The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard

Author:Nancy Pickard [Pickard, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780345471024
Publisher: Charnwood
Published: 2010-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

FOR A LITTLE WHILE after the scene in the grocery store when she was three and he was seven, Jody took peeks at Collin whenever she saw him, and sometimes it turned out that he was peeking at her, too.

When that happened, they gave each other shy, secret smiles.

Then they’d quickly look away as if it had never happened.

But then, “Who is that boy?” she asked her grandma one time after they’d been in the grocery store and had seen him at his homework table again.

Annabelle decided it was best to tell the truth.

“That boy’s name is Collin Crosby, sweetheart.” She took a deep breath. “It was his daddy who killed your daddy.”

Jody looked at her with horror.

Annabelle nodded. “That’s why it’s best for you to stay away from him.”

Jody looked at Collin differently then, as if he’d all of a sudden grown horns.

“I hate him!”

“Oh, honey, that little boy hasn’t done anything wrong. You shouldn’t hate him. It’s not his fault that his daddy is a bad man. You should feel sorry for Collin, and try not to hate him.”

“Why?”

“Because it would be awful to have a father like that, wouldn’t it?”

Jody nodded slowly. It was awful not to have a father at all.

When she was a little older she wondered if he missed his father like she missed hers.

She wondered if he loved his daddy.

If he did—if he loved that terrible man, even if it was his father—then she would hate Collin Crosby and she would always hate him, no matter what her grandma said about being feeling sorry for him. She tried to stop peeking at him after that when she saw him in the grocery store or other places around Rose, but her eyes kept looking. When he caught her staring—or she discovered he was looking at her—she didn’t smile even the teeniest smile at him.

Collin stopped smiling at her, too.

And still she couldn’t help sneaking glances through the years.

“Do you like him?” a middle school friend asked her one time, looking shocked.

“Collin Crosby?” Jody was mortified that she’d been caught staring. “Gosh, no!”

It wasn’t that he was cute, although he was.

It was his eyes. His eyes looked serious and kind and somehow gave her the impression that they knew each other better than they did—which wasn’t true at all. She didn’t understand how he made her feel like that. They were the last people on earth who could be friends. Collin Crosby couldn’t possibly know anything about her except for the terrible truth of what his father had done to hers.

When she entered high school and was old enough to entertain the thought, she decided Collin held a creepy fascination for her like a snake, and that it was sick and she should be ashamed of herself and never look at him again.

Soon after that, she turned her head one day and he was looking at her.

Jody whirled around, putting her back to him, but she couldn’t seem to make her curiosity about him stop so easily.

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