Cold War on Maplewood Street by Gayle Rosengren

Author:Gayle Rosengren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2015-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

When she woke up the next morning, Joanna heard Mom washing up in the bathroom and coffee perking in the kitchen. She sighed. Last night’s dream was the weirdest one yet. Sam had been gone and come back, only to leave all over again! And he’d scolded her—something the real Sam hardly ever did.

Joanna pulled the covers up to her chin. The nightmares were getting to her. It was bad enough to be scared during the day because of the Russians and their missiles. Now she was being frightened in her sleep, too!

“Joanna? Time to wake up,” Mom called from the kitchen.

Joanna fought an urge to pull the covers over her head. “I’m awake,” she called back. But she groaned into her pillow before she threw back the covers and sat up. She frowned at her radio. Did she really want to hear the latest news? She hesitated, watching the second hand glide halfway around the face of her clock, before she snapped on the radio.

She was glad she did, too, because for once the news wasn’t awful. Only one Russian ship could possibly reach the quarantine that day. Only one. Possibly. Russia wasn’t going to start a war with just one ship. Joanna was sure she’d float all the way to school that day.

“Dress warm,” Mom advised. “It’s going to be cold. It may even snow today!”

Snow in October! Joanna’s heart gave a happy skip.

“Did you hear? It might snow today!” she greeted Pamela a little while later.

“Isn’t it strange?” Pamela eyed the gray sky.

Joanna sighed. “Everything is strange lately. But at least this is good strange.”

Pamela nodded. She tugged the zipper on her jacket higher. “Brrrrr.”

Joanna shivered as the wind blew up her skirt. “It’s not fair that boys can wear pants but girls have to wear skirts and freeze.”

“That’s for sure,” Pamela agreed.

“And it’s not fair that grown-ups get to make all the decisions all the time and we kids are just supposed to do as we’re told,” Joanna huffed.

“I know!” Pamela nodded vigorously. “They treat us like babies.”

Joanna suddenly giggled. “They’d have fits if they knew what we’ve been reading.”

Pamela laughed. “I’ll say.” She gave Joanna a meaningful look. “We’re sure not babies anymore.”

Joanna grinned. It was true. Together, they’d learned some amazing things in the past few days. The Book had taken them way beyond the romantic kisses of movies. It described things that married people—and sometimes not married people—did in private. Thinking about it made Joanna’s breaths come faster. Then she thought of Theo. Did he know these things, too? Her cheeks burned in spite of the frosty breeze. What would it be like to kiss him? She tried to imagine it.

“I never thought I’d be grateful to Marie for anything,” Pamela said, “but I’m sure glad she brought home that book.”

Joanna blinked away the vision of Theo’s face coming toward hers. “Me too,” she squeaked. Suddenly she felt light, almost happy. “Today is going to be a good day,” she said. “It may snow, only one ship can possibly reach the quarantine, and we have gym.

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.