Test by William Sleator

Author:William Sleator
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Amulet Books
Published: 2010-12-23T16:00:00+00:00

“Remember when we were at Grand Diamond?” Elise asked her mother when she got home from school on Wednesday. She had timed it right. She knew her mother’s second favorite soap opera would not be coming on for another half hour.

Her mother sipped her afternoon tea—no sugar, no milk—and took a tiny bite of her no-carb biscuit. “Do I have to remember Grand Diamond?” she asked Elise.

Elise sighed. “I’m just a little bit curious. Remember that man who needed a haircut and who was wearing old clothes? He wanted to get that fat man to the doctor.”

“Mmmm,” her mother said, barely listening.

“And that other man, the manager, I forget his name, yelled at him.” (Naturally she didn’t want her mother to know she even remembered Tony’s name.) “The manager didn’t like him. Do you know who that weird man who cared about the fat man is?”

Her mother yawned. “Why do you care?” she asked her.

That was just what she didn’t want her mother to ask. But she was prepared, of course. She knew how to control her parents. “I was just curious because I wondered what he was doing wrong, and why the manager got so mad at him.”

“I knew it was a mistake for your father to let you go there,” her mother said.

Elise sighed again. “What difference does it make?” she said. “I’m just curious, that’s all.”

“Your father doesn’t like that man either. That’s why he’s out of the picture now.”

Elise’s heart lifted. “Out of the picture? What do you mean?”

“They got rid of him. He won’t be coming back there anymore.”

That was a relief. But she still wasn’t sure she was completely safe. “What was his job there, anyway?”

Her mother looked at her suspiciously. “Why do you care about someone like that?” she asked her.

Because I don’t want to be an ignoramus like you, she felt like saying, though that wasn’t the major reason. “Because when I grow up I want to be a businesswoman and run a corporation, like Dad. So I need to understand things.”

“He was some sort of health worker. Some little socialistic branch of the government sends in people like that to take care of those people’s health needs for free. Seems unfair to me that those people should be coddled that way, without paying a penny. Like all immigrants, they expect our government to take care of them.”

“Is that why Dad didn’t like that man?”

“No, no. He has to put up with having health aides. He can’t break that law—I mean, the law.” Her mother put her hand to her mouth and made a fake little cough. “But that man went too far. He was telling some of the tenants not to pay their rent!” Her mother’s eyes in their mascara opened wide. “That’s what should be against the law, but for some reason it isn’t. And a few of the tenants even complained to Tony. That’s the manager’s name.” She peered more closely at Elise. “But you knew that. You called him up by name and asked him to take the plywood down.

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