Free The Book of Everything by Guus Kuijer

said Mother. “I did it.”
    Thomas looked at her, horrified, and felt himself grow angry inside — so angry that his fear burst apart into a thousand pieces. “Not true!” he screamed. “It was me who did it! Me!”
    Father looked at him severely. “You are a liar, Thomas,” he said.
    â€œBut —” shouted Thomas.
    â€œSilence!” Father thundered.
    â€œI did it! Me, I did it!” Thomas was weeping with fury. “There are pinholes in that letter. Pinholes! And do you know how they got there? I made them with a safety pin. This one.” He rummaged in his trouser pocket and tossed the safety pin on the table.
    Father, Mother, and Margot stared at the pin as if their lives depended on it. It glinted in the lamplight. “I could actually hear the safety pin,” Thomas wrote in The Book of Everything . “It made a high-pitched sound, like someone screaming in the distance.”
    Father stretched the letter between his hands and held it up. The paper was bright in the glow of the lamp.
    â€œIt is true,” Father muttered. “There are pinholes in it.” He lowered the paper. “You were not lying, Thomas. I falsely accused you. Forgive me. But more important is that someone has used you, Thomas. Someone is trying to turn you against your father. Who is that, Thomas? Who wrote this letter?”
    â€œThat is a secret,” said Thomas.
    â€œAunt Pie?”
    â€œIt is a secret,” said Thomas.
    â€œThomas,” said Father.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œTell me who wrote this letter.”
    â€œNo, Papa.”
    â€œThomas, fetch the spoon, go upstairs, and wait for me.”
    A hot wind came up, scorching the earth. The trees shriveled up and the animals fled. Everything was desolate and empty. No one could live on the earth any longer.
    â€œExcept perhaps the gnats,” thought Thomas. “And bubonic plague.”
    â€œNo,” said Mother quietly. “Thomas stays where he is and you read from the Bible.”
    Father glared at her furiously.
    â€œI’ll get the spoon, Mama,” said Thomas.
    Mother took his hand. “No,” she said. “My brave hero stays here sitting next to me.”
    â€œTiddlyum, tiddlyam,” sang Margot. “How happy I am.”
    Thomas was frightened by the cold look in her eyes.
    â€œWoman!” said Father. “Do not contradict me!”
    â€œMama,” said Thomas. “It’s all right, just let me go.”
    â€œNo,” said Mother. “You have not deserved any punishment.” She kept a firm hold on his hand.
    â€œTiddlydum, tiddlydim, I find no guilt in him,” Margot sang.
    Father stood up. His head rose like a balloon, higher and higher. The ceiling came down and the room became smaller and smaller. “Woman!” he thundered. “Let go of that child.”
    Mother got up too, pulling Thomas along with her. “No,” she said. Her chair tottered.
    Father walked around the table, gripped Thomas by his other arm, and tugged.
    â€œNo!” screamed Mother.
    Father raised his hand at her threateningly.
    No one had been minding Margot. Suddenly, she was there, as if she came falling from the sky. In her right hand, the carving knife flashed, and her eyes blazed. She jumped in front of her father and pointed the knife at his throat. Father let go of Thomas and stared at the knife.
    â€œShe looked like an angel,” wrote Thomas in The Book of Everything . “The most dangerous angel in Heaven. One of those with a flaming sword.”
    â€œHands off,” Margot snarled. “I’ve had enough of this. I’ve had it up to here.” She brushed the knife along her throat.
    â€œDon’t, Margot,” Mother whispered. “Put that knife away.”
    But Margot wasn’t listening. “Goddamn it,” she said.
    The curse was worse than the knife. It cut through the soul.
    â€œMama and Thomas have no