The Triangle at the Edge

Ages 9-12

Nachshon draws a bridge across his page.

Beneath its arch, he adds a boat. Its sides come up high around the man at the oars. One oar reaches almost to the bank.

At the next desk, his friend trims a little triangle from the edge of a flat blue bookmark. The cut piece curls beside his scissors.

His friend puts the scissors in his case and leans over Nachshon's page.

"He's rowing a bathtub."

Nachshon lays one hand across the bridge.

He folds the page across the bridge. The boat disappears inside.

His friend goes back to his own desk and opens a book.

At break, Nachshon bends to pick up his pencil case. A strip of blue lies beneath the next desk.

He picks it up.

His friend looks at the strip in Nachshon's hand.

"Have you seen my bookmark?"

Nachshon holds the blue strip beside his folded drawing.

"Say sorry about my boat first."

His friend sets the open book on his desk.

He keeps his hands beside it.

Nachshon's thumb rests in the little notch. He turns the bookmark so the notch faces the page.

Then he lowers it onto the open book and takes his hand away.

His friend puts the strip between the pages. He closes the book with a blue corner sticking out, tucks it under his arm and goes to the reading corner.

The next desk is empty.

Nachshon sits down. He opens his pencil case and takes out the pencil.

He unfolds the drawing.

The boat sits beneath the penciled bridge. A crease runs across the bridge.