The Button

Ages 12-15

Rifky sews the button back on her brother's coat, and the thread knots twice.

It came off in the school yard on Tuesday. He gave it to her in his fist, with a bit of thread still on it, and went to eat. The coat is on her bed with the hole where the button was, and the thread tail hanging.

She cuts a length, and licks the end, and pushes it through the needle. She ties a knot at the end, and puts the needle up through the cloth, and through the button, and back down. It pulls through.

She ties it again. It pulls through again.

She cuts it off, and starts a new length. This time she makes the knot big, winding the thread round her finger and rolling it off, so it stays.

Up through the cloth, through the button, and down. Four times, in the same holes. She sews it round the back and ties it off, twice, at the lining.

She holds the button between two fingers and pulls. It does not give.

She hangs the coat on the hook by the door. The button is on it, flat and tight, with a short thread end still sticking out from under it.