My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer by Jennifer Gennari

Author:Jennifer Gennari [Gennari, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

IT TOOK HER thirty minutes to get back. She didn’t say anything to Mom, so I didn’t, either. Every now and then I’d catch Eva staring at me hard. I stayed out of the way, not talking to anybody. The problem with not talking, though, is that after a while you get so full of words, they could tumble out at any minute.

As soon as the sun rose the next morning, I whacked on my weather radio until the familiar announcer’s voice rumbled: “Cloudy, clearing in the afternoon. South wind, ten to twelve knots. Lake temperature, sixty-eight degrees.”

A good sailing day. I placed the red lens over my flashlight and faced it toward Luke’s island. I needed help.

Mom and I had made cookies last night. It had been soothing to beat the batter and fill the cookie sheets. Baking together was her way of making peace, but I still couldn’t talk to her. Unspoken worries weighed me down, like too much salt in the dough.

I wanted to tell Luke everything—about my fight with Mom, with Eva, and the library crowd—but I didn’t know where to begin. I could at least show him the flyer. The marina could be in a lot of trouble with these posted around. And I had to tell him about Mom refusing to let me enter the pie contest.

It wasn’t fair. Secretly, I had found the baked goods competition for children ages eight to twelve in the fair exhibitor handbook that Ms. Flynn had given me. The form was straightforward enough, but right at the top it said MOTHER’S NAME, FATHER’S NAME and, at the last line, SIGNATURE REQUIRED. I needed Luke to help me find a way around that.

“June!” Eva called up the loft stairs. “Luke is here!”

Perfect. Our light system worked. I pulled on my bathing suit and shorts. I tucked the fair form in my back pocket along with the flyer.

“Hey, June.” Luke was in his bathing suit, ready for anything.

I gave him a “please wait” look, hoping he wouldn’t ask what the trouble was in front of Eva.

But she didn’t look up. She kept reading the newspaper.

“We’re going sailing,” I said.

“OK,” she said without a glance.

I hesitated. “Do you think Mom needs help?”

“MJ is fine.”

She probably can handle everything because there’s no business, I thought as I glanced at the cove. One boat was gassing up, and I saw that Mom had put up a sign: FRESH COOKIES TODAY. I hoped someone—anyone—would come in.

Luke raced to the dock, and I followed. We quickly raised the mast and put in the rudder. “Where to, Captain?” Luke asked.

“Out,” I said. We navigated through the moorings. Once we got beyond Luke’s island, the wind picked up, and we pulled the sail in tight and hung out as far as we could. I let my hand trail in the water as I held on to the main sheet. I felt bad about Eva. I deserved the silent treatment, I guess. Maybe I’d been too hard on Mom, too.

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