Uma's Umbrage by Dallis Adams

Author:Dallis Adams [Adams, Dallis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dallis Adams
Published: 2019-01-21T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Uma couldn’t believe the weekend was already over. She’d spent the last couple of days decorating the classroom with maps, a overly-large quilt with the alphabet, and a couple of chalkboards. She had jars of marbles for the children to estimate how many were in each jar. She had toys with wooden beads for counting. And books that lined the bookcase on the adjacent wall. Now thirteen faces of various ages were staring up at her from their desks, looking at her as if they’d seen an apparition.

“See? I told you she was Suzette Kincaid’s ghost.”

“Does that mean she’s gonna punish us because she fell and got kilt?” a little boy with dark hair asked.

“Why do you think such a thing?” Appalled, Uma could only stare at the sweet child who had asked the question in such an innocent manner.

“Because we ain’t natural,” the boy said. “We’re the devil’s spawn. At least, that’s what Miss Berta said, the teacher who left.”

“Not natural?” The devil’s spawn? “Why in the world would she say such a thing?”

“Because we can do things that other people can’t do.”

This from Devlin Navarra, Catalina’s son. Uma had met him and his older brother Nelson when Catalina had dropped by the school the day before.

Devlin turned toward a small girl in a pink pinafore with light hair that was nearly white. “Show Miss Uma, Tawni.”

When the girl stood up from behind her school desk, her hem was above her ankles. She laid face down on the floor. Uma realized the girl wore tight leggings underneath her dress, which looked to be her costume, obviously for performances. She raised her legs behind her in an unnatural position, back bending at her waist, to where her ballerina-like shoes touched a foot or more above her head.

“That’s amazing,” Uma said, enthralled. “I couldn’t begin to do anything like that.”

“So you don’t think Tawni is strange?” Rush asked, his tone incredulous.

“Of course not.”

Devlin and several of the other older children gave her suspicious looks before exchanging glances.

“Let’s see how many of you can do this.” Uma stuck out her tongue, made an O with her lips and made the sides of her tongue curl upward and the end of her tongue frill inward, resembling a four-leaf clover.

“That’s easy,” Devlin exclaimed. Yet, when he tried it, he realized he couldn’t do it. Neither could Tawni or the other children. Only Rush could mimic her.

“It’s from a study I did back in New York. Four-leaf tongue curling, is what I called it, and I believe it’s partly a hereditary trait for those who can do it. From the hundred test samples I took, only two people could do it. Maybe with practice others could eventually learn. But it’s very similar to Tawni’s contortions and how she can bend her back the way her mother, Yanoro, can. A talent Tawni obviously inherited.”

“So you think what Tawni does is talented?”

“Of course,” Uma replied in a firm tone. “And I would hazard a guess that Tawni also practices, and stretches a lot, keeping her limber.

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