The Last Word

Ages 12-15

Bracha folds the blank comment slip beneath her palm.

Across the table, her classmate pushes Bracha's model road aside.

"That will never fit."

Bracha picks up her pencil. She has a sentence ready about the other girl's enormous sign. It will make the two girls beside her laugh.

She puts the pencil down beside the folded slip.

The model road bends across the display's front edge. The enormous sign takes up one corner. Between them, there is no room for the little paper houses.

Bracha moves the first section of road toward the corner.

"Try this part."

Her classmate keeps one finger on the sign.

"The bend won't fit."

Bracha lifts the bend away. She leaves the straight section in place.

One paper house fits beside it. A second fits beyond that.

The classmate moves her sign half an inch. The road stops just beneath its edge.

Bracha looks at the loose curved section in her hand.

She sets it beside the display.

One of the girls picks it up.

"Where does this go?"

Bracha points outside the model's border.

"Not in here."

The girl lays it on the table.

They place the last house beside the straight road. Bracha moves it back a little so its steps do not cover the line.

The enormous sign stays in its corner.

Bracha opens the folded slip. No pencil mark crosses it. She returns it to the pile beside the unused curved road.