The Giant Behind the Sheet
Chapter 1A Very Large Goat
Behind the white sheet, Bluma held a cardboard goat on a stick.
In front of the sheet, her sister Raizy saw a goat taller than a chair.
"That is much better," Raizy called.
Bluma lifted the goat's head. Its giant shadow bent over the painted cardboard fence.
The girls were preparing a small puppet show for their cousins. Mommy had clipped a sheet to a sturdy frame in the sitting room. A cool lamp stood on a table behind it, well away from the fabric.
The goat was supposed to eat the farmer's hat. It was not supposed to eat the farm.
Still, Raizy liked the huge shadow.
"Make it that big when everybody comes."
Bluma put a pencil mark on the goat's stick. She thought the mark would help her hold it at the same height.
Then Mommy moved the lamp farther back to clear a safe walking space.
Nobody watched the goat while she did it.
Chapter 2The Little Goat
At the next practice, the goat was small.
It appeared above the fence, but only just. Its horns looked like two short commas.
Raizy came around the sheet.
"You are holding it wrong."
Bluma showed her the pencil mark.
"Same place."
"Then higher."
Bluma raised it. The goat moved up the sheet without growing.
"Closer to the middle."
The small goat moved sideways.
Raizy took the stick. Her shadow was no larger than Bluma's had been.
For a moment, neither girl said anything.
"Maybe you cut some off," Raizy said.
Bluma stared at her.
The cardboard goat had one bent ear and a purple patch on its back. Those details were exactly as they had been before.
"Why would I cut it smaller?"
"I do not know."
"Then do not say I did."
Chapter 3Four Feet and a Patch
Their cousin Chani arrived early with a paper bag of biscuits. She saw the goat lying on the table.
"Is that the one who eats the hat?"
"If we can get him to work," Raizy said.
Chani counted the feet with her finger.
"He has four. That is a good start."
Bluma laughed despite herself.
Mommy came in wearing a soft green head scarf. She checked the lamp and its cable, then asked why the show had stopped.
Raizy explained that the goat had shrunk.
Mommy looked at the cardboard, not the sheet.
"The goat has not changed. I moved the lamp. Did the shadow change after that?"
Bluma remembered the table scraping softly across the floor. She had been looking for the farmer's hat then.
Raizy crossed her arms.
"We need the giant one."
"First find out where he came from," Mommy said.
Chapter 4Near the Light
Mommy stood beside the table. She made sure the lamp stayed steady while the girls moved only the goat.
Bluma held it near the sheet.
The shadow was almost the size of the cardboard.
Then she took one small step back toward the lamp, keeping away from the cable.
The goat grew.
Raizy, watching from the front, called, "Again."
Bluma moved it a little nearer the light.
The horns stretched. The purple patch did not show in the shadow, but the bent ear did. Soon the goat filled most of the sheet.
Chani held the farmer near the sheet. He looked tiny beside it.
"The goat will eat him first," she said.
Raizy laughed. Then she came behind the sheet and looked at the space between the lamp, the goat, and the cloth.
"It was nearer the lamp before."
"Yes," Bluma said.
Raizy touched the bent ear.
"I was wrong about you cutting it."
Chapter 5A Goat Too Big
They could make the goat giant now, but they could not make it eat the hat.
The giant head covered the farmer's whole body. When Bluma lowered it, its horns knocked the hat stick from Chani's hand.
The hat dropped behind the sheet.
From the front, Raizy saw the farmer stand bareheaded while a huge black shape swallowed the fence.
She laughed, then stopped.
Their cousins would laugh too. But nobody would see the joke they had planned.
"A little smaller," she said.
Bluma moved the goat forward.
"Smaller again."
Now the head could bend toward the farmer. Chani lifted the hat and let it disappear behind the goat's nose.
It worked.
Raizy wanted to mark the floor, but Mommy would not let them stick tape onto the rug. Instead, she placed a small cushion beside the safe standing spot. Nobody would step on the lamp cable or push the table.
Bluma rested her heel beside the cushion.
Chapter 6The Hat Disappears
Four cousins sat on the floor in front of the sheet. Bubby sat in the armchair with the biscuit bag on her lap, her hair covered by a blue scarf.
Raizy told the story from the side. Chani held the farmer. Bluma waited with the goat.
At the right moment, the shadow appeared.
It was larger than the farmer, but not larger than the farm.
"That goat looks hungry," one cousin whispered.
The farmer lifted his hat politely.
The goat bent its head.
The hat vanished.
The cousins laughed. Behind the sheet, Chani nearly laughed too loudly to speak the farmer's next line.
"My best hat!"
The goat nodded as though it had been a very good hat.
After the show, the youngest cousin wanted to see the giant version. Mommy stayed beside the lamp while Bluma moved the cardboard back.
The goat stretched across the sheet.
"He is growing!"
Raizy went to the front and watched with him.
"Only his shadow. Come around and see."
He came behind the sheet, holding Bubby's hand. The little cardboard goat waited on its stick, bent ear and all.
