“Right!”
Brian felt for the seven lucky coins in his pocket. Part of him wanted to give them to Jess, to make up for everything. Part of him wanted to save them, so he would always remember about the day he somersaulted and missed seeing his best friend disappear, because he was showing off. Maybe he could get Jess some coins of her own. His mom would probably have some with her when she came back from her trip with her girlfriends.
Jess sat licking the cheese off her fingers. “I wish I knew where the orange socks were.” She was thinking they’d make a great memento. She could wash them and put them back in the drawer. Every time she opened the drawer she would remember the week Midas died and she and Ernie had taken their long journey.
“Well, that’s easy,” Naomi laughed. “They’re in a plastic bag in my purse. They helped, even if we didn’t see them right away. We’ll have to nickname you Gretel. But Brian doesn’t look like Hansel. He wasn’t lost with you, it was Ernie.”
“Everyone was a little lost,” Brian’s dad said wistfully. He stood smoothing the pockets on his colourful bush jacket. Brian stood beside him. It was time they drove back to Edmonton.
“Can we go now?” Ruth Mather stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips. “Or are you going to keep dissecting this whole trip and everyone on it like some bunch of frogs in a lab?”
“The voice of common sense is heard in the halls,” Naomi said. Jess tossed the garbage into the plastic bucket by the door. She could see Mark and Holly coming down the hall. She’d have to give them an interview before she could leave Landis. It would give her a chance to go over everything that happened. What was is it Ernie had said, way back when he was a grownup, “An unreflected life isn’t worth living.” Jess would have plenty of time to reflect on this adventure.
“About the sports bag, Jess…”
“We’ll wait on that, Mom. We’ll wait.” Jess didn’t know whether she wanted another sports bag. Maybe a smaller back pack – for just a few essentials – like her Swiss Army knife, band-aids, some scissors and colored pens and glue, and her journal and calendar. Maybe emergency rations, her library book.
Oh, Oh, hadn’t she learned anything? “Life’s about more than surviving, right?”
Mary Woodbury is the author of the best-selling Polly McDoodle series and a number of other books very popular with young readers. She lives in Edmonton with her husband Clair and her West Highland White Terrier Misty.
The following books are being made available on Kindle. They are currently in print and can be ordered through Mary Woodbury at Talkingstick Press:
Polly McDoodle Series – Coteau Books
1. The Invisible Polly McDoodle, 1994
2. The Intrepid Polly McDoodle, 1998
3. The Innocent Polly McDoodle, 2000
4. The Incredible Polly McDoodle, 2002
5. The International Polly McDoodle, 2004
A Gift for Johnny Know-It-All. Hodgepog Book, 1996
Flight of the Tiger Moth, Coteau Books, 2007
E-mail: [email protected]
Mail: Mary Woodbury
c/o Talkingstick Press
#404, 10319 – 111 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5K 0A2
Phone: 780-633-0048
Jess and the Runaway Grandpa Page 15