Welcome

Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

“Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros.

 



What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when

you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four,

and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you

expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like

yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten.

And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven.

Like some days you might say something stupid, and that's the part of you that's still ten.

Or maybe some days you might need to sit on your mama's lap because you're scared,

and that's the part of you that's five. And maybe one day when you're all grown up maybe

you will need to cry like if you're three, and that's okay. That's what I tell Mama when

she's sad and needs to cry. Maybe she's feeling three.

Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk

or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one.

That's how being eleven years old is.

You don't feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few days, weeks even, sometimes even

months before you say Eleven when they ask you. And you don't feel smart eleven, not

until you're almost twelve. That's the way it is.

Only today I wish I didn't have only eleven years rattling inside me like pennies in a tin

Band-Aid box. Today I wish I was one hundred and two instead of eleven because if I

was one hundred and two I'd have known what to say when Mrs. Price put the red

sweater on my desk. I would've known how to tell her it wasn't mine instead of just

sitting there with that look on my face and nothing coming out of my mouth.

"Whose is this?" Mrs. Price says, and she holds the red sweater up in the air for all the

class to see. "Whose? It's been sitting in the coatroom for a month."

"Not mine," says everybody, "Not me."

"It has to belong to somebody," Mrs. Price keeps saying, but nobody can remember. It's

an ugly sweater with red plastic buttons and a collar and sleeves all stretched out like you

could use it for a jump rope. It's maybe a thousand years old and even if it belonged to

me I wouldn't say so.

Maybe because I'm skinny, maybe because she doesn't like me, that stupid Sylvia

Saldivar says, "I think it belongs to Rachel." An ugly sweater like that all raggedy and

old, but Mrs. Price believes her. Mrs Price takes the sweater and puts it right on my desk,

but when I open my mouth nothing comes out.

"That's not, I don't, you're not . . . Not mine." I finally say in a little voice that was maybe

me when I was four.

"Of course it's yours," Mrs. Price says. "I remember you wearing it once." Because she's

older and the teacher, she's right and I'm not.

Not mine, not mine, not mine, but Mrs. Price is already turning to page thirty-two, and

math problem number four. I don't know why but all of a sudden I'm feeling sick inside,

like the part of me that's three wants to come out of my eyes, only I squeeze them shut

tight and bite down on my teeth real hard and try to remember today I am eleven, eleven.

Mama is making a cake for me for tonight, and when Papa comes home everybody will

sing Happy birthday, happy birthday to you.

But when the sick feeling goes away and I open my eyes, the red sweater's still sitting

there like a big red mountain. I move the red sweater to the corner of my desk with my

ruler. I move my pencil and books and eraser as far from it as possible. I even move my

chair a little to the right. Not mine, not mine, not mine.

In my head I'm thinking how long till lunchtime, how long till I can take the red sweater

and throw it over the schoolyard fence, or leave it hanging on a parking meter, or bunch it

up into a little ball and toss it in the alley. Except when math period ends Mrs. Price says

loud and in front of everybody, "Now, Rachel, that's enough," because she sees I've

shoved the red sweater to the tippy-tip corner of my desk and it's hanging all over the

edge like a waterfall, but I don't care.

"Rachel," Mrs. Price says. She says it like she's getting mad. "You put that sweater on

right now and no more nonsense."

"But it's not—"

"Now!" Mrs. Price says.

This is when I wish I wasn't eleven because all the years inside of me—ten, nine, eight,

seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one—are pushing at the back of my eyes when I put

one arm through one sleeve of the sweater that smells like cottage cheese, and then the

other arm through the other and stand there with my arms apart like if the sweater hurts

me and it does, all itchy and full of germs that aren't even mine.

That's when everything I've been holding in since this morning, since when Mrs. Price

put the sweater on my desk, finally lets go, and all of a sudden I'm crying in front of

everybody. I wish I was invisible but I'm not. I'm eleven and it's my birthday today and

I'm crying like I'm three in front of everybody. I put my head down on the desk and bury

my face in my stupid clown-sweater arms. My face all hot and spit coming out of my

mouth because I can't stop the little animal noises from coming out of me until there

aren't any more tears left in my eyes, and it's just my body shaking like when you have

the hiccups, and my whole head hurts like when you drink milk too fast.

But the worst part is right before the bell rings for lunch. That stupid Phyllis Lopez, who

is even dumber than Sylvia Saldivar, says she remembers the red sweater is hers! I take it

off right away and give it to her, only Mrs. Price pretends like everything's okay.

Today I'm eleven. There's a cake Mama's making for tonight and when Papa comes home

from work we'll eat it. There'll be candles and presents and everybody will sing Happy

birthday, happy birthday to you, Rachel, only it's too late.

I'm eleven today. I'm eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one,

but I wish I was one hundred and two. I wish I was anything but eleven, because I want

today to be far away already, far away like a runaway balloon, like a tiny o in the sky, so

tiny tiny you have to close your eyes to see it.