Sarai Tang draws a fox in the margin of her pre-algebra worksheet while Mrs. Marinet takes the attendance of six people she can plainly see.

It is a good fox. It has a narrow, clever face and one paw lifted, as if it has just heard something in the grass. Sarai gives it a tail, and then, because the tail looks lonely, a second fox to chase it. Animals are the only thing she has ever been able to draw. People come out lumpy, and buildings lean. But animals arrive on the paper already alive, as if they were waiting for her pencil to open a door.

"Sarai."

"Here."

"I know you're here. I'd like you to be here with your eyes, too."

Sarai looks up. Mrs. Willa Marinet is wearing her sun hat, the wide straw one with the faded ribbon, which s...

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