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“Catch me a fish, Jack.” Sally hopped in place a little, excitement filling her at how happy her papa would be tonight. She might be little, but she could make up for her papa’s lack of a job. Besides, who needed money when you had free fish? “Catch me two if you want to.” She giggled again, and the boys laughed along with her, looking at each other in a way that made her happier than she could ever remember.
Like maybe they thought she belonged, after all.
With them.
9
Sally
The fish stopped biting once the weather grew cold, so there wasn’t nothing to eat except rice crawling with mealy bugs that Sally had to pick out one by one and pancakes because it was still the only thing she knew how to make. Besides, they still had a lot of flour left over from the grocery run her papa made before he was fired. The only problem with having pancakes was the trees knew the ground was frozen, so they froze up their supply of maple syrup right along with it. She figured there must be some secret language that all non-human living things shared because somehow, they all knew to stop producing at the same time. So just like that, they all quit for the winter. And not to be outdone by the maple syrup, jobs in Silver Bell dried up, too.
So that day at school, a plain pancake was the best she could do for lunch, and since she had to make them before she left the house that morning, she still hadn’t got a chance to eat. Her stomach growled loud and fierce in class, and everyone heard. The laughter started with Bobby Newton and spread around the room like a spark to a box of matchsticks. Fast and immediate and into a fiery roar.
“Class, that’s enough.” Miss Minn admonished everyone with a rap of her ruler on her desk. She did this nearly every day, but it didn’t always work. Most of the laughter stopped, but there were always a few who couldn’t help themselves. Namely Laura Kennedy with her curly hair bow and John Maxwell, who looked all moony at her like they were gonna get married someday. They were only in third grade, so John Maxwell was an idiot. But then Sally wondered if anyone would ever marry her. She didn’t have any nice hair bows. “I said be quiet,” Miss Minn scolded again. “I want everyone to take out their pencils and paper and write this one hundred times before lunch.” She turned and printed ‘I Will Not Laugh in Class’ in big straight letters on the chalkboard, and everyone groaned. Except for Laura Kenney. She laughed like always, and like always, she didn’t get in trouble because she was the mayor’s daughter.
Laura didn’t even take out any paper, and Sally glared at her.
The mayor told her papa’s boss to fire him, at least that’s what Papa said last night after he drank a bunch of whiskey before he fell asleep on the couch.
Sally was so busy being mad that she didn’t see Jack place a package of saltine crackers on her desk. Once she did, she sent him a questioning look. He just shook his head and mouthed, “Eat them.” She tucked the package inside her desk and began to write, breaking off tiny pieces of cracker so the teacher wouldn’t notice. Jack started bringing her things to eat after Paul showed him up with the bigger fish a few months back. Sometimes he even brought her leftovers from home, and when you’re hungry, that counted for a lot.
“Sally Gertie, are you eating in class?” Miss Munn’s low voice cut through the silence. All around her, kids gasped in astonishment that she would do such a thing, even though she saw Larry Steward doing the same thing with a bag of cheese sticks just last week. And in his case, the cheese stank like dirty armpits.
“No, ma’am,” she lied. Unfortunately for her, a crumb chose that moment to unstick itself from her lip and fall to her lap. She looked down at the telltale bit and prayed her teacher didn’t notice. But like all her other prayers, God never listened. Her papa said God enjoyed leaving them alone while He got busy taking care of everyone else.
“Bring that parcel up here and toss it in the trash,” her teacher said. Sally’s spirit sank right along with her empty stomach. Food wasn’t something you just threw away like it didn’t matter, not when you didn’t have enough of it. One time after she got in trouble last year, she managed to swipe a piece of bread out of the trash can on her way out of class, but she didn’t know if she would be so lucky this time. Her second-grade teacher read novels under her desk, but Miss Minn was always watching.
Sally stood and slowly walked the bag of crackers to the front of the room, cringing when bits of crackers fell from her skirt and skittered across the floor. Snickers followed her along with a few insults.“Her pa’s a drunk and probably never feeds her. She smells like a sewer. Think she ever takes a bath?”She was used to the mean comments, had heard them her whole life. But they hurt like a bee stinger jabbed into a finger, sharp and painful. The funny thing was the teacher never told anyone to stop. They got in trouble for laughing, but they never got in trouble for laughing ather.
She dropped the bag into the trash bin next to the teacher’s desk and turned to walk back to her seat.
“Sally, you stay here,” Miss Minn said. “You’re going to write your sentences on the board where everyone can see. Maybe then you won’t do something foolish like sneak things you’re not supposed to have into class. You know the rule against eating in here. It looks like you could use a reminder.”
Sally met her teacher’s glare, bit her lip against the threat of tears stinging her eyeballs, and then picked up a piece of chalk. The thing was, she didn’t have much time to practice handwriting at home. In between cooking and cleaning and washing and making sure her papa was okay, there wasn’t much time for homework.
Her handwriting wasn’t good, and everyone could see it. She couldn’t remember how to make some of the letters in cursive, so she stood there with her head down, trying to think. She knew the letter S was squiggled like a worm with a curly tail, but how did an L go? Every time she tried to write one, it came out looking like a different letter completely.
“Why aren’t you writing your words?” Miss Munn said. “Don’t just stand there, do what you’re told.”
She tried to remember; she really did. But the L wouldn’t come the way she wanted it to, so she skipped over it all together.
“Teacher, she left out some letters,” Laura called. She was always quick to point out everyone else’s mistakes.
Miss Minn looked up from her desk to scan Sally’s work but didn’t say a word about Laura’s outburst. Sally glared at Laura as mean as she could, but the girl smiled back without a single care. Some people knew they were mean and kept being mean anyway.
“Do you not remember how to make your letters, child? I taught you this months ago. Were you not paying attention?”
Sally blinked up at her, a single tear breaking free and sliding down her face. Her embarrassment always needed a way to escape. She just wished it wouldn’t happen in front of all these laughing people. And now her nose was running, and everyone would watch and call her names since she didn’t have any way to wipe it off. She would use her hand, but the last time she did that, no one would play with her at recess. They just kept running around her in circles. They came close enough for her to touch but darted away before she could. A game of Keep Away, except with her as the object instead of a ball.
Miss Minn made a clucking sound with her tongue, then walked to the chalkboard and drew a big white circle right in the middle of it. “If you’re too preoccupied to pay attention in class, you’ll just have to stand here for the remainder of it. Maybe this will teach you not to daydream.” She indicated toward the circle with a wave of her hand. Her fingernails fluttered like little red raspberries, and Sally’s stomach growled loud all over again. “Put your nose in this circle and don’t move a muscle until I say you may, do you understand?” Sally’s eyes grew wide. The circle looked taller than her, even at the lowest point. She’d have to stand on her tippy toes, and her toes already hurt because her shoes were a size eleven, and she’d worn them since she was six, and they were rubbed worn on the ends. Both big toes had blisters on the outside, and the one on her right foot was bleeding this morning. She imagined it bleeding now and running out the side of her foot and onto the floor, much like her nose was running down her chin.
Everyone would laugh.
Sally stretched up and pressed her nose as close as she could to the circle. She felt her nose drip onto the board, but it wasn’t her fault if she made a mess. It was Laura’s fault for laughing in the first place. Laura laughed now, but Miss Minn didn’t draw a circle for her. Girls named Laura didn’t ever get in trouble when their daddies had a cafeteria named after them.
Sally tried not to move any muscles at all. Not when the other kids went to lunch, not when they went to recess, not when they came back from both, and not even when the last bell rang. It wasn’t until she heard Miss Minn sigh and say, “Alright, Sally, I suppose you may go,” that she turned around and hobbled wordlessly out the door.
When you don’t move your muscles for most of a school day, it hurts an awful lot when you try to make them work again.
