast as he can. Isaiah is spell-checking the story when the lights flicker for closing time. He begs Mr. Shephard for five more minutes. The librarian gives him just enough time to finish and email the story.

Once he finishes, he feels a hand on his shoulder and is surprised to see his mother. Not angry anymore, she says that Isaiah’s father used to come to the library all the time because it was one of his favorite places. He shows her the notebook and asks if she knew about the stories. She smiles and says she forgot about them. Isaiah shares his plan to enter the contest, and when Mr. Shephard compliments the boy, she claims that he is just like his father. When Mr. Shephard asks what he is reading now, the boy cites the title of his dad’s stories. When the librarian says he’s never heard of it, Isaiah tells him, “Not yet.”