Every Single Second (28 page)

Authors: Tricia Springstubb

BOOK: Every Single Second

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“I couldn’t believe it. She had on hot-pink Crocs with sparkle stickers, and she was in the art room helping these guys twice as big as she is mix up paints. They love her! She was just the same, only more. She made me feel like . . . like I don’t know. Like you should never give up. Because you never know when goodness is going to come showering down.”

The starry flowers stirred in the soft breeze. Vinny came out and sat in between them.

“You know what else she did?” Angela said then. “She got some kind of divine statue museum to take St. A. She said he’ll probably find life there too quiet and boring after the playground, so she’ll take us on a field trip to visit him. Want to come, Vin?”

“Me come.”

“I promised Sister I’d tell you hello. So. Hello, Nella.”

“Hello, Angela.”

That evening, just before supper, Nella walked up the hill. Past Franny’s, past the window with T-shirts saying
THE BEST PEOPLE HAVE A ROOT IN THE BOOT
, past Mama Gemma’s where “I did it my way!” ran on its torturous loop, past Nonni’s corner and Clem’s corner and a sidewalk tree whose leaves had a tinge of autumn red. The street was clogged with rush-hour traffic, people trying to get up or down the hill, everyone wanting to get home.

As Nella’s long legs carried her higher and higher, she trailed a hand along the thick stone wall her long-ago relatives built. A yellow-flecked bird, so small it hardly seemed real, perched on the wall and tried out its voice. Wait. Nella stood still. Could it be?

“Is everything okay?” Nella looked up to see her father coming toward her on the sidewalk. He looked worried. Worried—it was Dad’s default setting.

He didn’t remember how she used to come meet him, so she could have him all to herself for a little while before she had to share him with the brutish barbarians. How much she’d loved those walks, her hand in his. But that was all right. She smiled to let him know everything was all right.

“Hey. Know what I was thinking about just now? How you used to meet me here on the hill. You were always asking me questions. Know what you asked me once?”

“Something dumb, no doubt.”

“How come the sky’s so high up? Why didn’t God put it lower, so you could pat the clouds?”

“I told you!”

They fell into step together, and then Dad said, “Maybe that’s why you were drawn to that other Marie. The statue is like you.”

“What?” Nella was horrified. “I’m not dead!”

“The way she’s reaching, I mean.”

“But it’s sad. She’ll never get what she wants. It’s always too far away.”

“Oh, she’s going to get it, don’t worry, kiddo. Even if it’s the moon and the stars, someday that girl’s going to get it.”

Dad caught Nella’s hands and swung them high over her head. For a moment they stood there, fingertip to fingertip, reaching for the wide-open sky.

A Final Word from the Honorable Jeptha A. Stone

I
, Jeptha A. Stone, was never a fan of surprises.

They are, as I am certain you agree, undignified.

Yet even after death, that scalawag called Life continues to play its tricks.

While these baby birds test their wings, while they perch upon my broad shoulders and my handsome aquiline nose, I am surprised and grateful to learn:

Nothing ever truly ends.

Something new forever begins.

Goodness sings its song.

Time spins its golden circle.

Dignity is overrated.

Hark unto me, Jeptha . . . Oh never mind.

I have the feeling you already know.

You know.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

Photo by J. Palsa Photography

TRICIA SPRINGSTUBB
is the author of the acclaimed middle grade novels
What Happened on Fox Street; Mo Wren, Lost and Found;
and
Moonpenny Island
as well as the picture book
Phoebe & Digger
. The mother of three grown daughters, she lives with her husband and cats in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. You can visit her online at
www.triciaspringstubb.com
.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.

B
OOKS BY
T
RICIA
S
PRINGSTUBB

Moonpenny Island

Mo Wren, Lost and Found

What Happened on Fox Street

C
REDITS

Cover design by Dana Fritts

C
OPYRIGHT

Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

EVERY SINGLE SECOND. Text copyright © 2016 by Tricia Springstubb. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Diana Sudyka. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

www.harpercollinschildrens.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015958372

ISBN 978-0-06-236628-3 (trade bdg.)

EPub Edition © May 2016 ISBN 9780062366306

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