The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt Page A

this early," he said.
    "He saw us putting up the cages," said Mr. Vendleri.
    Mr. Guareschi stared at him. "This is the student who let the rats go," he said. "He already knows."
    Mr. Vendleri looked hard at me. Then he put his finger up to his lips. "Not a word," he said.
    "Toads, beetles, bats light on me if I let it out," I said, and I got the timing just right—even the little bit of spit on the "beetles."
    Mr. Guareschi looked at me strangely, and then he slowly stood, picked up the spring traps that had fallen around him, and turned to climb back up the ladder. Considering the condition of his red fingers, I thought it was pretty brave of him.
    "Go to class, Holling Hood," he said.
    Mrs. Baker was already in her classroom. She was looking up at the ceiling when I came in, listening to the scrambling and pattering of feet scurrying across the asbestos tiles overhead. We listened together for a moment until the scurrying stopped.
    "Not a word, Mr. Hoodhood," she said.
    "Not a word," I said, and went to my desk.
    "Did you finish
The Tempest
?" asked Mrs. Baker.
    "Yes," I said.
    "We'll see this afternoon," she said, and she turned back to a pile of essays on her desk, spreading a red plague over them with her pen.
    Even though I didn't have the private place to practice that I wanted, I figured I could work on the Caliban curses to see if I could get them down just right in a pressure situation. So I whispered into my desk, "Strange stuff, the dropsy drown you"—which was cheating a little, because I put two together. But I thought it sounded right. I tried it again, thinking about Caliban and Sycorax—the rats, not the monsters in the play—because I wanted to make the "strange stuff" come out more like a hiss.
    "Strange stuff, the dropsy drown you," I whispered.
    "Is there something you have to say?" asked Mrs. Baker.
    I sat up. "No," I said.
    "Are you speaking to someone hiding in your desk?"
    I shook my head.
    She put her red pen down. "Since there are only two of us in the room—a situation which has become very familiar to us these past months—and since you were speaking, I assumed that you must be addressing me. What did you say?"
    "Nothing."
    "Mr. Hoodhood, what did you say?"
    "'Strange stuff, the dropsy drown you.'"
    Mrs. Baker considered me for a moment. "Was that what you said?"
    "Yes."
    "A curious line to recite, especially since the combination never occurs in the play. Are you trying to improve on Shakespeare?"
    "I like the rhythm of it," I said.
    "The rhythm of it."
    "Yes."
    Mrs. Baker considered this for a moment. Then she nodded. "So do I," she said, and turned back to spreading the red plague.
    That had been close.
    But I watched her with something like amazement.
    She had known the curses! Both of them!
    She had read the play!
    And she had still let me read it!
    Whatever she was plotting, it was a whole lot more devious than I had given her credit for.
    I decided to ease into things more naturally, to let Caliban curses come where they might fit in without any fuss.
    At lunch, I found that my mother had given me a bologna sandwich with no mayonnaise, a stalk of celery that had been wilting since the weekend, and a cookie with something growing on it that wasn't supposed to be there.
    "Strange stuff," I whispered.
    At lunch recess, Doug Swieteck's brother lurched across the field, sixth graders scurrying out of his way as if he was a southwest wind about to blister them all over.
    "Thou jesting monkey thou," I said.
    Not so that he could hear it.
    Right after recess, I found that the eighth graders had filled the boys' restroom with smoke so thick you couldn't even smell the disinfectant.
    "Apes with foreheads villainous low," I said.
    Not so that they could hear it.
    In Geography, Mr. Petrelli announced a unit project: "The Mississippi River and You." I raised my hand and told Mr. Petrelli that I had never been to the Mississippi River and had no plans to go soon. I didn't feel any