The Inner Pocket

Ages 12-15

Bracha's ruler is missing, and the drawing period is nearly over.

She needs one more straight line across the roof of her house. She checks beneath her drawing, along the desk, and inside her bag.

Her folder catches on the narrow pocket sewn against the bag's lining. She pushes the pocket inward and pulls the folder out.

No ruler.

She checks inside again.

Two girls are working at the next desk. One is shading a tree. The other is drawing a maze, with a tiny square marked FINISH near the far corner.

"Could you help me look?" Bracha asks. "It's a small wooden ruler."

The girl with the maze puts down her pencil.

"Did you check your bag?"

"Twice. It isn't there."

They look beneath the desks. Bracha moves her chair and searches around its legs.

"Could it have gone under the cupboard?" one girl asks.

"Maybe."

The girls crouch beside the low cupboard. Bracha goes back to her bag to put the folder away.

Its corner pulls the inner pocket open.

There is a strip of wood inside.

Bracha touches the ruler. Her fingers fit around its end.

Twice. It isn't there.

She lets go and presses the pocket shut.

"Anything?" she asks.

"Just a pencil cap."

One girl returns to her desk and turns her maze face down.

"I won't finish this now," she says. Then she gets on her knees to look behind Bracha's chair.

Bracha opens the inner pocket again.

She takes the ruler all the way out.

"I found it."

Both girls look up.

"Where?"

"In this little pocket. I missed it when I checked."

The girl beside the chair begins to stand.

Bracha holds the ruler against her palm.

"I found it before you went back under there. I should have told you then."

"You let us keep looking?"

The girl brushes dust from her skirt.

"I could have used that time for my maze."

The teacher calls for the drawings to be put away. The roof on Bracha's house still has an open side.

She lays the ruler along it, then takes it away. There isn't time to draw and clear her desk.

She puts her unfinished house into the folder.

At the next desk, Bracha turns the maze face up beside its owner's pencil.

Then she gathers her scraps and pushes in her chair.