The Two Answers in the Spelling Book

Chapter 1The Mark Beside the Word

The red mark was smaller than a lentil. Chani saw it before she saw anything else on her returned spelling page.

One word wrong: necessary. She had left out the c.

Across the table, Tova tucked her paper into her spelling book. No red marks showed on it.

"Full marks?" Chani asked.

Tova nodded.

Chani turned her own page face down.

She had studied. She had said the words while setting the table and written them on scrap paper until her brother asked whether she was trying to fill the whole house with them.

Now one word stood between her and the page Tova held.

It felt much larger than a word.

Chapter 2The Missing Letter

Their teacher, Mrs. Weiss, whose hair was fully covered by a sheitel, asked the girls to write each corrected word in a sentence.

Chani found the missing letter. It was a letter she had left out during practice too.

She could have fixed it in a minute.

Instead she watched Tova begin the next assignment.

"Some people just know everything," Chani muttered.

Tova looked up.

"Not everything."

"You don't have to pretend."

Tova shut her book a little more firmly than she needed to.

Chani had made Tova's correct answer into an unpleasant conversation. Her own missing letter was still missing.

Chapter 3A Page Under the Page

When Chani put away her paper, an older spelling sheet slipped from the book.

She caught it before it reached the floor.

Six weeks earlier, she had got four words wrong. Last week, two. Today, one.

She knew the words on the old page now. Some of them had once looked impossible.

That didn't turn today's wrong word right. It did make "I never learn anything" a strange thing to say while holding the evidence that she had.

Chani put the two sheets side by side.

Her desk contained two answers to the same question. The red mark said she needed to practice one word. Her angry thought said she was worse at everything.

Only one answer fitted the papers.

Chapter 4Not Tova's Job

At recess Chani found Tova near the classroom doorway. The school corridor was full of girls carrying lunches and books.

"I was unfair about your marks," Chani said. "You didn't do anything wrong by getting the word right."

"I know," Tova said.

Chani waited. There was no cheerful rescue waiting behind those two words.

"I'm sorry I spoke that way."

"All right. But I don't want to hide my paper because you might be upset."

"You shouldn't have to."

Chani was still disappointed about her own page. She could keep that disappointment without handing Tova responsibility for it.

Chapter 5The Useful Question

After recess, Chani waited until Mrs. Weiss had finished answering another girl.

"I left out the same letter in my practice," she said. "Can you help me see how to remember it?"

Mrs. Weiss looked at the two pages.

"Read the word slowly. Which part are you skipping?"

Chani read it and pointed to the c. "I jump straight from the first e to the next e."

They marked that part lightly in pencil. Chani wrote the word once, covered it, and wrote it again.

The second try was right.

"Will I get full marks next time?" Chani asked.

"I can't promise that. You can practice this part correctly."

It wasn't a promise about the next test. It was an answer she could use that afternoon.

Chapter 6Five Minutes, Not Forever

At home, Chani's first idea was to write every word twenty times.

Then she looked at the corrected page again. She knew nine words. One needed a different kind of attention.

She practiced the troublesome part for five minutes, checked it against the book, and stopped.

Mama, whose hair was fully covered by a tichel, asked whether she had finished.

"For today. I want to check the word again tomorrow."

"What about the others?"

"I'll review them too. But I don't need to punish all ten words because one went wrong."

Mama smiled at the idea of words receiving a punishment. Chani smiled too, though she still wished the mark had never been there.

Chapter 7The Next Paper

On the next spelling page, Chani spelled that word correctly. She made a mistake on a different word.

She looked at the red mark. Then she read the rest of the page before turning it over.

Tova had a mistake too. Chani did not feel glad about it. Tova's paper wasn't a ladder she needed to climb down.

"What did you miss?" Tova asked.

Chani showed her.

"I mixed those two letters up last month," Tova said.

They checked their books. Each girl wrote her own correction.

They were able to talk about words again, instead of making the papers decide which girl mattered more.

Chapter 8The Paper She Kept

Chani kept the older sheet behind the new ones.

Not to prove she was the best. It couldn't prove that, and it didn't need to.

It showed words she had once missed and later learned.

Some days Tova finished sooner. Some days Chani remembered a word Tova forgot. The room held other girls who learned at other speeds.

When a mark bothered Chani, she could look at what it actually asked of her.

Fix this part. Check it. Practice it again.

That was enough work for a little red mark to give her.

It did not get to write her whole name in red.