The Ladder on the Flat Picture
Chapter 1The Painted Ladder
Yanky painted seven rungs on the ladder in his village picture.
Then he set the picture upright at the back of the shallow display box. In front stood little cardboard houses, a paper tree, and a cart made from a matchbox.
"Finished," he told Avrumi.
Avrumi looked into the box from the chair where visitors would sit.
"Why is your ladder standing on the roof?"
Yanky leaned over the table. The ladder reached from the painted ground to a painted window. Nothing was on a roof.
"It isn't."
"Come sit here."
Chapter 2From the Chair
Yanky sat down.
The front house hid the bottom half of the painted ladder. The part still visible seemed to start on its cardboard roof.
He stood up. Now the bottom showed again.
He sat down. Gone.
Avrumi folded his arms. "It is a very shy ladder."
The village was for their class display. Yanky wanted people to see a man delivering a basket to the window. The man and ladder were painted on the back wall, but the front houses made the village look real.
He had checked it from above while building it. He had never sat where a visitor would sit.
Chapter 3A Smaller House
Yanky reached for the front house.
"I'll cut it shorter."
Avrumi held the scrap-paper basket. "What about the door you drew?"
Cutting the roof down far enough would leave almost no house above the door.
Yanky put it back.
He could repaint the entire back wall higher, but the tiny window and the basket had taken a long time.
His fingers tightened around the paintbrush. He set it in the jar before blue paint dripped onto the village.
"I need another way."
Chapter 4A Paper Visitor
Rabbi Stern came to look. He did not climb anything or lift the table. He sat in the visitor's chair.
"Show me what you want me to see."
Yanky pointed to the hidden painted ground.
The teacher suggested trying the loose houses in different places before changing any paint or cardboard.
Avrumi folded a little paper figure and stood it outside the box.
"Our first visitor. His name is Mr. Fold."
"He is too short to see anything," Yanky said.
"He has very low expectations."
Chapter 5To the Side
Yanky moved the front house to the left. From his standing place, the gap looked odd.
He almost moved it back. Then he sat down.
The whole ladder appeared through the space between two houses, from painted ground to painted window.
Avrumi moved the paper tree. Its branches covered the delivery man's face.
"Now he is delivering to a forest."
They moved the tree beside the other house.
Yanky tried the cart in front of the gap. It hid the bottom rung again.
This time he saw it immediately. He placed the cart beside the tree.
Chapter 6Before the Glue
They left everything loose and asked Rabbi Stern to check from the chair.
He could see the ladder, the man's basket, and the window.
Then a shorter boy sat there. The lower rung disappeared behind the edge of the display box.
Rabbi Stern helped tip the box back slightly with a steady cardboard support. The boys checked again. The shorter visitor could now see the painted ground too.
Only after those checks did they ask the teacher to help fasten the houses and the support.
Yanky put the brush away. None of his seven rungs needed repainting.
Chapter 7Mr. Fold Visits
At the display, boys took turns sitting in the chair.
"That man is carrying a very big basket," one said.
Yanky grinned. The basket was what he had wanted people to notice.
Avrumi set Mr. Fold beside the village label.
A visitor picked him up. "Does he live here?"
"He helped inspect it," Avrumi said.
Yanky sat in the chair for one last look. The cart rested beside the tree. Both houses stood whole. The ladder reached the painted ground.
He had moved almost everything except the part he first wanted to fix.
Mr. Fold leaned against the label and did not complain about the view.
