Roseflower Creek Read Online Free PDF

them rules. And I was following them and following them. It was the third or fourth day, I think.
        Then Darla Faye ruined everything. Well, actually it was my own fault, but she didn't have to get her nose in edgewise. She made it a worse disaster than it already was. What happened is, one morning Mz. Pence, she had one of them reading groups, the Robins I think, up at the front in a circle reading about Spot jumping and Dick running and Jane seeing, stuff like that. Anyway, we wasn't to interrupt her 'lessen we had permission. Well, I had to go. So I was waving my hand and waving my hand to get me that permission. She didn't see me none. Then I really had to go, so I was praying and waving my hand and that didn't do no good, neither.
        Now I weren't stupid, and I knew I should just up and leave right then and there, do my business and be done with it. But it was the strangest thing. I was scared to break the rules and my feet was stuck to the floor like they was plumb glued down. It was real sorrowful, 'cause I couldn't hold it no longer and it come trickling down my leg. 'Fore long it was running down both legs. It made a puddle right on the floor in front of God and everyone He made that was in that schoolroom.
        If that weren't bad enough, that blabbermouth Darla Faye jumped right up and yelled out to everybody had ears. "Mz. Pence! Lori Jean wet her pants! Lori Jean wet her pants! " She yelled it out singsong like it were a tune on the hit parade. I wanted to kill that girl right on the spot and here I was a Christian even. My face was all hot. My shoes was all wet. They was squishing against my toes. I felt right poorly, I did.
        And all them kids all around the room started clucking about like they was a group a' chickens fixing to get fed, and that Darla Faye was the lead hen. She got everybody pointing and laughing, making terrible fun of me. I tried hard not to cry, but I did anyway. I wanted that floor to open right up and swallow me down; sink me clear to China, I was hurting that bad inside.
        Mz. Pence made it through all them hovering about me and shooed every one of them back to their desks.
        "That's enough," she said. "Ya'll go on back to your desks right now and work your assignments."
        She took my hand and we went out to the cloakroom. She knelt down on the wooden planks and took out her hanky. It was real pretty. It was white with lace on the ends and it had a pink rose on it with tiny little stitches. She dabbed at my tears, but they kept coming.
        "Ssssshhhh," she said. "Don't cry, Lori Jean. Don't cry, honey. It's gonna be okay. I promise," she said.
        She put the hanky up to my nose and waited for me to blow. I could smell the flowers in it. They smelled just like her. They smelled real good.
        "There," she said. "That's better."
        Then she folded that pretty hanky up and put it in my pocket. She did! And she said, "It's a very special hanky, Lori Jean, for a very special girl." Then she patted that hanky down in place. That was really something. She coulda took it home and washed it up good as new and here she give it to me.
        She tilted my chin up high right next to hers.
        "Go on home now, Lori Jean," she said. "Come back tomorrow—and don't be late," she told me. Her voice was as soft as the scarves MeeMaw knit.
        "Tomorrow it'll be okay. You'll see," she said. "I promise."
        My sweater was on the metal hook, lined up in a row with all the others. She knew which one was mine—she about knew everything. She took it down and helped me put it on. She even ignored the missing buttons and just patted the spots where they shoulda been.
        Then she led me to the front door of that schoolhouse and sent me on my way. She waved, so I waved back. She smiled. I tried to. Then she nodded her head, but I didn't nod mine. I wan't real sure about tomorrow. But then her eyes just grabbed my eyes and