The Tray That Leaned Toward the Window
Chapter 1A Straight Row
Tova planted twelve bean seeds in twelve small paper cups.
Each cup had a little drainage hole. Mommy had helped her make them before they filled the cups with soil.
Tova stood them on a shallow waterproof tray, which rested on a thick piece of cardboard beside the window. The cardboard covered a narrow gap between two firm wooden stands.
Her brother Shmuel planted six seeds in larger cups on a second tray, directly on the wide windowsill.
Tova liked her arrangement better. Twelve neat circles in three straight rows looked like a tiny garden already.
She drew the rows in her notebook.
Shmuel drew one cup and a very large leaf above it.
"They have not grown yet," Tova said.
"I left room."
Mommy showed them how much water to give the cups and where excess water would collect. Then she left a small jug beside the sink.
Chapter 2The Crooked Morning
Two mornings later, Tova's rows were crooked.
Several cups leaned toward the window. One had tipped against its neighbor, leaving a patch of damp soil on the tray.
Shmuel's six cups stood straight.
Tova looked from his tray to hers.
"Did you move them to see better?"
"No."
"You were here first."
"I was looking for my notebook."
Tova put the tipped cup upright. Its rim was soft from water. She moved it back into the row and pressed the soil gently around the seed.
Shmuel watched.
"That side is lower."
"It was straight when I made it."
She adjusted the cups again. By the time she finished, the first one had begun leaning once more.
Her twelve-circle drawing lay open on the table. The real cups looked nothing like it.
Chapter 3Under the Tray
Mommy came to the window. Her hair was covered by a pale gray scarf.
She looked at the cups, then at the water along the tray's window edge.
"Let us move this onto the clear table."
Tova reached for two corners.
"All of it?"
"I will carry it. You move the notebook."
On the bare table, the cups stood straighter.
A dark wet mark remained on the cardboard by the window. Its middle sagged into the gap between the stands. Near the window, the soft cardboard had collapsed over one stand, letting that side of the tray sink.
Tova touched a dry corner. It felt different from the soft middle.
"I put water in the cups."
"Some went over the tray yesterday," Shmuel said. "I saw it when you lifted the jug."
Tova remembered wiping the windowsill. She had not looked beneath the tray.
The cardboard had changed after she arranged her rows.
Chapter 4Two Different Problems
Mommy took away the wet cardboard. The waterproof tray was sound. She dried its underside and checked that the table surface was level.
Tova lined up the cups again.
One still leaned.
"It is happening here too."
Mommy turned that cup carefully. Its lower side had softened where it had stood in collected water. It no longer had a flat base.
"The cardboard tilted the tray. This cup has also changed shape."
Tova had hoped one explanation would fix everything.
They moved that seed and its soil into a spare cup, with Mommy supporting the little clump so it stayed together. They emptied the collected water into the sink.
Shmuel brought a dry cloth.
Tova took it without telling him she could manage.
Then she looked at his notebook beside the jug.
"I thought you had moved my cups. You did not."
He nodded. "Mine lean when I draw them badly."
Chapter 5A Smaller Garden
The safest clear place by the window was narrower than the old cardboard base. Mommy would not put another piece of cardboard across the gap.
Twelve cups would not fit there in three straight rows.
Tova tried two long rows. The last cup stood so close to the edge that Mommy asked her to move it.
Tova did not want half her garden in another place. She wanted to compare all twelve together.
Shmuel pointed to his tray.
"There is room for four here."
His six cups were larger, but he had left spaces between them. They moved the cups carefully and checked that none touched the edge.
Tova put four of her cups beside his six. The other eight stayed on her own tray.
She added tiny pencil numbers to the dry paper labels, not to the wet cup rims. Then she changed the drawing in her notebook.
Her neat garden had become two untidy gardens.
But every seed had a safe place.
Chapter 6The First Green Hook
The first bean shoot appeared in cup seven, on Shmuel's tray.
It looked like a green hook pushing through the soil.
Tova called him to see it.
"One of yours?" he asked.
She checked the little paper number.
"Mine. On your tray."
He drew a hook beneath his enormous leaf.
Over the next two days, more shoots appeared. Some were on one tray and some on the other. Two cups had not changed at all.
Tova left their numbers in the notebook. She did not draw leaves where there were none.
When she watered, she used the small jug slowly. Mommy helped her check for collected water afterward.
Shmuel held the notebook while she looked beneath the tray.
The surface was dry.
At the window, cup seven had begun to straighten its hooked stem. Tova added a second line beside its number to show how much taller it had become.
Then she turned the notebook toward her brother.
"Your leaf might need more room soon."
