The Shared Window

Ages 12-15

Rochi asks her classmate to hold the sample beneath the lamp.

It is a piece of woven cloth, with a narrow seam she needs to copy on her own work.

The classmate lifts it.

The seam disappears inside a bright fold.

"Turn it back," Rochi says.

Her classmate turns it farther away.

Rochi puts down her needle.

"The other way."

The cloth shifts again. Now she can see its edge, but not the seam.

Her classmate holds it steady.

"Come over here."

Rochi goes around the table. From that side, the lamp shines directly into the raised fold. Every little stitch inside it disappears.

They trade places.

The classmate points at the seam.

"There."

Rochi tips the cloth. The glare moves across it and covers the stitches again.

She lowers the fold.

From this side, the seam comes into view.

Rochi hands the sample back. Instead of returning to her chair, she brings her own work to the table's corner.

There is no chair there. She rests one elbow on the edge and looks at the sample from the side.

Her classmate holds its fold low.

Rochi threads her blunt needle through the next prepared hole. She checks the seam and makes another stitch.

The sample stays in the same position. Beside it, her own short seam grows one stitch longer.