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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| e959b94 | I lean into the mirror. Eyes after eyes after eyes stare back at me. Am I in there somewhere? A thousand eyes blink. | Laurie Halse Anderson | ||
| 93e81b9 | If you don't learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!!! | Laurie Halse Anderson | ||
| f6d0e46 | What happened at the trestle?" "Edward fell," I said. "He almost drowned." Andrew grinned. "It's a pity he didn't." | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 767e7e0 | spunk, | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| ebfb2e9 | interested | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 48211c3 | Stu asked me to marry him | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 435cb87 | As she said, our talents made us different from other people, but not strange. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 34f8049 | Why don't you and Ali set the table? The forks and knives and spoons are in that drawer." She pointed to the cabinet by the sink, and Emma began counting out the utensils--four of each. "There's only three of us," I said. "You forgot Mr. Bear." Emma sat the teddy in the extra chair and laid a fork, knife, and spoon in front of him. I laughed a little louder than I'd meant to, in relief, I guess, that Mr. Bear was joining us . . . not the gh.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 056d2c4 | Fetch, Buster," she called. "Fetch." I watched the dog pounce on the stick and carry it back. Hannah held out her hand. "Give it to me, sir." Buster shook his head and wagged his tail. He wasn't going to surrender the stick. Nothing could make him open his mouth. Hannah laughed. "Silly old thing. Just wait till Andrew's well enough to play. He'll make you obey!" I didn't like the sound of that. Would I be expected to order Buster around? He.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 546f6ef | You aren't worried about tomorrow, are you?" "What do you think?" He propped himself up on his elbows and studied my face. "You told me last spring it was the easiest thing in the whole wide world. You could hardly wait to jump. Why, even when you got sick you worried you'd die without having a chance to do it." "I must have been a raving lunatic," I muttered. Theo scowled, but the sound of a Model T chugging up the driveway stopped him fro.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| f126da0 | We reached the bushes beside the porch without being seen. Crouched in the dirt, we were so close I could have reached up and grabbed Hannah's ankle. To keep from giggling, Theo pressed his hands over his mouth. Sick with jealousy, I watched John put his arm around Hannah and draw her close. As his lips met hers, I felt Theo jab my side. I teetered and lost my balance. The bushes swayed, the leaves rustled, a twig snapped under my feet. "Be.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| de10987 | Andrew, what are you doing out of bed? You're ill, you need to rest." I crouched beside the ring, speechless with surprise, but Andrew jumped to his feet. "Hannah," he cried, "Hannah." Although he was right in front of her, Hannah didn't see her brother. She walked through him as if he didn't even exist. "I've been lying awake worrying about you," she said to me. "When I heard noises, I thought you and Theo were up here. But you're all alon.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 7a08495 | You must go back to bed." "No," I shouted. "Not yet! I have to finish this game." I couldn't leave Andrew, not now, not when I was finally winning. Hannah released me so suddenly I staggered backward. "I'll fetch Papa!" she cried. Andrew threw himself at her. "Hannah, stop, you're ruining everything!" I grabbed his arm. "Let her go. We don't have much time!" Casting a last terrified look at me, Hannah ran downstairs, calling for Mama and Pa.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 089bdbb | Maybe we should give Andrew a little test, just to make sure the fever didn't damage his brain." "Don't be silly." Hannah tapped the rolled magazine on her knee as if she wanted to whack Edward even harder than she'd whacked Buster. Looking at me, Edward went on with his game. "We'll start with easy questions. What year is it?" Hannah protested, but I answered anyway. "1910." Edward pressed on. "Who's the president?" "For heaven's sake," Ha.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 61163dd | Do you know how to play?" I asked. Hannah gave me one of her vexed looks. "Goodness, Andrew, if it weren't for me you wouldn't know the first thing about marbles. Your brain is a regular sieve these days." I tapped my forehead to remind her I'd been sick. She looked so contrite I felt guilty. "Will you teach me all over again?" Hannah poured her marbles onto the quilt and sighed. Without raising her eyes, she said, "Girls my age are suppose.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 6ccd065 | What's the meaning of this?" Papa strode toward us. "You've disturbed the entire household, Andrew." Mama gripped his arm. "For goodness sake, Henry, don't frighten the child. Haven't you done enough damage? I told you not to whip him!" Papa made an effort to calm down. Taking a deep breath, he squatted in front of me. "What's troubling you, son?" he asked. "Surely a spanking didn't cause this." Aching with sadness, I put my arms around his.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| d9d87b4 | Alone in the bathroom, I stared into the mirror over the sink. Who was I looking at? Andrew or Drew? The boy on the lawn had been wearing my jeans, my T-shirt, my running shoes. I was wearing his clothes. I'd whistled for his dog the way he would have. I'd called his mother "Mama" as naturally as I'd once called my mother "Mom." If I stayed here long enough, would I sink down into Andrew's life and forget I'd ever been anyone else? No, no, .. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| b729d16 | When Mama leaned over to kiss me, I hugged her so tight she could hardly breathe. "I'll never forget you," I whispered. Mama drew back. "What did you say?" "Nothing," I mumbled. "I love you, Mama." She smiled. "Well, for goodness sake, you little jackanapes, I love you too." Smoothing the quilt over me, she turned to the others. "What Andrew needs is a good night's sleep. In the morning, he'll be himself again, just wait and see." "I hope s.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 239c6c7 | In the sudden silence, Andrew grabbed my hand and shook it. "I'll miss you, Drew. You've been a regular gent." It was hard not to cry, but I was determined to show Andrew I could be as tough as he was. "I'll miss you too," I admitted. "And Hannah and Theo and Mama and Papa. I never had a brother or a sister or a dog of my own before." "But you won't miss Edward. He'll be there waiting for you." Andrew meant it as a joke, but neither of us l.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 6b08847 | There." Hannah got to her feet and surveyed the cleared space. Picking up a stick, she drew a lopsided circle in the dirt. She scratched a cross in the middle and laid thirteen target marbles on it--one in the center and three on each crossbar. she called them. Outside the circle, she drew two lines about a foot apart, took ten steps back, and drew another one. "Now," she said. "We'll lag to see who goes first." I stared at Hannah, my fac.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| ccfc4c6 | Reaching out, Andrew crooked his little finger with mine. "If I live, I'll find a way to let you know, Drew," he promised. "I owe you that much--and a whole lot more." After a little silence, Andrew's face brightened. "You don't suppose you could stay, do you? Just think of the fun we'd have playing tricks on Edward and Mrs. Armiger." He laughed at his own thoughts. "Why, we'd make their heads spin, Drew. They wouldn't know one of us from t.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 9e66543 | Why, I never!" Waving a letter covered with spidery handwriting, she said, "What a surprise! After all these years, Hannah wants to pay me a visit. She'd love to see the house she grew up in." At the sound of Hannah's name, my heart beat faster. Speechless with happiness, I listened to my aunt chatter excitedly. "She says John died last winter and she's staying in Riverview to straighten out his estate." Aunt Blythe paused to scrutinize the.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| d9c735c | Try again, Andrew," Hannah said patiently. For the rest of the long morning, we played. By the time we quit, my thumb hurt, my neck and shoulders ached, and my finger felt permanently crooked. It looked like I wasn't going to beat Andrew anytime soon. Chucking me under the chin, Hannah laughed. "Goodness, don't look so glum. It's a game, Andrew, not a matter of life and death." I turned away quickly and began gathering the marbles. The thin.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 8b72ecc | Suddenly, a loud popping and banging shattered the quiet. Almost hidden in a cloud of dust, a car roared along the road below us. Cattle lumbered to their feet, horses raised their heads and galloped away, a flock of chickens scattered in all directions. Hannah gasped. "Oh, my Lord, it's John Larkin in his father's motorcar. If he catches me looking like this, he'll think I'm a common hoyden." Her bare foot plunged toward me. The tree swaye.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| dbdd7f7 | Now don't go too fast, John," Mama said. "And be careful of the curve at the bottom of the hill. Sometimes Mr. Pettengill's cattle get out and block the road." "Yes, ma'am." John cranked up the engine. The car shook and trembled and made a series of loud popping noises before it began to roll down the driveway, picking up speed as it went. "Hooray!" shouted Theo. "Hooray!" "Heavens to Betsy," Mama cried, "slow down, John. Do you want to kil.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 453affe | In Riverview, we stopped at Larkin's Drugstore for a cold drink. Leaving the rest of us to scramble out unaided, John offered Hannah his hand. Although I'd just seen her leap out of a tree as fearless as a cat, she let him help her. At the soda fountain, Hannah took a seat beside John. In her white dress, she was as prim and proper as any lady you ever saw. Quite frankly, I liked her better the other way. I grabbed the stool on the other si.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 0fe099a | At that moment, the back door opened, and Great-grandfather wheeled himself outside. Slowly and carefully, Hannah stepped through the door behind him. Aunt Blythe followed, balancing a tray loaded with a pitcher of lemonade and five glasses. "Come along, you two," Hannah called. "Tarnation," Andrew muttered. "Am I going to have to see that jackass today?" Without letting me help, he levered himself out of the chair with his cane. "I bet Han.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| cc7eab6 | I have to ask you something." Stumbling over words, I described my encounter with Edward. "I have to meet him at the railroad trestle next week. I'm supposed to do something when I get there, but he didn't say what..." My voice trailed away. The expression on Andrew's face told me he knew exactly what I was talking about. "Drat," he muttered. "That low-down skunk. I was hoping he'd forgotten." Andrew hesitated. Without looking at me, he pic.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 6e4c9ff | Hannah tells me you're an archeologist," she said. "Drew's father has followed in your footsteps. He spent the whole summer in France, excavating a Roman ruin." A spark of mischief flared in Andrew's eyes. "Why, it could be the other way around," he said. "Perhaps I got the idea from " Hannah gave Andrew a sharp poke with her cane. Luckily, Aunt Blythe didn't notice that either. "You have the oddest sense of humor," she said to Andrew. "It.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| b1e6583 | You didn't marry?" Aunt Blythe asked Andrew. He glanced at me. "When I was a boy no older than Drew, I had a close brush with death. It always seemed to me a miracle that I lived." Once more Hannah made an attempt to stop her brother with a poke of her cane, but Andrew went on talking, his eyes on my face, his voice solemn. "I often thought I'd been meant to die, so I decided to lead a solitary life. There's no way of telling what one perso.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 6746967 | Long before I was ready to say good-bye, Hannah rose to her feet and beckoned to Andrew. "We've had enough excitement for one day. It's time to leave." After making sure Aunt Blythe wasn't looking, Andrew pulled a leather bag out of his pocket. "She thinks you already have these," he said. "They're yours for keeps now." I clasped the marbles to my heart and stared at him through a blur of tears. "Come back soon, Andrew." He hugged me so har.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 99bf319 | To tell you the truth, I'm beginning to forget things too. The more I learn about you, the less I recollect about me. It's as if your memories are crowding mine out, there's no room for them in my head." I nodded, agreeing with him. "Every day I get more like you, less like me." "Lord A' mighty," Andrew said solemnly. "I hope that doesn't mean I'll become a total pantywaist." The thought of such a dreadful fate seemed to revive him." | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| aff3888 | You aren't worried about tomorrow, are you?" "What do you think?" He propped himself up on his elbows and studied my face. "You told me last spring it was the easiest thing in the whole wide world. You could hardly wait to jump. Why, even when you got sick you worried you'd die without having a chance to do it." "I must have been a raving lunatic," I muttered." | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| e22b7a4 | What on earth prompted you to bother Grandfather?" "I just wanted to get away from you," I mumbled. "I didn't know he was in there." I tried to keep my voice from shaking but it quavered anyway. Great-grandfather had frightened me half to death. "From the look on his face, you scared the wits out of him," Dad said. "I wonder who the devil he thought you were." I shuddered. "Someone he didn't like very much, that's for sure." | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 49469e3 | I was tempted to run down to the kitchen, but the memory of Dad's words stopped me. "Fearful, nervous, insecure"--wasn't that what he'd told Aunt Blythe? She'd already seen me behave like a baby once today. I didn't want to give a repeat performance." | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| c362cf6 | Be careful," Aunt Blythe said. "The floor's riddled with dry rot." Forgetting her own warning, she plunged ahead, opening trunks and boxes, poking and pawing through things, reminiscing." | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| cfe8b79 | Theo," Aunt Blythe said. "According to Father, he was a no-good rascal, but just look at that angelic little face. He couldn't have been all bad." "I guess Great-grandfather didn't like him either." "No, indeed." Aunt Blythe laughed. "If anything, Father disliked Theo even more than Hannah. The feeling was mutual, I'm afraid. I haven't seen either one of them since their mother died. Lord, that was more than fifty years ago." I looked close.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 9fcb5c7 | I think Hannah had two brothers. Yes, I'm sure she did. Theo and, and--this boy." I shook my head. "If he's Hannah's brother, why isn't he in any of the other pictures?" Aunt Blythe didn't answer right away. In the silence, rain pattered against the windows and dripped through holes in the roof. The wind crept in through cracks and stirred the folds of a long white dress hanging from the rafters. Finally, my aunt raised her eyes from the ph.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 08aefd5 | Aunt Blythe went inside to check on Great-grandfather, but I sat on the front steps and watched the sun sink behind the trees across the highway. A little chill crept across my skin. Summer was almost over. Soon my parents would return and I'd go back to Chicago. There would be no more midnight meetings in the attic. No croquet games with Hannah, no boxing lessons from John, no fights with Edward. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| b0b8195 | Holding my breath, I lay as still as death and listened to Hannah walk toward the bed. She leaned over me and whispered Andrew's name, my name, touching my skin with soft, warm fingers. She was no dream, no ghost. "Mama," she cried, "Mama, come quick!" A door opened, and footsteps raced toward me. "His fever's gone, Mama. He's still alive." Hannah's voice shook and she burst into tears. "Praise be," a woman whispered. "Open your eyes, Andre.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| e90c47a | For a moment, I thought I heard laughter, the click of one croquet ball striking another, a dog barking. I stared at the empty yard, trying hard to see what Great-grandfather saw, but nothing shifted, nothing changed. If the Tylers were playing croquet, they were visible to him and him alone. The only dog in sight was Binky. Running across the lawn to meet him, I took the stick he carried and threw it as hard as I could. It sailed across th.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 3092c98 | Papa cut his business trip short when he heard how ill you were. He'll be home on the afternoon train. Won't he be happy to see you looking so well!" Hannah came running up the stairs. "Dr. Fulton's on his way, Mama." "He's in for a surprise, isn't he?" Mrs. Tyler smiled at me. "Dr. Fulton didn't think you'd live till morning, Andrew. The very idea--Hannah told him it would take more than diphtheria to kill you." | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| 57869c2 | As Mrs. Armiger drew near, the fountain clerk put my sundae in front of me. "Here you are," he said. "I made this one especially for you, Andrew. Plenty of chocolate sauce and whipped cream--just the way you like it." Glad Andrew and I had at least one thing in common, I scooped up a big spoonful of ice cream. My mouth was watering for chocolate, but before I had a chance to taste it, Mrs. Armiger pounced on me. "How wonderful to see you up.. | Mary Downing Hahn | ||
| cc785c9 | Catching my eye in the mirror, Mrs. Armiger said, "Your mother tells me you've forgotten how to play the parlor organ, Andrew." I began to apologize, but Mrs. Armiger hushed me. "It's all right, dear. I understand." She paused to adjust her hat. "In the fall, we shall begin your lessons again. We'll get along famously this time, won't we?" Not daring to meet Theo's eyes, I said, "Yes, ma'am." Mrs. Armiger smiled at Mama. "I can't believe he.. | Mary Downing Hahn |