On the News

At six o'clock on the evening of June 14, the new Room 4 was full of people who had been there all afternoon and did not want to leave.

The opening had been at two. There had been speeches, and a ribbon, and a cake that Dolores had not made, because Hannah had quietly ordered one from a bakery and told Dolores it was a gift from the city. There had been seniors from the Thursday lunch in their best clothes, children from the youth program running between the chairs, a city photographer, three reporters, a camera from the local evening news.

Now the official people had gone. The photographer had gone. The cake was half eaten. And the Tuesday class, with Dolores, Peter Lund, Gus, Mr. Pruitt and about thirty other people, sat on the new chairs in the classroom, facing the chalkboard and the radiator, waiting for the six o'clock news.

Kai had borrowed a laptop from the youth program and connected it to the speaker system, which Ade had installed himself. Grace had written on the chalkboard, out of habit: LISTENING PART 4 — NEWS ITEM. WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY? NUMBERS.

"We're going to hear ourselves on the news," said Yuna. "That's very strange."

"Listen anyway," said Grace. "Like it's the test. Catch the skeleton. And then we'll see if they got it right."