The Last White Spot

Ages 12-15

Michal puts a white dot inside the last blue feather.

She steps back from the chalkboard.

The peacock looks at her over its shoulder. Its tail spreads across half the board, with a blue ring inside each feather and a little white dot in the ring.

Debby's hills fill the other half.

The board is for tomorrow's lesson. They have two hours after school to draw on it, with time afterward to leave it clean. Almost all two hours have gone into Michal's tail.

Nomi left before Michal finished the tail. Before she went, Michal told her about the white spots she would put inside the rings. Nomi has an errand at home; she cannot come back this afternoon.

"I wanted her to see it," Michal says.

Debby puts the chalk into its box.

"She saw the bird."

"Not like this."

The bird had a thin body then, with a blank space behind it. Now the feathers curve all the way to the edge of the board.

Michal wipes chalk from her fingers onto the cloth. Blue comes off her thumb.

"We could leave this half," she says.

Debby looks at the tray beneath it. The eraser is there, with two clean cloths for the last chalk dust.

"We said we'd clean it."

Michal knows. She said it first, before they opened the chalk box.

She picks up the eraser.

Debby starts at the far hill. One sweep takes away its top. The next takes away the path below it.

Michal holds the eraser against the bottom corner of her picture.

There is no bird in that corner. She rubs out a little patch of blue dust.

Then she rubs around the tail.

Debby finishes her hills. Michal's peacock stands alone on the board, with a gray space around it.

"Do you want me to do that side?"

Michal shakes her head.

She has spent longer drawing the tail than the whole rest of the bird. One feather has a curve she couldn't get right until she laid the chalk on its side.

That is her favorite feather.

She starts at the other edge of the tail.

A blue ring disappears under her hand. Its white dot leaves a pale streak.

Michal keeps rubbing. Feather by feather, the tail becomes chalk dust. She erases the thin feet, the body, the head looking over its shoulder.

She leaves the favorite feather until last. Its curve goes with two strokes of the eraser. Only its white spot remains near the edge.

Debby wets the two cloths at the sink and wrings them out.

She hands one to Michal.

Michal washes her half in wide strokes. She stops at the white spot.

She presses the damp cloth over it. When she lifts it, there is a clean dark patch.

The board shines while it is wet. Debby's side has begun to dry.

Michal takes her cloth to the sink. Blue water runs from it.

Then she wrings it out and spreads it over the rack beside Debby's.

The chalkboard dries from the edges inward.