Read Online The Advocate (The Advocate Series) by Teresa Burrell - Free Book Online Page B

backyard. A few minutes later he returned. With his head down, he walked across her lawn towards her with his saxophone in one hand and the other hand behind his back. About three feet from her he stopped, pulled his hand from behind his back, handed her a small bunch of dandelions, and said, “I’m Victor.”
    “I’m Sabre.” But before she could say anything else he raised his saxophone to his lips and tooted a few notes sounding a little like “Hot Cross Buns,” and turned and ran home. Sabre smiled. She saw his beautiful, dark eyes sparkle when he blew his horn.
    She jumped up, ran inside, and placed the dandelions in a vase with some water, as she had helped her mother do many times with their roses. Then she ran to her room and picked up the little red notebook Ron had given her for her birthday. She was going to put all her wishes in it, and she wanted to get started. She went to the desk in the den, found a red pen, and sat down at the kitchen table while her mother fixed dinner. She picked up the pen and said, “Mom, how do you spell marry?”
    “That depends, is it the name Mary, or the wedding kind of marry?”
    “The wedding kind.”
    “M-a-r-r-y.”
    Sabre wrote each letter in her notebook as her mother said them. “How do you spell Victor?”
    “Who’s Victor?”
    “The boy next door. I just met him. He brought me flowers and he plays music.”
    Her mother chuckled as she spelled Victor and then Spanoli for her daughter.
    Victor and Sabre played together everyday. They walked home from school together, with Ron teasing them most of the way. They had their afternoon snack together, sometimes at her house and sometimes at his. Then Sabre would go to her room, do her homework, wait for Victor to finish practicing his sax, and they would play together until dinner.
    One Sunday afternoon, a couple years later, Sabre and Victor were walking home from a skating party. A few blocks before they reached their street, a fire truck sped past with its siren blaring. They ran to keep up with it. They couldn’t see any smoke, but they saw the truck turn up the street toward their homes.
    Out of breath, they arrived at Victor’s house and saw the fire truck parked in his driveway. An ambulance, with its lights flashing and siren blasting, pulled up next to it. Neighbors came out of their homes and people crowded around. Men in uniforms ran in and out of the front door.
    Sabre’s mom met them at the sidewalk and tried to talk to Victor, but he ran past her into the house. As Sabre and others watched, the paramedics carried Victor’s father out on a stretcher, placed him in the ambulance, and rushed off with the sirens still screaming.
    “He died before they arrived at the hospital,” her mother said at the dinner table.
    Sabre didn’t see Victor again until the funeral. She tried to speak with him, but he wouldn’t leave his mother’s side. She wanted to do something for him, but she didn’t know what to do. Everyone there was crying, except Victor, but the sparkle was gone from his eyes.
    Following the service, everyone gathered at the Spanoli’s home for lunch. Victor went out in the backyard and she followed him out. “You look sad,” she said, “but you don’t cry. How come?”
    “I’m the man of the family now.” Then he ran off to be alone, but not before Sabre saw his wet eyes.
    A few days later, Victor came to her house to tell her they were moving to a place called Chicago where Mrs. Spanoli’s family lived. Sabre had never heard of Chicago and had no idea how far away it was. She just knew he wouldn’t be next door, and it made her sad.
    The following Saturday afternoon he came to say good-bye. He handed her the only three dandelions he could find in his yard. Sabre wanted to tell him how much she would miss him, but the tears filled her eyes and no words came out. She heard Mrs. Spanoli yell at Victor to get in the car. Before Victor left, he said, “Don’t worry, Sabre. I’ll be