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    Seeing Sky-Blue Pink
    Seeing Sky-Blue Pink
    Seeing Sky-Blue Pink
    Ebook79 pages1 hour

    Seeing Sky-Blue Pink

    By Candice Ransom

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    About this ebook

    Plenty of things make eight-year-old Maddie nervous: her too-small feet, climbing high places, not always knowing what to say, and especially her new home in the Virginia countryside with Sam, her mom's new husband. To her surprise, Sam turns out to understand all those things and more—like how to learn the weather from a cat, what kind of treasure you can find at the dump, and where to find a color called sky-blue pink. Through her growing bond with Sam, Maddie finds the courage to face many of her fears and the wisdom to see things she never believed could be real.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLerner Publishing
    Release dateAug 1, 2014
    ISBN9781467775243
    Seeing Sky-Blue Pink
    Author

    Candice Ransom

    Candice Ransom is the author of 150 books for children. She holds an MFA from Vermont College and an MA in children's literature from Hollins University. She currently teaches in Hollins University's graduate program in children's literature.

    Read more from Candice Ransom

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      Book preview

      Seeing Sky-Blue Pink - Candice Ransom

      Day

      Asking the Cat

      How about a wheelbarrow ride? Sam asked. He tamped the earth around the base of the dogwood tree he had just planted.

      Maddie looked doubtfully at the dirty wheelbarrow. Is that the way people got around in the country? In Manassas, she and her mother took the bus.

      Where to? she asked.

      Mrs. Tompkins’ house, just down the road, Sam said. She wants to meet you.

      The window in Maddie’s bedroom screeched up. Her mother poked her head out. Sam, the tree is beautiful. Maddie, did you know Sam dug that wild tree from the woods?

      Mom, I’m riding in the wheelbarrow to Mrs. Tompkins’!

      Oh, Maddie, I’m afraid it will rain.

      Maddie hoped her mother wouldn’t say no. I don’t care if I get wet.

      Her mother glanced at Sam. Doesn’t it look like rain?

      Let’s ask Abraham. He’ll know. Sam bent down to the big black cat that lay stretched in the grass.

      Maddie laughed. "Ask a cat the weather!"

      Abraham sat up and glared at Maddie with slitted eyes. She stopped laughing.

      Cats know more than people give them credit for, Sam said.

      How do they tell us?

      They have ways. In a loud voice, Sam said, Abraham, will it rain this afternoon?

      The cat yawned, then scratched behind his left ear.

      Sunny! Sam declared.

      Maddie’s mother laughed. If Abraham says so. Have fun, you two.

      What if it was going to rain? Maddie asked Sam. What would Abraham do?

      Scratch his right ear, Sam replied.

      Maddie looked at the cat with new respect. I wish Abraham would sleep on my bed. But he doesn’t even come when I call him. He doesn’t like me.

      He doesn’t know you yet. Give him time.

      Before they married Sam, Maddie and her mother used to have Perfect Days. On Perfect Days, Maddie shared a maple walnut sundae at Rudy’s, visited the library, and rubbed the left hoof of the horse statue in the park, for luck.

      Now Maddie had a new father, her own bedroom in a real house, and a cat that could tell the weather. It was a lot to get used to all at once. She wondered if she would have Perfect Days in the country.

      Sam tipped the wheelbarrow and brushed out the loose dirt. Ready?

      Can Buckingham come too? Maddie never went anywhere without her stuffed donkey. Patches of gray fur had been worn away. Buckingham’s legs hung like old socks. One arm dangled from a few threads.

      Maddie worried that Sam would laugh at her about Buckingham, like the kids at school did. Sissy-baby, they called her.

      But Sam said, Buckingham would probably like a change of scenery. He steadied the wheelbarrow so Maddie could climb in.

      Am I too big? she asked.

      You’re just the right size.

      Maddie crawled into the wheelbarrow. "Mom says I’m small for eight. And my feet never grow. Other kids make fun of my feet."

      You just don’t have as much turned up on the ground, said Sam.

      Was that supposed to be funny? Should she laugh? Maddie bit her lip. She wished she knew what to say.

      Here we go. Sam lifted the handles and rolled the wheelbarrow across the yard.

      Maddie tucked Buckingham between her knees. She gripped the sides of the wheelbarrow as she bumped down their driveway and onto the side of the road. The fat front tire bounced over gravel. It was hard keeping her rear end from bouncing, too.

      Okay? Sam called.

      Ye-es-es-es! Her voice juddered over each stone.

      They rolled past two houses and a barn. A pony with a shaggy mane stared at them. Maddie wanted to wave, but couldn’t let go.

      Sam turned at a battered mailbox. A white clapboard house sat on a tiny lawn. Ruffly pink flowers bloomed along the fence. A battered pickup truck hunkered in front of an old garage.

      Sam stopped the wheelbarrow by the back porch. Several red hens flustered around, chuckling at their arrival.

      A woman wearing an apron over men’s pants stepped out of the house. She drew a handful of corn from her apron pocket and scattered the kernels in a wide arc. The hens waddled over to gobble their lunch.

      You must be Maddie, the woman said, smiling. I’m Eliza Tompkins.

      Hi. Maddie climbed out of the wheelbarrow with Buckingham.

      Sam, why haven’t you brought this child over sooner?

      Sorry, Miss Eliza, he replied. Between the garden and my orders and moving Maddie and Sharon’s things into the house—

      You could have come by for ten minutes, she chided.Well, you’re here now, Maddie. Come inside.

      Maddie followed Mrs. Tompkins into the kitchen. It smelled like wet wool and woodsmoke, even though it was late summer. She looked around. A heavy wooden rocking chair draped with sweaters was pulled up to the stove. A leather Bible, bristling with bookmarks, rested on the table. Plants with purple flowers and fuzzy green leaves lined the windowsill.

      Maddie liked this room. In their apartment in town, the kitchen was dark, with ugly

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