Read Online Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Linda Sue Park
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mom drew stripes in the air with her fingers. "That's one of the most difficult shapes to embroider well." She shook her head. "Definitely not something I'd recommend for beginners."
Dang it!
"I'll practice a lot," I said.
"Julia, please. You need to consider something smaller. That's why flowers look nice in embroideryâthe petals are small, the leaves are small. Satin stitches look much better when they don't have to cover so much space."
Double dang it!
My mom picked up a sponge and started wiping down the sink. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'm sure you'll think of something clever."
I went back to my room a little discouraged. But not
too
discouraged, because I still thought I was onto something. It didn't have to be the flag, but the embroidery part could be really American, and that would balance out the Koreanness of the silkworm part.
In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe the flag wasn't such a great idea after all. Because it wasn't very ... creative. I mean, it wasn't something I'd designed by myself. If I embroidered the flag, I'd be sewing a design that someone else had made up.
Sigh. I had more thinking to do.
Â
Meanwhile, Patrick was
full
of ideas. On the way to and from school he hardly ever stopped talking.
"Jules, listen to this. We could borrow a video camera. And once the eggs come, we'll set everything up and film them every dayâfor, like, thirty seconds or a minute or so. And we'll have everything on tape, from the time they're tiny eggs all the way to the end, but it will be like time-lapse photography, in one film."
"Wow," I said. "That's a
great
idea."
"We can take still photographs, too. And put them together into, like, an album. So we can show people what we did even if there isn't a TV handy."
Things really started to move after that. Mr. Maxwell arranged for us to borrow one of the community center's camcorders. Patrick got permission to use his dad's regular camera. My dad moved our barbecue down to the basement so we'd have room to keep the silkworms on the back porch. He also brought up an old aquariumâhe'd kept tropical fish for a hobby when he was a bachelorâwhich was where the worms would live.
Mr. Maxwell gave us some scraps of lumber from his farm, and Patrick's parents donated an old bent window screen. I spent the next Wiggle meeting making a frame out of the wood and stapling the screen in place to make a lid for the aquarium, so the worms would have plenty of air but not be able to escape.
Mr. Dixon's phone number was pinned to my bulletin board, but Patrick said we wouldn't need it; he had the number memorized.
"It's 555-5088," he'd told me. (A whole bunch of times.) "Fifty for the number of statesâstates-and-eights, it all rhymes, get it?"
We were ready. The only thing we needed was the eggs.
Â
Me: I'm feeling a little better.
Ms. Park: Glad to hear it.
Me: Told you I could fix things.
Ms. Park: But now you have to do the project.
Me: I know, I know. And I still think it's too Korean. But I'm getting some ideas on how I can fix that, too.
Ms. Park: So I noticed. In fact, that whole flag thing was
your
idea. What I mean is, while I was working on that scene when you were drawing and doodling, I tried my very hardest to be you. I even took a pencil and started drawing flowers, and then stars. I don't know if the flag idea would have come up if I hadn't been imagining I was you.
Me: So it's like even though I'm part of your Imagination, I'm my own person, too?
Ms. Park: Yes. That's for sure. You think
I'd deliberately Invent a character who was
as much trouble as you are?
Me: Me, trouble? Oh, please. Kenny, now,
he's trouble.
Ms. Park: Kenny does not keep me awake at night talking my
ear off.
Me: Yeah, well, at least I leave you alone in the
bathroom now.
9
Patrick figured that our order would take two or three days to get to the company, and their website said they shipped in a week to ten days. So it would
Dang it!
"I'll practice a lot," I said.
"Julia, please. You need to consider something smaller. That's why flowers look nice in embroideryâthe petals are small, the leaves are small. Satin stitches look much better when they don't have to cover so much space."
Double dang it!
My mom picked up a sponge and started wiping down the sink. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'm sure you'll think of something clever."
I went back to my room a little discouraged. But not
too
discouraged, because I still thought I was onto something. It didn't have to be the flag, but the embroidery part could be really American, and that would balance out the Koreanness of the silkworm part.
In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe the flag wasn't such a great idea after all. Because it wasn't very ... creative. I mean, it wasn't something I'd designed by myself. If I embroidered the flag, I'd be sewing a design that someone else had made up.
Sigh. I had more thinking to do.
Â
Meanwhile, Patrick was
full
of ideas. On the way to and from school he hardly ever stopped talking.
"Jules, listen to this. We could borrow a video camera. And once the eggs come, we'll set everything up and film them every dayâfor, like, thirty seconds or a minute or so. And we'll have everything on tape, from the time they're tiny eggs all the way to the end, but it will be like time-lapse photography, in one film."
"Wow," I said. "That's a
great
idea."
"We can take still photographs, too. And put them together into, like, an album. So we can show people what we did even if there isn't a TV handy."
Things really started to move after that. Mr. Maxwell arranged for us to borrow one of the community center's camcorders. Patrick got permission to use his dad's regular camera. My dad moved our barbecue down to the basement so we'd have room to keep the silkworms on the back porch. He also brought up an old aquariumâhe'd kept tropical fish for a hobby when he was a bachelorâwhich was where the worms would live.
Mr. Maxwell gave us some scraps of lumber from his farm, and Patrick's parents donated an old bent window screen. I spent the next Wiggle meeting making a frame out of the wood and stapling the screen in place to make a lid for the aquarium, so the worms would have plenty of air but not be able to escape.
Mr. Dixon's phone number was pinned to my bulletin board, but Patrick said we wouldn't need it; he had the number memorized.
"It's 555-5088," he'd told me. (A whole bunch of times.) "Fifty for the number of statesâstates-and-eights, it all rhymes, get it?"
We were ready. The only thing we needed was the eggs.
Â
Me: I'm feeling a little better.
Ms. Park: Glad to hear it.
Me: Told you I could fix things.
Ms. Park: But now you have to do the project.
Me: I know, I know. And I still think it's too Korean. But I'm getting some ideas on how I can fix that, too.
Ms. Park: So I noticed. In fact, that whole flag thing was
your
idea. What I mean is, while I was working on that scene when you were drawing and doodling, I tried my very hardest to be you. I even took a pencil and started drawing flowers, and then stars. I don't know if the flag idea would have come up if I hadn't been imagining I was you.
Me: So it's like even though I'm part of your Imagination, I'm my own person, too?
Ms. Park: Yes. That's for sure. You think
I'd deliberately Invent a character who was
as much trouble as you are?
Me: Me, trouble? Oh, please. Kenny, now,
he's trouble.
Ms. Park: Kenny does not keep me awake at night talking my
ear off.
Me: Yeah, well, at least I leave you alone in the
bathroom now.
9
Patrick figured that our order would take two or three days to get to the company, and their website said they shipped in a week to ten days. So it would
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