Authors: Patricia MacLachlan
The Truth of Me (6 page)
“Henry?”
“What, Maddy?”
“Did you see my friends?”
Henry doesn't answer right away.
“Yes,” he says finally. “I saw them.”
Maddy's quiet.
“Robbie?” she says.
“Yes?”
Maddy takes a breath.
“When your mother was very little, her father went away and left us.”
Henry and I look at each other.
“I never knew that,” I say. “Someone should have told me that.”
“I'm telling you now. She loved her father, and he just up and left. In some ways, after that, she never quite trusted people in the same way. After all, they might up and leave, too. But she had her violin. And that violin didn't let her down. She could trust that violin.”
Maddy took a breath. She was getting tired again.
“What I'm trying to say is . . .” Maddy stops.
“That violin wouldn't go away,” says Henry.
Maddy sighs.
“She feels safer loving her violin,” says Maddy. “Do you understand, Robbie?”
“Yes,” I say.
And I do.
For the rest of the night we lie in our sleeping bagsâHenry on one side of Maddy and me on the other.
As the fire slowly flickers out, we watch shooting stars until we sleep.
T
he next morning Maddy's ankle and foot are still swollen and bruised.
“We'll eat what's left of the corn bread,” says Henry. “Can you throw dirt on the fire, Kiddo? We need to get Maddy down the hill.”
I'd heard Maddy cry out in the night once. I'd heard Henry give her water with a pill.
There are no animals today. Ellie looks for them. I look for them.
We pile everything in the garden wagon, except for the tent. I shovel dirt on the fire until I'm sure it's safe. Then I pour water over it.
“We'll come for the tent later,” says Henry. “Ready?”
I pull the wagon. Henry carries Maddy.
“This will hurt you some, Maddy,” he says.
“I know,” she says.
Ellie walks next to me, down the path through the woods and across the meadow.
“Maddy?” asks Henry.
Maddy puts her arms around Henry's neck and her head on his shoulder. She doesn't speak.
“We're almost there,” says Henry.
At Maddy's house Henry lays Maddy on her bed. He puts a pillow under her foot. Her arm is over her eyes. She doesn't move.
“I'm going to my house to get my car,” he says. “It's faster that way. I'll be right back.”
I watch Henry run down the road to his house.
I carry the food basket inside. I put the rolled-up sleeping bags and lantern in the hall closet.
I stand at Maddy's bedroom door and watch her. I look down and see Ellie that is standing there, too. I put my hand on her head.
I hear the sound of a car. Henry is here. Ellie goes to the kitchen door to look out. I keep watching Maddy.
Henry brushes by me into the bedroom.
“Maddy?”
“What?”
“I'm going to pick you up and carry you to the car. The passenger seat is folded back so you can lie down until we get to the hospital.”
Maddy takes her arm away from her eyes.
“What about Robbie?” she says.
“I'm fine, Maddy. I'll stay with Ellie,” I say.
Henry picks up Maddy as gently as he can. I move aside, and he carries her out to the car.
“I'll call you, Kiddo,” he calls. “It will be a while.”
He drives the car very carefully out of the dirt driveway.
And then they're gone.
We're alone in the house, Ellie and I.
I feed her and take her outside for a walk. Then we sit on the bench by the garden. We watch Peter Rabbit eat lettuce. Peter is quick and steady. He finishes one row and is starting on another. I don't stop him. Maddy has lots of lettuce.
We sit for a long time, but still Peter eats.
Birds come to sit on the fence.
The sun goes behind a cloud, then comes out again.
The phone rings, and I run inside to answer it.
“Kiddo? You all right?”
“I'm fine. Peter Rabbit has eaten two whole rows of lettuce.”
Henry laughs. I tell him that because I want to hear him laugh.
How's Maddy?”
“Fine. She's getting a better splint. She'll get a cast in a few days. I'm bringing her home later.”
I don't talk for a minute. I
can't
talk. And I know it is because I have been scared.
“Kiddo?”
“I'm fine. I'm happy she's coming home.”
“Me, too.”
“Henry?”
“Yes?”
“I was scared.”
“Me, too,” says Henry.
Maddy comes home with crutches, but Henry won't let her walk with them. He carries her into the kitchen.
“Bed or chair?” he asks.
“Chair,” says Maddy until she sits down. “Bed,” she says. “I'm too tired.”
“Good choice,” says Henry. “You have lots of medicine in you, too. You might slide down to the floor and become a rug.”
I laugh.
Henry puts Maddy on her bed and comes into the kitchen.
He sits at the kitchen table.
“I'll stay here tonight,” says Henry. “In case Maddy needs help.”
“That's good.”
The phone rings and I answer.
“Hello.”
“Robert?”
My mother.
“Hello.”
“Your father and I have been thinking that we need to spend some more time with you,” she says. “Our last conversation wasn't very satisfying.”
“No,” I say. “It wasn't.”
Henry looks at me. He knows who it is the way he knows all things.
“And we thought maybe you could come to London and spend time here while we're playing concerts. We could arrange for you to fly over. How does that sound?”
I wait a second. And in that second I see my mother as a very young child after her father had left her. I never thought about her as a very young child before. Ever.
“Mother, Maddy has broken her ankle and is on crutches. She needs me. She has taken care of me so far. I'm going to stay and take care of her.”
There is a hollow, empty sound on the phone.
“Is she all right?”
“Yes. Henry is taking care of her. She tripped in the garden.”
Henry smiles at me.
“I didn't get to tell you how good you sounded when you played the Schubert,” I say. “I listened to
Death and the Maiden
on Maddy's radio.”
“Well, thank you, Robert. That's so nice.”
My mother is surprised. She doesn't know what else to say. She doesn't know how to talk about us: about how we feel, how we think, and how we are sometimes scared.
But I do.
I
want to say many things.
I want to say that I know many new truths about myself.
I want to say I am an alpha and Ellie is a hero.
I want to say I have fed corn bread to a bear who did not hurt me.
I want to say I have touched a bobcat.
I want to say I know my mother was a small child who was lonely and sad.
But I can't say all these things.
But there is one thing I can say.
So I say it.
“Mother?”
“Yes, Robert?”
The telephone wire hums. We are both close and faraway at the same time.
“I love you,” I say.
Photo by John MacLachlan
PATRICIA M
AC
LACHLAN
is the celebrated author of many timeless books for young readers, including
Sarah, Plain and Tall
, winner of the Newbery Medal. Her novels for young readers include
Arthur, For the Very First Time; The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt; Skylark; Caleb's Story; More Perfect Than the Moon; Grandfather's Dance; Word After Word After Word
; and
Kindred Souls
. She is also the author of many much-loved picture books, including
Three Names; All the Places to Love; What You Know First; Painting the Wind; Bittle; Who Loves Me?; Once I Ate a Pie; I Didn't Do It; Before You Came; and Cat Talk
âseveral of which she cowrote with her daughter, Emily. She lives with her husband and two border terriers in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.
Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors and artists.
Arthur, For the Very First Time
Through Grandpa's Eyes
The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt
Mama One, Mama Two
All the Places to Love
What You Know First
Three Names
EMILY M
AC
LACHLAN CHAREST
Painting the Wind
Bittle
Who Loves Me?
Once I Ate a Pie
Fiona Loves the Night
I Didn't Do It
Before You Came
Cat Talk
Cover art by © 2013 by Erwin Madrid
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
T
HE TRUTH OF ME
. Copyright © 2013 by Patricia MacLachlan. 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 hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
MacLachlan, Patricia.
The truth of me : about a boy, his grandmother, and a very good dog / Patricia MacLachlan. â First edition.
        pages       cm
Summary: Robbie and his dog, Ellie, spend the summer at his grandmother Maddy's house, where Robbie learns many things about his emotionally distant parents and himself.
ISBN 978-0-06-199859-1 (hardcover bdg.)
ISBN 978-0-06-199860-7 (lib. bdg.)
EPub Edition May 2013 ISBN 9780062292681
[1. GrandmothersâFiction. 2. DogsâFiction. 3. Parent and childâFiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.M2225Ts 2013 | 2012040151 |
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