Twenty-Four

Miss Benedict asked her to stop at her desk when the class was over. Bianca was summoned also. Sarah tried to hide her nervousness.

“Miss Addams wants to see you both,” Miss Benedict said. “She’s in her office.”

“What do you think she wants us for?” Bianca whispered as they climbed the long stairway to the second floor. Sarah, still disgusted with herself, didn’t answer.

Miss Addams’s office door was slightly ajar. Bianca knocked lightly.

“Come in, please.”

They entered an octagonal office; light shining through green and gold bottle windows gave the room a soft glow.

Miss Addams smiled and rose from her desk. “I am pleased to be the bearer of good news.”

Sarah smiled. Those kind blue-gray eyes!

“Which of you is Sadie Goldman?”

“I am,” Sarah said.

“And you must be Blanche.”

Bianca nodded.

“Miss Benedict and I have agreed that you both deserve the year-long scholarship offered by the American Art Academy to promising young artists.”

Me? a voice inside Sarah asked incredulously.

Bianca stepped forward to take Miss Addams’s outstretched hand. “Thank you…oh, thank you.”

Then, Miss Addams took Sarah’s hand in her firm grasp. Overwhelmed, Sarah was barely able to thank her.

“The Art Academy class meets on Tuesdays, after school. You can get there easily by streetcar. I hope you’ll show me some of your work as you progress.”

“We will,” they said in perfect unison. It sounded so funny that Sarah had to stifle a giggle. “Thank you, again,” she said.

Bianca flew down the stairway. Sarah walked slowly, conscious of her feet hitting each stair.

Once they were out in the sunlight Bianca grabbed Sarah’s hand and swung it. “I’m so glad we both got scholarships. I would have hated to go alone.”

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

“It is, though!”

“I hope Miss Benedict knew what she was doing when she chose us.”

Bianca frowned. “There you go again.”

“Go again with what?”

“You’re hopeless.”

Sarah let the subject drop.

§

Her father was in the rear of the butcher shop, reading the newspaper. She wished that he was busy waiting on a customer. Business had been particularly slow lately.

He saw her and a smile erased the brooding expression on his face. “Ah, Sarahla. You bring the sun.”

“Papa! Miss Addams called Bianca and me into her office and told us that we were getting scholarships for lessons at the American Art Academy!”

“My Sarahla, a scholar!” He hugged her and kissed her on both cheeks.

“No, Papa. An artist.”

Jacob walked to the window and hung up the “Closed” sign. “We will have a celebration dinner for our scholarship winner.” He took a roasting chicken out of the display case.

“Rifke,” he called, marching into the apartment. “No leftovers tonight. Sarah, tell your mama the news.”

“Tell me too,” Sammy said. Fanny was in their cubicle. She didn’t come out.

“Fanny,” Jacob called. “Your sister has news.”

Fanny walked through the blue curtains, an open magazine in her hand.

“Tell them,” Jacob said.

“I got a scholarship from Jane Addams to take lessons at the Art Academy. Bianca too.”

“More art lessons?” Rifke said, eyebrows raised.

“These lessons are at the Art Academy, Rifke!” Jacob put his arm around Sarah’s shoulders. “Your papa and mama are proud of you. Fanny, congratulate your sister.”

“Congratulations,” Fanny said flatly.

In bed that night, Sarah thought about the paintings by the two hundred artists in the Woman’s Building. At the Art Academy she might learn to paint nearly as well as them. She closed her eyes and lay very quietly, her palms upturned on the blanket. Happiness, a fragile flower, opened inside her.