The Wrong Way to Room 214

Ages 12-15

Chapter 1: The Fork

On the second day of the school year, Rivka knows exactly where everything is.

Second-year girls do. The stairwell is behind her, the cafeteria is one floor down, and the hall splits ahead of her at a fork, with the library on the right and the water fountain on the left.

She has eleven minutes and a tray to get.

A small girl stops in front of her, holding a paper in both hands. Room 214 is circled on it twice in blue pen.

"Do you know where this is?"

"Left," Rivka says. "Past the fountain."

Her arm points right, toward the library. She does not see it. She is already on the stairs, and the girl is saying thanks to her back.

Chapter 2: The Glass Doors

The lunch line is long, and Rivka is fourth.

She takes a tray. She takes a roll and a cup of soup and sets them down.

Through the glass doors she can see the main hall, and in it the small girl, walking past the cafeteria with the paper held out in front of her.

She is going the wrong way. The hall she went down ends at a gray door. It says BOILER ROOM in red.

Room 214 is on the right. Rivka has had gym next to it since last year. Room 118, by the fountain, is on the left.

The line moves one step. She is third.

Chapter 3: The Gray Door

Rivka puts the tray on the nearest table. It tips a little, and the soup slops over the edge of the cup.

She does not go back for it.

The hall is empty and loud with her shoes. At the end of it, the small girl stands in front of the gray door. She is looking at the paper, then at the door, then at the paper again.

"It's not here," she says.

"No. I said left."

"I saw your arm go the other way," the girl says. "I thought you were stretching."

"I was pointing."

The girl looks at her. She is not angry. She looks like she is checking which one of them to believe now.

"It's the other side," Rivka says. "Come."

They walk. They pass the fountain. At the fork, Rivka stops, turns, and points with her whole arm. It points right. This time she says it, too.

"Right."

Chapter 4: Two Crackers

Room 214 has the door open and a table of new girls, each with a lunch bag.

A teacher looks up from her list.

"You're late," she says to the girl, gently.

"She was sent the wrong way," Rivka says. "By me."

The teacher looks at her for a moment and nods at the door.

The girl, whose name tag says Baila, goes in. She sits in the last chair and unzips her bag. She does not look back.

By the time Rivka reaches the cafeteria, the line is gone. The soup pot is scraped, and a rack of rolls has a cloth over it.

Her tray is where she left it. The soup has gone cold, with a skin on it.

At the cart by the door, a lady is packing up. She hands Rivka two packs of crackers without being asked.

Rivka eats them standing at the fork.

Chapter 5: The Next Morning

Rivka takes the stairs with her bag on both shoulders.

At the fork, a boy is standing with a paper. He is small, with his collar buttoned to the top.

"Excuse me. Do you know where Room 118 is?"

She does not answer. She takes the paper and reads the number. She reads it again.

She says "Left," and points left, and watches her own arm until it stops. Then she starts walking.

"Come," she says.

He follows her the whole way, and at the door she knocks on the number with her knuckle, twice.