Halfway to Harmony by Barbara O'Connor

Author:Barbara O'Connor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

* * *

That evening at the supper table, Walter picked at his tuna casserole and tried to decide if he should tell his mom about finding Banjo’s balloon. What if she didn’t like him going so far down the river? What if she complained about Banjo being a nut, like she sometimes did?

But he decided to tell her. Maybe it would cheer her up.

He told her about how the balloon had been stuck in the cattails and then got carried away after the rain. He told her about how he and Posey found it again and tied it to a tree and camouflaged it so nobody could see it from the bridge.

“Wait’ll you see it,” he said. “It’s exactly the way Banjo described it. Every color of the rainbow with silver stars and golden moons. It’s ripped a little and kind of muddy, but I’m sure Banjo can fix it. The balloon is named Starcatcher.”

His mother put her fork down and blinked at Walter like she had just noticed he was there.

“Starcatcher?” she said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She leaned toward Walter. “You know, I guess I was thinking Banjo is so, um, eccentric, that that whole hot-air balloon story was liable to be a bunch of baloney.”

“No, it’s true!” Walter said.

It had been so long since he and his mother had talked like this that once he got started, he could hardly stop, while the anger he had had about Tank’s bedroom seemed to drift away.

He told his mother about the Macon County Key Grab and how Banjo was going to win a new truck.

“And just think about it, Mama,” he said. “Imagine Starcatcher floating along in the sky with a bunch of other balloons.”

Mrs. Tipple looked out the window and smiled.

A real smile.

Like she used to.

“That sounds real nice, Walter,” she said.

She reached across the table and patted his hand.

Just the kind of pat he’d been needing.

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