The Line Without a Name

Ages 9-12

"A drawing table," Odel says.

"We could try a different shape each week. A curled leaf. Or a cup seen from above."

She draws a small oval on a scrap, then puts a handle beside it.

Her friend turns the scrap around.

"That's a cup?"

"You're looking down into it."

The teacher writes DRAWING TABLE on the class free-time plan. Her friend adds Odel's name beside it.

"Would you prepare an example each week, ready before free time starts?" the teacher asks.

Odel looks from the oval to her name.

"It was your idea," her friend says.

Odel's comic lies open on her desk. Three frames are finished. In the fourth, a mouse stands at a balloon shop with an empty speech bubble.

Odel picks up the cup scrap.

"Maybe we don't need a drawing table."

The teacher draws a line through DRAWING TABLE.

Her friend puts down the pencil.

"I thought the cups sounded fun."

Odel looks at the line across the words. Beside them, her name is still readable.

"Could the idea stay?" she asks. "I don't want to prepare it each week."

"Then I'll leave it as a suggestion," the teacher says.

She writes DRAWING TABLE below the crossed-out line. The space beside it stays blank.

Her friend shakes her head.

"I want to draw at it. I don't want to make all the examples either."

When free time begins, the reading books come out. Two girls set up the word cards.

There is no drawing table.

Odel stays at her ordinary desk and opens the comic.

She draws three round balloons above the shop counter.

Her friend finishes a page at the next desk.

"Can I see the last bit?"

Odel moves the comic between them.

"I still need what he says."

Her friend points to a balloon.

"Does he want that one?"

She writes in the mouse's bubble: Have you got a square one?

Her friend bends over the fourth frame and reads it.