Read Remember Me for Free Online Page A

and show her what to do.
    Assembly was in the big hall. The teachers sat on the stage, and the headmistress stood in front, at a lectern. “Good morning, school,” she said.
    All the students stood and answered, “Good morning, Miss Barton.”
    Then they sang a song about Jerusalem being built in a green land. Marianne thought of her father raising his glass and saying, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Perhaps they’d all be together in London soon.
    Miss Barton said, “We are delighted to welcome a new student to Prince Albert Elementary School. Mary Anne is a refugee from Germany, and we hope she will be happy here.”
    Every head swiveled to look at her.
    Bridget nudged her and whispered, “Don’t worry.”
    Marianne concentrated on pretending to be somewhere else, but felt her cheeks going red all the same.
    The morning passed easily. It was good to get back to aroutine. Marianne was so busy she didn’t have time to miss her mother. Did that make her a bad person? Shouldn’t she feel miserable all the time?
    Bridget said, “Must be awful to start school so late in the term – poor you.” She shared her milk with Marianne at milk time because she hadn’t brought any money.
    Even math was alright, nothing like the nightmare. The teacher wrote problems on the board that seemed to involve a greengrocer, a customer, and many questions about carrots, potatoes, and onions, and how much they all cost if one added more, or took some away. The teacher saw Marianne desperately looking up words in her dictionary, and called her up to his desk. A boy in the back row snickered and whispered something about Huns. He was given extra homework. Mr. Neame sent Bridget down to the “infants” to get a box of English play money, and he wrote on a card what all the money represented, and told Marianne to learn it:
    ONE FARTHING = 1/4d OF ONE PENNY.
    ONE HALFPENNY = 1/2d OF ONE PENNY.
    TWELVE PENNIES = ONE SHILLING.
    TWENTY SHILLINGS = ONE POUND.
    (Tomorrow, she would buy two bottles of milk – one for Bridget. Milk was 1/2d a bottle.) There was also a threepenny piece and a sixpence, two of those making one shilling. There was a bigsilver coin and that was called half a crown, eight of those making a pound. It was very complicated. Marianne wondered if she’d ever understand it all.
    In the afternoon there was drawing, and music. The first thing Marianne noticed when she entered the music room was the writing on the blackboard – it was in English and German:
    O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, With faithful leaves unchanging;
    O
Tannenbaum
,
    O
Tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine Blätter!
    Not only green in summer’s heat, But also winter’s snow and sleet,
    Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit, Nein, auch im Winter wenn es schneit
,
    O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, With faithful leaves unchanging.
    O
Tannenbaum
, O
Tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine Blätter!
    The teacher said, “Today we are going to learn the words of ‘O Christmas Tree’ in the original German. Mary Anne can help us with the pronunciation. Would you read the German text please, Mary Anne.”
    Everyone waited. Marianne wasn’t quite sure what she had to do, so she didn’t do anything. The teacher picked up the wooden pointer from her desk and raised it. Marianne bit her thumbnail.
Is the pointer for me?
She hid her hand; her cuticle was bleeding a bit. The pointer rested on “O
Tannenbaum
.”
    “Begin please, Mary Anne,” said the teacher and smiled at her.
    By the time she’d read to the end of the first line, Marianne was transported back to a Berlin winter. She remembered standing on tiptoe in the street as a very little girl so that she could look through the windows at the Christmas trees, with their white candles of flame making halos around each green branch. Her mother had made her hurry away long before she’d gazed her fill at the brightness. “It’s not polite to stare into someone’s home,” she’d said.
    Great soft flakes of snow