Ellie Ever by Nancy Ruth Patterson

Author:Nancy Ruth Patterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374321086
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Ellie nodded. She was trying hard not to cry.

“I can’t even imagine living through a hurricane,” he said kindly, changing the subject.

“We loaded up everything we could in the Blue Goose—that’s our truck—and drove out of town where we’d be safe from the storm. We were supposed to meet up with my dad and our dog, but they never made it.”

“Did you stay with relatives? Friends?”

“They all had their homes destroyed, too, but we were lucky in a way. We had to stay in a smelly shelter in a gym for just a month. Then we moved to a room of our own in a nice shelter. The hurricane left a lot of people homeless, but Mom said we weren’t really homeless. We were just between homes for a while—it ended up only being four months.”

“Your mother must be a very smart woman.”

“Yes, sir. She didn’t go to college, but that didn’t keep her from getting smart on her own. Why, B.H., she worked as the head cook at Sally’s Salty Dog. People came there from all over just to get some of my mother’s famous potato salad.”

“B.H.?”

“B.H. Before the Hurricane. Mom divides everything into Before the Hurricane and After the Hurricane. B.H. and A.H.”

Mr. Flannery stood up and looked out the window. He cleared his throat again.

“And the hurricane washed Sally’s Salty Dog away, too?”

Ellie nodded yes. “That’s what they say, though I’ve never actually been back to see for myself.”

“You’ve been through a lot, Ellie.” He took off his wire-rimmed glasses and rubbed his left eye. “I can’t imagine losing everything.”

“We didn’t lose everything, Mr. Flannery. A lot, maybe, but not everything. Mom says you can’t count on anything you can touch lasting forever, anyway . . . not buildings, not people, not even pretty shoes.”

Silence wrapped around the two of them—Mr. Flannery still looking out the window, Ellie still rubbing the toe of her shoe on the patterned rug.

Mr. Flannery must have heard the soft shuffle her shoe was making. He looked down and stared at it. “Your shoes are beautiful.”

“My dad bought them for me. But they’re not regulation, are they?” Ellie asked, remembering what Mrs. Crispin had said.

Mr. Flannery thought for a minute. “Well, they’re black. They’re leather. They’re not tennis shoes, and they don’t have high heels. They may not be like the ones most students here wear, but I think we might be able to consider them regulation.”

“So I can wear my shoes again tomorrow?”

“On one condition. If you’ll write Mrs. Crispin a letter saying you’re sorry you disobeyed her, I’ll tell her you may wear the shoes.”

Ellie wanted to say “okey dokey.” Instead, she nodded yes. After a few seconds, she cocked her head to one side. “Do you think the other girls might be jealous because my shoes are so pretty?” she asked.

“Maybe. But maybe they’re jealous because you’re so smart.”

Ellie couldn’t imagine that anybody would be jealous because she was smart.

“I think it’s my shoes,” she said.

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