The Wonder of Charlie Anne Read Free

in the city, that’s how bad things are.”
    I can hardly believe it. I look at Mama’s stone, at the name
Sylvie.
“Mama will be mad. Mama would want us to stay together, through thick and thin. Remember how she used to say blood is thicker than anything and you don’t run out on one another?”
    Papa makes that thin line with his lips. He started doing it after the funeral. “There are all different ways of keeping a family together, Charlie Anne.”
    I jump up and face him. “THROUGH IT ALL, A FAMILY STICKS TOGETHER!” I am roaring. I can’t hear the river anymore.
    “I know it, Charlie Anne.”
    Papa is still sitting, and he looks out at the river, and I think he has run out of things to say. Bluebirds fly overour heads. The color of their wings is so blue it can make you stop breathing. They were Mama’s favorite birds.
    “Look at that,” says Papa, standing up. “I think your mama is telling us that it will be okay.”
    I stamp my foot. “No, she is not. She is saying she wants you to stay here. This is home. This is where the bluebirds are.”
    I do not even have to ask what his plan is, about who will take care of us. “You can’t leave us with Mirabel. You know we hate her.”
    Papa sighs. “I need you to be brave, Charlie Anne. I need you to help Mirabel.”
    “I do not want to help Mirabel. I do not want to do so many chores all the time and I do not want her to teach me to be a young lady and I do not want you to go.”
    I think for a minute. “And how about Thomas? Mama would be really mad if she knew you were taking Thomas.”
    “Aren’t you really mad, Mama?” I say, turning to her stone.
    “Charlie Anne …,” says my papa. “Charlie Anne.” He reaches for me, and for just a moment, I let him pull me so close I can smell the soap he uses to lather his face. But then I yank myself away, madder than the thundering river.
    “Charlie Anne,” he says again, but I turn away and cross my arms and will not look at him anymore.
    I know he is waiting for me to rush toward him and let him hug me. But I stand right where I am. I won’t look at him, either. After a long while, he sighs and starts walking away from me, toward the house. I turn and watch him go, and then I flop on the ground by Mama and cry so hard I cannot hear if she is saying anything to me or not.

CHAPTER

4

    Papa is yelling at Mirabel in the kitchen when I get back.
    “I already told you, not Eleanor.” He stomps out on the porch and slams the door. I feel my stomach start balling up.
    Mirabel follows him outside. “And I keep telling you, it’s the only way.”
    Papa kicks the compost bucket again. A whole bunch of coffee grounds and eggshells and potato peels go flying, and I think my papa better stop doing this. It clangs and flies off the porch and onto the front yard and rolls up next to me. I do not dare take another step.
    Papa watches the bucket stop right beside my feet. Minnie and Olympia and Bea rush right over, and Olympia pecks Minnie and Bea out of the way to get to the oatmeal first.
    Papa’s lips are in that straight line. He turns back to Mirabel. “Not Eleanor. I will send money soon.”
    “A few dollars a month,” says Mirabel. “What’s that going to get us?”
    Papa gives her one of his terrific bad looks, the kind he gives only to Anna May when she kicks the milk pail over, and then he storms back in the house. I hearhim holler to Thomas to get moving. I am left wondering what they mean about my aunt Eleanor. I don’t like her at all.
    “Where have you been?” says Mirabel as soon as she sees me standing beside the compost pail. She is carrying a basket of wet clothes. “You and your father, taking off like that, on a morning like this, when we have so much to do to get ready for tomorrow. Why, I just don’t understand you at all.”
    I think the barn is calling me, right now while I am looking at Mirabel and her big frown.
    “What are you doing just standing there like that?”
    I look