The Thread on the Back

Ages 12-15

Michal has sewn the middle blue wave twice.

The first one dips too far. She takes it out. The second rises above the other two.

Around her, the other girls are putting their needles away. The long strip of cloth lies across three desks. When it is finished, their teacher will hang it above the classroom shelves. Each girl has sewn a small picture along the bottom. Together, the pictures will make one border.

Michal's middle blue wave rises toward the yellow sun above it. The wave nearly touches its lowest ray.

She slides her needle under the top blue stitch.

She could take it out now. That would leave only two waves, but two would be better than this. She can sew it again tomorrow.

The stitch loosens. Michal pinches the loop and pulls.

One yellow ray moves.

She stops with the thread still between her fingers.

The sun has a circle of short rays. The girl beside her has spent the whole afternoon sewing them. Now one ray tips toward Michal's wave.

Michal lets the loop go.

The ray settles back, nearly where it was.

She turns the cloth over.

There are knots and short tails underneath. A long stretch of blue thread runs across the back of the yellow sun. She left it there when she moved her needle from one wave to another.

Yellow stitches cross over it.

Michal lifts the blue thread a little. A yellow stitch tightens.

She lowers it.

"Are you taking yours out?" the girl beside her asks.

"This wave. But I think your sun is holding my thread."

The girl turns the cloth toward herself.

"Oh. I didn't see that on the back."

Their teacher comes down the row with a box for the needles.

"We have a snag," Michal says.

The teacher puts the box on the desk. She looks at both sides of the cloth.

"Leave it flat for a moment. I'll get the little scissors."

All of it, Michal thinks. Take all of it out.

Instead, she follows the blue thread on the back.

Here it comes out of her wave. Here it goes beneath the yellow. Here it comes free again.

She puts one finger beside each end of the trapped stretch.

When the teacher returns, Michal keeps her fingers there.

"These two places. The yellow goes over it in between."

The teacher checks, then lifts the blue thread clear of the cloth. She makes two small cuts.

The trapped bit stays under the yellow stitches. The teacher loosens the end of the thread at Michal's wave.

Michal turns the cloth face up. This time, when she eases out a stitch, the yellow sun does not move.

One blue stitch comes away. Then another.

The middle wave comes out. A row of holes remains between the other two.

Michal rubs a thumb beside them, not over them. They still follow the high curve.

"We'll leave that little piece on the back for now," the teacher says. "Don't pull it."

The girl beside Michal checks the yellow rays. She turns the cloth over, then checks the front again.

"Keep the sun on top when we fold it? I want to check it tomorrow."

"I will," Michal says. She gathers the loose blue thread into a small pile.

The two remaining waves are far apart. Tomorrow she will have to fit the third one between them.

She could put in a few quick stitches before the cloth goes away. But on the back, a yellow thread crosses the place where she would put her needle. One quick stitch could catch it.

The teacher is closing the needle box.

Michal lays her needle inside.

Then she helps fold the long strip, keeping the yellow sun on top.