The Doctor's Wife by Luis Jaramillo Read Free Book Online Page A

put your weight into it,” Sue whispers with the authority of experience. Ann doesn’t need Sue to tell her what it’ll be like. She can imagine exactly how it will feel, her hands closing around the thick, rough rope, the way she’ll brace her legs against the floorboards and lean her torso back.
    The bus twists its way around the lake along the Davies Road. After it crosses the bridge over the creek, it turns up the hill and pulls in front of the school. Glenwood School has only three rooms, two classrooms and a room with a stage in it that’s used as a cafeteria and auditorium. When it rains—and it rains a lot—the kids stay inside the room with the stage for lunch and recess. They aren’t allowed to run around like they normally do. They have to participate in planned activities, like dancing. Mrs. Zuckerman has taught them the hora and how to square dance. According to Mrs. Zuckerman, everybody needs to know how to dance, but Ann isn’t so sure about that.
    Today after lunch—rain, but bingo instead of dancing—they return to the classroom to sit and listen to the Standard School Broadcast. A pianist plays a very difficult sounding Rachmaninoff piece. Ann would like to play Rachmaninoff someday. She taps her fingers on her desk like it’s a keyboard, pretending that her left hand is making the big chords and her right is carrying the melody. Sometimes she has to be forced to practice the piano by her mother instead of going right to the piano herself every day, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t also love playing. A few of the other kids in the class are yawning. Sue Berg is busy drawing a dog and Jimmy Halverson has put his head down on the desk. He’d better not let Mrs. Zuckerman catch him doing that.
    The Standard School Broadcast ends and it’s time for Washington State history. The class starts a unit about Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. Mrs. Zuckerman tells the class to silently read the chapter. Ann likes the reading-to-herself part of the school day the best. The gist of the history chapter is that the Whitmans traveled west in 1836, settling in Walla Walla so that they could convert the Indians to Christianity. In 1847 the Whitmans and the other missionaries were massacred by the natives they were trying to convert. Ann is fairly positive that the word massacred means that the Whitmans were scalped. Her head pricks at the idea of cold metal slicing skin from skull. This is not how she likes to picture pioneer life, and she shuts the history book with distaste.
    She scans the room. Mrs. Zuckerman is writing questions on the board, Sue is reading, frowning, and Jimmy is folding a paper airplane. When she looks to the back of the room, her eyes lock with Cathy Gunderson, who has apparently been glaring at her. Ann feels herself start to blush. She faces the front of the room, still feeling Cathy’s look burning into the back of her head. It wasn’t Ann’s fault that Cathy chewed gum and got in trouble for it. But Ann doesn’t like to feel as though she’s hurt anybody’s feelings.
    Next, it’s time for Language Arts. Mrs. Zuckerman makes an announcement that during the month of October there will be a competition to see who can memorize the most poems. “To receive points you need to recite the poem in front of the class exactly as it is printed on the page.”
    â€œWhat do you get if you win?” asks Sue Berg.
    â€œThe person who wins will be the valedictorian.” There is a blank silence. “Does anybody know what a valedictorian is?” Mrs. Zuckerman asks. No, nobody does. Ann thinks it sounds medical.
    â€œA valedictorian is the person who has the highest grade in the class—usually the word refers to the person in high school or college who has the best grades. I was making a joke just now,” Mrs. Zuckerman says.
    This is a poor sort of a joke if it is a joke at all, and nobody laughs.