A Long Day in November Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’m looking down at the floor. Bill turns me round so I can dry the back of my pants. He pats me on the shoulder and goes back to his seat.
    After Miss Hebert gets through with the second graders, she tells the children they can go out for recess. I can hear them getting their coats and hats. When they all leave, I raise my head. I still see Bill and Juanita and Veta sitting there. Bill smiles at me, but I don’t smile back. My clothes’s dry now, and I feel better. I know the rest of the children go’n tease me, though.
    â€œBill, why don’t you and the rest of the seventh graders put your arithmetic problems on the board,” Miss Hebert says. “We’ll look at them after recess.”
    Bill and them stand up, and I watch them go to the blackboard in the back.
    â€œEddie?” Miss Hebert says.
    I turn and I see her sitting behind her desk. And I see Billy Joe Martin standing in the corner with his face to the wall.
    â€œCome up to the front,” Miss Hebert says.
    I go up there looking down at the floor, because I know she go’n whip me now.
    â€œWilliam Joseph, you may leave,” Miss Hebert says.

    Billy Joe Martin runs over and gets his coat, and then he runs outside to shoot marbles. I stand in front of Miss Hebert’s desk with my head down.
    â€œLook up,” she says.
    I raise my head and look at Miss Hebert. She’s smiling, and she don’t look mad.
    â€œNow,” she says. “Did you study your lesson last night?”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” I say.
    â€œI want the truth now,” she says. “Did you?”
    It’s a sin to story in the churchhouse, but I’m scared Miss Hebert go’n whip me.
    â€œYes, ma’am,” I say.
    â€œDid you study it this morning?” she asks.
    â€œYes, ma’am,” I say.
    â€œThen why didn’t you know it?” she asks.
    I feel a big knot coming up in my throat and I feel like I’m go’n cry again. I’m scared Miss Hebert go’n whip me, that’s why I story to her.
    â€œYou didn’t study your lesson, did you?” she says.
    I shake my head. “No, ma’am.”
    â€œYou didn’t study it last night either, did you?”
    â€œNo, ma’am,” I say. “Mama didn’t have time to help me. Daddy wasn’t home. Mama didn’t have time to help me.”
    â€œWhere is your father?” Miss Hebert asks.
    â€œCutting cane.”
    â€œHere on this place?”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” I say.

    Miss Hebert looks at me, and then she gets out a pencil and starts writing on a piece of paper. I look at her writing and I look at the clock and the strap. I can hear the clock. I can hear Billy Joe Martin and them shooting marbles outside. I can hear Lucy and them jumping rope, and some more children playing “Patty-cake.”
    â€œI want you to give this to your mother or your father when you get home,” Miss Hebert says. “This is only a little note saying I would like to see them sometime when they aren’t too busy.”
    â€œWe don’t live home no more,” I say.
    â€œOh?” Miss Hebert says. “Did you move?”
    â€œMe and Mama,” I say. “But Daddy didn’t.”
    Miss Hebert looks at me, and then she writes some more on the note. She puts her pencil down and folds the note up.
    â€œBe sure to give this to your mother,” she says. “Put it in your pocket and don’t lose it.”
    I take the note from Miss Hebert, but I don’t leave the desk.
    â€œDo you want to go outside?” she asks.
    â€œYes, ma’am.”
    â€œYou may leave,” she says.
    I go over and get my coat and cap, and then I go out in the yard. I see Billy Joe Martin and Charles and them shooting marbles over by the gate. I don’t go over there because they’ll tease me. I go ’side the schoolhouse and look at Lucy and
them jumping rope. Lucy ain’t