by Anna Kerz
“Finished my first exam. Only three more to go.” She grimaced. “I thought I’d give myself a break and do something besides read. How was your day?”
“Great. We did our mealworm presentation first because Aaron volunteered us. I was nervous, but once we were done, I was glad it was over with. Aaron hardly repeated himself. He wasn’t even too silly.”
“All that practice paid off, I guess.”
“Yeah. It was good that Paul helped. Aaron listens to him.”
“Seems to me that when I heard you practicing in the living room, he listened to you a fair bit too.”
Jeremy flushed. His mother was right. Talking to Aaron was getting easier.
“Is this good news I hear?” Milly said, coming up from the basement. She placed a basket of laundry on a chair and walked to the cupboard.
“Yeah. We finished our mealworm presentation today.”
“So what happens now?” Milly asked.
“Now?”
“Well, you and Aaron spent a good deal of time together for this project. Just wondering if that’ll continue.”
“Continue!” Jeremy put his head in his hands and rolled his eyes. “You think I still want to hang around with Aaron now that we’re finally done with mealworms!”
“Jeremy!” His mother’s voice cut in.
“What? The kid’s been a total pain in the backside, and that’s one of the nicest things I can say about him.”
He stopped, enjoying the startled expressions on the faces of Milly and his mother, before he went on to say, “Aaron and I won’t be hanging around much anymore… until tonight, when we’re going to the community center to play floor hockey with Horace and a bunch of other guys, and next week, when we start the unit on outer space. Did I tell you that Aaron and I are going to be partners again? We figured we might as well, now that we’re sort of used to each other.”
“Jeremy!” Milly shook her head and laughed. When his mother joined in, Jeremy laughed too—a warm, loose, easy laugh. I sound just like Dad, he thought. Just like Dad. And he laughed again.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
More than anybody, I owe thanks to Peter Carver, who introduced me to the world of children’s writing. He was there for Jeremy’s birth in a short story, and he encouraged me to expand that story into a novel. Along the way I was given invaluable advice from the wise and talented members of Peter’s writing classes in Toronto and Port Joli.
Special thanks go to Kathy Stinson for her feedback on an early draft of the work; to Chery Rainfield for invaluable advice; to Connie Hubbarde for being my first reader; and to my editor, Sarah Harvey, for taking a chance on a new writer and patiently allowing my story to grow.
I thank Joanne Taylor for giving Jeremy’s grampa his voice, Sylvo Frank for telling me how to turn off bad dreams, Glenna Storie for “counting sleeps” and Richard Ungar for his wise counsel.
I’m grateful, also, to the Toronto Arts Council. Their recognition and support allowed me to experience, firsthand, the Nova Scotia world that Jeremy called home.
ANNA KERZ loves stories that touch the heart and tickle the funny bone. Now that she’s retired from teaching, she fills her time by working as a storyteller, telling tales to audiences of all ages, and by writing books for children. She lives in Scarborough, Ontario. The Mealworm Diaries is her first published novel.