“And all good ones too,” chirped Kathy.
“The Cloud of Doom is getting bigger every day!” Myron exclaimed. “What does it matter if we can spell?”
“So we can read and write,” Mrs. Jewls replied.
“What’s the point of reading?” asked Leslie.
“What’s the point of writing?” asked Jason.
“What the point of arithmetic?” asked Benjamin.
“There is no point!” Myron grumpled. He slammed his pencil down hard on his desk. The point broke off of it.
“I understand you’re scared and upset,” said Mrs. Jewls. “But what’s the point of quitting? We can all just sit around and grumple, or we can try to do our best, cloud or no cloud.
“And it hasn’t been all bad,” Mrs. Jewls continued. “We’ve been getting a whole lot more nail clippings.”
That was true. Ever since the Cloud of Doom appeared, everyone’s fingernails and toenails had been growing a lot faster. They had to be clipped three or four times a week.
The number on the board was now 19,457.
“Someday, the Cloud of Doom will be gone,” said Mrs. Jewls. “And the world will be a much better place, even better than before the cloud. Colors will be more colorful. Music will be more musical. Even Miss Mush’s food will taste good. The bigger the storm, the brighter the rainbow.”
At that moment, a crack of thunder shook the classroom, and then the lights went out.
The children screamed. They weren’t scared. They just liked screaming in the dark.
Mrs. Jewls lit a candle, and everyone settled down. “Now, shall we continue with our spelling?”
Jenny raised her hand and suggested, “Hope.”
“Excellent word,” said Mrs. Jewls.
She held her candle in one hand, and the chalk in the other. She said the letters out loud as she wrote them on the blackboard.
“H-o-p-e.”
12
Mrs. Surlaw
The library was on the seventh floor. Mrs. Surlaw was the librarian.
A giant stuffed walrus sat next to her desk. The walrus was bigger than most of the kids in the school, and a couple of the teachers too.
Kindergarteners often got scared the first time they saw Mrs. Surlaw’s walrus. When they dared touch one of its giant tusks, however, they discovered it was soft as a pillow.
There were lots of rules in the library. No eating, no drinking, no yelling, no somersaults, and no hugging the walrus until after you checked out a book.
Mrs. Surlaw wheeled her book cart along a row of bookcases. She picked up a book, turned to the last page, and then put it on the shelf where it belonged. She took another book, checked its last page, and put that one in its proper place as well.
She heard the rumble of feet on the stairs, and the chirps and shrieks of young voices. This was followed by shushing sounds.
Mrs. Jewls’s class politely entered the library. They were scared of Mrs. Surlaw.
While the two adults greeted each other, the children scurried to different parts of the library. They had only fifteen minutes to choose and check out a book.
“Have you read The Pig, the Princess, and the Potato?” Leslie asked Jenny.