“Is the fashion makeover show here?” she asked me.
Laura said, “The next block.”
“Okay, thanks,” she said.
After the show taped, we all had a party at 4520 Fargo Drive and ate a lot of the fresh, golden bread Mama had baked with the Amazing Multimeasurer. And then we heard the garage door open and since none of us was taking out the trash, we stared at one another and prepared for, what else, nefariousness.
And he walked in with the help of Dr. Randolph.
“Dad!” we all cried.
Dad ate bread, checked out my Alamo-in-disguise project, and then we all sat down to watch a Judge Judy marathon.
“That’s a good story, Mysti,” Laura says.
Hundreds of stories have propped up my bed frame. I’ve read a lot of them and I can tell you that all stories don’t end the same way. There are sad or happy endings. Endings that keep you guessing. Endings that make you flop back on your bed and think, I guess the story couldn’t have ended any other way.
That is my favorite kind of ending. Those endings have a lot in common with real life.
Now my phone beeps.
Where r u?
5 minutes
Quick, I finish making Laura a peanut butter and tuna fish sandwich and stuff it into her lunch bag.
Mama shuffles to the kitchen and kisses the top of my head.
“Have a good day, sweet girls,” she says. She follows us to the front door and I hear it click closed behind me.
“I can still see you!”
“Bye, Mama.”
“Bye, Mama.”
Our door is Fresh Basil Green now. Mama, who can’t stop painting our walls and overpainting her canvases, finally worked her way to the outside of 4520 Fargo Drive. Now our house looks the same, but different. Just like the characters who live inside it.
There is a person who paints and cooks and has joined an online support group for agoraphobics.
A person who is telling all the nurses jokes at the hospital and will be home by Christmas.
A bratty little unformed person who still practices raising her eyebrow as a hobby.
And a sort of courageous girl person who has a chic haircut, the ability to buy food for her family, and two good friends.
Très bon!
Rama stands at the curb, hand on her hip.
“What are you looking at? We’re almost late for the bus. Hurry up!”
“Fine!”
“I have another text from Wayne.”
“Of course you do. He’s texted me twenty times.”
“He says if we don’t go to the social, he will feel awkward with Sandy and not know what to talk about and that it will destroy his future.”
Well, never let it be said that Mysti Murphy helped destroy someone’s future. So I say, “Okay, tell him I will go.”
“You will thank me later in life.”
“Stop thinking so much about what happens later in life.”
“I can’t. I will be a famous doctor and make the world better by curing people of cancer. You will be a famous writer and make the world better by writing about mysteries and cats with interesting names.”
“It could happen,” I say. “Change is coming for us all.”
“That is certain.”
The bus heads down Fargo Drive, traveling at the speed of change.
And that is all right.
Here is a girl who will get where she needs to go on her own two feet.
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acknowledgments
It’s a privilege to express thanks to those who make my writing life possible. I could not do this alone, nor would I want to. First, I’m extremely grateful to my agent, Julia Kenny. My editor, Bethany Strout, is a joy to work with, and I can’t thank her enough for the enthusiasm and insights she gave to this book. Special appreciation and thanks to Alvina Ling, Victoria Stapleton, Faye Bi, and the entire talented team at Little, Brown. Merci beaucoup to Polly Holyoke for the generous support, guidance, and friendship throughout the writing of this book. To my amazing husband, children, and friends, abundant thanks for your encouragement and love. And finally, thanks to my Heavenly Father, who is always there to meet me in the garden when I’m in need of courage.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Acknowledgments
Copyright
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Karen Harrington
Cover art by gray318
Cover design by Marcia Gilbert
Cover © 2014 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
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Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
First ebook edition: August 2014
ISBN 978-0-316-21047-8
E3
Courage for Beginners Page 17