School of Charm Read Online Free PDF Page A

wasn’t a ditch filled with wild flowers like we had back in New York. The woods bumped right up to the street, all thick and dark. The morning air wasn’t fresh and cool, either. It was already breathing down my neck. And it smelled different, like laundry on someone else’s line. The stones on the side of the road were odd colors too. Reddish-brown and round. The ones back home were gray and jagged. My feet felt different stepping on these strange rocks.
    I stopped and closed my eyes. Back home I knew what time of the month it was by what was happening outside. The jellied mass of baby catfish eggs hatched in the pond when school ended. Tiger lilies bloomed up and down our road right on my birthday, July 4. Mom would pick a bunch before we went to see the fireworks.
    This year we skipped the Fourth. We were so busy getting ready to leave for Grandma’s. So me and Daddy missed the fireworks for the very first time—on my eleventh birthday—all because he was riding his motorcycle on the road when another man was driving with an empty six-pack of beer in his passenger seat.
    I scuffed along Grandma’s street as a car slowed down behind me. Charlene leaned out the window in her polka-dot halter top. “You sure you don’t want to come? We’re stopping for sundaes afterward at Snappy Lunch.” Her new southern accent was even thicker.
    Ruthie popped up underneath Charlene and pressed her hands against the window. I could see Mama leaning past Grandma, smiling. They looked like one big happy bunch going into town for a fun time. I thought about jumping in the car to be part of it, but then I remembered where they were going. They’d probably spend hours in the store, feeling every piece of material, and I’d end up outside, leaning against the building counting ants on the sidewalk all by myself.
    I stepped back and shoved my hands in my pockets. “No, thanks.”
    â€œSuit yourself,” Grandma said.
    â€œSuit yourself,” Ruthie said from the backseat.
    Mama looked away and settled back.
    Charlene made a face at me and rolled up the window.
    Grandma’s big Lincoln Continental roared down the road, sending up a cloud of dust that swirled around me while I stood there. I coughed as the dirt blew past me. After watching the car disappear, I walked on, kicking pebbles until they bounced, bounced, bounced out of sight. There were no creeks to explore, no ponds hiding murky secrets. I didn’t know what I was supposed to like about this place. I stopped and frowned. Daddy sure was taking his time showing me a sign. Then again, maybe a sign from heaven would be hard to send. And maybe it would be hard to see. How was I supposed to know it was a sign, anyway?
    I thought about it for a moment and decided that when Daddy sent his sign, I’d feel it, ’cause my heart would slide right back into place. I peered up at the sky, hoping the clouds might form a shape to tell me something like a smoke signal would. But it was just pure blue up there with a lonely splotch of sun. Too bad Daddy couldn’t stuff a note in a bottle and send it on down.
    I walked on some more, shuffling down a little dip in the road, when a noise caught my attention, like someone tapping on a door. My throat tightened. Tap-tappity-tap . It was coming from the side of the road. Tap-tappity-tap. Same rhythm. Tap-tappity-tap. I kept walking and the noise got louder. I bit my lip, wanting to charge into the brush and find out what—or who—was making that sound. Not so easy to do without Billy or Daddy by my side. I fluttered my fingers, waiting for courage to fill me up.
    But when I heard it again, I was more curious than scared, so I walked down the slope off the side of the road and made my way through the bushes and little trees, just itching to find out what it was.
    Tap-tappity-tap.
    Tap-tappity-tap.
    I followed the sound until I found it. A branch from a little tree was