An Orphan's Tale Read Online Free Page A

the Post Office during the day, spent his shift sleeping in Mr. Gitelman’s office. Danny waited awhile. Then, when he was warm again, he tiptoed to the other end of the room, out into the corridor, and unlocked his metal locker. He sat on the stone floor and wrote by flashlight.
    *
    Continued:
    I just got back from seeing their secret clubhouse. I’m not sure exactly where it is because they blindfolded me to take me there, but it’s a room that was probably once used for special meetings of trustees or alumni, with beautiful wood walls and sinks and cabinets and counters for serving drinks.
    Larry Silverberg wants me to help him plan what to do to stop the Home from sending us away but I couldn‘t say anything to him!
    All the others didn’t have the patience to make plans with him and they went crazy the way they always do, wrestling and imitating boys and girls making love to each other. They have beer and wine hidden in their room.
    What I kept telling myself: I can‘t get involved in their plan because it will get in the way of mine!
    I just kept saying nothing and trying to show nothing in my face and that kept Larry from getting angry with me. I’m the only boy here he’s never really tried to hurt but I have to remember not to trust anyone, whether it’s him or Mr. Gitelman or even Dr. Fogel!
    I hear some of them coming back across the courtyard now, trying to keep their voices low. I’ll tell you more tomorrow.
    FRIDAY
    In the morning Mr. Gitelman asked me why I didn‘t go out to public school since I was the only boy from the Home with the right to go and I told him that a group of Puerto Rican boys there had threatened to beat me up because I was a Jew.
    I didn’t have to say anything else. Mr. Gitelman’s children are in private schools. He used to be a public school teacher.
    But this is what really happens: When I go to the school they leave me alone. I’m in all the special classes and the teachers always give me a lot of attention, but what I like to do most is just sit in the school library and memorize things. Most people leave me alone most of the time. When groups of blacks go through the subways and gang up on people they never choose me. I can look at you in a way that doesn’t make you feel anything.
    They can take me out of the school or send me away from the Home or change teachers on me or transfer me to a different school, but they can’t take away the words I have inside me! When you have enough facts and know when to use them people believe you’re strong. That’s why the boys don’t bother Dr. Fogel the way they do the other teachers who come here, even though he’s an old man who’s smaller than I am, and has a right hand and arm which are no good.
    I went to his class in the afternoon and there were 3 other boys there. Dr. Fogel sat in the front with his head on his good hand, resting his eyes. I chanted the Haftorah for my Bar Mitzvah and he listened without saying if I was good or bad.
    Then he sent the other boys away and asked me if I wanted to chant the Maftir also on my Bar Mitzvah day. The Maftir is the portion from the Torah that comes just before the Haftorah. I said yes.
    I followed him from the room and across the courtyard. Larry Silverberg was sitting with his back against a wall, carving a pointed stick, and he waved to me. We walked down 3 steps and Dr. Fogel went into the Shul. The room is small and the only time we ever use it anymore is when one of us is Bar Mitzvahed.
    My Haftorah isfrom Ezekiel and it lists the sins of the Children of Israel and how they murdered and committed adultery and incest and did not observe the Sabbath.
    Why I believe Dr. Fogel likes it: because of what Ezekiel makes God say about his own hand.
    This is what it says: “Thou has greedily gained of thy neighbors by oppression and has forgotten Me, saith the Lord God. Behold, therefore I have smitten My hand at the