The Handbook by Jim Benton

Author:Jim Benton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2017-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

The next morning, Maggie rolled out of bed and looked in the mirror. Every morning when she woke up, her hair was a spectacular swirling nest of auburn chaos. Most mornings, it would not be hard to imagine that a strong wind had blown bats into her room during the night, which, becoming entangled in her hair, spent hours and hours trying frantically to free themselves.

This morning was no exception, but just to make sure, she shook her head violently and made certain that it was the worst it had ever been. It was the only way to really test their strategies to defeat the book.

She looked at the old photo she held in her hand, and glanced over a page of notes she had made.

“Stop the fight before it starts,” she whispered to herself, and walked down the stairs.

As she came around the corner, she saw her mom’s mouth drop open, ready to go off on her about her hair. But Maggie was prepared and got off the first shot.

“Is this you in this picture?” Maggie said with a big smile. “You look like a model.”

Her mom’s mouth clamped shut with a soft popping sound.

“I love how your hair is so untamed and free. You look like some sort of carefree young socialite out on her family’s yacht.”

Her mom grinned and looked at the photograph. “That’s from when your dad and I first met. I was hardly a model, Mags.”

“Were you out on a yacht? Is that the ocean in the background?”

“That’s old Skunk Pond,” she said tenderly, her eyes filled with memories of youthful romance. “They drained it years ago after all those dogs got malaria,” she said, still smiling sweetly.

She tilted her head and touched her fingertips to her lips gently. She looked like she was a million miles away.

“I want to look just like you did, Mom,” Maggie said. “I love that young, breezy, young, carefree, young look you have here. I love how your hair goes where it likes and does what it wants. That’s some young-looking hair you have there, Mom.”

Maggie’s mom looked at her and beamed. She hugged her close and laughed.

“Carefree hair, huh?” she said, and Maggie held her breath for a second, afraid that her mom had seen through the strategy. “Yeah, okay,” she said. “We’ll have to run a brush through this a couple times, but I know what you mean, Mags. You want it breezy.”

And after a very short and very lighthearted hair-brushing session, Maggie’s mom turned her loose, with her hair less fussed-over than she could ever remember.

She smiled, stuck her tongue out at Sean, and strolled out into the warm summer morning. Jack and Mike were already standing in Mike’s driveway and she strode happily to meet them.

The three of them looked at one another and laughed hysterically.

“The book,” Maggie said. “It’s real.”

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