I love my best friend to death. His name is Jasper Smith; his daddy and mama moved him down here from New York and they are very well-to-do. That don’t mean nothing to me and Jasper though, even though his house is much bigger and nicer (they even have maids and a cook!). His real name is James, but his mama has called him Jasper his whole life, for some reason or another.

Dr. Smith is his daddy, but everybody calls him Smitty. He is the biggest, giantest, nicest black man I have ever seen in my life. He is built like one of them superheroes in the comic books, and I think he knows every law in all the law books. He walks into the room, and folks that don’t know him just stand out of respect.

His mama is super nice too; even she has a degree in psychology, and she works as a counselor at the local mental health place. She has me come over for dinner now and again, and Dr. Smith lets us even come into his big study library once in awhile when he is in there. The Smith’s are some of the kindest, nicest people you would ever want to meet too. The only reason I met Jasper is that I am good with my homework, all of it. I help Jasper with his math, his science and such and he helps me with chores when he comes over.

I get so tickled when their maid calls me Mr. Hegelund. Her name is Doris, and she cooks even better than Mamaw (don’t y’all say I said that, I will lie like a dog and deny it like fire!). To have so much money, you would not know it by the way they treat everybody so nice. Anyway, I will tell y’all how me and Jasper met. He was trying to do his math homework in study hall, and he was actually crying some, but trying to hide it, and I heard him.

He was the new kid at the time, and had all the new kid troubles for a little while, until they found out his daddy was the prosecuting attorney for Hopinatta County. I went over to his study hall desk and asked, “Hey man, what’s up?” He told me, “I just can’t get this math, I try so hard but the numbers just run around on the page, and my dad isn’t going to stand for me bringing home C’s anymore.”

So we got to work, and I showed him some tricks on how to figure out how to do simple algebra problems, and some long division shortcuts. We did all of our homework together and that was that. By the next day, Jasper just started hanging out with me, and at lunch he had fresh chocolate chip cookies in a glass container for us to share. He said his mama sent them to say thank you for helping me.

I was so happy to eat them cookies, and we just kind of stuck together as friends from then on. Even when Jasper sees Shady in the little kids side of the school, he always calls out to him, or waves or says something like, “Hey Shady, you keeping Pete straight?” And Shady grins. I never met a nicer dude. He always likes to come to our house too; and Mamaw thinks he is the most polite child she has ever met.

He stands when the adults stand, and I don’t even do that much unless Mamaw makes me. One time me and Jasper went fishing, and he didn’t know how to fish, so I loaned him my favorite rod and reel, and I used my old one. I showed him how to cast out different places and bait his hook, so the ol’ fish don’t steal the bait. He caught five and I caught five that day, and I showed him how to clean them. He acted like that is the first fish he had ever eaten. Now all he wants to do is fish when he comes over.

Now Dr. Smith don’t say much, but when the first Christmas me and Jasper was hanging out, he drove up to Mamaw’s in the finest car I had ever seen. He and Jasper were in the back of that fancy car, and he had his driver open the doors. Now that is big city slick like nobody’s business! Dr. Smith brought a gift for every member of the family. I don’t really recall what the other’s got, but I got the fanciest Damascus steel knife I had ever seen in my life.

It looked like that long knife Crocodile Dundee had, and Dr. Smith said it was handmade in Germany. It had a message on it too; it said “To Pete from Jasper: best friends.” I almost cried when I saw it and I hugged Dr. Smith so hard I almost knocked him off balance. He told me, “Every young man needs a quality handmade knife. You and Jasper have made a good friendship, and I wanted him to honor that.”

Now that is some kind of classy, even for Belle Binford, MS. I don’t think I have ever seen Jasper upset, except that one time. There was a kid that took his lunch money, and I was ready to beat the kid up. Jasper told me, “Nah Pete, it isn’t worth the hassle, man.” Next thing I know that kid was making friends with Jasper, while I was almost ready to punch that kid’s lights out.

I wish I had that quality of not getting mad. I think I would be a whole lot happier. Maybe Jasper will rub off on me one day. Mamaw says, “Iron sharpens iron.” And that always makes me want to get out my whetstone and sharpen that knife Dr. Smith gave me. That thing is some kind of fine!