Free The Book Borrower by Alice Mattison Page B

The feel of the room was different, and for a moment, walking in, Ruben thought it was a different room after all, or a different table. Food was all over the table: Tootsie Rolls and M&M’s, which Ruben liked too much, and a box of cookies and a bottle of Coke. Everything glowed yellow; when she looked up she saw a light fixture she’d never noticed. Why hadn’t Carlotta showed her?
    â€”Where do you turn on that light? she said, not even stop-ping to say hello. Hands pointed to a perfectly visible switch on a wall.
    â€”I’ve been teaching in the dark!
    â€”You’re Deborah’s friend. Have you seen the baby?
    They were friendlier than her own group. There were three white women and five black ones; Ruben was ashamed to have counted. They offered her candy and cookies. They even had small square napkins. She ate. She wondered who had paid for this food. Should she offer to contribute or would that be offensive?
    They simply refused to do math. They claimed Deborah said they’d learn more if they did it at home on their own. They sat back confidently, a little ways from the table, not leaning. The table did not jiggle. They kept their hands in their laps or on their broad, no doubt tired knees, each soothing her own long-suffering knees. All their lives they had worked to come to this place, where they could spend an hour in the middle of the day eating candy and talking, but not, please, about math.
    It was hard to quiet them. They talked about their nails, and examined their polished nails. It seemed one of the women had polished everybody’s nails at the last class.
    â€”In class? Prissy Ruben.
    â€”It was my report.
    â€”We do reports. Today’s her report. The woman who would give a report, that day, was wearing a red felt hat with a small curved brim. She was a tiny, mischievous-looking black woman.
    â€”Her report was on nail polish? What’s yours on?
    â€”Ghana.
    â€”Oh! All right. Let’s hear it.
    But it wasn’t ready. Ruben opened the big book to grammar exercises. The boy with the big dogs were late.
    She explained.
    â€”But the boy was late and the dogs were late. That’s more than one. That’s plural, said somebody.
    Another woman disagreed. It just doesn’t sound right. The boy with the big dogs were late.
    â€”We did this one last week, someone else said. Deborah definitely said it’s The boy with the big dogs were late.
    â€”You’ve already done these?
    â€”No, she’s just saying that. She likes mixing you up.
    â€”We don’t usually do these book questions.
    â€”Well, what do you do?
    â€”Lady, we don’t do very much, said one of the women. And that is a fact.
    â€”We’re tired, said somebody else. It’s late.
    The hour-long class took four hours. Ruben ended it ten minutes early and tried to spend a lot of time gathering her belongings, but still it was eight minutes early when she left the room, turning off the light. In the office, where Ruben had to pick up her check, Emma was talking to Carlotta, with a baby on her hip. If Emma could bring a baby to class, maybe she could learn. Maybe her brain was on her hip and the baby would stimulate it.
    Ruben walked into the office, stood behind Emma, and ran her hand over the baby’s back. Emma didn’t turn, but she said, He doesn’t need to be poked. He’s overtired.
    Doesn’t it soothe him? She wanted Emma to turn and see it was she, and laugh and apologize for speaking grouchily to her. But Emma looked over her shoulder and turned back, and Ruben thought that she’d been complaining about her, prob-ably complaining that Ruben wouldn’t let her take the test. Carlotta looked at Ruben curiously, frowning a little as if she were quite slow, but it was necessary to get something across to her.
    â€”I must put this child to bed, Emma said.
    â€”We’ll talk, said Carlotta.
    Emma walked past Ruben and out of the