Sparkers Read Online Free PDF

get big, as though he’s just remembered making a terrible mistake.
    â€œCan my mother bring him tomorrow?” I ask the kasir.
    The official’s gaze slides back to me. “Your brother must come to the District Hall immediately. It’s only a few blocks away.”
    â€œBut sir, I’m in Final, and the SSE’s today. It starts in less than an hour. I promise my mother will—”
    â€œI have orders,” the kasir says, a note of regret in his voice. “If you want, I could take him over myself.”
    I would never leave my brother in the hands of some kasir official, but all I say is, “He’s deaf, sir. Someone needs to interpret for him.”
    Cursing to myself, I sign to Caleb.
He says we have to go now
.
    He raises his eyebrows.
What about the SSE?
    Don’t worry
, I sign.
We’ll find Mother. She can stay with you, and I’ll go to school
.
    Once I’ve gathered our identity papers and my schoolbag, we leave the apartment and proceed downstairs.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    A T THE D ISTRICT Hall, a balding official directs us to a room containing a row of chairs and an unoccupied desk. According to the clock on the wall, it’s five past eight. The SSE begins in less than half an hour.
    â€œWait,” I say to the official before he withdraws. “Where can I find Chavah Levi?”
    The balding kasir frowns in puzzlement, but he says, “Chavah Levi works upstairs.”
    Leaving Caleb in the waiting room, I find the staircase and climb to the upper floor. It’s a labyrinth. The hallways zigzag, there are too many corners, and nothing distinguishes one stretch of corridor from another except the words stenciled on the doors’ frosted panes: Registry of Vital Records, Health and Sanitation, Courtroom . . . Many rooms are empty, and the people I do find send me farther on with confusing directions.
    Ready to give in to blind panic, I poke my head into the next office. A man in a plain black suit is standing near the window, his arms loaded with papers.
    â€œExcuse me, sir, where’s Chavah Levi?”
    He gives me a startled look. “Levi? Oh, they sent her across the city to deliver some documents. She’ll be back this afternoon.”
    This afternoon? There’s no hope. My expression must betray me, because he says, “Is it urgent?”
    I shake my head and dart out.
    Caleb looks alarmed when I rush into the waiting room. The kasir who summoned us from the apartment is here, chatting with another official who has returned to his post at the desk.
    â€œSir,” I gasp, addressing our escort. “Our mother’s not here. Would it be possible for the examiner to come at once?”
    He purses his lips. “I’ll see what I can do.”
    He leaves the waiting room, and I sink into the chair next to Caleb’s.
    You should go
, my brother signs.
I can stay by myself
.
    I shake my head. I’m not abandoning him in this nest of kasiri to fend for himself.
    The examiner doesn’t come. The SSE will have started by now. Will they let me in late? I feel like the breakfast in my stomach is curdling.
    Finally, a pudgy, black-clad kasir enters the waiting room and calls Caleb’s name. He ushers us into a cramped side office and motions for us to sit.
    â€œThis is the boy?” he says.
    â€œYes, sir.” I hand him Caleb’s papers. He glances at them, then flings them onto a chair.
    â€œStand up. How old are you?” He gestures impatiently, and Caleb leaps to his feet. I sign to him discreetly, and he raises all ten fingers.
    â€œWhy don’t you speak, boy?”
    â€œHe’s deaf, sir,” I say.
    The official becomes, if possible, even more bored. My stomach tightens as he begins a sequence of hand motions and spoken syllables. Pinpricks of light—gold, green, purple —blossom and die at his fingertips. I want to cover my nose against the magic’s sharp