A Sky Full of Song by Susan Lynn Meyer

Author:Susan Lynn Meyer [Meyer, Susan Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Published: 2023-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

Libke’s monthlies were over after only a day and a half, she whispered to me the next night.

“That was easy!” Mama said when Libke told her. “But have some more tea with raspberry jam.”

That was Mama’s remedy for everything. And it did taste delicious. I wished she would give me some too, but she didn’t. She was very careful with that jam.

“A dank, Mama.” Libke took the mug Mama offered her. “But it wasn’t so easy. It hurt.” She rubbed her belly.

“Ach, I’m sorry. But you’ll be ready now. Next time it will probably last longer. Eat up—good food makes you strong! When you’re strong, a little hurting doesn’t matter so much.” Mama scooped sunny-yellow kulesha into Libke’s bowl.

At lunch the next day, the three big boys walked over to where Libke and I were sitting by the stream with the other girls. My stomach went tight. What now?

“Hey, Uglies!” Clive said. “Catch!” He tossed a crumpled-up piece of paper onto Grace’s lap.

Grace snatched it and smoothed it out as Fred and Mac and Clive walked away snickering. It was a piece of wrapping labeled “Huber’s General Store,” with a crude pencil sketch of a girl’s face. She had huge eyes and wide, pursed-up lips. Underneath was the letter “M.”

Irene laughed and so did Grace and Evie. “They got you dead to rights, Milly!” Irene said. “Always waiting for a kiss!”

Milly went pink, smiled, and tossed her hair. “Just shows what they think about looking at me!”

“Is there anything on the back?” Grace asked eagerly, flipping it over.

There was another drawing, unlabeled. It showed a long, scowling face with narrow eyes and a hooked nose. Wild scribbles ran all over the head. Two long points curved up out of the scribbles. It almost didn’t look human. I couldn’t make any sense out of it at all.

Irene snickered and then so did someone else. I looked up and grinned too, uncertain about the joke.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s you, dummy!” said Irene. “That’s your curly hair. Nobody else here has curly hair.”

“I don’t look like that!” I said. “Looks like an animal! What are those?” I didn’t know the words. I gestured to my head, putting up two fingers.

“Horns,” Irene said, as if it were obvious. “Jewish horns.”

“What?” I half-laughed, confused. “Only animal have horns.”

“That’s poppycock, Irene,” said Evie calmly. “It’s a myth.”

“No, I heard it too!” said Milly. “You probably have real small horns that you never even noticed under all that hair. Let me see.” She reached for my head.

“No!” I jerked away, and tore up the paper into tiny shreds. “That stupid! Poppycock, like Evie says!”

“Hey, I wanted to keep that!” Milly said.

“Don’t get all hurt over it, Shoshana,” Irene said. “Just be glad you don’t have Clive for your brother. Though at least he doesn’t call me ‘Yid.’ I mean, why would he? He calls me ‘Ugly’ and ‘Dog Face’ and things like that.”

“He calls you ‘Dog Face?’ ” Evie grinned.

“Oh shut up, Evie Pedersen! I don’t need it from you too!”

“Dog face is nice face,” I said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.