The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

her mouth went perfectly round, like her glasses. She looked like a fish. “It’s
his left hand,” she said. “Everyone knows that’s the mark of the devil. He
wants to write with his left hand, not his right. I’m training him up the way
he’s supposed to be.”
“I never heard such rubbish,” snapped Miss Smith. “He’s left-handed,
that’s all.”
“It’s the mark of the devil,” insisted the teacher.
Miss Smith took a deep breath. “When I was at Oxford,” she said, “my
professor of Divinity, Dr. Henry Leighton Goudge, was left-handed. It is not
the mark of the devil. Dr. Goudge told me himself that fear of left-handedness
was nothing more than silly superstition and unwarranted prejudice. There’s
nothing in the Bible against people using their left hands. We can write and
ask him, if you like. Meanwhile you will allow Jamie to use whichever hand
he prefers or I shall take action for the wounds he’s received.”
I hated when she spoke with such big words; I couldn’t follow it. Jamie’s
teacher said, suspiciously, “When were you at Oxford?”
“I graduated 1931,” Miss Smith replied.
The teacher looked flustered, but she didn’t back down all the way.
“You’re not to come into my classroom without knocking,” she said. “It isn’t
allowed.”
“I won’t again so long as I have no cause,” Miss Smith said. She hugged
Jamie to her, then stood. “I’ll be asking Jamie. I don’t want him ridiculed,
looked down upon, or punished in any way for using his left hand.”
The teacher sniffed. Miss Smith stood, and guided me to follow her out. I
wanted to wait in the hall to be sure the teacher didn’t immediately tie Jamie
back up, but Miss Smith said we needed to leave. “I’ve knocked her pride a
bit,” she said. “We need to let her get it back.”
I didn’t see why. I said, “I could have told them he hates being tied.” But I
didn’t really understand why the teacher tied him, and I said so.
Miss Smith sighed. “Ada, which hand do you eat with? When you hold a
fork?”
I held up my right hand. “This one.”
“Why? Why not use both?”
“This one feels better,” I said.
“That’s right. And Jamie eats with his other hand, his left hand. He always
does. That hand feels better to him.”