On cool summer nights, My grandpa and I sit out On the back porch. We look at the sky, And together, We watch the sun go down. Quiet while we think, we sip our tea, Pondering the world about us. I gaze into my mug, Staring at my dim reflection. Blowing softly on the smooth glassy surface, I make the dark water ripple. Looking up again, I watch the pink clouds As they cushion the sun’s descent. I take in the beauty all around us. So much of it, we take for granted. My grandfather is silent, While we listen to the sounds of our world. His face is serene as he rocks In his wooden chair, And sips his steaming tea. Together we look out at the rolling hills, Sharing our favorite time together. Gazing at a summertide sunset, We sit, And we listen, And we treasure a moment, Side by side. Nastassja Carusetta, 13South Pasadena, California
May/June 2012
My Brother’s Smile
I can feel the sun’s rays on my face. I open my eyes and sit up on the small rug that serves as my bed. It is four-thirty in the morning. Time to begin my long day. I go out of my room and make my way to the building opposite to the one I live in, the building where the boys live. I want to wish my brother happy birthday, as today is his birthday, and he is going to turn thirteen. He works with the machinery in the tea industry, whereas I am a tea plucker—I pick tea leaves from the numerous tea plants on the hills of Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka. Although he is six years younger than I, he is paid more than I am since I’m a girl and he is a boy. We are greatly attached to each other because we are orphans. We always combine our salaries to buy food and to pay for our lodgings. We have to cook our own food, as the other tea pluckers are busy with their own concerns. I walk into the men’s building and go to the room where my brother is living. “Hi Raj!” I say in Tamil. “Hey Meena!” he replies. “Happy birthday, Raj! I’m so sorry that I couldn’t buy a gift for you, but I will try to buy you something special at the market today if I earn enough money!” I say hurriedly. “It is fine, Meena. I never expected any presents. We are obviously too poor for that,” he assures me. “Well then, I’ll see you in the evening, Raj! I must get going! I have a lot of plucking to do today!” “Goodbye, Meena!” my brother says cheerfully. Although my brother seems happy, I know he is disappointed that he didn’t get a present from me. What child about to become a teenager wouldn’t be disappointed about not getting a single gift for his birthday? The rows and rows of tea plants covering the misty mountains look so beautiful I turn and leave the men’s building and head toward my building. I go into my room and pick up my basket. I quickly slip the basket on my head and walk outdoors. I don’t stop to put on shoes, as I am too poor to buy shoes. But by now, the soles of my feet are so thick-hided and leathery that, except for a few occasional pricks from some sharp rocks, nothing bothers them at all. I look at the view from the top of the hill. The view never ceases to impress me. The rows and rows of tea plants covering the misty mountains look so beautiful. Suddenly, I remember that I must hurry if I want to earn enough money to buy a birthday present for my brother. I run down the hill to the place where I am supposed to be plucking tea leaves. I am paid 500 rupees (the U.S. equivalent of five dollars) per basket. If I manage to pick three entire baskets of tea leaves I will probably be able to buy my brother a small chocolate cake at the market. This was going to be a tough and arduous task. I didn’t have any breakfast today, since I had to hurry to work. If I am going to pick three baskets by the end of the day, then I will have to skip lunch as well. I decide that it will be worth skipping lunch to see my brother happy. Picking three baskets of tea leaves is going to be a record. The most I had ever picked was two baskets. I will have to hurry. I begin to pick fast. I am an experienced tea plucker because I have been working for five years, since I was fourteen. My brother and I were born in India, but since our parents had died in a car accident in India, we moved to Sri Lanka, since we had heard tales of people managing to earn a living by working in the tea industry. I had to support both of us through my wages until my brother turned eight and was legally allowed to work. Our life is actually quite happy, even though we live in our respective crowded huts made out of clay. Although the huts we live in are pretty bare we always keep them as clean as possible. I always pick a couple of the jasmine flowers that grow at the edges of the rows of tea plants and keep them in a vase in the hut to add a little bit of color to it. The huts have thatched roofs, and although it rarely gets cold in Sri Lanka, even on the mountains, it is uncomfortable to sleep when the night air creeps through the spaces between the pieces of straw and tickles us. My brother is my only joy, and he is probably the reason I always work hard at such a monotonous and tedious job. I look forward to seeing his brilliant smile when I come home from work every day. I work quickly, moving my wrists and fingers fast. In a couple of hours, I finish one basket. I hurriedly empty my basket at the big bin nearby and am paid my 500 rupees by the young man who is collecting the tea leaves. I glance at the sky. There are probably only six hours left to finish the job. I work fast, climbing slopes and slipping through the narrow walkways between the tea plants. At around lunchtime, I feel exhausted, but I know that I can’t stop if I want to give my brother a present. As I brush past a tea plant, I feel a sharp, pricking sensation in my thigh. I look down at my thigh and realize that a thorn has gone through my sari and pierced my leg. The wound starts to bleed. I need to bandage the wound fast to
The Grave Robber’s Secret
The Grave Robber’s Secret, by Anna Myers; Walker & Company: New York, 2011; $16.99 The main character in The Grave Robber’s Secret, Robby, is a twelve-year-old boy who lives in a poor section of Philadelphia at the beginning of the 1800s. Robby’s father thinks he has found a get-rich-quick scheme—grave robbing! In those days medical schools would buy dead bodies for their students to dissect. Robby and his mother are terrified of the idea, but Robbie’s father will not hear of any disagreement. In his mind this will be an easy way to support his family, and so he begins making Robby come with him. Then William Burke comes to live in the boarding house Robby’s mother runs. He is an intimidating figure who thinks he is of a higher class than everyone else because of his fancy clothes and gold cane. But Robby soon becomes friends with Burke’s terribly shy daughter, Martha. Real trouble begins when Robby finds a woman’s shoe that does not belong to his mother in the hall. He had heard a woman’s laugh the night before, and he begins to wonder if Burke is even worse than he thought. One night a strange man comes in to play cards with Burke and Robby’s father. Martha peeks and sees something horrible. Imagine Robby’s horror at finding out that Burke and his father are murdering people off the street and selling them to the medical school! This is a book about feeling trapped. If Robby goes straight to the police his father might be hanged. He is also terrified that, without proof, they will not believe him and will let Burke go. Burke might kill him or his mother. He tells his mother what has happened, but he knows she will do nothing because she always feels powerless compared to his father. He thinks about doing nothing himself, but he cannot live with the knowledge that others are being killed when he could have stopped them. Reading it, I thought about how hard it is even now for children who are abused by the adults in their lives. I used to think, “Just turn them in!” But I now I see it’s hard to turn in someone you love and are terrified of at the same time. Robby decides he needs more proof before he decides, and he follows the men to the graveyard one night. He sees that they are planning to kill an old homeless lady. To save her, Robby cries out for them to stop and then runs deeper into the graveyard. Robby is about to be caught by the raging men when the police come. Martha, realizing the danger he would be in, had gone to get them. Robby is not the only one who has been feeling trapped. Martha’s mother has died and so she is dependent in all ways on a man who lies and cheats and even kills people. Yet now she is able to begin to find some strength in herself because Robby has reached out to her and she is not completely alone. I will always remember when Martha walked into the boarding house, how she came in, looking down, with a big brown shawl wrapped around her. Robby thought she looked fragile and I thought she looked like she was trying to hide or disappear. But now she has a friend to save, and so she does. I loved this story because it is a very fast-paced, exciting mystery and yet understandable and not confusing. It also helped me understand a real-life mystery—why people in bad situations sometimes can’t just get out of them. But making friends with someone always helps. Loren Townsend, 12Highland Park, New Jersey
