Winter According to Humphrey (9781101591222) (6 page)

7

In a Spin

H
olly is making a special present for the whole class! And she has two strange goldfish named Billy and Lilly and they live in a tank with a castle!” I told Og when I was back in Room 26 on Monday.

“BOING-BOING!” my friend twanged.

Then the bell rang and class began, so I didn't have time to tell him more.

As usual, Mrs. Brisbane started the day with math.

Then we had a spelling test. I would have gotten 100 percent, except for the word “flurry.” I think I had a piece of bedding stuck in my ear because I thought Mrs. Brisbane said “furry.” Still, it was my best spelling test of the year!

When it was time for recess, Mrs. Brisbane said it was terribly cold outside, so my friends got to stay inside and decorate the room. They made paper snowflakes, yummy-looking candy canes, and all kinds of funny gingerbread people.

Then everyone gathered in a circle to answer our homework question: What do you like best about the winter holidays
?

Thomas was first to shout out, “No school!”

All the rest of my friends shouted “Yes!”

I didn't join in, because school is my home. It's my favorite place.

Unlike my classmates, I also didn't have any idea of where Og and I would be spending the holidays.

Next, Mrs. Brisbane called on Tall-Paul Green.

“Presents!” he answered. “I get a present every night during Chanukah!”

A lot of my classmates said, “Oooh!”

“We light the menorah and add another candle every night for eight nights,” he added.

“I like presents, too,” Daniel said. “Santa leaves them under our tree.”

“I like making presents for other people,” Helpful-Holly said.

I certainly knew
that
was true.

“And I help my grandma make cookies when we go to the farm,” Holly continued. “I love to help my grandma. I'm making a special present for her.”

Mrs. Brisbane smiled. “I guess we all like presents.”

Rolling-Rosie raised her hand next. “I like tamales,” she said. “My mom and my grandmother—I call her
mi abuela
—and my aunt, Tía Luisa, make one hundred tamales or more. And I help!”

“I love tamales. Tell us more about how you make them,” Mrs. Brisbane said.

Rosie nodded. “We put all kinds of yummy things in the
masa
—that's made from corn. Then we roll them up in corn husks and tie them so they can cook. Our whole house smells like tamales. The whole street smells like tamales!”

Just thinking of yummy things wrapped in corn had my whiskers wiggling! I'd love to stay at Rosie's house over the winter break.

“Yum, I can almost taste them,” Mrs. Brisbane said.

Sophie's hand was waving wildly, so Mrs. Brisbane called on her next. “I get to set up the little Nativity scene that goes under our tree. The people and the carved animals are tiny, so I have to be careful not to break anything, especially the baby in the manger. See
?
Here's one of the wise men.” Sophie pulled out a small carved figure of a man in robes riding a camel.

“Ooh, and I love the presents and cookies and carol singing, and stockings,” she said. “Oh, did I mention the cookies
?
And the tree!”

It all sounded GREAT-GREAT-GREAT. I would love to see that Nativity scene sometime.

Stop-Talking-Sophie probably could have gone on for quite a while, but Mrs. Brisbane said it was Kelsey's turn to talk.

“My mom and dad took me to see
The Nutcracker
last week,” she said. “That's a ballet and I
love
ballet!”

She held up the program with a picture of a little girl dancing on her toes in front of a beautiful Christmas tree.

Mrs. Brisbane asked her to share part of the story with us.

“There's a little girl named Clara. And the dancer was actually a little girl,” Kelsey explained. “At midnight on Christmas Eve, all the toys come alive and then mice come in and they get in a big fight. And then there's dancing candy from around the world and—oh, it's hard to explain! But someday, I hope I can dance in
The Nutcracker.
”

She explained it well enough for me to wish I could see
The Nutcracker,
too.

“We celebrate Christmas
and
Kwanzaa,” Forgetful-Phoebe said. “Kwanzaa starts on December twenty-sixth. Last year, Mom and Dad and I lit seven candles. Each one represented something important. And we ate fruit and had lots of fun.”

I like fruit, so I think I'd like Kwanzaa, too.

“But this year, I'll just be talking to them on the phone,” she added. “That's the only present I want.”

Phoebe lives with her grandmother while her parents are far away in the military.

I REALLY-REALLY-REALLY hope she gets that call.

“Of course, Phoebe. The holidays are all about family,” Mrs. Brisbane said.

“That's what I like,” Hurry-Up-Harry Ito said. “Everyone comes to our house. I have six cousins. First we play board games. Then we play Ping-Pong and end up chasing each other all over the house!”

I've seen Harry play Ping-Pong, but I'd like to see him with his cousins—all six of them.

Slow-Down-Simon raised his hand. “I like Chanukah, the way Paul G. does. I like the eight days of presents. I like lighting the menorah. But my favorite part is spinning the dreidel!”

It sounded as if he said “dray-dull.” Who would like something dull
?

Simon reached in his pocket and pulled out a small wooden top. So that was a dreidel! I'd heard about it last year when Simon's big sister, Gail, took me to their house for Chanukah, but I'd been too far away to see what it looked like! He put it on the table in front of him and made it spin.

I dashed up to the tippy-top of my cage to get a better look.

The dreidel had markings on each of the four sides. “Those are letters from the Hebrew alphabet,” Simon said.

He explained that you spin the dreidel and depending on what side it lands on when it stops, you either get money or give up money.

“But it's not real money,” he told us. “It's made of chocolate!”

I think chocolate money would taste a lot better than real human money.

Simon let his friends try spinning the dreidel and he even taught them a little song.

“Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel . . . ,” everybody sang. I squeaked along.

I was hoping that maybe I'd get to go home with Simon for Chanukah again!

“I like to go caroling,” Tell-the-Truth-Thomas said next. “We go door-to-door around the neighborhood, singing songs. Then everybody comes to our house and we drink hot chocolate. My mom makes the
best
hot chocolate.”

This time, I didn't think Thomas was exaggerating at all.

Small-Paul finally spoke up. He said he liked adding things to his elaborate train set to make it look like the holidays.

“I put a pine tree in the middle and decorate it,” he said. “And I put candy canes in all the cars. I even put Santa's sleigh with his reindeer on the roof of one of the houses. If you want to see it, come on over,” he said. “Just call first.”

It sounded wonderful. But I'd had an unsqueakably scary experience on that train, so I didn't mind skipping that one.

Mrs. Brisbane looked at the clock. It was almost lunchtime.

Then she noticed Just-Joey. He was looking down at his feet again.

“How about you, Joey
?
” she asked. “There must be something you like about the holidays.”

Joey looked up. “One year, my dad and I made a regular snowman. Then we made a second snowman, but that one was standing on his head. That was hard to do but it was fun.”

“I guess you're hoping it snows this Christmas,” Mrs. Brisbane said.

“Not really,” Joey answered. “Even if it snows, Dad might not get here this year.”

“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Brisbane said.

My tail twitched and my whiskers wiggled. I was SORRY-SORRY-SORRY to hear that.

“I'm sorry, Joey. My mom and dad won't be able to come to the Winter Wonderland show, either,” Phoebe said. “But my grandmother will be here.”

“Well, my mom will be here,” Joey said.

I was glad to hear
some
good news.

I crossed all my toes, wishing that Joey's dad would get home for the holidays.

I hoped Phoebe would be back with her family soon.

And I wished with all my heart that it would snow.

(For Joey. As I said, I don't particularly like snow.)

Mrs. Brisbane stood up. But then Holly said, “What do you like about the holidays, Mrs. Brisbane
?
”

I think our teacher was surprised at first. She hadn't expected to be included.

“Thank you for asking, Holly,” she said. “I was a little sad because our son, Jason, and his new wife live too far away to get home this Christmas. But I just found out that my sister is coming to visit. And she's bringing my niece and her husband and their two young children. So I'll also have my great-niece, Jenny, and great-nephew, Todd, for the holidays. I'm looking forward to having a big family celebration.”

Early that evening, when Og and I were alone, I looked out of my cage and noticed something sitting nearby.

It was dark outside, but the streetlight lit up our table.

“Look, Og! It's Simon's dreidel,” I squeaked. “He must have left it here.”

Og splashed noisily in his tank.

I thought about how Simon had spun the dreidel.

Spinning is something I like a lot. I spin on my wheel to pass the time, and it makes me STRONG-STRONG-STRONG. And when I'm rolling across the floor in my hamster ball, it sometimes goes into a spin that makes my tummy do a funny flip-flop.

“I don't think he'd mind if I gave it a spin . . . do you
?
” I asked my neighbor.

“BOING!” Og agreed.

So I opened the lock-that-doesn't-lock and hurried over to the top. It was about the same size as I was and I saw that the sides were flat.

I got up on my tippy-toes and stood the dreidel up on its spinner.

“Here goes!” I said, and I gave the top a spin.

But—oops—I hung on a little too long. When I finally let go, I was feeling a little dizzy and I tipped over. The dreidel tipped over, too, and landed right on me!

“BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og twanged.

“Don't worry, I'm fine,” I said.

I'm not the kind of hamster who gives up easily, so I stood the dreidel up again and gave it a spin. This time, I quickly let go and scrambled out of the way.

It whirled and twirled all around me. In order for me to keep my eyes on it, I had to spin around, too.

“Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel,” I squeaked, the way Simon had taught us.

The dreidel slowed, wobbled, then toppled over.

I was about to see what side it landed on when I heard that RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE coming down the hall.