Rosetown by Cynthia Rylant

Author:Cynthia Rylant [Rylant, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Beach Lane Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

16

Flora had never seen a gated community until the day when she and her father had given Nessy a ride home for the first time.

“Why is there a locked gate?” Flora had asked Nessy.

“My father says that it keeps out the burglars,” Nessy answered.

“Not the climbing monkey burglars,” said Flora.

Nessy laughed.

Flora first felt a little sorry for Nessy, having to live in a neighborhood behind a big locked gate. But once inside the gate, the houses seemed as friendly as any other kinds of houses, with warm lamps in the windows and welcome plaques on the doors.

Yet Flora knew that she herself was a town person. She loved the old sidewalks of Rosetown with their tall old trees. A town person could never be happy in a neighborhood of small new trees like those in Nessy’s gated community. It was the towering oaks and chestnuts of Rosetown that gave Flora a feeling of being really rooted.

But she did still love visiting Nessy’s home behind the gate. And Flora thought that Nessy might even be a famous pianist one day, at which time Nessy could buy her own house.

But Nessy always said that she just wanted to be a gardener.

Yury could not attend the performance of Flora’s Christmas choir, as he was obliged to visit with out-of-town friends of his family that evening. But Nessy wanted very much to attend, so Flora’s mother invited Nessy to come to the concert with both her and Flora’s father and to spend the night with Flora afterward.

Of course Nessy said yes.

Before they left for the concert, Flora showed Nessy the postcard Miss Meriwether had sent from Paris. The card was illustrated with a street map of the city, and small drawings on the map located important landmarks.

“There’s the Eiffel Tower,” said Flora.

“And the airport,” said Nessy, pointing to an airplane north of the city.

“Miss Meriwether is there somewhere,” said Flora, “in that big city. I wonder if they have Christmas lights, too.”

“Probably,” said Nessy. “Paris probably has everything.”

The girls examined the other points of interest on the card, then turned it over to read Miss Meriwether’s brief message—Bonjour, mes amis!—which Flora’s mother had explained as “Hello, friends!”

The card made them all smile.

At the Congregational Church it was exciting for Flora to be in the downstairs rooms of the church with the other choir members, donning robes, finding places in line, smoothing out the choral book in her hand. Flora thought it seemed dreamlike. She knew that this was another memory she would fold away and take out again one day to look at.

She followed her fellow choir members onto the stage of the beautiful old church. The lights were low, candles glowed in every window, and red poinsettias in baskets lined the aisles. Flora could not see where her parents and Nessy were sitting, but she knew they were out there, somewhere.

And here she was, inside the singing. She did her best to harmonize. And even if she did not do it especially well,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.