Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All: Fairest of Them All

Free Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All: Fairest of Them All by Jane Yolen Page B

Book: Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All: Fairest of Them All by Jane Yolen Read Free Book Online
Authors: Jane Yolen
or unwashed. She was new in our three-room schoolhouse, a woman of quick smiles and a chirrupy voice, like a sparrow in human form. How was she to know what I’d been like before?
    But even she in her sparrow way figured out something was wrong. Perhaps one of the children pointed it out. Or one of the parents who’d known Papa before.
    She sent for Stepmama to come in to talk about how poorly I was doing in school. The two of us stood before her, me with my head down, like a student wearing a dunce cap. Stepmama stared Miss Alison straight in the face as if her conscience, at least, was clear.
    “Miss Curtin told me before she left that Summer was her star pupil, bright and sunny, eager to learn,” Miss Alison chirruped. “Said Summer was the one child she’d miss following her retirement.”
    “If Snow isn’t doing well here,” Stepmama said starchly, “then I’ll teach her at home. She’ll learn from me all that she needs to know.”
    We both heard the threat in that and Miss Alison answered quickly. “Oh, that won’t be necessary, Miz Morton,” she said. “I’m sure Snow in Summer will do well enough. I’ll continue to encourage her. Chirp. Chirp. Chirp .” She took a little bird breath. “It would be a shame to”—here she stumbled—“to burden you further.” She meant further than a husband who was fading into the woodwork. Further than a house that was falling down around our ears. A garden that was overgrown. A family that dwelt in rumors. Further than a once-bright child failing at school.
    And so the lines had been drawn. The war begun. But still the little princess lived in the tower with the dragon. There was nothing a chirrupy teacher could do about that. If I had hope of rescue, it wasn’t going to come from Miss Alison. Or Cousin Nancy. Or Papa. Or any of the Morton clan.
    If I was going to be rescued, I was going to have to rescue myself.
     
     
    Yet, in a strange way, rescue did come from Miss Alison. Oh, not directly. And not all at once. But a week later, she bumped into Cousin Nancy at Cogar’s meat counter, and they got to talking as neighbors will, and suddenly Miss Alison told her all. About the burn marks on my fingers, the deep circles under my eyes, the unplaited hair, and all the rest.
    Cousin Nancy wrote out a paper in her careful hand stating her can do’s and must do’s, and then marched to our house that Sunday in her very best churchgoing outfit, a gray dress with white piping and a hat to match. She was carrying a big old brown leather satchel, which didn’t match her outfit, and that made me wonder.
    She knocked smartly on the door and when it was opened by Stepmama, Cousin Nancy spoke right up. She didn’t start with any pretty words about how nice it was to see Stepmama or wasn’t the autumn weather glorious or the usual slow greetings we have in Addison. No, Cousin Nancy showed backbone by coming right to the point. “I am taking Summer to church with me this morning.”
    Of course, she didn’t expect to be greeted pleasantly and was prepared for the worst—at least the worst as she envisioned it—but Stepmama surprised her. Cocking her head to one side as if sizing up an adversary, Stepmama answered, “That’s fine. I think Snow needs some moral schooling. She’s become careless and sneaky. She covets my things, talks back to her elders, grows lax in her personal habits, and is failing at school.”
    “I never . . . ,” I began, but remembered shamefully that I had sneaked into her room and I had broken her things, and I had spoken to the mirror about my dead mama, and I was definitely failing in school. Suddenly, I understood that from Stepmama’s point of view, I was all the bad things she’d just said. I shut my mouth, hung my head, and waited for judgment.
    Stepmama added, “I’ll be taking her to my own church when she turns fourteen and have her baptized there.”
    Cousin Nancy interrupted her. “She’s already been bapti—”
    Holding

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