Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles

Author:Deborah Wiles [Wiles, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

13

Ruby raced inside the schoolhouse. She felt her way, tripping up the three back steps to the stage in the sudden darkness. In a panic, she slapped the heavy backstage curtain, trying to find an opening to the stage. The piano played splank!-splink!-splunk! splank!-splink!-splunk! over and over, down the scale, up the scale. Ruby crawled under the velvet curtain and stood up.

There was Bemmie, on the piano keys. Mrs. Varnado had plastered herself against the wall next to the piano and had squeezed her eyes shut.

The scenery crew rushed onstage. Tot's hands flew to her chest. Dove clutched a roll of construction paper and shouted to Melba. "It's okay] It's only a chicken] A chicken]" But Melba wasn't okay. She was hysterical.

Bemmie cocked her head, then jumped off the piano and raced for Melba, squawking with excitement, as if she'd found her long-lost, screaming mother. Melba's eyes popped as big as tea cakes. She ran.

Miss Mattie was on her feet. "Get that chicken out of here!" Melba stumbled past Ruby, smacked into the velvet curtain, and slid to the floor. Ruby lunged for Bemmie, but Bemmie scrabbled across Melba's back. Melba vaulted to her feet, upsetting a ladder. It toppled with a crash. Bemmie screamed and made a flying leap off the stage. Miss Mattie tried to swat her with her clipboard, but Bemmie veered and raced for the open back door of the schoolhouse and ran out.

Miss Mattie stomped up the front-stage stairs. Ruby stood with the others, looking at Melba Jane. Melba stood very still. She was silent, and she was blue. A can of paint had been on the top step of the ladder, and now, from her head to her toes, Melba was covered in it. Paint slid over her head like a peacock-blue silk scarf. It drip, drip, dripped onto her shoulders, her nose, her crepe-paper dress, and her shiny red shoes.

No one spoke. The auditorium that had echoed with screeching and crashing just moments before was now as quiet as a grave.

"How could you bring that thicken in here?"

Miss Mattie's voice broke the silence, and suddenly everyone was talking at once, surrounding Melba Jane, grabbing for a roll of paper towels to mop her up. Ruby tore her eyes away from Melba and turned, with her mouth open, to Miss Mattie. Nothing came out. She was peppered with dust from crawling under the backstage curtain, and her red hair slopped out of its ponytail and stuck out in a dozen different directions.

Melba stood like a statue. Tot grabbed a drop cloth from the floor and wrapped it around Melba Jane. "She's in shock." She picked her up in her large arms, paint oozing everywhere. "Where's the bathroom? We need water."

Miss Mattie whirled away from Ruby. "The hose is out back. She needs to be hosed off now, if that paint's going to come off."

Tot shook her head. "She needs warmth." She looked at Melba. "Bless your heart. We'll fix you right up, sweetheart, bless your heart.

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