The Bureau of Dreams to be Continued by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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The Bureau of Dreams to be Continued
Page 92
“No, Zeke, the question was, what do you want to learn?”
Not really knowing what to say, he improvised; “I guess I’d like to learn to sing and play the piano with you.”
She blinked a few times, as if she were pleasantly surprised and said; “Very good, Zeke. We will try to accomplish that.” She made some notes on her papers and continued the roll call, sometimes throwing in tricky questions. After they got over their nervousness, the kids started to laugh at some of her questions and more often at the responses.
After everyone was identified, Miss Gracing pointed at the red, white and blue sitting in a notch just above the blackboard and asked a black girl why she thought that flag was there. The girl fidgeted in her seat and mumbled; “I don’t know.” She paused a while in the silence and said; “I guess it’s there to remind us that we’re in America.” Miss Gracing said; “That’s not a bad answer, but mine is that it’s there because the government says it has to be.”
Her answer struck Zeke as odd for some reason, so he called out; “What would happen if someone removed it?”
She said, “Probably nothing.”