Hummingbird by Natalie Lloyd

Author:Natalie Lloyd [Lloyd, Natalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2022-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

The loudest thing on Main Street, Wildwood, is usually the river. It runs in a lazy parallel to the two-lane road. There are a couple of restaurants, then a big statue of Dolly Parton right in front of the courthouse. She passed through town once on her way to Nashville and bought a Moon Pie at Big John’s. That’s the legend, at least. It was my favorite legend until I heard about the hummingbird.

Wildwood is a peaceful-easy place.

Usually.

But when Grace pushed me out of the Macklemore gates and onto the Main Street sidewalk, there was a pulsing energy in the air. Main Street was even more crowded than it had been that morning. And the whole street felt like a party, like May Day was already here even though it was two weeks away!

Melba Marcum strummed her banjo on the street corner. She was singing “Hotel California,” one of Jupiter’s favorite songs, while the canary perched on her guitar tweeted along. People were dancing all around her: little kids and big kids and an elderly couple in matching T-shirts. Pastor Mitra was dancing, too, snapping her fingers and shuffling around in a pair of purple Bouncers.

Bright balloons were tied to the lampposts. Cafe workers pushed around carts full of fresh cupcakes, candy apples, and fudge.

“Here ya go, young ladies,” said Jessie Marcum from behind us. We turned around to see her holding out two tiny pies on a stick. I hadn’t realized Miss Jessie worked in the cafeteria and at the Ragged Apple Cafe. Age certainly didn’t keep her down. “They’re free today!”

“Oh heck yes,” said Grace. “I’m starving.”

I bit into the sticky-sweet crust just as a gentle breeze blew down the street and across my face. I’d eaten a zillion pie sticks in my lifetime. I’d been to May Day Festivals before. But it was never like this. Now it felt like the whole town was coming alive.

Or maybe, I realized, I was coming alive.

A news van was parked beneath the Lonesome Oak.

“We might be on TV!” Grace said, pushing my wheelchair toward a news camera set up in front of the Ragged Apple Cafe.

“Let me put on my heart-shaped sunglasses!” I said. We giggled the whole way there.

The mayor stood in front of the mic again. A bow tie is for sure his signature symbol, and the one he wore today had blue polka dots.

“Mayor Matheson,” the newscaster said, “we’ve met families coming from all over Tennessee today just to catch a glimpse of a legendary hummingbird. What would you like to say to all the new visitors here?”

“It’s back!” yelled an old man in a yellow T-shirt. He ran down the sidewalk full speed, pumping his hands in the air.

“It’s never like this out here,” I said to Grace.

“Not in sixty years at least,” she agreed.

When I was little, Mama and I did a science project about static electricity. I rubbed a balloon all over the crown of my head and then picked it up and felt it, that invisible force that tethered me to a balloon.

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.