Doing the last year of middle school, Cousin Jim will be sitting the highly selective high school entrance exams in June. His parents, my uncle and aunt, are extremely anxious because their son sits at the very bottom of his class in most exams. Therefore, the day winter vacation started, my uncle invited me earnestly to go over and coach Jim in his lessons.

The next day, I arose early and arrived at my uncle’s before 8.00, only to find that Jim was still in bed. I shook him awake, asking if he needed any breakfast. Mumbling a “No”, Jim rolled over and went back to sound sleep. It was not long before I even heard him snoring gently there. A bit pissed off, I decided not to rouse him again. I let him be.

To kill time, I picked up a book and started leafing through the pages. More than an hour passed before Jim finally got up. He searched high and low in the house for food. I was amused. I had intended to go and get him a meal, but he had refused my offer.

I teased him, “Jim, you could eat your own word.”

The boy retorted, “Chatting with you cannot fill my tummy.”

To be honest, Jim is a lovely quick-witted boy. His only problem is grades.

After he had a few bites, we got down to business. I found that once work started, Jim sat there like a tree stump. One hour saw him cover only 2 pages of his maths homework. His snail’s pace puzzled me. To find out why, I put down the book and observed him working. It seemed that his mind would begin to wander once he sat down. I pointed out his problem.

My criticism did not hurt him. Instead, Jim started laughing out loud, and his hilarious laughter was unstoppable. I tried to calm him down, but to no avail. The bigger my effort, the crazier his mirth. Before I could have any success, Jim started to lay his hands on whatever he could play with, pens, toys and cups.

Lunch over, I felt hopeless. Exhausted, I took a nap in a bedroom in their house.

Waking up, I found the door of my room locked from outside. I knocked on the door from inside, but no one came to my rescue. It took me a long time to locate the key somewhere in the room. When I eventually had the door reopened, I saw Jim lounging on the sofa in the living room, lost in TV shows.

I was completely beaten.