The Place in the Line

Ages 12-15

Ayelet has waited twenty minutes outside the workroom.

Inside, a potter is showing the girls how she makes a bowl on her wheel. Only one small group fits around the table. The next group is the last one of the school exhibition.

Ayelet wants to see the bowl begin. The finished bowls in the corridor have thin sides. She has tried making a little pot from a lump of clay at home; hers has sides as thick as its bottom.

Tamaris stands in front of her.

They have moved past three classroom doors since joining the line. Now they can hear the wheel through the workroom wall.

Orit comes from the other end of the corridor.

"It's sticking."

"What?"

"The snow. On the courtyard wall."

All week, the snow has melted as soon as it touches the ground. At lunch, the girls watched flakes turn into drops on the window ledge.

"You can see it from the landing," Orit says.

Ayelet looks ahead. There are two girls between Tamaris and the workroom door.

"Will you stay here?" she asks Orit.

"I'm going back to look."

Orit turns toward the stairs.

Ayelet follows her.

At the landing window, the top of the courtyard wall has a narrow white edge. More flakes settle on it while they watch.

Orit points to the low roof beside the gate. That is white too.

Ayelet watches a flake catch on the outside window ledge. Its points show for a moment. Then it becomes a drop.

Another lands.

She waits for that one too.

From down the corridor comes the sound of chairs moving.

Ayelet turns away from the glass.

"I'm going back."

The line has moved. Tamaris stands next to the open door. Girls from the other classroom have joined at the back.

Tamaris shifts sideways when she sees Ayelet.

"Come here."

Ayelet looks at the girl behind Tamaris. She was behind Ayelet before.

"I left."

"Just for a minute. I can say you were here."

"I wasn't."

Ayelet walks past the girls to the back of the line.

The potter's assistant lets Tamaris into the room. The next girl goes in. Then two more.

On the table inside, a gray lump turns on the wheel.

The assistant stops admitting girls.

"That's the last group."

Other girls remain ahead of Ayelet.

The gray lump is still solid when the assistant shuts the door.

The assistant stretches a rope between the hooks on either side of the doorway.

The girls ahead of Ayelet pick up their bags. She stays a moment longer.

The rope hangs across the doorway.