Just Like That by Gary D. Schmidt

Author:Gary D. Schmidt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780544084551
Publisher: HMH Books
Published: 2021-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

On Sunday afternoon, Meryl Lee felt the restlessness of the salt sea. It was almost as if she could hear the sounding waves in Netley 204. So she left Jennifer in her light blue blouse and cream cashmere sweater and found Marian and then Heidi, and together—sort of quietly—they walked down to the shore.

They found Bettye sitting on the rocks.

She was not in her black dress and white apron.

She was in jeans and a gray sweatshirt and boots and a heavy brown jacket—“my brother Jonathan’s,” she said. Her hair was down and blowing all around, and her face was red in the stiff wind, and she moved easily and surely around the rocks, as if she had known them all her life. As if they were dear friends.

It was very cold, and the water was gray. Even the fir trees seemed to be shivering. But they skipped some stones into the troughs—Bettye reached six—and Bettye showed them where the crabs scuttled, and where the clams dug into the mud flats, and where the seagulls dropped the mussel shells, and then, just before they left, Bettye asked, “So, Dr. MacKnockater won’t be headmistress next year?”

“I guess not,” said Marian.

“And Mrs. Connolly will be?”

Meryl Lee nodded.

“Then that’s it,” said Bettye.

“What do you mean?” said Marian.

“If Mrs. Connolly becomes headmistress, I’ll be fired.”

Heidi standing up, brandishing her arms as if slashing with the field hockey stick.

“Are you sure?” said Meryl Lee.

“Pretty sure.”

“What can we do?” said Marian.

Then Heidi, with Marian and Bettye, looked at Meryl Lee. “What are we going to do?” said Heidi.

Meryl Lee felt the rush of the wind.

“We’re going to watch for ways to change the world,” she said. “And then we’ll see what happens next.”

She felt full.

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