A Clatter of Jars by Lisa Graff

Author:Lisa Graff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2016-04-27T16:03:11+00:00

Lily

“THE LINE MUST BE BREAKING UP,” LILY’S MOTHER SAID.

Lily pressed the receiver hard into her cheek, and tried to make herself as small as possible against the lodge wall. The only public phone in all of Camp Atropos was located just outside the door to Jo’s office, and you had to get Del’s permission to use it. Luckily, Del had left her alone when she said she needed to discuss a personal matter with her parents.

“I can’t quite hear what you’re saying, Lily Belle,” her mom went on.

“I heard her fine,” Lily’s stepfather, Steve, replied. Lily could picture them perfectly, sitting at the kitchen table with her mom’s mobile between them, on speakerphone. Lily’s mother, a Talented multitasker, would be drafting a shopping list and mending a hole in Steve’s sweater while mopping a coffee spill with her foot, and Steve would be twisting apart a sandwich cookie. He could do it perfectly every time, so that all the cream ended up on one side, no messy breaks. “Lily told us that their camp director is a Mimic, and she’s duplicating all their Talents. Stuffing them into jars.”

“Oh, I heard that,” Lily’s mom said. “I just thought it was so ridiculous there must be something wrong with the phone. You still have your Talent, don’t you, Lily Belle?”

“Mimics don’t take Talents, Mom,” Lily said. She focused her thoughts at the bridge of her nose and turned her gaze to the moose head keeping guard above the lodge’s double doors. Just to check, she budged one of his eyes closed, then open. “They copy them.”

“Lily Belle, it’s perfectly natural to get homesick. There’s no need to make up stories. If you want us to come pick you up, we’re happy to do it. Although we’ll see you on Sunday, you know, at the Talent show.”

“Wouldn’t miss it!” Steve chimed in, a little too cheerily. “I hear Hannah and Max are making punch.”

“Max is not making punch,” Lily shot back. But there were heavier things on her mind. “Max got hurt,” she said. Around and around went the length of yarn. That night, Lily knew, after the campfire, the lodge would be packed full of kids for the all-camp slumber party, but at the moment, it was so empty that her words bounced off the walls.

(Max got hurt. Max got hurt. Max got hurt.)

“Nurse Bonnie told us about the accident with the juice,” Steve said calmly. “But Max is fine now. We talked to him a half hour ago. Nurse Bonnie has a Talent for salves. She said he’s fine to attend the slumber party tonight and everything.”

“How’s Hannah doing?” Lily’s mother cut in. “Has she been occupying herself during free swim?”

Who cared what Hannah was doing during free swim? “I’m going to go,” Lily replied.

“All right. Bye, Lily Belle. See you on Sun—”

Lily called her father next.

“Liria!” her father said, as soon as he picked up the phone. Lily loved the way he said his nickname for her, with the lilt on the first syllable.

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