The Language of Sparrows Read Online Free PDF

photoshopping. Still, she zoomed around, focusing on this and that. The weeping willow poured its branches into the center of the courtyard. A napping cat lay under the steps. The old April came to life, a flutter of excitement making itself known in her hands.
    She switched angles. Ricky Salinas, the owner of their complex, lifted his eyes as he strode to the office and waved at her. Behind him, a little boy swung on the swing set. Her camera froze on the boy in the screen, on his grubby little face.
    The boy couldn’t be older than five, but already he had a hard set to his mouth. His eyes were wide, not in wonder, but with wariness. His mother pushed the swing, but her face was guarded, too, as if she were waiting for the next blow. It was images like these that had caused her to pack her camera away.
    April lowered the camera, looking at its black lines.
    She’d first met Gary with a camera in her hands. Her camera had met his gray eyes, deep as the sea, and she’d thought, As if everywhere he looks there’s a mystery to be plumbed.
    She’d kept shooting a record of their life—Gary working at his desk, Gary holding their baby daughter, Gary asleep. She recorded him, because it’s who she was and what she did. The camera didn’t miss a thing. Not the hollows under his eyes or the growing hollowness within them.
    In real life you could tune things out. The lens, though, found the true story, like it or not.
    One day she’d knelt to capture his hand scribbling notes madly on a writing pad—an artistic image, she’d thought at the time. It had been the last straw. Gary knocked the camera out of her hands. Then he stared at the camera lying on the floor, his eyes big and remorseful.
    With his eyes still on the camera, he said, “Just how much of my pitiful life do you need for your albums?”
    The lens had been cracked, but he was right. It was about that time the same hollows appeared under Sierra’s eyes. She was a few months shy of twelve then. So April gave the camera away and never looked back, not even when Gary replaced it with a camera that cost a month’s salary.
    April pointed the camera up, capturing a white-hot sky. She pointed it down and found the weeping willow. Despite its sad name, it was a beautiful tree, providing shade with its long drooping branches. She focused, clicked, and went back inside.
    Pausing at the box, she considered, but finally tucked the camera back inside. A tightness coiled itself in her chest and she took a deep breath. The last few days had been entirely too bleak since her art project had gone awry. It was possible for a little bit of disappointment to build into despair and then into something too big to fight. April was an expert on the process, and because of Gary, also an expert in living positively. The first rule of living in the light was to spend time in the light. And the next was that if you wanted to be a person with energy, you had to act as if you already had it.
    In minutes she was dressed for a run and driving to the park. But even on the verge of October, it was still too hot for anything but a lazy jog. The shade from the huge oaks gave cool, green light though.
    Pace by pace, her chest lightened and the day moved back into the good column. There was a whole life full of yet-to-bes. She was already thinking of new ways to live large and bright. For Sierra and for herself.

Chapter Six
    On the way home from school, Carlos pulled into step beside her. “Hey Sierra with the brown eyes.”
    Why was he always calling her that? Brown eyes were nothing special.
    “I’ve got some things to do at your place today. Maybe we could walk there together.”
    Sierra nodded and kept moving.
    “You’re gonna say something to me one of these days.” He flashed her a smile that said he was used to getting what he wanted.
    She sped up her steps, but he matched her stride easily.
    “No, really,” he said. “You’ll talk to me. And hey, maybe you’ll even smile at me