I'm Still Scared (6 page)

Mom told me that after Dancing School we would go shopping. Dad and Buddy would meet us with Maureen. One of the things we would buy is the material for our blackout curtains. There were four of us in our tap class at Dancing School—Patty Clark, Billy Burns, Carol Morrissey, and me. Miss Leah had us do our “warm-ups.” We did slaps and up-back-downs, drumrolls, paddle turns, and time steps. Then, one by one, we did “traveling steps” from one corner to the other. Mrs. Anderson played the piano for us.

“All right, children,” Miss Leah said, “today I am going to start teaching you the tap number you'll do at the recital this coming spring. I already know what I'm going to call it. It will be called ‘A Couple of Couples.' The music will be the main song from a new full-length animated movie that is coming to the Capitol Theatre during the Christmas vacation.”

“Is it Mr. Walt Disney's new movie,
Dumbo?”
I asked. “Mom said she'd take me to see it.”

“Well,” Miss Leah said,
“yes, Dumbo
is coming, too. But this movie was made by the same man who made
Gulliver's Travels
several years ago. It's called
Mr. Bug Goes to Town.
The song is ‘We're the Couple in the Castle.' Tomie, you and Billy will learn the words and sing the song together. Carol and Patty will be your partners. Mrs. Anderson doesn't have the music yet. The song is brand-new, but let's start anyway. Now line up in front of the mirror.”

This was going to be so much fun.

Miss Leah asked our mothers to take us to see the movie if they could. I knew Mom would certainly take me! Maybe all four of us could go together. That would be great!

After our dancing lesson was over, we met Dad, Buddy, and Maureen at Mr. Frank McLaren's Barber Shop, where Dad worked before he became the State Barber Examiner.

Then we went to Kresge's five- and ten-cent store. They had a fabric department where Mom would buy the thick black material for the blackout curtains.

“You know, Tomie,” she told me, “Nana wants a new piece of oilcloth for her kitchen table. Do you want to pick it out?”

I picked out the design with pineapples on it. I hoped Nana would like it.

Next, we went to the Christmas decorations counter. Dad got boxes of icicles and as many Christmas tree lightbulbs as he could. Dad said this probably would be the last Christmas we could buy Christmas tree stuff until the war was over.

We walked a bit, looking at the Christmas decorations in the store windows and at the decorations on all the lampposts.

Dad told us that the mayor's office had said that since the Christmas decorations and lights were already up, they would be lit for several hours every night until New Year's.

Also, people could put up outside decorations on their houses this Christmas. They would be allowed to be lit for several hours until New Year's, too.

“Of course,” Dad said, “if there is an air raid drill, all the lights will have to be turned off.”

So, we would have the blue lights on the bushes in front of the house and the blue electric candles in the windows. The Christmas tree would be tucked in the corner away from the windows so we could leave it on a little longer every night.

So, I guess we'd have a Christmas pretty much like the ones we had before. But when I went to bed, I thought about the grown-ups and children in England.
What kind of a Christmas would they have?