![]() ![]() My dress was only a little short, and only a little tight, and only a little scratchy where it was pinned, and it was only absolutely uncomfortable. My cousin had worn the costume before that. I had worn it the year before, but then I had been in a different grade in a different school. Of course, my Pilgrim costume was not new either. Her Pilgrim dress looked older than mine. She also had on yards and yards of petticoats. But that was not why it was not like any underwear I had ever seen. I expected that it would look dusty, and it did. They were in a bag.Īs she began to swing down from the branches, I caught a glimpse of her underwear. I wondered how she could tell that they were chocolate chips. I wasn’t particularly hungry for the cookies, but I was hungry for company, so I said, Okay, and reached out my hand holding the cookies. She looked at me hard and said, Give me those three chocolate chip cookies, and I’ll come down and tell you my name, and I’ll walk the rest of the way to school with you. I was pleased that now I had said something clever. I just go to school because I’m putting the teacher under a spell, she said. I said, You better hurry up now, or you’ll be late for school.īut witches have to go to school. I didn’t know what to say, so I said what my mother always says when she can’t answer one of my questions. I’m a witch all the time and not just on Halloween. Real witches are Pilgrims, and just because I don’t have on a silly black costume and carry a silly broom and wear a silly black hat, doesn’t mean that I’m not a witch. The first thing Jennifer ever said to me was, Witches never lose anything.īut you’re not a witch, I said. I said in a loud voice, which I hoped would sound stout red but which came out sounding thin blue, You’re going to lose that shoe. She was not smiling, and I was embarrassed. Then I wiped my hands on my Pilgrim apron and looked up at Jennifer. I grabbed the heel of the shoe and shoved it back onto the heel of that bony foot. Those shoes looked as if they were going to fall off any minute. The heel part flapped up and down because the shoes were so big that only the toe part could stay attached. They wore real Pilgrim shoes made of buckles and cracked old leather. Swinging right in front of my eyes as if I were sitting in the first row at Cinerama. They were just about the boniest feet I had ever seen. That’s how I happened to see her feet first. She was sitting on one of the lower branches of the tree swinging her feet. I had my head way back and was watching the leaves when I first saw Jennifer up in the tree. Then I could see the patterns the leaves formed against the blue sky. I liked to walk with my head way up, practically hanging over my back. I liked the smells of the trees and the colors of the trees. The little woods made better company than the sidewalks. The footsteps of all of them for ten years had worn away the soil so that the roots of the trees were bare and made steps for walking up and down the steep slope. Other kids from the apartment chose to walk to school through the little woods. The fathers left the building by the front door and ran down the other side of the hill to the station. The kids left the building by the back door and ran down one side of the hill to the school. In the mornings the elevators would be full of kids going to school and fathers going to the train. Hundreds of men rode the train to New York City every morning and rode it home every night. All three sat on the top of the hill from the train station. There were only three apartment buildings as big as ours. THE ESTATE gave us a beautiful view from our apartment. She had given part of her land to the town for a park, and the town named the park after her: Samellson Park. ![]() It was old the lady who owned it was old. My mother never called the place a farm she always called it THE ESTATE. The rest were hidden by trees and shrubs. I could see only the roof windows from our second floor apartment. The greenhouse had clean windows they shone in the sun. There was still a small farm across the street it included a big white house, a greenhouse, a caretaker’s house, and a pump painted green without a handle. Our apartment house had grown on a farm about ten years before. Jennifer was sitting in one of the trees in this woods. I walked the back way because it passed through a little woods that I liked. We had moved to the apartment house in town in September just before school started, and I walked alone because I didn’t have anyone to walk with. I always walked the back road to school, and I always walked alone. We were told to dress in costume for the school Halloween parade. This particular lunch hour was only a little different from usual because of Halloween. It was Halloween, and she was sitting in a tree. I FIRST MET JENNIFER ON my way to school. To Paul, Laurie, and Ross for loving a witch 1
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