Excerpt: Jessie: A Day in the Life

The middle child! The middle child syndrome! What to do, what to do? Ensure it is Grant, the attention-starved comedic cut-up, wit and all around clown.

It’s true that Grant could have been overlooked. Life was taking on a decidedly structured routine for the Armano family. More kids were going to come. His next older brother was the musical prodigy. The other older three were geniuses of sorts. Just play along and follow the script.

Grant would have none of that. Even from an early age, he would rebel from being unknown in any way. It turns out that Grant is very smart, indeed. In fact, all of Tony and Jessie’s kids turned out extremely smart. Tony said it must be the hybrid vigor of the commingling of western European Catholic genes with eastern European Jewish genes. But Grant showed his brightness with his wit. And he also showed it with his apparent boredom in a standardized classroom. He scored at the top when taking standardized tests, got mostly As, but his behavior grades were usually in the toilet. A comic genius in the making, no doubt.

He had all-American good looks, too. Most of the kids were either big boned and chunky like Jessie, or small boned, lanky and slim like Tony. But Grant has a muscular, mesomorph frame, curly light brown hair, blue eyes, dimples and oozing charm. In a word, smart aleck. Ok, that’s two words, but you get the picture. Smart, handsome boy with a devilish attitude. He made his presence known.

Even though he was born in October, Jessie got him started in school before he turned five, since she knew this kid needed to be busy. The process to start early included a test (did he know his numbers and letters, etc.,) plus an interview with the principal. The principal of the elementary school told Grant it was time to ask him a few questions, that he needed to interview him. Grant nodded assent, as if granting the principal an audience and answered all the questions correctly.

Then Grant asked the principal, “Are you done now?”
“Yes, son, I am.”
“Ok, can I interview you now?”
He got into kindergarten early.