Read The Education of Bet for Free Online Page B

Macbeth's entrance.
    "'So foul and fair a day I have not seen.'" I read the words of one of the most hated and misunderstood men in all of literature.
    "And now she sounds like a young man!" the old man crowed proudly, as though he were responsible for my talent.
    "Yes, she does." Will stared at me as something struck him. "She sounds like
me
."
    "That's funny," the old man said. "I never noticed that before, but you are right. When Elizabeth does young men's voices, she does sound like you."
    "Perhaps," I said, smiling at Will, "I am so good at it because I have spent so many years listening to you talk and talk and talk."
    Will had never hit me, but I got the feeling he would have liked to do nothing more right then.
    "Here you go," I said, rising from my seat and carrying the book over to Will. "Perhaps you would like to read to your great-uncle tonight? If you practice a bit, you can become equally adept at imitating other people's voices."
    Before he could reply, I sauntered from the room.
    ***
    "You walk like a girl!" Will shouted at me.
    "That's probably because I
am
a girl!" I shouted right back at him.
    "Yes, I do know that, Bet. But you sway too much when you walk."
    "I sway?"
    "Yes, sway! Those ...
hips
of yours. They swish back and forth. It is fine for a girl but—"
    "Not for a boy. Very well." I gave a firm nod of my head. "Show me, then."
    "Well, it's like this." Will demonstrated as we stood on the lawn. "You must walk—no, you must
stride
as though you have some great purpose in mind."
    "You look ridiculous," I said, watching him walk back and forth. "You look like you're off to execute somebody."
    "Exactly. That's what I mean about purpose. But there are other times when you need to adopt a more casual approach, as though you're out for a stroll without a care in the world."
    This he demonstrated as well.
    "What are you doing with your hands in your pockets?" I asked.
    "I'm jangling my change, counting it sometimes. It's what men do when they stroll."
    "If you haven't a care in the world," I said with a snort, "I don't see why you'd be worrying about how much money you have."
    "Laugh all you want to, but while you're laughing, practice, practice, practice."
    I obeyed. At least he was finally getting into the spirit of the thing.
    "And no swishing!" he shouted after me as I paraded up and down the lawn, seeking to adopt a more masculine stride.
    When he felt I'd done enough swishless walking for one day, he called for a maid.
    "Lemonade?" I asked, hoping that was what he was going to request. It was hot out.
    "No," he said to me. "Cutting shears, please," he said to the maid.
    "
Cutting shears?
" I wanted to know what he was up to.
    After the maid had brought the requested item and safely departed, Will reached out and, with one quick motion, snipped off a lock of my hair.
    "Hey! What did you do that for?" I demanded, my hand instinctively reaching to protect the rest of my hair.
    "I'm going to need this," Will said, "in order to have the wig maker fashion you a wig to use after you cut the rest of your hair off." Will smiled. "After all, there will still be times when you'll need to look like a girl, won't there?"
    ***
    Allowing my hair to be cut was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do.
    Funny, I usually thought of being a girl as something that had mostly just gotten in my way all my life. And yet, watching my hair grow progressively shorter as lock after lock fell to the bathroom floor, I felt as though I were losing a part of myself that I hadn't previously recognized as precious.
    Somehow, it made me feel slightly better that, although I had to lose my hair, Will was the one doing the cutting.
    "Tell me about school," I said to Will, hoping to take my mind off what was happening as tears of loss sprang to my eyes. "What's it like?"
    "Probably a lot more boring than you imagine," Will said, concentrating on his task.
Snip, snip.
"A bunch of high-spirited boys."
Snip, snip.
"A handful of stern