A Boy Named Queen Read online

“No one.”

  “No one?”

  “Just me.”

  “Just you?”

  “Yep.”

  “I see.”

  But Evelyn doesn’t think her mother does see. Not quite. Her mother thinks it’s sad that Queen had only one guest.

  Evelyn looks out the car window, nodding in time with the telephone wire swooping up, down, up, down between the poles.

  “It wasn’t sad,” she says. “It was wonderful.”

  8

  Evelyn manages to wait until she’s in her pajamas, face washed and teeth brushed, even tomorrow’s outfit laid out on the end of her bed, before she tears open the gigantic goody bag.

  Inside are two potato pancakes wrapped in waxed paper, the drum sticks she used in the Gibson Room, a Polaroid photo that Marianne took of her at the drums. And, at the bottom of the bag, the pièce de résistance. A pair of runners! Red, with blue stars on the sides, and nearly new. Size five.

  They fit perfectly. Evelyn races across her room and, twisting in mid-air like a high jumper, lands — whumpf! — on her back on her bed.

  Tomorrow’s outfit bounces up and scatters on the floor.

  “What are you doing up there?” her dad yells from the living room.

  “Nothing,” Evelyn answers, out of breath. “Just having some fun!”

  Before she turns off her light, Evelyn studies the photo for a long time.

  She looks different. She stares, trying to figure out why.

  It’s her freckles. They are no longer the colors of weak tea and hay.

  Somehow, her freckles have turned copper and gold.

  Evelyn is allowed to take her mother’s great-aunt’s second husband’s grandmother’s sterling silver cream jug for Share and Hype. It’s bundled up in three layers of bubble wrap.

  With her own money, Evelyn buys Dixie cups and a large carton of cream at the convenience store down the street.

  On Monday she puts everything carefully into her backpack. Her mother drives her to school. Evelyn does all she can to make sure her mother doesn’t see the red runners on her feet.

  “The clouds look like smoke today,” she says as they walk to the car.

  Her mother stops and looks up. “You get white smoke like that when you burn coal.”

  “What do you have to burn to get cotton candy?” Evelyn asks.

  Her mother laughs. “Cherry blossoms?”

  As they drive along, Evelyn thinks about the cream in her backpack, sloshing around in its carton. As they drive past the convenience store, she gets a brainwave.

  “Mom! Can I get something at the store?”

  “What?”

  “It’s a secret. But I’ll tell you later. I promise.”

  “A secret and a promise. All in one gulp.”

  Evelyn bites her lip.

  Her mother reaches into her purse. “Will five dollars be enough?”

  Evelyn runs into the store. When she gets back to the car, her mother is frowning. She tips her chin toward Evelyn’s feet.

  “Where are those from?”

  “From … from Queen.”

  “What about your new shoes?” her mother asks.

  “They’re a bit small.”

  Evelyn buckles up. Her mother says nothing as she starts the engine.

  “I like these shoes,” Evelyn says finally. “They’re comfortable. They have bounce.”

  Her mother pulls the car up to the school. Girls pass by, some wearing scuffed ballet shoes, others in runners. Then Isabella crosses in front of them in her pink jeans and a feathery jacket. On her feet she wears boots with heels. The heels are so high they click against the pavement.

  Evelyn raises her eyebrows and looks at her mother. Her mother raises her eyebrows and looks at Evelyn.

  “I won’t ever wear those,” Evelyn says.

  Her mother laughs. She leans over and kisses Evelyn on the cheek.

  Khalid is first up for Share and Hype. He shows off a Lego City set called Deep Sea Helicopter.

  Anneline hypes a first-place dance ribbon.

  Parker presents a basketball signed by the famous basketball player Steve Nash. Mr. Zhang is impressed.

  “Where did you meet Steve Nash?” he asks.

  “I didn’t,” Parker answers. “My dad bought the ball on eBay.”

  As he puts the ball back into his cubby, Evelyn notices something that makes her heart jump.

  It’s a sticker on his lunchbox. A picture of five men on a highway. The Sky Warriors.

  It’s her turn to Share and Hype. Queen is in the front row and says a loud “Wow!” when she unwraps the cream jug. A few kids get hold of the bubble wrap, but Mr. Zhang can’t figure out who is playing with it.

  “This jug was made in 1885,” Evelyn starts. Pop. Pop. “The same year the Canadian Pacific Railway was finished —”

  “The last spike,” Mr. Zhang murmurs.

  “The same year the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York.”

  Pop. Pop.

  “And Jumbo the P. T. Barnum Circus elephant was killed in a train wreck.”

  “Aww,” the students croon.

  “And Sarah E. Goode invented the first hideaway bed. The bed folded up into a desk!”

  Pop. Pop.

  “It’s sterling silver —”

  Khalid raises his hand. “How many troy ounces?”

  “One point eight.” Good thing she looked it up on antiques.com. She points out the initials SS stamped into the side of the jug.

  “It was made in England by Stanley Smith silversmiths.”

  Pop. Pop.

  “Who would like a taste of cream?”

  The popping stops.

  The students push and bump the desks as they line up for their Dixie cups.

  But when Evelyn tips the jug for the first time, they go so quiet you could hear a new pin drop.

  They can’t believe their eyes.

  The cream is purple! Food coloring was Evelyn’s secret.

  Sure, a few kids wrinkle their noses and say yuck.

  But Evelyn doesn’t let a few yucks bother her.

  She just lets in the oohs.

  SARA CASSIDY is a poet, journalist and novelist and the author of six books for young readers, including Double Play and Skylark. Her books have been selected for the Junior Library Guild, and she has been a finalist for the Chocolate Lily Award and the Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize. She has also won a National Magazine Award (Gold) for a piece in Today’s Parent. Sara has taught at Camosun College, and she is co-founder and past artistic director of the Victoria Writers Festival.

  www.saracassidywriter.com

  Groundwood Books, established in 1978, is dedicated to the production of children’s books for all ages, including fiction, picture books and non-fiction. We publish in Canada, the United States and Latin America. Our books aim to be of the highest possible quality in both language and illustration. Our primary focus has been on works by Canadians, though we sometimes also buy outstanding books from other countries.

  Many of our books tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of global publishing by media conglomerates. Books by the First Peoples of this hemisphere have always been a special interest, as have those of others who through circumstance have been marginalized and whose contribution to our society is not always visible. Since 1998 we have been publishing works by people of Latin American origin living in the Americas both in English and in Spanish under our Libros Tigrillo imprint.

  We believe that by reflecting intensely individual experiences, our books are of universal interest. The fact that our authors are published around the world attests to this and to their quality. Even more important, our books are read and loved by children all over the globe.

 
 

  Sara Cassidy, A Boy Named Queen