The Afternoon Without a Partner

Chapter 1The Empty Desk

During free drawing time, Shimon usually worked with Yechiel.

Yechiel drew the buildings. Shimon drew the animals. Together they made a village where a goat kept trying to open a bakery.

Today Yechiel was absent.

Shimon set two sheets on the table, then put one back.

A village without Yechiel's houses would look empty. Maybe he should wait until tomorrow.

Around him, pencils scratched and paper rustled. The period had begun even though his partner was not there.

Chapter 2Another Project

"Want to make the goat bakery with me?" Shimon asked Dov.

Dov was drawing a bridge.

"I already started this. I want to finish it."

"You could put the bakery near the bridge."

Dov smiled. "I like this as a bridge picture."

Shimon went back to his place.

Dov had not been unkind. He simply had a picture of his own. Shimon still wished he had said yes.

The sheet on the table seemed to wait for somebody else.

Chapter 3A Goat with No Shop

Shimon drew the goat on the corner of one page.

It had a floury nose and a serious face. He knew exactly how to make those.

Then he stopped. The goat needed somewhere to be.

He could not draw houses the way Yechiel did.

Shimon tried a square with a roof. It looked crooked. He added a little sign above the door: Bakery.

The goat was taller than the door.

For a moment, Shimon reached for the eraser. Then he looked at the too-small door again.

That could be the problem in the story.

Chapter 4The First Square

He divided a fresh page into four squares.

In the first, the goat arrived at the bakery. In the second, its horns caught at the doorway.

In the third, a tiny mouse offered to help.

Shimon paused at the last square.

The mouse could not make the doorway taller. But it could put a table outside.

He drew the goat selling little loaves through the window, with the mouse carrying them to the table.

The bakery was still crooked. The story made sense anyway.

Chapter 5A Look from Dov

Dov came over to return a green pencil.

"What happened to the goat?"

Shimon showed him the second square.

Dov laughed. "Those horns are enormous."

"The door is very small."

"Both."

Dov looked at the last square.

"Can the mouse reach the window?"

Shimon drew a sturdy little stool under the mouse's feet.

Dov went back to his bridge. He had helped with one question without becoming Shimon's new partner.

Chapter 6Finished Enough to Share

Shimon wrote short lines under the four squares.

When the period ended, the comic was finished. He had not made their usual village. Yechiel would have drawn the bakery differently.

Shimon put the comic into his folder anyway.

Rebbi came past the table.

"Whose is this?"

"Mine."

"May I read it?"

Shimon nodded.

Rebbi smiled at the mouse on the stool.

"That helper has found a good job."

Shimon smiled, too. Nobody had needed to sit beside him for the four squares to count as a comic.

Chapter 7Tomorrow's Table

When Yechiel returned, Shimon showed him the goat's doorway trouble.

Yechiel laughed at the horns.

"Today we can build a bigger bakery."

"Maybe," Shimon said. "Or the goat can keep this one and open a window for cakes."

They began another page together.

Shimon kept yesterday's comic in his folder. Working with Yechiel was still something he liked. So was the page he had begun without him.