Portia's Exclusive and Confidential Rules on True Friendship Read Free Page A

here. They sing about this fact day and night. My guess is that this widely varied bird population, which includes wild parrots, mockingbirds, catbirds, and nightingales, enjoys living in Palmville because the weather is nearly perfect, except of course for major earthquakes, severe droughts, flash floods, and seasonal wildfires. Whenever we’re not experiencing a total natural disaster, life is pretty much blue skies and warm breezes.
    FACT: Palmville was hit by a five-alarm earthquake back in the fall. After overtime days and nights of hammering, sawing, measuring, and building, The Tent (and the rest of the town) is up and operating again, which makes my mom, and therefore me, very content. The dust has settled around town and the rebuilding is well underway, and in some situations, evencomplete. But there are still obvious signs of post-earthquake damage around town, like the overabundance of cracks in the sidewalks on Main Street and the slanted steps leading up to the front door of Hansel’s Hardware. But the only thing the weathermen (and women) report on these days are the crazy wildfires that lurk just outside town in the nearby canyons. It’s fire season, and it’s decided to arrive early this year.
    I rub my eyes as I walk toward Main Street. The dryness in the air is a possible clue that maybe the wildfires are getting closer than the weatherpeople report on the news. I immediately erase that thought from my brain and instead weave through all the shortcuts I know by heart until I arrive just below the hand-painted sign that hangs at the entrance of Trash and Treasures.
    3:24 P.M.,
T RASH AND T REASURES
    I t’s always wisdom central with Trash and Treasures owner Vera Alloway. Her answers are usuallyquestions. Her questions are almost always answers. And she makes you think in a way that doesn’t feel like homework.
    DESCRIPTION: Vera has a definite personal style. Her year-round desert tan is accompanied by her salt-and-pepper short hair. The earrings she wears are created from broken pieces of gold and silver jewelry she handpicks herself from a treasure trove of long-forgotten heirlooms. Colorful clashing buttons are strung on a necklace created with two recycled chains skillfully clasped together. Her sandals are made of worn leather with long straps that tie around her ankles.
    Announcement! If you have anything in your house that you think is worthless, broken, or out-of-date, give it to Vera. She’ll make sure it’s fixed and transformed into something amazing. Every day she carefully polishes, paints, and glues together combinations of collectibles, wobbly furniture, and formerly extraneous knickknacks. Vera strongly believes in second chances, especially for discarded pieces of junk.
    Vera says she’s old enough to know. I’m pretty surethat means she’s sixty-three. I have reason to believe that she reads minds, too. She can always tell what’s on my mind before I even open my mouth. Even though Vera has been around since the last century, I’ve only gotten to know her over the past few months since the earthquake, when Indigo first volunteered my services at Trash and Treasures. At first it was, “Thanks, mom.” But as I got to know Vera and her mystical secret world of junk, not to mention her endless supply of more-than-decent advice, it quickly became, “THANKS, MOM!”
    I hear a muffled voice from Vera’s mysterious back room. “Care for a pomegranate, Ms. Avatar?” The voice belongs to Vera. It grows louder as I see her walk toward me, clutching a dozen torn prom dresses. She places them in a messy pile next to me on the floor. “I never knew how heavy lace could be!” Then she hands me a pomegranate.
    I happily accept the offering. “Indigo is going to love this. I’m sure she’ll find a way to turn it into something ‘interesting.’ How did you know she was on a pomegranate