Horrible Harry and the Holidaze (3 page)

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Authors: Suzy Kline

BOOK: Horrible Harry and the Holidaze
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Mary raised her hand. “Kwanzaa must be like Hanukkah. We have a candleholder too. Only it's called a menorah and has two more candles. We light a new candle each night just like you do, but Hanukkah lasts eight days, not seven.”
Miss Mackle clapped her hands. “I love it when you find connections between the different holidays!”
Ida clapped her hands, too, then continued. “Kwanzaa is like Christmas because we exchange presents on the seventh day. Our gifts are homemade or handed down from our families.”
“However, unlike Christmas and Hanukkah,” Mrs. Burrell explained, “Kwanzaa isn't a religious holiday. Each family celebrates Kwanzaa in its own way, but all families recognize the seven principles of Kwanzaa, called
Nguzo Saba.”
“Please say those words again,” ZuZu asked.
Ida and her mother repeated them slowly so we could learn them. “En-GOO-zoh SAH-bah.”
“En-GOO-zoh SAH-bah,” we all chanted.
“Nguzo Saba.” Ida unrolled a chart with the seven principles printed neatly on it:
Unity:
working together
 
Self-determination:
speaking for ourselves
 
Cooperative work:
solving our problems
 
Cooperative economics:
building our businesses
 
Purpose:
remembering traditions and values
 
Creativity:
improving our communities
 
Faith:
believing in our people, our parents, our
teachers, our struggle for equality
Next Ida took out two pies from the basket.
“On the sixth night of Kwanzaa, we have a big feast called
karamu
(kah-RAH-moo). Some of the things we eat are collard greens, catfish, black-eyed peas, corn, fruit, and sweet potato pie! We brought a sample for you!”
“Ooooh,” we said, watching Mrs. Burrell serve the pie on paper plates.
“Mmm!” I said swallowing my first sweet bite. “This is goooooood.”
“Can we have seconds?” Sid asked.
 
“I'm sorry, there isn't enough,” Mrs. Burrell replied. “But we do have a special activity. Making
kufis.”
“What are
kufis,
Ida?” ZuZu asked.
“African hats,” Ida answered. “First you have to measure the
circumference
of your head.”
Ida's mother smiled at her when she said the “c” word correctly.
“We'll give everyone three strips of poster paper so you can make a skull cap hat,” Ida said.
“Skull cap!” Sid repeated. “Neat-o!”
As soon as Ida gave everyone a tape measure from one of the plastic tubs in our math corner, we compared head sizes. Mary went first.
“Mine's twenty-one inches.”
“Mine's fifty-eight inches!” Sid bragged. “I have the biggest head in the class.”
ZuZu put down his tape. “Sidney, that couldn't be. Your head isn't five feet around.”
“T-rex might have one that big, but not you,” Harry piped in. That private talk with the teacher must have helped some. Not only was Harry making a hat, he was thinking about horrible things again, like dinosaurs.
“Look,” Sid replied. “A brain the size of mine needs lots of room.”
Miss Mackle smiled as she went over to Sid's desk. “I think you're using the metric side of your tape, Sidney. You're right though, your head does measure fifty-eight. Fifty-eight centimeters.”
Sid flipped the tape over and remeasured. “Okay, it's twenty-three inches. Same thing. My head still is the biggest in the class.”
Ida got us back on track. “Make your strips a little longer than your head size so the ends overlap when you staple them. One goes around your forehead. The other two crisscross on top and attach to it. You can draw shapes on the strips with Magic Markers. After that, you can line the inside of your crown with any color of crepe paper you want.”
“I'm using black,” Mary said.
“I'm using red,” Sid said.
“I'm using green,” Song Lee said.
When we finished our
kufi
hats, we put them on and sat proudly together for a picture. I thought Mary's head looked bigger than Sidney's though. It probably was her pigtails.
Crash!
W
ednesday Miss Mackle passed out permission slips that we had to take home and get signed by our parents.
“Yahoo! A field trip in December!” Dexter sang out. Then he drummed his fingers on a pretend guitar.
ZuZu read every word on the permission slip. “We're going to Shady Pines?” he asked. “Where is that?”
“Harry,” Miss Mackle said. “Would you like to explain the activity?”
“Sure,” Harry said. “We're going to visit my great-grampa Sam Spooger. He—” Harry paused for a moment—“moved to Shady Pines. That's a nursing home four blocks from our school.”
Miss Mackle walked over and put her hand on Harry's shoulder. “Harry and I thought a trip to Shady Pines would be a great idea. We could visit the elderly people who live there and share some of our holiday activities.”
So that's what put Harry in a daze! His great-grandfather wasn't living with him anymore. I knew he and Harry were buddies. He told him about Gremlins and World War II fighter planes. He was a hero during the war and saved lives. I knew he and Harry played poker a lot at home.
“We could share our favorite stories and poems. That's what we do at our house for Kwanzaa,” Ida replied.
“I'll ask Mom if we can play the dreidel game,” Mary suggested. “We always play that at Hanukkah.”
“I could bring my Elvis ‘Christmas Together' CD, and we could sing ‘Here Comes Santa Claus,'” Dexter added.
“Wonderful!” Miss Mackle exclaimed. “So get your permission slip signed and bring it back this week. We're going Monday!”
The next morning we were all shivering in the playground waiting for the school bell to ring. It was sleeting again and really cold.
Suddenly a car skidded across the road, jumped over a curb, and crashed into the tall fir tree in front of Southeast School.
Bam!
Everyone screamed.
Seconds later, Mr. Cardini, the school principal, came running out of the building and ordered everyone inside. As we passed by the fence, we could see the old fir tree was slumped over.
I was really thankful the driver got out of the car okay. He looked fine. His car didn't though. It had a smashed front fender. Mrs. Funderburke, the cafeteria lady, rushed outside. “I called nine-one-one,” she yelled. “Come downstairs for coffee and cookies and get warm.”
“I'm glad everyone's safe!” Miss Mackle said as we rushed into Room 3B.
“What a cool smash up!” Sid said. “Bam! Wham! Crash!”
“That's a terrible thing to say, Sidney,” ZuZu snapped.
“It sure is!” Mary agreed. I had a feeling she and ZuZu were going to be great friends.
Harry was pressing his nose against the window. Since we were on the second floor, we could see everything. Even the skid marks across the road.
Song Lee reached for a Kleenex. “Our big old tree doesn't stand tall anymore,” she said sadly. “It slumps.”
Miss Mackle was the only one who had something nice to say. “It does slump, but there
still
is something to appreciate about that old tree.”
Song Lee nodded.
Harry didn't look sad, just thoughtful. “That's like my great-grampa. He can't stand tall either. He has to use a wheelchair now.”
“Yes,” the teacher agreed. “And there's still a lot to appreciate about your great-grampa, huh?”
“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “There sure is!”
Miss Mackle put her hand over her heart as she stared at Harry.
Hanukkah Fun at Shady Pines

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