The Last Verse in the Book

Chapter 1The Page With No Name

The last verse was the best part.

Rivky had read it four times by the time her cousin Chaya came back into the dining room. Four lines in blue ink filled the bottom of the loose page. Above them was a song everyone in the family knew.

The new lines sounded as though they had always belonged there.

"Where did you find that?" Chaya asked.

"Between these two books. Can we use it for Zeidy's birthday booklet?"

Chaya took the page.

"Not that one."

"But it's beautiful."

"It isn't finished."

Rivky looked at the four lines. The last word rhymed. There was a full stop.

It looked finished to her.

Chapter 2A Surprise With Stapled Corners

Their mothers were making a family supper for Zeidy on Wednesday. Rivky and Chaya had offered to prepare small song booklets for the table.

The songs were familiar family favorites. Aunt Malky had given them clean paper and a box of staples. Her hair was covered by a neatly tied gray tichel.

"Show me the complete pages before we make copies," she said. "We need twelve."

Rivky wanted the booklets to be more than copied songs.

Chaya had drawn a border for the cover. Rivky had written Zeidy's name in careful lettering.

Then Rivky had found the loose page.

"Who wrote the extra verse?" she asked now.

Chaya slid it into a thin exercise book.

"I did."

Rivky looked at her cousin as though she had just produced a violin from behind the curtain.

"You write songs?"

"Sometimes. Words, anyway."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Chaya closed the book.

"Because they're in this book."

Chapter 3The Best Possible Audience

Rivky could already picture Zeidy reading the last verse.

He would look up. Someone would ask who wrote it. Rivky would point at Chaya. Everybody would be surprised.

Chaya would be pleased.

Surely she would be pleased.

"We could put your name underneath," Rivky said.

"I don't want it in the booklet."

"Without your name, then?"

Chaya turned toward her.

"That isn't the part I meant."

Rivky felt her own face warm. She had been offering to solve the wrong problem very generously.

"Is there something wrong with the verse?"

"There are things I want to change. And I don't want everybody discussing it while I sit there."

"They'd only say good things."

"You don't know that. And even good things can be too much."

Chaya took the exercise book upstairs.

The loose page went with her.

Chapter 4Four Lines From Memory

On the clean booklet page, the old song ended halfway down.

There was so much empty space.

Rivky drew a thin line beneath the final verse. She wrote a little heading: A New Family Verse.

The first line came back easily. So did the second.

She had read them four times.

She stopped with her pen above the third line.

Chaya had said no.

Rivky had not taken the page. She had not opened the exercise book. She was writing what she remembered.

The two copied lines sat on the paper, making that distinction look smaller and smaller.

Aunt Malky came in carrying the supper list.

"Ready for me to check?"

Rivky put her hand over the bottom of the page.

"Not quite."

Chapter 5What the Surprise Would Cost

Rivky took the page upstairs.

Chaya was at her desk sharpening a pencil over a scrap of paper. She looked at the booklet page, then at Rivky.

"You wrote it anyway?"

"Only two lines. I haven't made copies."

Chaya put down the sharpener.

"I said I didn't want it in there."

"I know. I thought if you saw how nicely it fit..."

Rivky stopped. She could hear the rest of the sentence before she said it.

Then you would want what I wanted.

Chaya did not reach for the page.

"Please take it out."

"I will."

"And don't tell everyone I have a book of verses."

Rivky had planned that announcement too. A good surprise had turned out to have rather a lot of doors she was not allowed to open.

"I copied your words after you said no. I'm sorry. I won't put them in the booklet or tell people about your book."

Chaya nodded.

She did not offer another verse.

Chapter 6The Ordinary Ending

Downstairs, Rivky showed Aunt Malky the page.

"These two lines shouldn't be here. They aren't mine to use. I need another sheet."

Aunt Malky did not ask whose they were.

"There are three sheets left in the drawer. Use one carefully."

Rivky tore the rejected page through the copied lines and put it with the paper scraps. Then she started again.

The familiar song ended halfway down, exactly where it had before.

She drew a small branch in the empty space. It was not a brilliant ending. It was a branch.

Chaya came downstairs and looked at it.

"The leaves could be bigger."

Rivky moved her chair over.

"Would you draw them?"

Chaya sat beside her.

They worked on the booklet. They did not discuss the exercise book.

Chapter 7Twelve Places at the Table

On Wednesday, Zeidy found his name on every booklet.

"Twelve copies of my name," he said. "I should have practiced signing it."

Rivky laughed with everybody else.

Zeidy read the familiar song aloud after supper. Rivky followed the words to the end and looked at the little branch.

For a moment, she still heard the other ending in her head.

An uncle asked whether the girls had written anything new for the booklet.

Chaya's fingers stopped on the edge of her page.

"We chose the songs and made the cover," Rivky said. "Chaya drew the leaves."

Her uncle admired the border. The conversation moved to the old photograph on the front.

Chaya turned the page.

Nobody learned about the exercise book that evening.

Chapter 8A Smaller Invitation

After the dishes were cleared, Chaya asked Rivky to help collect the booklets. Aunt Malky kept two clean copies for Zeidy.

"Thank you for answering that way," Chaya said.

"I almost told everyone before."

"I know."

Rivky stacked the booklets straight.

"If you ever want me to read something, you can ask. I won't ask you to put it in anything."

Chaya thought for a moment.

"Maybe. Not tonight."

"All right."

It was a very small answer. Rivky left it that size.

When they carried the stack into the dining room, Zeidy was looking at the branch beneath the last song.

"Who drew this?"

"Chaya," Rivky said.

"A good place for a branch."

Chaya smiled.

Rivky did too.

There was still something lovely on the page, and nobody had needed to give away what she wanted to keep.