Read Online What the Moon Said by Gayle Rosengren - Free Book Online

Walter. Even though I would miss school, I wish I could stay home instead of Vi. I put shoes on the table. That is why Ma fell. I feel just awful.
    Yesterday was my birthday and Vi tried to make me a cake. She put too much wood in the stove and the cake got all black. We gave it to the pigs. I didn’t have a cake, so I couldn’t make a birthday wish. Thanks for the pretty hair ribbons you sent. I am wearing them to school today for luck. We have a spelling bee. I want to win like I did in Chicago. The winner gets a blue ribbon here. I miss you.
    Love,
    Esther
    Esther read her letter one last time as she walked down the rutted lane to the road. Then she folded it and slipped it into a stamped envelope with Julia’s name and address in Esther’s best handwriting on the front. She popped it into the battered mailbox and stood up the chipped red flag. There. Now the postman would know to stop and take her letter.
    Esther bent down to pat Mickey. “Good-bye, boy. You go back and watch the house now. I’ll see you after school. Go on, go home.” Mickey obediently turned and trotted back up the lane. Esther watched him go. Then she set out for school.
    It was a long walk, especially without Violet to talk to. Sometimes Esther met other farm children along the way. But today she didn’t see anyone on the gravel road ahead, so she decided to play her favorite game—pretend. She pretended the farmhouse was all fixed up. Outside it was painted dazzling white. The roof was new, with no ugly tar paper patches. Green shutters framed every shining window. Pots of pink geraniums and white begonias blossomed beside the door and in window boxes.
    Inside, the walls were covered with pretty wallpapers—blue and yellow for the parlor, red and white for the kitchen. Crisp white curtains hung at the parlor windows. The kitchen table was covered with a white linen cloth—just like Shirley’s had been—instead of red-checkered oilcloth. There was electricity and gleaming new linoleum floors. There was even a beautiful carpet in the parlor, with blue and yellow flowers all over it. Sometimes Esther pretended different colors, and sometimes she imagined a new sofa and chairs. But one thing that never changed was Ma. Esther always pretended that Ma was rocking in the pretty parlor, listening to the radio. Then Ma would see Esther. She would smile and open her arms to her . . .
    A car horn beeped behind Esther. She yelped and whirled around to see her teacher parked on the side of the road. “Jump in,” Miss Larson invited.
    Esther could hardly believe it. Ride to school with her teacher? Such a wondrous event would never happen in Chicago. “Thank you!” she said, hopping into the automobile.
    â€œYou have a long walk,” Miss Larson observed as she drove on.
    Esther smiled shyly. “I don’t mind. I like school.”
    Her teacher smiled back at her. “I can tell that by the way you listen in class, and by the careful work you do.”
    Esther’s ears burned at this unexpected praise.
    â€œI was wondering,” Miss Larson continued, “if you might be interested in doing some teaching.”
    Esther was stunned. “Me?” She could hardly believe it. To be a teacher someday had long been her secret dream. But it had seemed far away and impossible. Could she really be a teacher now?
    â€œI could use someone to help with the youngest children,” Miss Larson said, shifting her gaze from the road to Esther for a moment. “Would you like to do that?”
    Esther sucked in her breath. “Yes. I would like to very much!”
    â€œYou can begin on Monday,” her teacher promised.
    Somehow Esther contained her excitement until they reached the school. But the moment she got out of the car, she took a joyful leap into the air. She was going to teach! Esther wanted to share her news with Bethany, but Bethany wasn’t in the school