1st 5 Pages August Workshop - Meehan Rev 1

Name: Melanie Meehan
Genre: Middle Grade Fiction
Title: Solstice

Katie struggled to spot any of the glitter or sparkle that normally greeted her as the family van turned into the driveway of 39 Partridge Hollow. Maybe the steady rain was hiding the glow that welcomed her in past visits.

At the top of the driveway, Dad shifted the van into park and looked at Mom, then at Katie and Will who were wedged between boxes and bags.

“Are we ready?” Dad rubbed his hands together the way he did when a big project loomed.

Katie rubbed her hands back at Dad.

“I’m not getting any readier.” Mom was biting her lower lip. A sure sign that the long ride, the rain, and Will’s whining had gotten to her.

“Out!” Will pulled at the buckles on his car seat.

“Can’t set you free quite yet.” Katie leaned across the boxes and kissed Will’s forehead. “Let us just get some of this stuff into the house.”

Katie pushed a stray strand of hair away from her face and wiped the mist off her window. Until now, visiting Vermont had happened when the house glistened with snow or when the gardens bloomed in the summer. April in Vermont was gray and bleak, grayer and bleaker in the steady rain.

“Probably not the best time to move to Vermont,” Dad said.

“Probably not,” Katie agreed. If moving in with Nana had to happen, couldn’t it have waited until the summer? Couldn’t they have at least let her finish fifth grade in Connecticut?

“Coming out, Katie-do?” Dad slid the door open. He stood in front of her, holding a giant golf umbrella. “You haven’t been here before in Vermont’s mud season. Did you know that Vermont is one of the only places in the world with five seasons?”

Katie slid out of the van, and her flip-flopped feet landed in a puddle. She looked up at the house. Instead of a blanket of snow or a bright cushion, a layer of dirt covered Katie’s favorite rocking chair on the front porch. Katie remembered sitting in Pa’s lap and having him tell her stories about fireflies, and owlets, and maple syrup. How old had she been? Four? Maybe five. She had been six when he died... When it got too late, Nana would shush Pa into the house and rock Katie to sleep before calling to him to carry Katie up the creaking stairs to her favorite bedroom overlooking the backyard and the fairies Nana said resided there.

Katie stepped out of the puddle and faced the house, wiggling the blood back into her brittle toes. A broken gutter curved away from the house and water poured through the opening toward the foundation. Mom and Dad had talked about the falling apart house in one of their hushed conversations before they told Katie that they were moving to Vermont. Nana couldn’t handle the house on her own.

“Out, Katie,” Will stretched out his arms to her. “Please.”

“Hold on, Will.” Katie picked a daffodil and handed it to him.

“Smell, Will.” Katie leaned into the van, careful not to drip water on any of the bags or boxes.

Will held the flower to his nose and tried to inhale, but made the sound of inhaling by breathing through his mouth.

“Through your nose, silly,” Katie said. She sniffed the flower for him. “You can’t smell through your mouth.” She studied the flower. “Doesn’t really have too much smell anyway. You’re not missing much.”

“Out, Katie!” Will pushed against the straps, straightening his body. He pulled at the petals, placing one of them on his tongue.

“Oh dear, Will,” Nana’s voice said, from behind Katie. “Daffodils are for looking at-- not for eating.”

Will scraped the petals off his tongue and laughed.

“Nana!” Katie put her arms around Nana and hugged her. “Love the footwear!”

Nana looked down at her feet. She wore a tall pink and purple polka dotted boot and one green gardening clog.

“Ah,” Nana shook her head. “I couldn’t find my other boot. Sometimes things just disappear in this old house.” Nana shook her head at Katie’s bare feet. “You’ll have cold feet for your first day at Baldwin tomorrow.” She laughed at her own joke and took Katie’s face in her hands. “Let me look at you. You’re almost as tall as I am! How is my favorite granddaughter with my matching eyes?” Katie and Nana both had two different colored eyes, one gray and one green. Nana always said that it helped them to see the world differently.

Not waiting for an answer from Katie, Nana returned her attention to Will and the wilting daffodil. “Are you ready to come out, young man?”

“We’re not quite ready for him, Mother,” Mom said. Mom and Dad had been making trips to the covered porch with bags and belongings from the back of the van. “We’re trying to get the van cleared out before the moving truck arrives. Maybe you could grab a bag?”

Katie watched both of her parents check out Nana’s feet. Another sign or symptom of whatever was wrong with Nana’s brain, Katie knew they were thinking.

“I’m ready for Will, though.” Nana unclipped the carseat and Will slid out. He left the crumpled flower on the seat behind him. Nana picked up the flower, whispered to it, then handed it to Katie. “This flower should go back to its friends.”

Katie returned the flower to the cluster, placing it gently beside the other daffodils. The flowers drooped, heavy from the rain, almost touching the ground and the crumpled comrade.

“Uh-oh.” Katie turned around and winced as Will headed straight to a puddle. “Mom and Dad are not going to be happy to have Will a free man,” she said to Nana. “He’s going to be drenched in about two seconds.”

“Supersplash!” Will yelled, jumping in the growing puddles.

“He’s all yours, Mother,” Mom said to Nana, as Will sat down in one of the puddles. His blonde curls flattened against his head, while streaks of dirt twirled down his cheeks.

“Come along, Will,” Nana said. “We have bigger puddles in front of the garage, as well as mud and worms. You have mud season to experience in Vermont. You coming, Katie?”

Will and Nana headed for the front of the garage and the deeper puddles, and Katie lagged behind. Jumping was still a novelty for Will and the splashes of water that flew up around him made jumping that much better. Katie shook her head as Nana sloshed into the puddle next to Will.

“You jump too!” Will took Nana’s hands and swung them up and down.

The two of them jumped and laughed and laughed and jumped in the puddles while Katie watched.

Sparkling, dancing droplets of water caught in Nana’s curls and Katie thought about joining in their stomping and sloshing. Just when Katie slid her feet out of her flipflops, Will sat down and began to blow bubbles in the puddle. No, she’d help with the unloading, instead.

“We’ll take all the help we can get,” Dad said to Katie. “Unless you’d rather bond with puddles and worms.”

“I’m in for unloading,” Katie said, leaving the puddle jumpers and mud explorers.

Just as Nana sat down in a puddle with Will, the moving truck arrived. When they slid open the back, Katie shook her head, wondering how this truckload of furniture and boxes would ever fit into Nana’s already cluttered house.

Katie winced, watching the furniture and boxes stack up in the space above the garage. Frames and coffee table books from the living room, good dining room china, extra linens and pillows, kitchen pots and pans were labels Mom had written with a thick black marker. Would they really see the dishes and blankets and pictures and glasses again? Mom and Dad said living with Nana would not be permanent, but they would all see how it goes, how they all got along, how forgetful Nana really was.