The Postscript: Multiplication tables

I never learned my multiplication tables. Not really.

To this day, if you ask me, “What is six times nine?” out of the blue, with some urgency, I will panic. (Please don’t do this.)

The troubles started when I was transferred from one math class to another in the third grade. I now understand that this was some sort of promotion from lower math to higher math, but it did not feel like that at the time.

Almost immediately, I realized everyone around me was privy to some secret code I didn’t know. It was called the multiplication tables, and I couldn’t imagine how they all knew it, but I clearly...