The Compliment She Tried to Give Back
Chapter 1The Cover
The poetry folder had a green cover and a border of small gold leaves.
Esther had drawn each leaf herself. One curled in the opposite direction from the others, but the whole border fitted the page.
She had measured, pencilled, erased, and tried again on Thursday evening.
On Friday morning, Mrs. Levi placed the finished folder on the Bais Yaakov classroom table.
"Esther, the border is lovely. It makes the folder welcoming."
Three girls came closer to look.
Esther felt her face grow warm.
"It's not really good," she said. "Anyone could do it."
The girls stepped back slightly.
Mrs. Levi's hand remained on the green cover.
Chapter 2The Leaf That Was Backward
At break, Raizy pointed to the gold leaves.
"How did you make them all the same size?"
"They aren't. Look at this one. It's backward."
Raizy looked.
"I didn't notice. I wanted to know how you measured them."
Esther explained the little cardboard guide she had made.
"That's clever," Raizy said.
"Not clever. Just a bit of card."
Raizy put her hand down.
"All right."
She went to get her own folder.
Esther wondered why the conversation had stopped. She had only been making sure Raizy didn't think too much of her work.
Chapter 3The Practice Page
At home, Esther saw the practice sheets still on her desk.
The first border ran off the edge. The second had a gap. On the third, she had worked out the cardboard guide.
Mummy came to help clear the table for supper, her brown tichel tied neatly at the back.
"These were all for that cover?"
Esther nodded.
"It took longer than I thought."
"So why did you tell Raizy it was only a bit of card?"
Esther had described the conversation after school. Now she looked at the crooked first page.
"I didn't want to sound proud."
"You can say how you did it. You don't have to claim it was effortless."
Chapter 4An Answer on a Scrap
Esther picked up the cardboard guide.
She imagined telling Raizy every leaf was perfect. That would not be true.
She imagined saying the border was useless. That wasn't true either.
On a scrap page she wrote: THANK YOU. I USED A GUIDE AND PRACTISED FIRST.
She read it once.
It sounded ordinary. It did not announce that she was the best artist in the school.
It also did not tell Raizy that her compliment was a mistake.
Esther kept the scrap inside her pencil case.
She wasn't going to read a speech at the next compliment. She wanted another answer ready in her head.
Chapter 5Monday's Question
On Monday, Raizy was drawing a heading for her own folder.
Esther went to her desk.
"I thought about what you asked on Friday. I practised the border three times before using a guide. I can show you the guide if you'd like."
Raizy looked up.
"I would."
"And thank you for saying it was clever. I kept arguing with you."
Raizy smiled a little.
"You did."
Esther didn't need her to deny that.
They traced one leaf together. Then Raizy made a rounder shape of her own.
The guide helped. It didn't have to make both folders identical.
Chapter 6The Teacher's Table
Mrs. Levi asked Esther to put the guide in a class box of useful drawing tools.
Her navy sheitel was pinned neatly above the collar of her blouse.
"May we borrow it?"
"Yes. Please keep my name on it so I can have it back later."
Mrs. Levi wrote the name.
"You worked patiently on this."
Esther's first answer was ready to leap out: It wasn't hard.
But it had been hard for her, especially the corners.
"Thank you," she said instead. "The corners took a few tries."
Mrs. Levi nodded and placed it in the box.
No trumpets sounded. Nobody accused Esther of boasting.
The conversation simply continued.
Chapter 7Another Good Border
Later that week, Raizy showed her finished folder.
The border had round leaves and one tiny blue bird.
"I like that bird," Esther said.
"Thank you. I had to rub out its beak twice."
Esther laughed.
She could admire Raizy's work without making her own smaller. Raizy could name her effort without making it a competition.
On the poetry folder, Esther's backward leaf still pointed the wrong way.
She noticed it when she carried the folder to the shelf.
She also noticed the rest of the border.
Both were on the same cover.
Chapter 8The Scrap in the Pencil Case
At the end of the week, Esther found the scrap again.
THANK YOU. I USED A GUIDE AND PRACTISED FIRST.
She didn't need to keep it forever. She put it in the paper recycling and kept the guide when Mrs. Levi returned it.
The next drawing would not automatically go well because someone had liked this one.
It might need new practice pages.
Still, Esther could accept a true kind remark about work she had done.
She didn't have to give the remark back to protect herself from the next blank page.
She opened her sketchbook and measured a fresh border, leaving enough room for the corners.
