The Menu with a Line Through It
Ages 9-12
1. The Top of the List
Tova writes MENU at the top of her list.
Below it she writes PLACE CARDS, GLASSES, PLATES, TABLECLOTH.
She holds the list beside the dining-room table.
"That's everything."
Her younger brother points to the last word.
"Where's the cloth?"
"In the cupboard."
"Then why is it last?"
Tova taps the first word.
"I'm starting with this."
She is eleven. Mommy has asked her to set the table for their cousins' visit. Mommy handles the food. Totty brings the extra chairs.
Tova has permission to make a menu, too.
Mommy tells her what is being served: vegetable soup, rolls, apples and pears.
Tova writes those words on the cardboard. She adds FAMOUS before SOUP.
Her brother leans over.
"Does it know it's famous?"
"It doesn't need to."
Tova gives him a pencil and a practice scrap.
"You can draw the spoon."
2. Standing Up
The menu leans against the wooden stand on the table.
It slides.
Tova turns it around and puts two little loops of tape against the stand. She presses the cardboard into place.
Her brother shows her his spoon. Its bowl is round and its handle is short.
"It looks like a pan."
He makes the handle longer.
Tova gives him the menu. He draws his spoon beside the soup, pressing gently while she holds the cardboard steady.
"Don't lean on the stand."
"I'm leaning on you."
"Don't do that either."
They both laugh.
Tova fixes the menu back onto the stand and crosses out MENU on her list.
Next come the place cards.
She sets one at each chair. Her brother puts his own at the end chair.
"That's Totty's place," Tova says. "Yours is beside mine."
He moves his card to his place.
Tova crosses out PLACE CARDS.
3. The Last Word
The glasses go beside the cards. Tova crosses out GLASSES.
The plates go beside the glasses. She crosses out PLATES.
Tova carries the folded tablecloth from the cupboard.
She lifts one corner.
Her brother takes another.
They open it across the near end of the table, holding it above the dishes.
The first glass stands in their way.
"Hold your side," Tova says.
She moves the glass.
Now the cloth catches against a plate. She lifts that too.
Her brother's place card disappears beneath the fold.
"My name's under the table."
"It's under the cloth."
"It can't eat there."
Tova gathers her end toward her. Her brother lifts his corner clear of the dishes. His card slips onto the floor.
The menu stand tips toward her. She catches it before it touches the plates.
Its cardboard edge bends beneath her hand.
They lift the cloth away from the table. Tova gathers it over the back of an empty chair.
She looks at her list. Four words have lines through them.
Only TABLECLOTH is left.
4. An Empty Table
Mommy comes to the doorway with a bowl.
"Is there space for this yet?"
Tova looks at the cloth on the chair.
"Not yet. I have to move things."
Mommy leaves the bowl in the kitchen.
Her brother picks up his card.
"Shall I get mine out of the way?"
Tova brings the empty tray from the cupboard.
"All of them. Put the cards here."
He collects them while she moves the glasses and plates to the sideboard.
The menu is still on its stand.
Tova lifts both together. The tape pulls against the cardboard as she sets them down.
Her brother looks at the spoon.
"Don't tear that part."
"I won't."
She slides one finger behind the cardboard and loosens the tape. A little layer curls away over its top edge. The F of FAMOUS lifts with it.
AMOUS remains above SOUP.
Her brother puts one hand over his penciled spoon.
Tova lays the menu flat, takes the pencil, and draws one line through the damaged word.
The table is empty now.
Tova lays the list beside the menu.
"I did all these already."
Her brother puts his card on the tray with the others.
5. The Loose Pieces
Tova gets five scraps from her drawing folder.
She writes one job on each.
PLATES. GLASSES. TABLECLOTH. PLACE CARDS. MENU.
She spreads them beside the empty table.
The MENU scrap goes nearest the finished cardboard.
Tova sets the finished menu on its stand, on the bare table.
She brings one edge of the cloth toward it and tries to slide the cloth underneath. The stand tilts.
She lifts the stand clear and puts it on the sideboard above the MENU scrap, at the far end of the row.
She leaves the cloth over the chair again.
She puts TABLECLOTH at the other end.
She looks from the plates on the sideboard to the bare table and moves PLATES behind TABLECLOTH.
Her brother reaches for his card.
"Is this going back now?"
"Not yet."
Tova puts PLACE CARDS after PLATES. She leaves GLASSES beside it.
Her brother picks up the bare MENU scrap.
"This goes with the menu."
He slides it beneath the stand on the sideboard.
Tova takes the cloth from the chair.
"Take the other corner?"
He does.
They spread it over the empty table. Tova pulls her side until both ends hang evenly.
Her brother straightens the corner beside his chair.
6. Back in Place
Tova moves the TABLECLOTH scrap away from the others.
She carries the plates from the sideboard.
Her brother brings the cards and waits beside her.
She puts a plate at each place. Then he sets a card beside each one.
They add the glasses.
Tova reaches for the menu stand. She puts it on the cloth, beyond the plates, where everyone can see it.
The cardboard has a slight bend at one corner.
She turns that corner toward the wall and fixes fresh tape behind it.
Mommy comes back with the bowl. This time Tova moves aside.
Her brother looks at the loose job scraps.
"There isn't one for soup."
"Mommy has the soup."
7. Small Letters
At supper, Totty passes the rolls. The cousins read the menu and find their place cards.
Her brother leans closer to show the spoon's little bowl. Tova steadies the stand while the cousin looks.
After supper, her brother asks for the pencil again.
He writes beneath the crossed-out AMOUS: DID NOT SIGN AUTOGRAPHS.
Tova holds the cardboard while he finishes the last letter. Then she reads it and laughs.
When the visitors leave, she takes it off the stand. She folds the menu around the five loose job scraps, with her brother's little sentence facing out.