Something to Hold by Katherine Schlick Noe

Author:Katherine Schlick Noe [Noe, Katherine Schlick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The Capital of Vermont

IT is quiet in the hallway by the time Raymond and Jewel get to school on Friday. Raymond slips into the room ahead of his sister, his battered eye still swollen and raw. He slides into his chair in the next row, two seats ahead of me, and puts his head down on his desk. Miss Anthony gives him a look but doesn't stop writing the last of the states on the board.

The side door at the end of the hall bangs shut. Footsteps slap down the hall, growing louder as the chalk taps and glides across the board. Jewel pauses at the doorway, looking us over. Then she comes in and sits in her desk, to my right.

"You're late," Miss Anthony says to the blackboard. "Take out paper and a pencil."

Jewel glances at my desk. I've already numbered to fifty for the test. She didn't bring anything with her this morning.

I sneak a pencil out of the tray of my desk and pass it off to her down low, then a piece of paper, quickly, before Miss Anthony finishes writing Wyoming and turns back around.

"Write the capital of each state," she says.

Then Miss Anthony stares at Raymond's desk. "Not everyone is ready," she observes.

Truman leans forward and pokes Raymond in the back. "Hey! She's lookin'."

At that, Raymond raises his head from his arms. He scowls back at Truman, and some of the boys start to giggle.

Miss Anthony silences them when she starts to cross the room. All the mice freeze when the coyote stalks. Except for Raymond, who just watches her as she comes.

The kids at the front look straight ahead when she sweeps past. Then they turn to see what will happen this time.

Miss Anthony halts at Raymond's desk, fists on her broad hips. "Where are your work materials?" she asks. "You're so prepared for this test, you don't need paper and pencil?"

Raymond doesn't look at her. He doesn't answer or shake his head or move in any way.

Miss Anthony shifts her weight, crosses her arms. "What is the capital of Vermont?"

Raymond stares straight ahead. His hands lie still on the desk, but the heel of his sneaker jiggles against the floor.

"So. You don't know that one," she says. "How about Washington?"

In any other place, she would sound perfectly reasonable.

"Idaho?"

She has all the time in the world.

"Montana? Oregon?"

He could give her even one and she'd quit. Move on. But he looks like he doesn't even care that she's standing there. Except for his jiggling foot and the sweat that blooms on his neck.

"What do you know?" she asks. "Anything?"

A desk leg scrapes beside me, and a form rises up. "Salem," says Jewel quietly. Her voice shakes.

Miss Anthony doesn't even turn. "Not you," she says. "Him."

This is when Raymond moves. He turns to Jewel and shakes his head once. And then he stands too. Miss Anthony has to step back. She looms over him, but now she's not quite so tall.

Raymond still doesn't look at her. He stares out over our heads.

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