Shelter by Christie Matheson

Author:Christie Matheson [Matheson, Christie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. (What is essential is invisible to the eye.)

—ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

11:05 a.m. Our school doesn’t have many indoor hallways, and to get just about anywhere at my school, I have to go outside. As I walk to French class, I look up at the sky. It’s getting darker, and the airs smells like metal.

The rain is coming.

No one is paying as much attention as I am to the weather. Because everyone else has a raincoat and a home with a hot shower and a washer and dryer. And plenty of them also have designer rain boots in a rainbow of colors and will be picked up from school in huge cars with heated seats. But I know that once I’m wet in this chilly weather, it may be a long time before I’m truly warm again.

At least I’m not wet yet, and the small classroom where Madame Herbert—we usually just call her Madame—teaches French is cozy. Better yet, Abby is in my class. (Sloane is, too, but with Abby there, it’s not so bad.) Abby and I usually arrive as early as we can so we can choose seats next to each other—there’s no assigned seating in French—and maybe have a few minutes to talk. But today when I arrive, Abby’s not there. She doesn’t come until Madame is starting class. Abby slides into a seat near the door without looking at me, no matter how much I try to make eye contact. She’s never done that.

Suddenly the small room feels too hot, and I keep shifting around in my seat, trying to get comfortable. But I can’t. I think Abby is mad at me about the sleepover. It takes a lot to make Abby mad, but when she is, she doesn’t always get over it quickly. Or at all.

Next time we’re alone, I hope I’ll be brave enough to explain. I will be, I decide. No matter what. When the decision clicks in my head, I start to breathe more easily and I stop sweating.

On Fridays when we come into French class, we always find a single vocabulary word written on the whiteboard. And then we talk about that word and learn other words related to it. Last week when we came in, the word on the board was “gentille,” which means “nice” or “kind.” That led to a conversation about kindness and what being kind means to us. And we talked about being généreuse (“generous”), aimable (“friendly”), and respectueuse (“respectful”).

During that conversation, I was hoping all the girls were paying attention. I think Madame hoped so, too.

This week it’s a different word. As I read it, I sigh and fight back tears for at least the third time this morning, and start shifting around in my seat again.

The word is “la maison.”

Which means “house,” or “home.”

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