When the Emperor Was Divine Read Free

is?” the girl asked.
    The woman had to admit that she did not. “Tell me,” she said, but the girl just shook her head no.
    â€œI’ll tell you later,” said the girl. She was ten years old and she knew what she liked. Boys and black licorice and Dorothy Lamour. Her favorite song on the radio was “Don’t Fence Me In.” She adored her pet macaw. She went to the bookshelf and took down
Birds of
America.
She balanced the book on her head and walked slowly, her spine held erect, up the stairs to her room.
    A few seconds later there was a loud thump and the book came tumbling back down the stairs. The boy looked up at his mother. He was seven and a small black fedora was tilted to one side of his head. “She has to stand up straighter,” he said softly. He went to the foot of the stairs and stared at the book. It had landed face open to a picture of a small brown bird. A marsh wren. “You have to stand up straighter,” he shouted.
    â€œIt’s not that,” came the girl’s reply, “it’s my head.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with your head?” shouted the boy.
    â€œToo round. Too round on
top.
”
    He closed the book and turned to his mother. “Where’s White Dog?” he asked.
    He went out to the porch and clapped his hands three times.
    â€œWhite Dog!” he yelled. He clapped his hands again. “White Dog!” He called out several more times, then went back inside and stood beside the woman in the kitchen. She was slicing apples. Her fingers were long and white and they knew how to hold a knife. “That dog just gets deafer every day,” he said.
    He sat down and turned the radio on and off, on and off, while she arranged the apples on a plate. The Radio City Symphony was performing the last movement of Tchaikovsky’s
1812 Overture.
Cymbals were crashing. Cannons boomed. She set the plate down in front of the boy. “Eat,” she said. He reached for a slice of apple just as the audience burst into applause. “Bravo,” they shouted, “bravo, bravo!” The boy turned the dial to see if he could find
Speaking of Sports
but all he could find was the news and a Sammy Kaye serenade. He turned off the radio and took another slice of apple from the plate.
    â€œIt’s so hot in here,” he said.
    â€œTake off your hat then,” said the woman but the boy refused. The hat was a present from his father. It was big on him but the boy wore it every day. She poured him a glass of cold barley water and he drank it all in one gulp.
    The girl came into the kitchen and went to the macaw’s cage by the stove. She leaned over and put her face close to the bars. “Tell me something,” she said.
    The bird fluffed his wings and danced from side to side on his perch. “Baaaak,” he said.
    â€œThat’s not what I wanted to hear,” said the girl.
    â€œTake off your hat,” said the bird.
    The girl sat down and the woman gave her a glass of cold barley water and a long silver spoon. The girl licked the spoon and stared at her reflection. Her head was upside down. She dipped the spoon into the sugar bowl.
    â€œIs there anything wrong with my face?” she asked.
    â€œWhy?” said the woman.
    â€œPeople were staring.”
    â€œCome over here,” said the woman.
    The girl stood up and walked over to her mother.
    â€œLet me look at you.”
    â€œYou took down the mirrors,” the girl said.
    â€œI had to. I had to put them away.”
    â€œTell me how I look.”
    The woman ran her hands across the girl’s face. “You look fine,” she said. “You have a fine nose.”
    â€œWhat else?” asked the girl.
    â€œYou have a fine set of teeth.”
    â€œTeeth don’t count.”
    â€œTeeth are essential.”
    The woman began to rub the girl’s shoulders. She told the girl to lean back and close her eyes and then she