Chapter 10

Loran

Monday was to be my first day of school. I emptied my money bag into my potato sack pillow for safe keeping and instead put in the blank book, ink, brush, and a spare bit of bread and meat for lunch. It barely fitted in the burlap container, and there was a bulge in the edge, but it would have to do. I dress in the plaited maroon dress. Though the fabric is simple and cheap, but it will be good enough for me.

Omama Mae has heated up oats and fried them into patties for breakfast. I eat mine eagerly to satisfy my growling stomach, but butterflies are a buzz in my stomach and I am not able to finish. We set outside. She marches me down our street to the main street I recognize from our shopping. We trot down that street to a grand white building that looks nothing like any other building. The forest which surrounds the town lies behind it, but in the front there is a little garden patch and a green area. Kids are playing in the road. I collect myself with a deep breath. Omama Mae gives me a big hug. "Remember, Loran, who you are." She winks and turns away. I turn and watch her disappear into the busy street.

The Miech, as the Allerakins call her, or schoolteacher, appears at the door of the building. "Children!" She cries. The kids drop the potato sack that they were playing with next to the door and hurry into a line. I sneak to the back and follow them through a sideways corridor and into a large room.

Many of them have books wrapped together with fabric or tiny bags like mine. A few of them have a pail filled with their things or a bundle that is probably lunch. When I enter, the children are all settling the tables. There are 4 long tables on each side of the room, each seating four children. I am able to quickly calculate that that means thirty-two children could fit in the entire room.

"Loran?" The Miech asks as soon as she sees me standing awkwardly at the back of the room.

I nod. "Yes."

"Yes, Miech." She corrects. "Always address the person that you are responding to.

"Yes, Miech." I respond.

"Meg?"

"Yes, Miech."

"Who sits next to you?"

"Haliy, Miech"

"No, on the other side."

"Nobody, Miech."

The Miech turns to face me. "Sit next to Me, Loran."

I walk to the right side of the classroom. Meg is the girl who saw me that day I went shopping. Who saw me through the window. She has dirty blonde hair and is as thin as a stick. Next to her sits a girl with dark hair peeking out from a scrap of cloth that covers her hair. Her dress is plain white cotton. It has a triangular neck and a bottom unevenly cut with an even hem.

Next to her sits a boy with lemon-colored hair that is overgrown. I feel out of place with my nice collar and finger-brushed hair tied off with a scrap of fabric. The

Miech begins lessons by calling out the names of different children. They will raise their hands and say "Here, Miech" when they hear their name called.

My name is last. I respond just as the other children do and then take out my book, ink, and brush just as the other children have done. The Miech walks along the line of tables, assigning each child a task. She skips over me and assigns Meg a reading in one of her books to do with the other girl, Haliy. They both are to read a passage and memorize it, whatever that means, and recite (another word that I have no clue about the meaning of) it to the class. She continues on assigning kids pieces or stories to write.

Once she has finished giving each child an assignment, she comes to me. "Come."

"Yes, Miech."

I pick up my books, ink, and brush.

"You won't need that."

I place them back down.

"Yes, Miech."

She leads me back into the corridor, where there is one little table and bench. She places down a stack of books. Taking the top one, she flips to the end. "Read." She says. I take the book into my hands and sound out the unfamiliar English Words.

The Bird

The bird came back

On a sunny day

After his trip

Across the never ending sea

He flew up high

into the Allerakin sky

Where the sun beamed on his face

The Children all hurried and were precipitant

to hear his gleeful cry

As he swooped over the babbling creek

They played so

And realized that they had work to do.

So never be drawn away from your work

For those who are sedulous

Will be rewarded

I stumble over most of the words, and it takes me a long time to read the passage. Once I finish, the Miech just opens up the next book to another passage.

I read for a long time until she lets me read several passages from the same book. She nods and takes out a wax-covered stone and stylus. She carefully writes a few words on it. "Give this to your Omama. Tell her that your Miech says you need it. For today, just use this one." She hands me the book, and I place the stone on it. "Now," she continues, "Copy down the words and definitions found on page seven." She turns around to go back into the room.

"Excuse me, Miech?"

She turns and looks at me.

"What is a definition, Miech?"

"What a word means."

"Excuse me, Miech?"

"Loran, a definition is what a word means."

I follow the Miech into the classroom and sit back down at my seat. Page seven is pretty easy to find, and I carefully copy down each word and definition.

Besmirch: smear as to make dirty or stained

Bight: To bend or curve

Ditty: A short and simple song

Ness: A strip of land protruding into water

Stalwart: having rugged physical strength

Withy: Strong and flexible twig

Plenty: A full supply

Touchstone: A full basis for comparison

I study the words carefully until the Miech dismisses us for lunch. I pick up my bit of bread and meat and take it along with my reading book and follow the rest of the kids outside. I walk around the school building in search for a quiet place to eat and study.

What I find is a stoop that leads out from the back of the building. I sit down and rip a bite sized piece off of my bread. I've barely finished half of the large chunk when Meg comes around. "Loran?" she asks. "Are you OK?"

I nod. "Just studying." She sits down on the ground and opens a box. Inside the perfect box is some bread pudding. I stare at it with envy. She drinks it straight out.

"What are you studying?"

"My reading. I want to get caught up to the rest of the thir- I mean, fourteen year olds."

"Just turned 14?"

"Um, Yes."

"I do that, too." We eat and study in silence a minute.

"Hey," Meg breaks the silence. "Do you want to play potato ball with the rest of the kids when you are done eating?"

"What's that?"

"We throw around a stuffed potato sack and try to keep it from the other team. If they touch you and you have the sack, it goes to them. Or if they intercept a pass, it's theirs. But watch out for Connor and Li. They are really good."

I think for a minute. I could study, which would give me a better grade, or play with the others, which would seem more normal for my position. "I'll play." I say, swallowing the last chunk of dried meat.

"Come on, then!" Meg jumps up and pulls on my arm. I stand up, brush off my dress, and follow her to the street side. "Loran's going to play with us today!" she announces to the group. I want to disappear.

I stick to Meg for the entire game. Li is on our team. Apparently he and Connor are twins, which means they are brothers with the same birthday and look the same.

They both are really good, but Connor's team wins by one point. By then, the Miech is calling us in for lessons.

The kids put their lunch dishes on the shelf in the corridor, but I have none so I just return to my seat. The Miech gives children problems again, sometimes copied in a mathematics book, sometimes she just tells it to them, or writes it in their blank books.

Again, I am skipped and then taken out to the corridor to be assessed. The Miech has me write out sums for certain problems, differences for others, and has me multiply and divide different integers. It's must easier than the reading, because in my studies, the first thing I learned was how to write numbers. I add, subtract, multiply, and divide each number perfectly, and she carefully uses her stylus to write another rock. I take it. It's the title of another book: Taking Mathematics Further. I look at it and place it on top of my blank book.

She escorts me back into the classroom. I give myself different problems to attempt and solve each one as the Miech writes on the board. She calls for attention a few minutes later.

"First row! Solve one of the bottom problems, please." The first row children, who are also the youngest trot up to the board to solve a problem. I notice that the problems toward the bottom of the board are the easiest and they each get harder the higher up they are. The children each take a stylus and carve the answers into the wax of the board. The stylus' are dipped in ink, but certainly the ink must wash off when the board is pressed.

Once the first row has completed their problems, the second row goes up. I am in the fourth row, so we go up last and answer the trickiest problems. Mine is still pretty easy, even though I chose the second hardest. Meg took the hardest, and is struggling.

"Here Meg," I say, lifting my stylus to the board. The Miech turns to face me.

"Do not help the other students, Loran."

"Yes, Miech." I huff.

I place the stylus down and retreat to my seat. The Miech has turned to assist Meg. I sulk in my anger and frustration. I was always able to help my cousins in their mathematics back home!

Meg returns to her seat after a great deal of pressing of the board, and the Miech looks over each and every one of the problems before saying, "All correct. Now, for night-work." She makes one last circle around the thirty students handing out night work assignments. I am assigned a reading that I will memorize and recite to the class tomorrow. She calls everyone to attention by banging a hammer on her desk. It isn't very loud, but it works when her voice booms, "Class Dismissed."

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