Taking the Reins (An Ellen & Ned Book) by Jane Smiley

Author:Jane Smiley [Smiley, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2020-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

Dad was ready to take me early again, which was fine with me, and with Mom, too, since she wanted to go visit Grandma and Grandpa and get Joan Ariel out of the heat. Back in our old town, you can wander in the parks near the lighthouse all summer, and you have to remember to bring a sweater along. Dad drove me in a used car he was trying out, a VW Microbus, or so he said, and riding in it was like being inside a bubble and floating down the river. He said that there are some people who just live in one of these and drive around the country, and I thought, “Well, why not, if you have enough books.” I could tell he respected it, but he didn’t like it much, and maybe because it was like Sissy, willing to go, but not to go fast.

We did finally get there. Sissy was part of my plan for the day, but I hadn’t quite figured out how to make it work. Da was lying under a tree with his hands beneath his head and his eyes closed. He said, “Hey, Ellen,” without even opening them.

“How did you know it was me?”

“By your step. You always sound like you’re in a hurry.”

And I am. I said, “Good deduction.”

“What’s a deduction?”

“That’s when you put two and two together and come up with four. But they have to be good twos.”

He laughed and sat up, then said, “Abby and her mom went into town to do some things.”

“Have you eaten them out of house and home?”

“I tried.”

“Do you have a big appetite?”

“Yeah. I’m like my dad, I guess. He was under five feet tall until he turned fifteen, and then he grew a foot in a year. Eventually he got to six feet four. He still loves to eat.”

I said, “Where’s your dad?”

“He’s at home, but he works all day and all night, so Mom thought it would be easier for me to stay with Aunt Jane.”

“Abby’s mom is a good cook.”

He saw the book.

“Read me a story.”

I’d been planning to read the story about a speckled band, but when I just opened the book, there was the first page of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and so I started reading. Da leaned forward so he could hear every word, and he paid close attention.

We could picture Sherlock eating breakfast and Watson picking up some kind of stick, and the two of them talking about it, but there were a lot of words that I had to repeat: “hearth-rug,” “bulbous,” “souvenir,” “ferrule,” “piqued.” But I kept going and we did understand that Watson has a lot of ideas that Sherlock disagrees with, and Sherlock is sort of making fun of him, even though Watson is a doctor and Sherlock’s best friend. Right after I got to the word “mastiff,” and said, “What is a mastiff?” and Da said that a mastiff is a big dog, about as tall

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