Читать книгу A Threefold Cord - Howard Goldenberg - Страница 10

Chapter Five

The next day Jennifer arrived at school just in time for class. Her eyes were red and swollen. The teacher was very strict: you weren’t allowed to talk. Nystagmus asked Jennifer with his eyes: What’s wrong?

You would get into trouble even if you passed a note to someone. Jennifer wrote one word on the back of her hand – LATER. She showed it to Nystagmus, then she showed it to Snoth who sat on her other side. Her friends nodded. Every so often they heard Jennifer sniff. It made Snoth think: What’s made Jen cry? I can’t smell onions …

At recess the three met behind the toilets. It was a smelly place and no-one liked to go there. So it was a good place for talking privately, for secrets.

Jennifer pulled her friends close so she wouldn’t have to speak loudly. Snoth and Nystagmus stared, wondering about Jennifer’s news. Jennifer’s mouth opened, then closed. She shook her head. The boys saw tears in her eyes. Nystagmus couldn’t bear it. He had to know: What? What’s happened?

Jennifer took a deep breath. She opened her mouth and her whisper was like a shout: “She’s dead!”

Two boys gasped: “Who? Who’s dead?” – came from two throats. Nystagmus thought of Papou and Yaya. They were old. Old people could die, he knew that because his grandmother’s sister had died in Cyprus.

Jennifer’s voice came again, a whisper half choked by tears: “The old lady. There was a big black car outside her cottage. And two men. Their car had words on the side: Jim’s Funerals.”

Snoth’s arms were around Jennifer’s shoulders. Nystagmus hugged them both. No-one spoke. No-one needed to. Six wet eyes, six sniffing runny nostrils, no words. Three friends thinking about a thin old lady. They didn’t know her name. None of them had ever spoken with her. Just an old lady who had only an onion and no friends.

The bell rang for class. Jennifer said: “Every time I see an onion I will think of her and I will remember.”

She smiled. Snoth and Nystagmus smiled back. Then they all laughed. In class they thought of onions and they smiled inwardly. They felt better, they had each other.

(If those children are always eating onions and crying and sniffing, why don’t they carry hankies?)