“That’s right. Next spring, Camden Falls will be three hundred and fifty years old. I’m sure you’ve seen the signs posted around town. There’s a lot of history in Camden Falls, and we want to celebrate that, as well as our identity. Our school is going to be very involved in the festivities. We plan on participating in an art show, a photography exhibit …”
For the next few minutes, Flora listened with interest as her teacher (her mother’s teacher!) listed the activities in which CFE students could take part.
For a moment, just a moment, she felt as if she had lived here her entire life.
In the south hallway of Camden Falls Elementary, Ruby sat in her new classroom with her new teacher, Mr. Lundy, and looked around at new faces. Mr. Lundy had directed Ruby to a seat in the front row, which made Ruby suspect that he had spoken with the teachers from her old school and decided he needed to keep an eye on her.
Ruby did not know a single kid in her class, but she wasn’t concerned. She knew she would make friends soon enough. And after school there were always Flora and Lacey and Olivia and sometimes Nikki.
Ruby, her attention wandering, refocused on Mr. Lundy when she heard him say, “And as part of the three hundred and fiftieth birthday celebration, our school is going to put on a play. It will be held in our auditorium and the proceeds from the sale of the tickets will go to the Camden Falls Historical Society.”
Ruby shot her hand in the air. “A play?!” she exclaimed. “Who’s going to be in it?”
“All the parts will be performed by students. There will be roles for students in every grade. The auditions will be held several weeks from now.”
“And what’s the play going to be about?” asked Ruby.
“About a unique chapter in Camden Falls’s history,” Mr. Lundy replied. “Our very own witch trials.”
“Like the Salem witch trials?” asked a boy.
Mr. Lundy nodded.
Ruby grinned. School was getting off to a very good start. She couldn’t wait until the final bell rang so she could find Flora and tell her that she, Ruby Jane Northrop, was going to star in the school play next spring in front of all of Camden Falls.
“Min! Min!” cried Ruby as she and Flora burst through the door of Needle and Thread that afternoon. “Our school is going to put on a play and I’m going to star in it!”
“Land sakes,” said Min. “Hold on a minute, Ruby.” Min finished cutting three yards off a bolt of pinwale corduroy, folded the fabric neatly, placed it in a customer’s basket, and handed the customer a receipt. “There you go,” she said. “Take this to the register whenever you’re ready.” Then Min turned to her granddaughters, who had shrugged off their backpacks and flung them onto one of the couches at the front of the store. “Now, what’s all this?” she asked. “And how was the first day of school?”
“It was fine,” said Flora. “How come you didn’t tell me that Mrs. Mandel taught Mom in fourth grade?”
Min smiled. “I thought I’d let Mrs. Mandel do that. Was it a nice surprise?”
“It was great. She taught Mom and Olivia’s mom together.”
“I remember,” replied Min. “They had a very good year.”
“This is going to be Mrs. Mandel’s last year of teaching,” Flora added. “She’s retiring over the summer.”
“Ahem,” said Ruby loudly.
Min turned to her younger granddaughter. “Now, what is this about a play?”
“Our school is going to put on a play for the birthday party next year, and I’m going to be in it!” said Ruby in a rush.
Min turned to Flora. “My stars. What is she talking about?”
Flora told Min about the activities that would be part of Camden Falls’s birthday festivities. “One of them is going to be a play about witchcraft in colonial New England,” Flora added.
“And you’re going to be in the play?” Min asked Ruby.
“I’m going to star in it.”
Min frowned. “Ruby,” she said.
“All right. I don’t know that yet. Mr. Lundy said the auditions are going to be in a few weeks. But I’m sure I’ll get the starring role.”
“What is the starring role?” asked Flora. “Isn’t it the part of an adult? And don’t you think they’ll give that to a sixth-grader?”
Ruby squirmed slightly. “Yes,” she said. “I mean, no. I mean, the biggest part is one of the witches, and she was a grown-up. But no, they won’t give that part to a sixth-grader. Not if I’m the best one who auditions.”
“Ruby, I believe we need to have a little chat about modesty,” said Min.
“And reality,” Flora added under her breath.
Min glanced at Flora, then turned back to Ruby. “Another thing — do you know what the phrase ‘Don’t count your chickens before they hatch’ means?”
“Don’t think you’re a beautiful chicken if you aren’t?” Ruby guessed.
“Not exactly,” replied Min. She looked up as the bell over the door jangled and Mary Woolsey entered Needle and Thread. “Good afternoon, Mary,” said Min.
“’Afternoon, Min.” Mary nodded to Ruby and Flora before heading for her table at the back of the store. She was dressed in way too many clothes as usual, including a scarf and a jacket over what appeared to be two sweaters.
The bell jangled again as a customer entered. Min said, “Ruby, we’ll continue this discussion tonight. I have to get back to work.”
“Am I in trouble?” asked Ruby.
“No. I just want you to think about a few things.”
“Okay.”
“Min?” said Flora. “Can Ruby and I go to Olivia’s, please? Her parents are home. And we want to play outside with the kids.”
“All right,” said Min. “Have fun. Do you have any homework?”
“Just a little,” said Ruby.
“Half an hour’s worth,” said Flora. “I can do it after supper.”
With that, the Northrop girls left Needle and Thread and ran down Main Street.
When Robby’s van pulled up in front of his house, he was surprised to see Alyssa, Travis, Mathias, Lacey, Ruby, Flora, Nikki, Olivia, Henry, and Jack seated in a loose circle in the Walters’ yard, Nikki’s bicycle leaning against a tree.
“Hi, Robby!” called several of the kids as Robby stepped out of the van.
“Bye, Robby!” called the bus driver.
Robby didn’t answer the kids or the driver. Instead, he headed for his house.
“Hey, Robby, what’s wrong?” asked Olivia. “Come talk to us.”
“Okay, but first I have to tell my dad I’m home. It’s the rule.”
Robby stomped across his lawn and through his front door.
“I wonder what’s the matter,” said Olivia, staring after Robby.
The children shifted positions, breathing in the scents of tired grass, damp leaves, and autumn flowers. Nikki pressed her hands together, then tucked them behind her knees. “Chilly,” she said.
“It’s almost fall!” exclaimed Alyssa. “We’re going to learn all about fall in school. Halloween comes in the fall.”
“So did you like preschool?” Olivia asked her.
“Yup.”
“And she’s very excited about going back tomorrow,” added Lacey pointedly.
“In our class,” spoke up Mathias, “we’re going to learn about Camden Falls’s history this year. Our teacher says she has old pictures of what the town used to look like. And also we’re going to learn what it was like to live in a little town three hundred and fifty years ago. Did you know there were no cars or telephones and you had to go to the bathroom outside in this thing called an outhouse?”
“Ew,” said Ruby.
“Mrs. Mandel was telling us about all the stuff we can do for the celebration next year,” said Olivia. “There’s going to be a photography exhibit. I might try to take some pictures. I could take pictures of trees and insects, all the kinds that are here in Camden Falls.”
“You should enter some things
in the art show, Nikki,” said Flora. “You’re the best artist I know.”
“Thank you,” said Nikki, and she thought of her drawings, of the stacks and stacks of drawings that pleased her mother but for some reason annoyed her father.
“Well, are you?” Ruby asked Nikki.
“Am I what?”
“Going to enter anything in the art show?”
Nikki turned away from her friends and faced the Row Houses, the gorgeous Row Houses that made her small home seem shabby in comparison. It wasn’t fair, thought Nikki. She and her mother, and sometimes Mae and Tobias, too, tried to make their house cheery. They kept the front stoop tidy. Nikki’s mother planted flowers in the spring, if she was feeling up to it, and Nikki made wreaths for the front door. But these touches didn’t repair the cracked windowpanes or replace peeling paint. And no matter what the rest of the Shermans did, they couldn’t stop Nikki’s father from opening the front door and tossing paint cans and old appliances and broken motors and sometimes just plain trash into the yard for everyone to see.
“Nikki!” exclaimed Ruby in exasperation. Ruby never let one of her questions go unanswered.
“Oh,” said Nikki. “Um, the art show. Well, I don’t know. I mean, thank you. I’m glad you like my drawings. I’ll ask my mom, I guess.…”
“How come you have to ask —” Ruby started to say, then was stopped when Flora poked her in the back. Ruby let out a small squeal but didn’t finish her question.
“Ruby, why don’t you tell everyone about your dance lessons?” asked Flora a little too loudly.
Ruby looked sideways at her sister. “Okay. Well, next week I’m finally going to start taking lessons again. I took tap and hip-hop and ballet in my other town.”
“Cool,” said Lacey.
“Now I’m going to go to Overlook Dance Studio for tap and hip-hop.”
“Not ballet?” asked Olivia.
“I’m going to wait until the spring. Min says two classes are enough, especially if I get into the Children’s Chorus. I’ll be trying out for that soon.”
“And especially if you get a part in the play,” added Lacey.
Flora, who was relieved that Lacey hadn’t said “the lead in the play,” was studying her sister and thinking that Ruby was fitting into her new life here awfully easily — almost without regard for their old life — when Robby stamped out of his house and joined the kids on the lawn, looking no happier than he had when he’d gotten off the van.
Olivia scooted across the grass so that she was sitting directly in front of him. “What’s the matter?” she asked.
Robby scowled down at the grass, then looked at the group of kids. “My class is moving,” he said.
“Moving?” repeated Henry. “You mean to another room?”
“No.” Robby’s chin quivered. “To another school. To the elementary school.”
“Oh!” cried Ruby. “Cool! You’ll —”
“And I am not a little kid,” Robby continued hotly. “I am seventeen. Other kids who are seventeen go to the high school. That is where I belong. Not at a school for babies.”
Henry jumped to his feet. “Babies!” he cried. “I’m not —”
Olivia hushed her brother. “Why is your class moving?” she asked Robby.
“There isn’t enough space for us at the high school. So they’re getting rid of us.”
“Oh, Robby,” said Nikki. “They’re not just getting rid of you. I’m sure they looked around until they found the right space for your class.”
“No, they didn’t,” said Robby. “Because the right space is at the high school.”
“Excuse me!” called a whispery voice then, and Olivia turned to see Mrs. Willet, a letter in her hand, crossing the lawn toward the children. She was wearing her robe and slippers and tiptoeing along as if she didn’t want to make any noise. “Could one of you nice youngsters direct me to the post office?” she asked.
Olivia jumped to her feet. “Mrs. Willet,” she said, “it’s me, Olivia. Are you sure you want to go to the post office in your — I mean, um, you really need shoes if you’re going to walk downtown.”
Mrs. Willet wasn’t concerned about shoes. “I don’t want anyone to see me,” she whispered loudly. “They’re all watching me, you know.” She glanced up and down the street, which as far as Olivia could see was deserted except for the Row House kids.
Olivia caught Flora’s eye and mouthed, “Get Mr. Willet,” which Flora did as quickly as she could. A minute later, he was hurrying toward his wife.
“Mrs. Willet,” Robby said as he watched Mr. Willet approach, “you have to wear clothes and shoes when you go outside. That’s the rule. Clothes and shoes. Mr. Willet, Mrs. Willet wasn’t following the rule.”
“It’s okay, Robby,” said Flora.
Mr. Willet put his arm around his wife’s waist. “Let’s take a look at what you’ve got here. Ah. A letter to … your mother. Okay. Well, Robby’s right. You have to get dressed before you can go to the post office. So let’s go back inside.”
Ten minutes later, Min returned from work. As soon as the kids saw her, they ran to greet her. Then Nikki cried, “Oh, my gosh! What time is it?”
“Five-fifteen,” said Olivia.
“I have to go!” Nikki jumped onto her bicycle and pedaled down Aiken Avenue, shouting over her shoulder, “See you at school tomorrow!”
“Bye!” called Olivia and Ruby and Flora.
“My school got changed,” Robby said to Min, scowling again.
“I’m in preschool,” announced Alyssa.
“Goodness me, there’s a lot of news,” said Min, lowering herself onto the porch step. “Tell me everything while I unwind from my day.”
For Flora Marie Northrop, the first two weeks of school at Camden Falls Elementary were a mix of the unfamiliar and the familiar, and Flora found the familiar more unsettling than the unfamiliar. How could anything, she wondered, feel familiar when nothing about her life was as it should be? At the beginning of the year, she had been living with her parents and Ruby in their old house in their old town. And she had been going to her old school with Annika and Liza. Now here she was living with Min and Ruby in Min’s house in Camden Falls, going to a new school and making new friends. Sometimes as Flora sat in Mrs. Mandel’s room, she would catch herself turning to a page in a book or watching her teacher write on the board, and the moment would feel as familiar and comfortable as all the moments of her life up until the moment of the car accident. And this was what frightened Flora. Why should this new life already feel familiar? How could it feel familiar without her parents in it? And yet sometimes it did. And then Flora felt guilty.
September marched along, and the first day of autumn approached. The trees on Main Street took on a faded appearance, as though they had been through the wash once too often. Sometimes when Flora walked to school with her friends, she could smell wood smoke in the air. Overhead, Canada geese, flying in sloppy V-formation, honked shrilly.
One Friday evening, when supper was finished and the table had been cleared and the dishes loaded into the dishwasher, Min said, “My, it’s chilly. I believe we need a fire tonight. We’ll make the first fire of the season.”
“Sweet!” exclaimed Ruby. “King Comma loves fires.” She glanced at the black-and-white cat dozing in an armchair. “Min, does Daisy Dear like fires, too?”
Daisy Dear was Min’s galumphing golden retriever who, despite her size, had many fears. She was afraid of the vacuum cleaner, afraid of thunder, and at first had also been afraid of King Comma.
“Well,” said Min, “I think she sort of likes being with me when I sit in front of the fire, but if the fire pops or crackles, she leaves.”
Ruby smiled. “Daisy is a ’fraidy dog.”
“She certainly is,” agreed Min.
Min made tea and Flora made hot chocolate for herself and Ruby. Soon they were settled in front of the fire in their cozy Row House. King moved so close to the fire that Flora wouldn’t have be
en surprised if he’d started to melt. Daisy cautiously sat beside Min’s chair and turned her back on the fireplace.
“Well, this is nice,” said Min, looking at her granddaughters.
“And I don’t even have any weekend homework,” said Ruby.
“I have some,” said Flora, “but only a little, and it’s French, so that’s fun.”
Min smiled. “I remember when your mother and Olivia’s mother started taking French in school. They would walk down Main Street, yabbering away a mile a minute, mostly saying nonsense words that sounded vaguely French. They hoped people would think they were actually foreign, even though everyone in town knew who they were.”
Flora smiled and Ruby giggled.
“How old were they?” asked Ruby.
“About ten, I think.”
The girls lay on the floor, first on their backs, then on their stomachs, gazing into the fire.
“Min?” said Ruby dreamily. “Will you help us with our Halloween costumes?”
“My word,” said Min. “I know the store is already decorated for Halloween, but I still can’t believe it’ll be here so soon.”
“And after that, Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then New Year’s Eve,” said Ruby.
A silence fell over the room. After a long moment, Min said, “I know what you’re thinking, girls, and believe me, I’ve been thinking the same things.”
“Okay, what are we thinking?” Flora challenged her, sounding testy and regretting it.
Min leaned over and tweaked the toe of one of Flora’s slippered feet. “You’re thinking about the holidays and wondering what they’re going to be like this year, the first ones without your parents. And you’re wondering how we’re going to celebrate. Maybe you’re even wondering if we should celebrate at all. Is that right?”
Flora lowered her chin onto her arms. “Yup. That’s exactly what I was thinking. How did you know?”
“Because that’s what I’ve been thinking. Things are going to be different for me, too. After your grandfather died, I stopped spending the holidays at home — partly because it was too sad, and partly so I could be with my family. I’ve been going to your house for Thanksgiving for so long that I’ve forgotten how to prepare a turkey. I haven’t had Thanksgiving at home in ages. I haven’t had Christmas here, either, since I usually spend it with your aunt.”
Needle and Thread Page 3