Speak of the Tiger by Martha Deeringer

Author:Martha Deeringer [Deeringer, Martha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horses, boy, change, thunderstorm, trail ride, korean, fitting in, horseback riding, school, secretive
ISBN: 9781680460544
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Okay...okay...,” she said. “I didn’t know you had a thing for her.”

Justin stepped around her and continued down the hall. He’d heard more than enough of Casey’s petty name-calling at the YO Ranch, and he didn’t want to say something he might regret later.

Mrs. Farr’s class had started a group project researching the effects of World War II on a European country. Justin was in the group studying Poland, and as the groups moved their desks close together, Justin saw that Lee was a member of his group. Using his good arm and his knee, he shoved his desk into the circle next to Lee.

“Hi,” he said. “How’ve you been doing?”

“Good,” Lee answered, keeping his eyes on his desktop.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Does everybody have a separate part of the assignment?”

There was a pause while everyone waited for Lee to answer. Corrie was uncomfortable with the silence first.

“We each have an assigned part,” she said. “You are supposed to find information about the ghetto in Warsaw. Last week we went to the library, but we can use Internet research, too. And you’re supposed to find some pictures and get copies.”

The whole time Corrie was talking, Justin continued to look at Lee. He had gotten out some notes and was staring at them. Justin noticed there was a space in the circle between Lee’s desk and David’s, the boy sitting on the other side of Lee. It looked like David had moved as far away as possible, as if Lee had a contagious disease.

“We’re supposed to go around the circle and fill everyone in on what we’ve found so far. Who wants to start?”

Justin tried to listen as David read some facts about the Polish resistance and the invasion of Poland, but his mind was wrestling with the question of why Lee had suddenly reverted to his old antisocial behavior. After David finished, Corrie went through her notes about the history of Poland before Nazi occupation. Pictures were passed around the group as she talked. When she finished, she put her notes down.

“Justin obviously hasn’t had time to start on his part yet,” Corrie said. “What have you got, Lee?”

Lee opened a folder on his desk and passed some pictures to Justin. Horror washed over him as he looked at people who were living skeletons, trenches heaped with bodies thrown haphazardly one atop another, and dead babies tossed in a ditch.

My part is about the death camps and concentration camps in Poland,” Lee said. “Concentration camps used the Jews as slave labor while slowly starving them to death. Death camps exterminated prisoners as soon as they arrived...”

Lee’s notes were filled with horrifying facts about what happened to the Jews in the camps. He seemed to have made an effort to emphasize the most gruesome details. As the pictures were passed around the group, a pall formed over them. Lee avoided looking at anyone as he read from his notes, and Justin wondered if he knew the effect his awful summary was having on the rest of them.

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