Piping the Praises

The next day, during the morning's science class, Mrs. Whimbrel was piping the praises of Polaris, "You know, the North Star," she beamed, tapping the globe alit with constellations.  P. Martin couldn't help noticing Skye Bunting's interest in the lesson.  Each time she turned the globe, so that all the students would have a better view, Skye would pivot his seat, never taking his eyes off the round celestial map (The Godgirls).

http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/polaris-the-present-day-north-star

Skye's unwavering gaze perplexed P. Martin.  What could Mrs. Whimbrel possibly point out that he didn't already know?  But, there he sat, eyes glued to the globe, as if hypnotized.

P. Martin glanced around the room.  Everyone seemed hypnotized, for that matter -- hypnotized or bored.   Everyone, that is, except Jaeger and Kestrel who had pushed their chairs together and were boasting about how they, being the highest jumpers on the basketball team, could leap up, swipe Pole-air-is from the sky, land, and grab the ball before the referee blew the whistle.  

Couldn't she hear them?  Their constant clattering no different than crows?  Only yesterday, Mrs. Whimbrel had reminded him of Classroom Number 1, but, today, she let their noise breeze over her. 

But not Skye!  As if hit by a gust of wind, he spun around in his seat and belted out, "What?  You guys think you're Orion?"  

  

Vocabulary

Evenlength =>  The time of year when the days and nights are of equal length, the equinox (sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1897.  See Jeff Kacirk's Forgotten English, 2013 Word of the Day Calendar.  

Evenlength

Soon, winter's long icy chill loosened its hold.  Mrs. Whimbrel had taken down the doily Valentine's Day hearts pasted around the room, along with the bright Mardi Gras beads dangling from the ceiling.  With each passing day, P. Martin thought more about Uncle Scout, wondered when he might return, and what stories he'd recount.  He couldn't wait to tell him about his new friend, Skye, and how he'd lived in Mexico, seen clusters of Monarchs clouding the skies, and had traveled to some of the same places they'd been to.    

And, to top it all, he'd say, Skye loves traveling at night, something
P. Martin discovered that the morning Mrs. Whimbrel wrote "even length" on the board.  

"You won't be needing your dictionaries," she'd said.  "It's one of those words that hasn't been used for a long, long time."

The second hand on the clock ticked like a metronome, measuring the steady beat of classroom silence.  "Think," she said.  "Evenlength."

Tick.  Tick.  Tick.  Then, in an instant, it dawned on P. Martin.   Evenlength -- something the same on both sides.  Symmetrical.  He waved his arm at the exact time Skye raised his.

Naturally, Mrs. Whimbrel called on Skye first.  "The seasons," Skye had said.

"Go on."

"It's the equinox," P. Martin interrupted.  His anxiousness about Uncle Scott's return had him looking at the calendar every day.  "Today is the vernal equinox!" 

"Not bad, Master P. Martin," Mrs. Whimbrel said, then corrected him for breaking Classroom Rule Number 1:  "Do not speak until called upon."  

"Sorry," he said.  His face flushed, and he could feel an itch creeping up his body.

"But he's right," Skye said.  "It's when night and day are the same length.  Happens only twice a year."

"And when is the other time?" Mrs. Whimbrel asked, standing by his desk.

"That's easy," Skye said, matter-of-fact.  "The autumnal equinox; they're the two times in the year when when the ecliptic line intersects the equator."

P. Martin turned and smiled at Skye, liking him all the more.  For the first time all year, Mrs. Whimbrel's had been stunned into silence.  The ecliptic line:  twelve constellations (thirteen if you count Ophiuchus) wrapped around the earth like a star-studded belt, something Uncle Scout had taught him.  

http://earthsky.org/space/what-is-the-ecliptic   




  

made time fly.  And, before he knew it, the long winter months gave way to spring.

Skye Made Time Fly

What amazed P. Martin most about Skye was that nothing flustered him, not the girls’ giggling, not The Gang, not the drudgery of seatwork or having to seat still – not even The Changing of the Seats, which had become a daily occurrence.

“View it as shifting currents,” Mrs. Whimbrel said, on Skye’s second day.  She clicked her stopwatch, and before P. Martin could warn him about Jaeger and Kestrel, Skye was off, skipping around the room and whistling.  Within seconds, he’d claimed his seat.

“Over here, P. Martin,” he chimed out and tapped the desk in front of him.  “You’re right here.”

P. Martin couldn’t believe it!  As small as Skye was, he’d outmaneuvered Jaeger and Kestrel and had sat down, before they’d taken a step.  He laughed, flew to his seat, and before sitting down, ran a circle around it.  “Thanks,” he said, turning to Skye.

From that day on, Skye made time fly.


  

Vocabulary

Nonchalant => acting as if nothing bothers you; remaining cool and appearing unconcerned

Act As If They Didn't Exist

On the way to school the next morning, P. Martin couldn’t shake off his mother’s words. Act as if they didn’t even exist.

Act as if they didn’t even exist, he repeated, then caught himself, swallowing the words mid-sentence.  Quickly, he glanced in both directions, hoping no one was in earshot and hunched up his shoulders to readjust his backpack.  

It’d be just his luck that a someone from school would have heard him and spread the word. A match tossed into grass.  P. Martin talks to himself!  P. Martin talks to himself! He imagined his classmates buzzing around him like a swarm of mosquitoes, chanting Sp-ham, Sp-ham, the Repertory Man.  Just the thought of it made him shutter.  

And, then, he thought of Skye Bunting.  New to the class,  small, and didn’t even flinch when Jaeger hovered over him.  Just whistled like he had all the time in the day.  P. Martin wondered how he could be so -- so nonchalant, as his mother would say.  Probably never felt an itch in his life, he thought and hiked his backpack onto his shoulders again.  

Another Allusion

When P. Martin's mother has dubbed Jaeger and his friends as Jaeger and The Jets, she is referring to one of the two gangs in Leonard Bernstein's musical West Side Story, which is based on Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.  The other gang was The Sharks.  These NYC west side teenage gangs represented the rivalry between two ethnic groups, the white blue collar workers (The Jets) and the Puerto Ricans (The Sharks).  

Like Romeo and Juliet, Tony from The Jets (representing Romeo from Shakespeare's Capulet family) falls in love with Bernardo's sister Maria (Juliet from Shakespeare's Montague family).  Bernardo is the head of The Sharks.  Because these two "families" are at war with each other, Tony and Maria's love and dream of living a wedded life together are doomed to end in tragedy, which is what happened in Romeo and Juliet.

West Side Story takes place in New York City during the 1950's, and the original Broadway production was in 1957.  The lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim, and it was this musical that launched his career.