The Card Under the Cover

Ages 15-18

The short-story book lies on the school library table. Each story begins on a new page. Amram opens to the first one.

The boys may read here during breaks and fill in a card when they want to take a book home.

On a borrowing card, Amram writes SMALL STORIES in the title space and signs his name beneath it.

His friend puts a thick mystery beside it.

"Which would you take?" Amram asks.

His friend taps the mystery.

Amram reads its first page. A boy has found a key inside a clock. On the next page, somebody comes to ask for the clock back.

Amram closes the short-story book. He tucks his filled card under the mystery's front cover and carries the mystery to the reading desk.

At the end of the first break, he puts his bookmark at page nineteen.

At the end of the second, it is at thirty-four.

During the next reading discussion, two boys describe the short stories they finished. One tells about a man who sends his own hat home in a parcel and keeps walking without it.

Amram has reached page forty-one.

"You chose this for me," he says to his friend.

"I told you which one I liked."

Amram puts one hand on the mystery's cover.

His friend opens his own copy farther along. He slips a finger between two pages and goes on reading.

Amram lifts the front cover. His borrowing card is underneath it.

SMALL STORIES.

He slides the card out.

His friend keeps his finger between the pages.

At the next break, Amram takes out his bookmark, closes the mystery on forty-one and leaves it at the counter.

The short-story book is where he left it. He sets the filled card on top of it, then carries both to the desk.

The first story begins with a man trying to carry a large empty basket through a narrow doorway.

Amram reads three pages. The man has turned the basket sideways and caught one handle on the door.

The bell sounds.

Amram puts his bookmark beside the caught handle.