Squirrel on Stage by Vivian Vande Velde

Author:Vivian Vande Velde [Vande Velde, Vivian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2022-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

One of the stepsister girls orders Cinderella: “Brush my hair.”

The second stepsister girl orders Cinderella: “But first, draw a bath for me.”

I have seen children draw things before. Sometimes I have trouble telling what it is they’ve drawn. Sometimes the teachers have trouble telling what it is they’ve drawn. I don’t know what a bath is, but I don’t have time to watch the Cinderella girl draw one.

I turn away, but I hear Stepmother tell the two other girls to stop arguing. “There’s more than enough time to prepare,” she tells them. “Be calm, my sweets.”

Uh-oh! Sweets reminds me: I’m supposed to be looking for Sweetie.

Backstage, Miss Krause seems to be in charge—not only of finding squirrels but of everything. She tells this child, “Go here,” she tells that child, “Go there,” she tells them all, “No talking,” even though she’s talking.

Now I hear her ask, “Where are the musicians for the ball scene?”

“Here,” says a boy pushing a smaller version of the piano the music teacher sometimes thumps on.

“Here,” says a boy holding a tube like the one held by the girl who saw me before I ran up the stairs and onto the stage.

“Here,” says another child. “But one of the strings on my lute broke.”

“That’s all right,” Miss Krause says. “No one from the audience will know.”

She seems to be too busy to worry about me. Good.

I stay close to the cloth walls so that I can always run under them if I need to hide in a hurry. I look for Sweetie. “Sweetie! Sweetie!” I call. Maybe I should return to the library in case he’s there. But what if he isn’t there—what if he’s here? What if he needs me and I’m back in the library?

Stay or go? So many decisions!

Why oh why did I ever leave him on his own?

“Sweetie!” I call louder than before. It’s Sweetie’s eyes that are weak, not his ears. But it seems that—wherever he is—Sweetie can’t see or hear me.

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