Milk Glass Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

such longing to explore that I couldn’t make the connection that my fate was somehow tied to a mountain town in the hills of Southwest Virginia. I thought a girl like me, who loved to read big adventure stories from centuries long ago, should have been from a more exciting place, a magical place. So when I found out that my mother had in fact left Italy pregnant with me and without a husband, I had my exotic point of origin at last. Etta might be very different, but she has my longing for the Big World deep in her bones. These mountains may protect us from the outside world, but they won’t hold us. We can see our way through them and over them, something lots of folks around here could never imagine.
    At the bottom of the butcher paper is a very detailed drawing of our stone house, square and rustic, with its four chimneys and the front door painted pale blue. Etta has drawn the windows and their filmy lace sheers rustling in the wind. She has penciled in the roof shingle by shingle (now she knows the shingles firsthand), and her bedroom window, which overlooks the roof. Sitting in the window is Etta herself, with huge eyes and caterpillar eyelashes. In her hands, she holds a small telescope through which she gazes up to the stars above. She must have been out on the roof plenty before I caught her.
    The phone rings. One of Etta’s punishments was the removal of her phone, so I have to run downstairs to answer it. I pick up on the third ring.
    “Ave!” When I hear the voice of my closest friend of twenty years, I become the woman I used to be—young and trouble-free. The worst problem I had when I was single, a hole in the roof of my house, seems silly in comparison to my daughter falling off one.
    “Theodore! How are you?”
    “Moving.”
    “Finally, you’ve come to your senses and you’re moving back to Big Stone Gap.”
    Theodore laughs. “Not likely.”
    “Come on. We got killer majorettes, and our horn section is the best in the county.”
    “Don’t tempt me.”
    “You’re not going far, are you?” I have loved having my best friend so close in Knoxville. Many weekends, I jump in the Jeep and ride down to see his theatrical halftime shows at the University of Tennessee.
    “It’s a dream move.”
    “No. You didn’t get a job in—”
    “Yep. New York City!”
    “No!” Theodore used to talk about New York City as though it lay between heaven and Oz, a place of perfection and possibility. Now he’ll see for himself.
    “I’ve only wanted this all of my life, and now it’s actually happening,” Theodore says gratefully.
    “What school?”
    “Not a school.”
    “Not a school? Are you switching careers?” I can’t imagine Theodore giving up the life of a band director. He’s just too brilliant at it.
    “No. I’m just going pro. I’ve been offered the job of associate artistic director at Radio City Music Hall.”
    “Oh my God! The Rockettes!”
    “The Christmas show, the Easter show, the concerts. All of it. I’m going to be working with the great director Joe Layton. He directed
The Lost Colony,
that outdoor drama. Remember when we drove down to North Carolina to see it?”
    “One of our better road trips,” I remind him.
    “Who would have thought playing Preacher Red Fox in your drama would have gotten me in the door?”
    “That’s hardly what got you the job. You’re a theatrical genius, and now everyone will know it. You’re going to the big city! New York City!” I hope I’m not yelling, but I’m so excited for him.
    “Now all we have to do is figure out when you’re coming up.”
    Etta and Jack get home around suppertime carrying her new backpack, a three-ring binder with Halley’s comet on the cover, a hot-pink down vest, and more. I meet them outside to tell them Theodore’s news.
    “When can we go?” Etta asks excitedly.
    “He’d like us to come up for Columbus Day weekend in October.”
    “Dad’s coming too, right?”
    “I’m not slick enough for New