Show and Tell

Jonah Vale carried his find to school wrapped in his winter shirt, which meant he arrived bare-armed in weather cold enough to silver the puddles. Miss Bell saw him through the schoolhouse window and opened the door before he could knock. He held the bundle against his stomach with both hands, shivering hard but grinning, and refused to tell her what was inside. She took her spare cardigan from the peg beside the stove and made him put it on. The sleeves covered his fingers. “If you lose any toes because you wanted a grand entrance,” she said, “you will spend the thaw copying the bones of the foot.” Jonah agreed, since the punishment belonged to a distant future and his classmates were already trying to see through the cloth. Friday mornings were reserved for Salvage History, though everyone called it show and tell. Each pupil brought an object from the houses, vehicles, drainage channels, or rubbish hills left by the people Before. Miss Bell identified it when she could, explained…