Summary

Asher’s mother takes him to be examined by the family doctor and an eye doctor. Neither can find anything wrong with him, although Asher draws a disturbing picture for the eye doctor of a cat he had seen get struck by a car. The doctor looks at the drawing and speaks to Rivkeh about it after the appointment. Asher’s mother is quiet and subdued on the way home.

In class one day, other students sitting around Asher suddenly notice that he is drawing in his Chumash, the holy book that contains the Torah. One of the students, a “pimply faced boy with an endlessly running nose and a high nasal voice,” shouts that Asher has defiled a holy book. The boy gets out of his seat and backs away from Asher, horrified. When his teacher approaches him and looks at the book, he...