Sparkers Read Online Free PDF Page B

smell.
    The examiner’s hands still. He keeps one held out, palm up, and utters a last incantation. A bead of light appears in the hollow of his hand. Its color is indeterminate, an unripe silver. I know from my own test that green means kasir and blue halan. I hold my breath.
    The drop of light turns blue.
    I let out an audible sigh. The kasir makes me sign a document in Mother’s place. After I convince the examiner my brother can write his own name, Caleb signs too.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    O UTSIDE THE D ISTRICT Hall, Caleb assures me I don’t need to walk him to the Avrams’, so I let him go on his way. As I sprint toward school, I picture myself ending up on the docks of the Davgir unloading barges of Xanite cotton and Laishidi silk, or working on a factory assembly line.
    My calves are burning by the time I reach Horiel Primary. The foyer is empty but for the caretaker sweeping the floor. The door of the headmaster’s office looms at the end of the hallway. Steeling myself, I knock.
    â€œEnter,” comes a muffled voice.
    I let myself into the office and approach Aradi Terach’s desk until the fumes from his pipe become too much. His eyes are small and sharp in his broad face, and his thick fingers drum on his armrest. School headmaster is one of the plusher jobs available to halani, a fact which makes Aradi Terach rather smug.
    â€œGood morning, sir. My name is Marah Levi.” I haven’t been in enough trouble to have wound up in his office for years, so he won’t remember my name. “I’m in Final, and I’m supposed to be taking the SSE, but I wasn’t able to get to school until now.”
    He lowers his pipe and squints at me. I already have a feeling I’ll never see the pages of this year’s test.
    â€œThe exam was set for this morning, Levi. Every Final student in Ashara has known this for weeks. What possible excuse might you have for arriving so catastrophically late?”
    â€œMy brother was summoned to the District Hall, sir.”
    â€œAs far as I am aware, it was not your brother who was registered for the SSE,” says Aradi Terach.
    â€œYes, but I had to go with him. He’s deaf.”
    â€œSurely your mother could have taken him?”
    â€œMy mother works, sir.” Anxious to head off further questions, I ask, “Since the exam’s not over yet, do you think I could start it now?”
    â€œThe proctors cannot make irregular accommodations. The rules state—”
    â€œPlease, Aradi, there was nothing I could do.”
    â€œDid you just interrupt me?” says the headmaster.
    The blood reverses in my veins.
    â€œYou are dismissed, Levi. The SSE will be offered again next year.”

4
    W here were you yesterday?” Leah demands when I burst out of the apartment building in the morning, my violin case banging against my leg and Caleb on my heels. My friend is waiting on our doorstep with her own fiddle case.
    â€œYou’re here already?” I usually meet her at her place when I bring Caleb over.
    â€œOf course I’m here!” Leah signs hello to Caleb before continuing. “I could barely concentrate yesterday, wondering what had happened. I came by after school to find out, but you weren’t home. It was the SSE, Marah!”
    â€œI know.” I turn to Caleb.
Can you walk to Leah’s by yourself?
    He just grins and disappears around the corner. As Leah and I start toward school, I tell her about my morning at the District Hall and the headmaster’s total lack of sympathy.
    Leah strides faster in her agitation. “What will you
do
?”
    â€œWait till next year, I guess.” That’s what I told Mother last night. After leaving the headmaster’s office, I went on a long, dazed walk through the city and didn’t return home until the sun was sinking. Mother was waiting for me, distressed and overflowing with apologies even though I didn’t blame