The Cat at the Wall by Deborah Ellis Read Free Book Online Page A

didn’t even think about it, really. I mean, I didn’t plan it ahead, but when his wheelchair started to come toward me, I decided to stay where I was and not move to let him pass. I turned my back to him. I kept looking at my friends and talking, and anyone looking at us would think I didn’t know the wheelchair kid was there.
    I could see from the looks on my friends’ faces that they could see what was going on and thought it was hilarious.
    Wheelchair kid started to ask me to get out of the way, but he couldn’t really speak very well, so I decided to continue to pretend he wasn’t there.
    He kept trying to ask me to move, until I turned around and said, “Is there something you want? Speak up!”
    My friends all giggled, although they did it behind books that they held up to their mouths. I was brave enough to laugh openly. I stopped only when I saw from their eyes that something was wrong.
    Ms. Zero, of course, was creeping up on us.
    We wouldn’t have kept Wheelchair Boy trapped for long, but did that matter to Zero? Not a bit. She just jumped to the conclusion that we were doing something wrong. No, that I was doing something wrong.
    I stepped aside and let Chair Boy pass. I didn’t even wait to be told to. I should have got some credit for that.
    “Times two,” she said to me, before starting a conversation with the Chair and continuing down the hallway.
    When I got back to my homeroom, my name was back on the chalkboard, with a times two beside it.
    At the end of the day, I stayed behind after class to write out the copies. I didn’t plan on speaking to Ms. Zero. There was nothing I wanted to say to her. I just wanted to get the punishment done and get away from her.
    “You’ll have to do the work at home,” she said. “I’m leaving now.”
    “I won’t be long,” I said.
    “No, you won’t be,” Ms. Zero said. “You’ll be leaving now, too. I have to lock up the classroom.”
    “I don’t have a copy of the poem at home,” I said.
    “That’s a problem,” she said. “It’s a good thing you have a brain that will assist you in finding a solution.”
    “I’ll take the poster home,” I decided, and moved to take it down from the bulletin board.
    “That stays here,” Ms. Zero said. “It belongs to me.” She held the door open for me and motioned with her head that it was time for me to go through it.
    “How am I supposed to do the detention?”
    Ms. Zero said nothing except, “Have a good evening.” She locked the door behind her and walked away from me down the hall.
    So I didn’t do the detention. I suppose I could have looked it up on the internet but I didn’t think of that until the next morning. It wasn’t my fault. It was hers for not suggesting it. But that didn’t keep her from taking one look at her desk at the beginning of class the next morning, then crossing to the side chalkboard and changing the number two beside my name to a number three.
    I stayed in at lunch time and copied out the stupid poem three times. Ms. Zero was having one of her time-management seminars. All the desks were taken. I had to stand the whole time.
    It was completely, completely wrong. No one should ever be treated like that. She should never have been allowed to be a teacher.

Eleven
    —
    I was looking forward to a good sleep. I was full of food. I was inside a house and my back was against the door so that nothing could get me by surprise. I was going to have a real, sound sleep for a change, instead of napping with one eye open like I had to when I slept outside.
    The little boy was humming while he made a new house out of the food trays. The humming bugged me but not too much. I could push it into the background and that was fine.
    I was starting to drift off into a lovely sleep when the soldiers started yakking again.
    “What are you doing?” Simcha asked.
    “Shut up,” said Aaron, which made me like him a little bit more.
    “Why are you pointing the telescope up in the air? You