Faith, Hope, and Ivy June (30 page)
Read Faith, Hope, and Ivy June Online
Authors: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
“Never,” Ivy June agreed. “Can’t hardly believe it myself.” She glanced over at her teacher. “What do you always tell us? That real life is stranger than stories?”
“I believe it’s ‘truth is stranger than fiction,’” Miss Dixon said. “I’m glad you remembered that.”
“It’s strange, all right.” Catherine hugged Ivy June one last time, and as she got in the car, she whispered, “Hang on to your lucky rock, Ivy June.”
Ivy June grinned. “It’s yours now—something to remember me by. Check your pocket.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
July 4
Seems like a year since I wrote in my journal. Everything I had to share with the class, I already told straight out. Didn’t read any of this. Too personal.
Papaw retired from the mine yesterday, and we didn’t need any fireworks to celebrate. Daddy got us some sparklers, though, and the Hedges came down with their grandkids, and I mean we had these little lights traveling up and down the hill from Mammaw’s to Ma’s, all of us shrieking and carrying on. When the sparklers burned down, all that gunpowder smell filling our noses, I just sat on the porch looking up at the stars, thinking what
Papaw said once about the dark being bright compared to the mine. Thinking about how he never has to go in there again.
We’re going to Cutshin tomorrow and get us a dog from the Prathers. That was something else Papaw said he was going to do when he retired. The Prathers’ hound had puppies couple months ago, and Papaw says it’s about time our cats got a little excitement.
Shirl came over on Memorial Day—Decoration Day, as Grandmommy still calls it—and after we’d been to the cemetery, we sat on the porch watching cars go by on the road the other side of the creek. Bet we counted twenty cars in an hour. People from Cincinnati or Cleveland or Morgantown or wherever they moved to, all coming back to visit the graves, just like they do every year.
“Last Decoration Day for somebody,” Grandmommy said, and she knows it could well be her. But she also knows that if it is her that’s gone, she’ll be buried over there beside Grandpappy, and we’ll all be there, making wreaths of summer flowers. We’ll sit in the shade with the other folks we see once a year and talk about all the times Thunder Creek was flooded, who’s moving away and who’s coming back.
I made a wreath for Mr. Weller’s grave. They never could afford a headstone, but there’s a
marker with his name on it. I wanted Luke to know that somebody thought to bring flowers for his daddy, same as I’d want him to do for Papaw, if it was him.
Catherine’s mom is doing okay. I’ve had two letters from Cat since she left, and I’ve so far sent her one. She wants to know if we can call ourselves half sisters. Says you can say that without people asking how it got to be half. So I can call myself Ivy June Combs sometimes if I want, and she can call herself Catherine Mosley, just for the fun of it. She jokes that she’ll send me a picture of her every Memorial Day if I’ll send her one of me on Decoration Day.
When we’re both eighteen, we’re going to get together no matter where we are, and we’re going to squeeze into that ONE BIG HAPPY T-shirt and let somebody take our picture.
And because truth is stranger than fiction, maybe I’ll move to Lexington, she tells me. Maybe we’ll both of us move to Cleveland. Or it just might be that I’ll go to college and she’ll be there, and we’ll end up roommates. It could happen.
Ivy June Mosley
A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s books take place in many different states and settings, but rural areas are among her favorites. Her father was born in Mississippi, though his parents later moved to Maryland, and her mother was born in Iowa. Phyllis herself was born in Indiana, and vacations were usually spent on her paternal grandparents’ farm in Maryland or on her maternal grandparents’ farm in Iowa. When she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Phyllis and her husband, Rex, traveled through the little mountain communities of West Virginia and Kentucky, and coal country also captured her interest.
Mrs. Naylor is the author of 135 books, including the Newbery Award–winning
Shiloh
and the twelve books of her boy/girl battle series, which begins with
The Boys Start the War
and
The Girls Get Even.
She and her husband live in Gaithersburg, Maryland. They are the parents of two grown sons and the grandparents of Sophia, Tressa, Garrett, and Beckett.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon
is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds.
Faith, hope, and Ivy June / Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: During a student exchange program, seventh-graders Ivy June and Catherine share their lives, homes, and communities, and find that although their lifestyles are total opposites they have a lot in common.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89101-4
[1. Student exchange programs—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction.
3. Toleration—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.N24Fai 2009
[Fic]—dc22
2008019625
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First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
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