Miraculous by Caroline Starr Rose

Author:Caroline Starr Rose [Rose, Caroline Starr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2022-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

CLOUDS AND FIRE

“NANA?” CORA PEEKED around the half-open door. “May I come in?”

Nana rocked in her chair near the darkened window, a candle her only companion. Outside, tree branches stirred in the breeze, a breeze that hadn’t let up since morning.

“Nana?”

This time her grandmother turned. “Cora, how nice to see you. Come, sit with me.”

Cora scooted a chair across the floor so that she, too, faced the window. She wasn’t sure what Nana saw, but whatever it was, it kept her attention. Candlelight danced on the windowpane. Shadow branches shifted outside. Cora tried to settle into the silence.

Mr. Ogden was downstairs with Father. He’d knocked on the door a few minutes ago. She traced the mark on her hand with her fingers. At supper she’d tried to keep it hidden. She’d run from the schoolhouse, unsure where to go, run far enough so that no one would ask why she wasn’t in school. Cora had wandered the outskirts of town and had ended up near McCalls’. Silas had been in the field, putting up his barn. She’d stayed and helped for a while, holding boards steady as he nailed them in place. Silas was kind. Cora enjoyed his company. She’d found herself telling him more about Jack: The lighthouse he’d seen on Lake Erie’s shore. The waterfall with its slick rock wall. How Jack wasn’t scared of the old stray dog, and Cora had bravely petted it, too.

“Upstairs, Cora,” Father had said when he’d let Mr. Ogden in. She’d lingered on the steps, hoping to catch what they were saying, but Mother had sent her to Nana’s room.

Of course he’d come. Because of what had happened.

“Do you mind if I open the window a little?” Even after the sun had set, the heat was still unbearable.

The rocker eased back and forth. “Not at all, my dear.”

Cora cracked the window open. The breeze washed over her, cool and inviting.

“Rain’s coming soon,” Nana said.

Nettie had said the same earlier. Was Nana watching the clouds through the black? Oakdale certainly needed rain, but Cora wasn’t convinced it was coming. The clouds had been wrong before, like the day Dr. Kingsbury arrived.

“This summer’s been so terribly hot.” The rocker went on with its creaking.

“It’s fall now, Nana,” Cora said. “But you’re right, it feels like summer.”

“Hasn’t rained in an age. I hope we don’t have another fire.”

“A fire?” Cora couldn’t remember a fire since the blaze at the bakery a few years ago, but that had been snuffed out quickly.

“Like the fire at McCalls’. You remember, don’t you? The months of drought. The thundering horses. The barn burning with light.”

Cora knew of no fire. Mr. McCall had died years ago. She’d never seen a barn there before Silas had started building his own.

Nana clasped her hands in her lap. “There was talk someone set it. The boy got the blame.”

It must be one of Nana’s memories, something that had happened long ago. “Who was the boy?” Cora asked.

“Not someone from Oakdale. A boy with eyes like the stars.

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