My Canary Yellow Star Read Online Free

taken away, then I’ll believe such rumors. Not a minute before.”
    “You’re not listening, Mama. You’ll never see such a person. The Jews taken to the camps are killed!”
    “Are you trying to upset us?” Grandmama asked.
    “You have to listen to me! I heard that –”
    “That’s enough, Ervin!” Mama said. “I don’t want to hear another word of such talk.” She turned to Grandmama. “Dinner was delicious, as usual.”
    “The best I could do without meat.”
    “I didn’t miss the meat at all,” Mama said. “I’ll help you clear the table, and then, unfortunately, it’s time to get to work.”
    After we had washed the dinner dishes, Mama went to her room, reappearing a few minutes later with her favorite silk blouse in her hand. It was such a pretty blouse – canary yellow in colour, with long sleeves and a tie at the neck. Mama had lent it to me several times for special occasions.
    “Oh, Mama! Not your beautiful blouse!” I ran my fingers over the delicate material. It was so soft and smooth.
    “It’s the only yellow piece of clothing I own.”
    She took a pair of scissors out of her sewing kit and cut the blouse in half. Then she stretched out the material by pinning down its four corners.
    “Let me make a pattern for the star,” Ervin said. “Then we’ll be able to trace its outline onto the material without making any mistakes.”
    He tore a page from one of his school notebooks and, using his ruler and a protractor, drew a six-pointed star on it. He then cut out the paper star and gave it to Mama, who copied its outline onto her blouse. She repeated this process several times, and then cut out the star figures from the yellow material with her sewing scissors.
    “Come on, Marta, let’s see just how skilled a seamstress you are,” Grandmama said. She stitched one of the yellow stars onto the left side of her own jacket and another one onto Mama’s coat. I sewed more yellow stars onto my coat, the uniform I would be wearing to work, Ervin’s jacket and his school coat, and a couple of dresses my mother and grandmother often wore. I made sure my stitches were fine and small.
    “That’s enough,” I said as I finished stitching the last star onto my favorite white blouse.
    “What about your father?” Grandmama asked. “He’ll need to have a star on his clothing when he comes home.”
    “You’re right, Grandmama,” Ervin said. “We have to be ready for Papa.” He sighed. “I wish he would write us more often.”
    Mama and Grandmama exchanged worried glances.
    “Your father must be far from the mail,” Mama said. I could hear the anxiety in her voice.
    “Which one of Papa’s sweaters should I get from his bureau?”
    “I’ll get his green one. It matches his eyes,” Mama said with a shy smile.
    Within minutes, a yellow star had been sewn on Papa’s sweater, ready for his return.
    “Well, we’re finally done,” Grandmama said.
    “Try on your jacket, Marta,” Mama said. “Let’s see how the star looks on it.”
    I put on my coat and turned around to model it for my family. They all stared at me, not saying a single word. Even Ervin, who never passed up an opportunity to make a sarcastic remark, was silent. I went into the foyer to look at myself in the full-length mirror that was hanging on the wall. Even in the dim light, the canary yellow star was ugly and garish against the navy material of my coat. The star felt heavy, as if it was made of lead instead of silk. I returned to the dining room.
    “So what do you think, Marta?” Mama asked.
    “It’s not so bad,” I said.
    Early Monday morning, I approached the back doors of Madam’s workshop for the first time. My heart was in mythroat and my palms were wet. At the rusty metal doors, so different from the pristine wrought-iron gates that graced the front entrance, I joined a group of chattering girls hurrying into the building. They looked like penguins in their black dresses and white aprons. I saw them