Bubble in the Bathtub Read Online Free PDF Page B

Years’ War they fought against England, Mrs. Strobe?”
    The whole class laughed while Mrs. Strobe drummed her nails against her desk and contemplated the strange little boy who had been in her class since the spring.
    â€œIf you had been paying attention instead of whistling, you would realize that the Hundred Years’ War in France is exactly what I’ve been talking about, Mr. Nilly. For example, what did I just say about Joan of Arc?”
    â€œJoan of Arc,” Nilly repeated, scratching the sideburns by his left ear thoughtfully. “Hm, sounds familiar. A woman, right?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œA famous cancan dancer?”
    â€œNilly!”
    â€œOkay, okay. Can you narrow it down for me a little?”
    Mrs. Strobe sighed. “Joan of Arc was a nice, pious village girl. As a young girl she received a mysteriousmessage to find the French crown prince, who was hiding somewhere in France, and help him.”
    â€œSounds very familiar,” Nilly said. “She didn’t by any chance get the message on a postcard from Paris with a rare stamp on it from 1888, did she?”
    â€œWhat are you talking about? Joan of Arc’s message came from angels talking inside her head!”
    â€œSorry, Mrs. Strobe, just a short circuit in my tiny, and yet very complex, brain.”
    Nilly glanced over at Lisa, who had her head down on her desk and her hands over her head again.
    â€œIt won’t happen again, Mrs. Strobe,” Nilly said. “So, what happened to this Joan of Arc?”
    Mrs. Strobe leaned over her desk.
    â€œThat is precisely what I was about to tell you. Joan of Arc found the crown prince and they fought the English together. That young teenage girl put on armor, learned to use a sword like a master, and led the French troops into battle. To this day, she remainsthe great national heroine of France. Write that down, everyone!”
    â€œWonderful!” Nilly exclaimed. “The good girl won. I love a story with a happy ending!”
    Mrs. Strobe lowered her long, protruding nose so that it almost touched her desk and peered at the class over the top of her glasses.
    â€œWell, there are happy endings and there are happy endings. She was taken prisoner and sold to the English, who sentenced her to death for witchcraft. Then they invited all the inhabitants of Rouen to come to the Old Market Square where they tied her to a stake, tossed wood on a bonfire, lit it …”
    There was a high-pitched, almost plaintive outcry from somewhere in the classroom: “… but then, just in the nick of time, the crown prince rescued her.”
    Everyone turned to look at Lisa, who was holding her hands over her mouth in horror. No one—not even Lisa—was used to Lisa having an outburst like that.
    â€œLook closely at the picture in your history book, Lisa,” Mrs. Strobe said. “You can see the flames reaching all the way up to the top of Joan of Arc’s white dress. Does it look like she got rescued?”
    â€œNo!” the class shouted in unison.
    â€œAnd she didn’t,” Mrs. Strobe said. “She burned to death and they tossed her charred body into the river. Joan of Arc was nineteen years old.”
    Lisa looked at the illustration in her history book. The girl’s face reminded her of another face in another picture. The young Juliette Margarine in the sidecar of Doctor Proctor’s motorcycle. Lisa’s eyes teared up at the thought of the awful thing that had happened.
    â€œOf course the girl died,” Nilly said.
    Mrs. Strobe took off her glasses. “Why do you say that, Nilly?”
    â€œTo be a real hero, you have to be really dead.”
    The class laughed, but Mrs. Strobe nodded at this.“Maybe so,” she mumbled. “Maybe so.”
    And with that the bell rang and even before Mrs. Strobe got to the
h
in “have a good weekend,” the first student was out the door. Because this was the