A Drop of Rain Read Online Free PDF Page A

boss me.
    Mary talks almost constantly as we are working together. She tries to teach me stuff by telling me funny little stories. At times, her stories are almost impossible to understand, because her English is so bad. I have to listen closely and get her to repeat words, so I can figure out what she is trying to say. She asks me to correct her English. But if I corrected every mistake, she’d never finish one single story in a whole eight-hour shift.
    Mary says she’s writing her life story for her grandchildren. I hope her Polish is better than her English!

    I was leafing through a book about Poland that Hanna gave Mom a long time ago. The book was in English. It was called,
Poland: A Tourist Guide
. I was wondering whether it might have some quotes I could use for my history class. This is what the book said about the Jews during World War II: “The Jewish population of Warsaw was walled up in the Ghetto in 1940. Condemned to extermination, the Jews entered the unequal struggle. The Ghetto Uprising broke out on April 19, 1943 and continued till May 16, 1943. Unspeakable terror ruled the city.”
    Mom says that about six million Polish people died during World War II. This was about one quarter ofthe total population of Poland. About three million of these people were Jewish, and about three million were not Jewish. The ones who were not Jewish were mostly Christians. Mom says that many people today, possibly including Mr. Dunlop, do not know about the “horrendous death toll” of Polish Christians.
    Mom says she has a book called
The Forgotten Holocaust
that I should read some day. It is about the three million, non-Jewish Poles who were murdered during World War II. The author of the book is Richard Lukas. Mom gave me a copy of this quote from the book: “On August 22, 1939, a few days before the official start of World War II, Hitler authorized his commanders to kill ‘without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language’.”
    Mom thinks Mr. Dunlop might be interested in seeing this quote.
Curtis
    Mom and Steve have broken up because of me. He finally did it. Got even more drunk than usual and called me a “faggot” for not liking sports. I had politely asked him to please turn down the football game that he was watching on TV in the living room. I had explained that the noise was bothering me in my room.
    â€œSo whaddaya do for hours in your room?” he asks.
    â€œHe’s painting animals for his art portfolio,” says Mom. “He biked up to the wildlife park to do sketches of the animals, and now he’s making paintings. LikeRobert Bateman. He saw a TV program about Bateman, and he got really inspired. He’s always loved animals and art.”
    â€œAll those artist types are faggots,” says Steve. “Including Curtis-pooh here.”
    â€œWhy don’t you just get out of here,” I yell. “What makes you think you have the right to hang around here anyway? Do you think you
own
my mother?”
    â€œAh, shaddup!” the moron says, and turns the volume up on the TV . “Why’d ya hafta come back here anyway? I thought you and your fairy father were having a great time. Your Mom and I sure were.”
    At that point, I rush him and get him by his idiotic bull neck. Steve, who has been working for a moving company and lifting incredible weights, shoves me off him, lunges after me, kicks me in the shin and punches me in the gut before I can get away from him.
    Mom screams, runs to the kitchen, and dials 911. Before the police get here, Steve staggers out the front door, gets in his car and roars away.
    I am still in pain when the police arrive, but nothing is broken, so Mom refuses to press charges. She also begs me not to. She says Steve’s upset because he lost his job.
    Now Mom is depressed about Steve leaving. My fault, I suppose. Too bad.
Mary
Seeds
    If you look at seeds up close, they