Page 360 - A Little Life: A Novel

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EVERY AFTERNOON AT four, after the last of his classes and before the first of his
chores, he had a free period of an hour, but on Wednesdays, he was given
two hours. Once, he had spent those afternoons reading or exploring the
grounds, but recently, ever since Brother Luke had told him he could, he
had spent them all at the greenhouse. If Luke was there, he would help the
brother water the plants, memorizing their names—Miltonia spectabilis,
Alocasia amazonica, Asystasia gangetica—so he could repeat them back to

the brother and be praised. “I think the Heliconia vellerigera’s grown,” he’d
say, petting its furred bracts, and Brother Luke would look at him and shake
his head. “Unbelievable,” he’d say. “My goodness, what a great memory
you have,” and he’d smile to himself, proud to have impressed the brother.
If Brother Luke wasn’t there, he instead passed the time playing with his

things. The brother had shown him how if he moved aside a stack of plastic
planters in the far corner of the room, there was a small grate, and if you
removed the grate, there was a small hole beneath, big enough to hold a
plastic garbage bag of his possessions. So he had unearthed his twigs and
stones from under the tree and moved his haul to the greenhouse, where it
was warm and humid, and where he could examine his objects without
losing feeling in his hands. Over the months, Luke had added to his

collection: he gave him a wafer of sea glass that the brother said was the
color of his eyes, and a metal whistle that had a round little ball within it
that jangled like a bell when you shook it, and a small cloth doll of a man
wearing a woolen burgundy top and a belt trimmed with tiny turquoise-
colored beads that the brother said had been made by a Navajo Indian, and
had been his when he was a boy. Two months ago, he had opened his bag

and discovered that Luke had left him a candy cane, and although it had
been February, he had been thrilled: he had always wanted to taste a candy
cane, and he broke it into sections, sucking each into a spear point before
biting down on it, gnashing the sugar into his molars.
The brother had told him that the next day he had to make sure to come
right away, as soon as classes ended, because he had a surprise for him. All
day he had been antsy and distracted, and although two of the brothers had