The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away (19 page)
Read The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away Online
Authors: Frances O'Roark Dowell
“Thanks, Katie,” he says, grinning. “I didn’t know you cared.”
Kate is quiet for a minute, focusing on the brightest spot in the sky, wondering if it’s a star or a planet. Maybe it’s Venus, the evening star. She likes that—a planet being called a star, one thing being called the opposite thing. But are stars and planets opposites? She’s not sure. How about stars and moons?
This is why she likes sitting on the roof. You never know what thoughts are going to come into your head, which direction your mind will go in. Maybe during the summer, she’ll sleep out here, under the moon, and dream all sorts of crazy dreams.
“I care too much,” she says, breaking the silence. “That’s the problem. But I’m trying not to. I’m practicing how not to care.”
“Don’t,” Mr. Faber says, and to Kate’s surprise, his voice is sharp. “That’s the worst thing in the world you can do.”
Then they’re both quiet, and Kate realizes suddenly that she doesn’t really know her dad all that well. He’s just her dad to her, not a real
person, not someone who might have some experience when it comes to caring too much.
Kate reaches over and puts her hand on her dad’s, just for a second. Just long enough to let him know she’ll never be able to stop caring, no matter how much she practices.
“What are you guys doing out there?” Tracie’s face appears at Kate’s window. She pokes her head out and makes a face, like something on the roof stinks. “It’s freezing!”
“Just having a heart-to-heart,” Mr. Faber tells her. “Want to join us?”
Tracie barks a sharp laugh. “Yeah, right. Mom said to tell you the pizza’s on its way. She hopes everyone’s okay with one veggie and one pepperoni and mushroom.”
“Fine by me,” Mr. Faber says. “How about you, Katie?”
Kate nods, and Tracie pulls her head back inside. “It’s freezing!” she says again, and then she slams down the window.
Mr. Faber turns and looks at Kate. “You know these windows don’t open from the outside, don’t you?”
Kate shakes her head in dismay. “Right now I’m practicing not hating Tracie’s guts.”
“Well, I’m practicing being brave enough to climb down off the roof,” her dad says. “It’s not that far to the ground, but I’d hate to fall.”
“We could just wait until the pizza guy gets here and yell at him to tell Mom,” Kate suggests. “It won’t be that long.”
Her dad thinks about this for a second and nods his head. “Sure, okay.”
So Kate and her dad sit on the roof, not really talking, mostly just thinking their own thoughts, and Kate decides it’s kind of nice, sitting on the roof with someone else, looking out at the stars. She scootches a little closer to her dad, but not all the way close. She needs a little space between her and other people, space to fit in the music and the poems and the crazy dreams that belong to her and no one else. But she needs the closeness, too. This is what she has to figure out. How do you have both? How do you have the caring and the not caring too much, the kiss good night and the walk home alone?
It’s like the stars, she thinks. The faraway
stars and the light you can hold in your hands. You need them both, one to look at, the other to help you see. Something like that. Kate knows she’s going to have to think about this some more before she gets it all figured out. That’s okay. She’s got time.
She shivers, and her dad asks, “You cold?”
“A little,” she admits. “But the pizza guy will be here soon.”
And sure enough, she sees the car at the end of the street, with its little triangle of light on top, driving in their direction. She’s almost sorry to see him, even if she is getting cold. There’s so much she needs to think about, like whether she should save up for an electric guitar, and if they should ask more people to join the band, and when it’s going to be time to be friends with Matthew Holler again.
Pretty soon, she thinks. Not too long from now. She needs a little more time to practice caring without caring too much. To practice holding the light in her hands. To practice letting it go.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank Caitlyn Dlouhy, the brains of this operation, and Ariel Colletti, who is as lovely as her name. Thanks to Justin Chanda for his ongoing and unwavering support and for just being a great guy.
Thanks to Valerie Shea, genius copy editor; eagle-eye production editor Kaitlin Severini; Sonia Chaghatzbanian and Michael McCartney, who design such beautiful books; and production manager Chava Wolin, who makes it all come out right.
As always, this author would be at a loss without her fine friends to keep her sane. Special thanks go to Lisa Brown, Amy Graham, Sandy Hasenauer, Jaye Lapachet, and Sarah Schulz in this regard. Many thanks to the good people at Pretty fab PR, who throw pretty fab book parties, and to the folks at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill. Thank you, Stephanie Rosen, for being an ideal reader, and to your mom, Michelle Rosen, for being an ideal librarian.
As always, the author would like to acknowledge Clifton, Jack, and Will Dowell, the most awesome family a girl could ask for, and Travis, her dog, who kept her company while she wrote this book.
frances o’roark dowell
is the author of many critically acclaimed novels, including
Dovey Coe,
which won the Edgar Award, and most recently
The Second Life of Abigail Walker.
She lives with her husband and two sons in Durham, North Carolina. Connect with Frances online at
FrancesDowell.com
.
Check out Frances’s other books!
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster, New York
Meet the author, watch videos, and get extras at
KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com
Also by Frances O’Roark Dowell
Chicken Boy
Dovey Coe
Falling In
The Kind of Friends We Used to Be
Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Blasts Off!
Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Erupts!
Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Gets Slimed!
The Second Life of Abigail Walker
The Secret Language of Girls
Shooting the Moon
Ten Miles Past Normal
Where I’d Like to Be
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS • An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 •
www.SimonandSchuster.com
• This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. • Copyright © 2013 by Frances O’Roark Dowell • All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. • ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. • Atheneum logo is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. • The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at
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. • Book design by Sonia Chaghatzbanian • Jacket design by Sonia Chaghatzbanian • Jacket photograph by Ali Smith • The text for this book is set in Lomba Book. • Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data • Dowell, Frances O’Roark. • The sound of your voice, only really far away / Frances O’Roark Dowell. — 1st ed. • p. cm. • Sequel to: The kind of friends we used to be. • Summary: Best friends Marylin and Kate compete for limited school resources when Kate helps her boyfriend seek funding for the Audio Lab, while Marylin covers her interest in the student body president by claiming she only wants his support for new cheerleading uniforms. • ISBN 978-1-4424-3289-5 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-4424-3291-8 (eBook) • [1. Best friends—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction. 3. Middle schools—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction. 5. Popularity—Fiction.] I. Title. • PZ7.D75455Sou 2013 • [Fic]—dc23 • 2012030308
Contents
Chapter 1: The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away
Chapter 2: From Up and Down, and Still Somehow
Chapter 6: Free as a Girl with Wings
