MY LIFE, CHAPTER 8: Mrs Sýkorová’s lesson

Later on I had to explain another mishap to my parents. It was traumatising. Mrs Sýkorová gave me a D from a dictation.

It was the second stage of the primary school, and to this day I regret getting a bad grade like that.

By the way, Mrs Sýkorová is the mother of a famous former ice hockey player Petr Sýkora (Petr Tit in English), who won the NHL twice with his teams: first with the New Jersey Devils, then with Pittsburgh Penguins. He’s also two-times world champion. He used to be a terrific right wing.

I always admired him when he was running laps on the track around the football pitch. He was five years older, all muscle, shoulders wider than a wardrobe, head held high. Thanks to him we followed the Plzeň ice hockey team. He got his start in the Czechoslovak ice hockey league as a sixteen-year-old, only for one third, and bam! he scored two goals. Tremendous talent, an example for all of us. He wasn’t even twenty when he went to play in the US.

His mom was okay too, but the D… Imagine a classroom full of unruly fifth-graders, little devils who only want to kick the ball around from dusk till dawn. And I lost control for a moment and stopped paying attention during the dictation. After I switched to the right mode, I immediately found four spelling mistakes. I was angry at myself, I crossed it all out and corrected the spelling. But I was a minute too late, and when I went to hand in the paper, I heard: “I cannot accept this.”

I tried begging for a second chance, but Mrs Sýkorová just sat there at her teacher’s desk, glasses hanging on a dark string around her neck, and didn’t budge. “I’m sorry, Petr.”

I was furious, because I knew I lost concentration. And maybe I needed this lesson.