Ordinary Magic

Author:[email protected]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-02-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTE R

14

Being part of the kitchen meant a lot of early mornings and late eve nings, and it also meant I was usually the last one to escape. One night in October, the kitchen was nearly empty. Most of the kids had already finished up their dinners and headed back to the dorms. Usually I gave a hand to whoever was helping dry, and we went back to the dorms together, as the school frowned on kids going anywhere or doing anything alone. My partner was an older girl. She wasn’t mean, not really, but I still wasn’t “one of them” so it was hard to get her to talk.

We had put the last of the dishes away and wiped down the sink, but Cook Bella stopped us when we headed toward the door. “You can go, Sarah. Abby isn’t done yet.”

Sarah and I glanced at each other. “I’m not?” I asked. Cook Bella shook her head, taking a bucket and a bristly wooden brush out of a bottom cabinet. “The floor needs a good scrub. Don’t just stand there,” she said, waving the bucket at me. “Fill this up, soap and water.”

There was a moment as Cook Bella stared at me, and Sarah stared at the floor, and then I swallowed a sigh and went over and took the bucket. I set it filling with hot water (of course it had to be hot water, it always had to be hot) and hunted under the sink for soap.

Sarah hesitated in the doorway, then came over and helped me lift the full, heavy bucket out of the sink. “It’ll get easier as you get stronger,” she said in a low voice as we set the bucket down. Water sloshed over the edge onto the tile floor.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked. I knew the floor got cleaned every day— I always had to move out of the way for the kid with the bucket— but I had been paying attention to the dishes. That’d teach me to be more observant.

“It’s easy. Soap goes in here—”

Cook Bella cleared her throat and Sarah stopped dead. Cook Bella went to the door and held it open. “Good night, Sarah. Don’t forget your leftovers.”

“I . . . can help.”

Cook Bella nodded, as if she was sure Sarah could, and then nodded toward the door. Sarah rubbed her hands on her skirt and hurried out. “Good work tonight,” Cook Bella murmured as she passed by.

The door swung closed with a muffled thwack. Steam rolled up from the bucket. I sat back on my heels, hating to ask, but knowing I’d hate it more if Cook Bella came down on me for doing something wrong. “What—”

“Figure it out,” Cook Bella said, pulling the chalkboard off the back wall and carrying it to the island. “You’re not stupid, Abigail, so you don’t get to act like you are.”

Turns out scrubbing a floor is just like scrubbing a dish. A really big dish that you have

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