Minn and Jake

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Minn and Jake Page 6

by Janet S. Wong


  See you in September.

  Jake leaves,

  and Minn takes a very long bath,

  one of those

  hold-your-breath-and-soak-your-head baths

  that makes ideas float out your ears

  to where you can see them more clearly.

  A thought floats out Minn’s left ear:

  I have lost

  my old true best friend, Sabina,

  and now I am losing

  my new true best friend, Jake.

  What is wrong

  with me?

  And a thought floats out Minn’s right ear:

  Nothing is wrong

  with you, silly.

  Jake is still your true best friend.

  He needs to visit

  his sick grandmother.

  Maybe you should try

  to go to Los Angeles, after all!

  Another thought floats out her left ear:

  You’ve ruined everything.

  Hope he forgets by September.

  Another thought floats out her right ear:

  Call him!

  ∼

  Not knowing the right thing to do,

  Minn does the next best thing:

  she goes to sleep.

  She wraps her long wet hair in a towel,

  and even though

  it is only 4:30 in the afternoon,

  she closes her door

  and pulls her curtains shut

  and makes her mind watery

  and blank,

  remembering her life

  as a giant squid.

  Minn sleeps so deeply

  she sleeps through her mother shouting, Mi-I-inn!

  She sleeps through her father shouting,

  Dinnertime!

  She is wandering

  through the world of dreams:

  Something is chasing me—

  it wants to cut me in half

  with scissors

  but I am running,

  running away—jump!

  Now

  I am some sort of an animal—a horse,

  or a large cat.

  What is that burning smell?

  Here is Jake.

  But small and bald and fat

  like a baby.

  I hand him a jar.

  Here is a lizard I caught for you, Jake.

  Eat her up, and you can grow big.

  Jake shakes the lizard out of the jar

  and holds her behind the head.

  He lifts her up to his mouth

  and he kisses her—

  AAAAAAAARRRRGGGH!

  Minn wakes up

  with the soft mushy taste

  of burnt marshmallow

  in her mouth

  and spit on the side of her face

  and her pillow.

  She sits still,

  with her eyes shut,

  trying to remember more of her dreams,

  until she remembers,

  Jake is leaving this morning!

  Minn runs down the stairs.

  Her father and mother

  are reading the newspaper.

  Minn knocks over her father’s coffee.

  Drive me to Jake’s house—

  What time is it?

  Hurry! Please, please, please!

  36 / The Goodbye Surprise

  It is 6:15 a.m., Saturday,

  and Jake and Soup and their mother

  need to be at the airport in an hour.

  Jake and Soup

  and their mother and father

  waddle out the door

  with their suitcases.

  Jake’s father is packing

  the suitcases in the trunk

  just as Minn and her father

  drive up, waving.

  ∼

  Minn knew! Soup says,

  running into the house.

  Minn came

  because she knew!

  I’m going to give it to her!

  No, don’t! Soup! Jake shouts.

  Dad, stop him!

  Give it to me? Minn says.

  Something I got for you.

  Last night.

  My dad is going to take it to your house

  later on,

  after he drops us off

  at the airport.

  What is it? Minn wants to know.

  Nothing. You’ll get it later, OK?

  Why’d you come? Jake wants to know.

  I came to say goodbye, Jake.

  And to ask if it really would be all right

  to visit Los Angeles.

  I mean, for me.

  If my parents let me.

  Do you really think it would be fun

  if I came to visit—

  A LIZARD!

  Soup hands an empty honey jar

  to Minn,

  a honey jar full

  of a lizard,

  a lizard without a tail,

  but with a note folded up

  and placed inside:

  Dear Minn,

  I never thought

  I would want to catch a lizard,

  but you have taught me

  to look at a lot of things

  in a brand-new way.

  I will miss you

  this summer.

  Your buddy,

  Jake

  ∼

  Minn wipes the sweat from her hands

  onto her pajama pants.

  Where did you—

  Did you catch this, Jake?

  I caught him! Soup shouts.

  We caught him, Jake says.

  Well, you caught him,

  but I taught you how—

  I taught you exactly what Minn

  taught me—

  It was the most amazing thing, Minn—

  it’s almost like the lizard

  was waiting

  to be caught,

  wanting to be caught,

  just sitting here on the front steps—

  ∼

  Minn shakes the lizard out of the jar

  and grabs him behind the head.

  She lifts him up to her mouth

  and she kisses him—

  AAAAAAAARRRRGGGH! Jake shouts.

  Ooooooooooooh, let me kiss him, too!

  Soup begs,

  but Minn drops the lizard

  back in the jar

  as Jake’s father pushes the two boys

  into the car.

  Goodbye, Minn! Jake and Soup shout,

  waving out the car window.

  Call me on your cell phone!

  Minn shouts back,

  waving goodbye.

  ∼

  And up in the clouds,

  the Lizard Gods are waving, too.

  About the Authors

  Janet Wong was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in Southern and Northern California. During her junior year in college, she lived in France, studying art history at the Universite de Bordeaux. When she returned from France, Janet founded the UCLA Immigrant Children’s Art Project, a program focused on teaching refugee children to express themselves through art. Janet graduated from UCLA, summa cum laude, with a B.A. in History and College Honors. She then obtained her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a director of the Yale Law and Technology Association and worked for New Haven Legal Aid. After practicing corporate and labor law for a few years for GTE and Universal Studios Hollywood, she chose to write for young people instead. Janet’s poems have been reprinted in many textbooks and anthologies, as well as in some more unusual venues. “Albert J. Bell” from A Suitcase of Seaweed was selected to appear on 5,000 subway and bus posters as part of the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority’s “Poetry in Motion” program, and poems from Behind the Wheel have been featured on a car-talk radio show. Janet’s awards include the International Reading Association’s “Celebrate Literacy Award,” presented by the Foothill Reading Council for exemplary service in the promotion of literacy. She also has been a
ppointed to the Commission on Literature of the National Council of Teachers of English. Janet’s first two books have received several awards including the prestigious Stone Center Recognition of Merit, given by the Claremont Graduate School’s Stone Center for Children’s Books. You can sign up for email updates here.

  Geneviève Côté was born in Montreal in 1964. For as long as she can remember, she has always wanted to be an illustrator. It seemed considerably easier than becoming an astronaut, which was her second choice. Over the last fifteen years, she has illustrated a wide variety of subjects—serious, funny, or frankly bizarre—for publications like The New York Times, the Boston Globe and Utne Reader. She has also worked for various advertising agencies in Toronto, Montreal, and Melbourne. Illustrating children’s books, however, is what she loves best of all. Her work has appeared in Communication Arts, Print, Critique, and American Illustration, and has earned her several awards. She lives in Montreal, Quebec. You can sign up for email updates here.

  Also by Janet S. Wong

  with pictures by Geneviève Côté

  Minn and Jake’s Almost Terrible Summer

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  1 / Extra Lizardy and Alone

  2 / How NOT to Choose a True Best Friend

  3 / Stuck

  4 / Minn’s Worms

  5 / Yes

  6 / Soup

  7 / Jake’s Fish

  8 / The Long Hike Home

  9 / The Hunt

  10 / Mad

  11 / 4:05 p.m.

  12 / An Invitation (Part One)

  13 / An Invitation (Part Two)

  14 / An Invitation (Part Three)

  15 / The Lizard Lesson

  16 / The Lizard-Tail Trail

  17 / Jake Makes a Deal

  18 / Minn Makes a Deal

  19 / Patching Up

  20 / The Lizard Gods

  21 / Jake’s Lizard Dream

  22 / Minn’s Lizard Dream

  23 / Two Heads

  24 / Sharing Time

  25 / My Gummy Valentine

  26 / Jake Loves Minn

  27 / Lizard Revenge

  28 / Minn Loves Jake

  29 / The Gulch

  30 / Truth or Dare

  31 / Rescue

  32 / Happy Valentine’s Day, Jake!

  33 / Crime and Punishment

  34 / Storm

  35 / The Long Sleep

  36 / The Goodbye Surprise

  About the Authors

  Also by Janet S. Wong

  Copyright

  Text copyright © 2003 by Janet S. Wong

  Pictures copyright © 2003 by Geneviève Côté

  All rights reserved

  First edition, 2003

  Sunburst edition, 2008

  Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, ext. 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].

  eISBN 9781466894846

  First eBook edition: August 2015

 

 

 


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