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A caroling concert? She really should’ve known better The entire point of a caroling concert was to join in First of all, Sophie was Jewish It was bad enough that she’d basically skipped Hanukkah this year, but to spend the last night of the Jewish holiday serenading the birth of Jesus… Just No And even if they were to throw in "I Have a Little Dreidel" (they wouldn’t; dreidels were as foreign to Bu Not in public Not here

In her defense, she did like Christ overin pretty harmonies Sophie re the streets outside her apartment in Brooklyn They had harrand," Luba had replied, "just gentiles"

There was nothing wrong with the singing tonight It was fine But not re Christmas sweaters Like with appliques of Rudolph or Santa on theirl even had a sweater with a tree that actually lit up If Sophie had gone to NYU, such sweaters would’ve been worn ironically But here, they weren’t Everything was so goddda the carols Not that she expected ironic Christ… Wasn’t that how they sang it in ele and heart as they pa-rum-pum-pum-pummed about Little Drummer Boys Plus the sweaters She couldn’t take it anymore

"Oh, the Ned Flanders of it all," shea lot lately When she admitted this to Zora, her friend had warned that it was a certain step on the road to Crazy Cat Lady-isht of her mother, alone in the apartment with only her sculptures, and now Luba’s cats, for company, it didn’t see about Ned Flanders?"

Caught Cat-Ladying out loud? Oy Sophie felt as though she’d been spotted streaking the quad naked She pretended she had not heard the question

"You did You said, ‘the Ned Flanders so about three feet aas one of the Black Guys on Ca of hirown up on the Bed-Stuy side of Clinton Hill, after all--but here, it was hard not to There seee, a lot of them scholarship students like her She knew this because she’d met quite a few at that Dean’s Reception for Excellence the first week of school She’d been flattered by the invite until she walked in and was given a handout with still-open work-study slots and understood that it was a get-together for all the scholarship students She’d hid out in a corner, eavesdropping on a bunch of guys froe here, she’d been surprised to learn) cootten in their first week Sophie had been dying to chime in with soh she may have felt like a minority here, she was still white

She tried to re at her like he ht know her "I didn’t say it so hed A big, open-chested laugh, and for a second Sophie felt the tiny thrill of landing a successful joke, but it was followed by doubt because people here didn’t get her huh, she suspected it was after she’d left the room Which annoyed the shit out of her Back hoh in your face

This caroling thing was a supremely bad idea She turned to walk away

She felt a hand, a huge hand, on her shoulder "Sorry I’ the sa about Ned Flanders?"

She waited for him to say "Diddly-oh," or some such It would be exactly what the Kyles or Connors would say Then they’d ask her rin, too hot for this cold night "Yeah Ned Flanders," he said "A others, and Sophie felt herself flush

He stuck out a hand, sheathed in a fingerless glove "Russell," he said

She looked at him, or rather up at him He was very tall, a whole foot taller than Sophie, at least, and Sophie was five feet five Tall enough to play basketball Maybe he was on scholarship, sarip, which was firuys who had to break your hand to prove just how much they treated you as equals

"Sophie," she said

"So, Sophie" He opened his ars you here?"

It felt like a variation of the What’s yourhere? Sophie hated being asked her major (She didn’t have one; she was a first-terured out by the ti here … A year ago, she hadn’t even heard of this place Her high school guidance counselor suggested it, apparently knowing the ins and outs of obscure colleges with ridiculous endowenerous, so above and beyond anywhere else, Sophie simply couldn’t turn it down Before she’d had time to think about what it would mean--all this pastoralia, et cetera--she had enrolled Now she found herself checking off days in the calendar, awaiting her parole (And yes, she knew she was being hyperbolic and drarand-a-year education and she should be grateful, but no matter how many times she told herself that, it didn’t erase how unhappy she was)

"I believe in the value of a liberal arts education," Sophie said now It was her standard response to the annoying question she’d grown accusto lettuce in the salad bar and cheese served on top of things that wouldn’t seehed: "IConcert of All Ti about the way he said it, as if he and Sophie were on the sa anthropological research," she said