The Boy Who Hated Numbers

By J.R. Arranguez Jr.

Rebmuns hatred toward numbers is his strategy to catch his parents attention. Knowing they want him to excel in mathematics, Rebmun defies them by refusing to learn anything about numbers.
Eventually, the boy develops a real abhorrence to numbers. He gets annoyed by his pet birds daily recitation of numbers in waking him up even if its not a school day so he gets the bird out of its cage and throws it out of the window.
Feeling guilty, Rebmun goes out to look for his pet. His search leads him to a dying forest where he meets the bird-eating giant who captures all the birds in the forest. Rebmun wants the birds freed the prize if he can beat the giant in counting numbers. The boy outsmarts the giant with one simple trick.
The Boy Who Hated Numbers offers a positive message of persistence and motivation. It deals with various character traits children would love to adopt.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496918215

J.R. Arranguez Jr.

J. R. Arranguez Jr. comes from the Philippines. He earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of the Visayas in the city of Cebu. After graduation, he worked as a media production specialist in the Department of Agriculture Central Visayas Region and worked as chief editor for its in-house publications. He published news and feature stories in local and national magazines, wrote scripts related to agriculture, and produced documentary films for public consumption. The tenth in the brood of twelve, 'Jun, ' or 'Dodong' to his family or friends, is a native of Daanbantayan, the northernmost town in the province of Cebu. In 1994, he migrated to the USA and settled with his family in the town of Holly Springs, North Carolina. Jun worked as an information-processing technician in NCDOR, Raleigh, until October 2014, when he was subjected to harassment and discrimination. He quit his state job and has been into writing fiction since then. He had previously published The Boy Who Hated Numbers, a children's book, and is presently working on another one for the kids.

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© 2014 J.R. Arranguez, Jr. All rights reserved.

Illustrated by Melanie Petersen of Charlotte, NC

First published in 2003 by Vantage Press, New York

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   06/12/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-1822-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-1821-5(e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

DEDICATIONS

PREFACE

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I’d like to thank Vincent Armecin, Publishing Consultant; Donna Taft, Check-in-Coordinator and Mary Carillo, Publishing Services Associate, all of the AuthorHouse Publishing Company for their help in the republication of this book.

I’m grateful to the former members of ANAK-PAWIS, a Filipino association based in Cary, North Carolina, for their help in marketing when this book was first published. Special mention goes to Joy Herrera Mabelos.

I’d like to thank again Ms. Teresa Brantley of the Wake County Public School System for sharing me some ideas in writing a children’s book.

In those years that I worked in the NC Department of Revenue in Raleigh, if I encountered a mean few, I also met people who treated me cordially notwithstanding my being a minority. Somehow, they inspired me to write a book about the aspirations and frustrations, the triumphs and failures, the glory and passion, and the joy and sorrow that immigrants had gone through in this country they dreamed of as paradise. ‘Beneath the Western Skies’ is now ready for publication.

I miss those nice and friendly fellow workers of NCDOR in Raleigh. I’d like to mention all their names here but due to space limitation, I can only name a few to thank for. Their warmth and sincerity is something I’d like to treasure through the years.

Thanks to Wilma Hopkins, Karen Gamble, and Portia Poole of DPPD’s Exception unit; Erlinda Yatta, Khushman Surti, and Vivian Rainey of the Registration unit; Eloisa Chaika, Helen Faulcon, Ellen Johnson, Shannon Jones, Cynthia Oates, and Jim Connerton of the Central Collections Unit. The kindness they showed me is always remembered.

If I were to mention the most wonderful executives I worked with in NCDOR Raleigh, Kim Sabol, director of Taxpayers Division, definitely tops them all. My list wouldn’t be complete without the names of Debbie Wall and Diana Salmon (both retired), former group managers of the Exception/registration Unit of DPPD. I’d never forget how kind and nice had they been to me in those years I was working with them; so were the former NCDOR secretary Reginald Hinton and deputy secretary Keith McCombs. Forever, I keep their friendship with great pride and honor.

Like a novel, if there are protagonists there are also antagonists. If I’m grateful to some people for their kindness, I’m also grateful to the unkind few who loved to bully me around while I was at work and caused me to quit my job, eventually. Rude as they were, somehow, they gave me ideas on how to define well the villains in my upcoming books. Thus, I’d like to extend my thanks to these people for their harassments were factors that defied me to seek success in another field of endeavor.

DEDICATIONS

For my spouse, Edna; my daughter, Gypsy Rose; my elder son, Jiffy Jon; and my youngest child, Rez Robby, who gave me ideas in creating the character of Rebmun, the boy who hated numbers.

My family had been always there for me, keeping me up with encouragements whenever I was ‘down and troubled’. Without my children’s persuasions, I couldn’t have written this book.

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PREFACE

There was once a man who believed that a person’s Fate is shaped up with numbers. This man’s name was Newton Reed, significantly after one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Newton lived with his wife, Reba and a son he named ‘number’ spelled backward.

As Newton loved numbers, he thought that so was his son. On the contrary, the boy was slow where his parents expected him to excel. This proved very disappointing to them so they did their best to make him stand out in arithmetic. Yet to Rebmun, the nanny and the tutor his parents hired to help him weren’t good substitutes to the companionship he needed most. The boy felt neglected; his parents didn’t have time to spend with him for both were seriously involved in their respective careers, their sports and other social activities.

Knowing how his parents wanted him to be outstanding in mathematics, Rebmun started to hate numbers in defiance to his parents. He refused to learn anything that was dealing with numbers. Eventually, his disobedience worked to his disadvantage; the boy developed a real abhorrence for numbers.

During weekdays after school, Rebmun confined himself in his room. His time to watch TV or talk with friends on the phone was limited. The boy felt terribly bored. Only to Miles, the English-Setter dog that his parents gifted him on his seventh birthday, could he tell his dreams and ambitions and relate his