Read Online Before They Rode Horses by Bonnie Bryant - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Bonnie Bryant
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brothers, not even Dad. Just me and Mom.
It turned out to be more than that, too. Mom had this friend from college who lived in Massachusetts. Her name was Annie Pine. They hadn’t seen one another for years, but they talked on the phone a lot and Mom got letters and Christmas cards from her. It seemed that every Christmas card talked mostly about her daughter, Madeleine. Madeleine was just my age, eight. She was pretty and she was smart.
I still remember almost everything my mother said on the phone when she called Mrs. Pine to see if we could come for a visit. No, that’s not true. Idon’t remember much of it, but I do remember her saying, “Stevie’s been having a rough time this year. It breaks my heart to see such a precious child have such a difficult period.” She called me precious. I wasn’t more precious than one of my brothers, or less precious. I was simply precious to her. It made me feel about two feet taller. It wasn’t as if my mom never told me she cared about me, but there she was telling someone else how great I was. Sometimes I’ve thought that maybe we could have skipped the rest of the trip to visit the Pines and just stopped there. But that wasn’t what happened, and this is, so I’ll get back to it.
Before I knew it, Mom and I were on a plane. I loved the plane ride. I spent a lot of time looking out the window, and I also spent a lot of time telling Mom the things I wanted to do with Madeleine when we got there. I bet that she liked to play kick the can and soccer. I thought it would be fun to have races with someone who wasn’t my brother, to climb a tree with somebody who didn’t want to get me to sit on the far end of a limb while he wiggled it so much I almost fell off. The Pines lived near a lake. I couldn’t wait to go swimming in it and show Madeleine that I could swim under water a wholelong way. If she could do things I couldn’t, I’d ask her to show me how. Maybe she could do a backwards somersault into the lake. I wanted to learn how to do that. We could play Monopoly and Clue—if they had those games. We could paint mud pictures on wood. We could build a miniature fort out of twigs. I even wrote down a list of all the things I could do during the visit. My mother helped me spell
somersault.
The whole flight was just wonderful.
It was great when we arrived, too. Mrs. Pine and Madeleine were both there. Mrs. Pine had a big grin on her face and gave Mom a gigantic hug—me, too. Madeleine shook hands with me. I guess that was polite, but it seemed a little strange. I never had a kid my own age shake hands with me, but I just figured maybe she was a little bit shy and didn’t know how to smile very well. I was sure this would change, and I was right.
We all got into the car to drive back to the Pines’ house. Mom sat in the front seat with Mrs. Pine. The two of them were talking a mile a minute about all the people they remembered from college and what had happened to them. Madeleine and I didn’t know most of the people they were talkingabout, so it wasn’t a very interesting conversation, but it was more interesting than what we said to one another, which was almost nothing.
I thought about the list of activities I’d made on the plane, and suddenly it didn’t seem as if we’d play any of the games I wanted to play. Finally Madeleine said something.
“Did you have a good trip on the plane, Stephanie?” she asked me.
Now, you know me and you know that nobody in the world ever called me Stephanie. I wasn’t even sure who she was talking to.
“Oh, right, yeah, it was a good trip,” I said. “Everybody always calls me Stevie,” I said. “That’s short for Stephanie—kind of a nickname. I bet you have a nickname. Do your friends call you Mad-die?”
There was this big long silence. I think our mothers even stopped talking. Just as I’d never seen someone my age shake hands with a friend, I’d never seen someone my age who could look down her nose at
It turned out to be more than that, too. Mom had this friend from college who lived in Massachusetts. Her name was Annie Pine. They hadn’t seen one another for years, but they talked on the phone a lot and Mom got letters and Christmas cards from her. It seemed that every Christmas card talked mostly about her daughter, Madeleine. Madeleine was just my age, eight. She was pretty and she was smart.
I still remember almost everything my mother said on the phone when she called Mrs. Pine to see if we could come for a visit. No, that’s not true. Idon’t remember much of it, but I do remember her saying, “Stevie’s been having a rough time this year. It breaks my heart to see such a precious child have such a difficult period.” She called me precious. I wasn’t more precious than one of my brothers, or less precious. I was simply precious to her. It made me feel about two feet taller. It wasn’t as if my mom never told me she cared about me, but there she was telling someone else how great I was. Sometimes I’ve thought that maybe we could have skipped the rest of the trip to visit the Pines and just stopped there. But that wasn’t what happened, and this is, so I’ll get back to it.
Before I knew it, Mom and I were on a plane. I loved the plane ride. I spent a lot of time looking out the window, and I also spent a lot of time telling Mom the things I wanted to do with Madeleine when we got there. I bet that she liked to play kick the can and soccer. I thought it would be fun to have races with someone who wasn’t my brother, to climb a tree with somebody who didn’t want to get me to sit on the far end of a limb while he wiggled it so much I almost fell off. The Pines lived near a lake. I couldn’t wait to go swimming in it and show Madeleine that I could swim under water a wholelong way. If she could do things I couldn’t, I’d ask her to show me how. Maybe she could do a backwards somersault into the lake. I wanted to learn how to do that. We could play Monopoly and Clue—if they had those games. We could paint mud pictures on wood. We could build a miniature fort out of twigs. I even wrote down a list of all the things I could do during the visit. My mother helped me spell
somersault.
The whole flight was just wonderful.
It was great when we arrived, too. Mrs. Pine and Madeleine were both there. Mrs. Pine had a big grin on her face and gave Mom a gigantic hug—me, too. Madeleine shook hands with me. I guess that was polite, but it seemed a little strange. I never had a kid my own age shake hands with me, but I just figured maybe she was a little bit shy and didn’t know how to smile very well. I was sure this would change, and I was right.
We all got into the car to drive back to the Pines’ house. Mom sat in the front seat with Mrs. Pine. The two of them were talking a mile a minute about all the people they remembered from college and what had happened to them. Madeleine and I didn’t know most of the people they were talkingabout, so it wasn’t a very interesting conversation, but it was more interesting than what we said to one another, which was almost nothing.
I thought about the list of activities I’d made on the plane, and suddenly it didn’t seem as if we’d play any of the games I wanted to play. Finally Madeleine said something.
“Did you have a good trip on the plane, Stephanie?” she asked me.
Now, you know me and you know that nobody in the world ever called me Stephanie. I wasn’t even sure who she was talking to.
“Oh, right, yeah, it was a good trip,” I said. “Everybody always calls me Stevie,” I said. “That’s short for Stephanie—kind of a nickname. I bet you have a nickname. Do your friends call you Mad-die?”
There was this big long silence. I think our mothers even stopped talking. Just as I’d never seen someone my age shake hands with a friend, I’d never seen someone my age who could look down her nose at
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