Blossoms Meet the Vulture Lady

by Betsy Byars

  “Well, hurry,” Maggie said.

  “You can’t hurry French braids.”

  “You’re the one who wanted me to have French braids. I would have been happy with ponytails.”

  “You’ll like them when I get through. Next week I’m going to do cornrows.”

  “Mom, Pap and Vern are going to leave me. I think I hear them getting in the truck.”

  “I thought you didn’t like to go can collecting.”

  “Well, I do. Everybody knows us now. Everybody rolls down their car window and yells ‘Hello, Blossoms’ when they see us. I like it.”

  “Is Junior going?”

  Vicki tugged Maggie’s head around—Maggie was trying to look out the window again. “They are getting in the truck, Mom. Hurry.”

  “They’ll wait. I asked is Junior going.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “He said he was busy.”

  Vicki started braiding Maggie’s hair more slowly. “Busy doing what?”

  “I don’t know. He won’t let us see.”

  Vicki stopped braiding altogether. “Where is Junior?”

  “In the barn.”

  “Not again. I’ll be right back.”

  “Mom, don’t leave me. My hair’s only half done! Mom!”

  Vicki Blossom ran out onto the porch and down the steps. She ran across the yard. Junior had tugged the barn door closed for privacy, and his mom yanked it open.

  “Whatever you’re doing or making, Junior, stop it right this minute.”

  “Bye, Mom,” Maggie called quickly.

  Vicki glanced around, and she threw up her hands when she saw Maggie getting in the truck.

  “Maggie, you can’t go off with your hair half braided. Now people recognize you as a Blossom. You got to look right!”

  “I’ll finish it myself on the way,” Maggie called.

  Then she said “Scoot over” to Vern.

  “No way. I’m sitting by the window.”

  “Oh, all right, if you want to be selfish.” She crawled over his legs.

  Pap gave Mud’s honk—one long, two shorts—and Mud came running out of the barn. Without breaking stride, he leapt into the back of the truck and faced forward.

  Pap started the truck and made a broad U-turn in the dusty yard. “Oh, go on,” Vicki Blossom said, waving them away. She entered the barn.

  “Junior,” she said, “you and I are going to have to have a little talk. Now I am not going through another one of these Blossom Julys. I am too old.” She couldn’t see for a moment, the sun had been too bright outside. Then her eyes adjusted to the dim barn. She put her hands on her hips.

  “All right, Junior,” she said. “What in the world is that?”

  Chatting It Up

  A Holiday House Reader’s Guide

  All about the Blossoms in …

  The Blossoms Meet the Vulture Lady and more!

  Discussion Questions

  An Interview with Betsy Byars

  Discussion Questions

  1. Junior didn’t learn from his mishap last July when he tried to fly. A year has passed, and he doesn’t want the summer to end without inventing something. Why does he want his invention to be a surprise to his family? Discuss the motive behind his invention.

  2. Why does Junior like it when people spy on him?

  3. Mad Mary is a legend in her neck of the woods. How did she get her name?

  4. Compare Mad Mary’s life as a child to the way she lives now.

  5. Why are Maggie and Vern surprised when they find out that Pap went to school with Mary? How does Pap help Maggie and Vern see Mad Mary through different eyes?

  6. Describe the special relationship between Mud and Pap.

  7. What is Mud Blossom’s role in searching for Junior? Why is Mud sad when he doesn’t get praise from Pap for leading them to Junior’s trap?

  8. How do the Blossoms determine that Mad Mary has Junior? Explain why Pap needs to be the person to approach Mad Mary.

  9. Describe Mad Mary’s cave from Junior’s point of view. Why is he so surprised that she has lots of books?

  10. Discuss the bond that develops between Mad Mary and Junior. Explain what Mad Mary means when she says to Junior, “I was about in a cage myself, and getting you out of yours was the start of me getting out of mine” (p. 143).

  Prepared by Pat Scales, retired school librarian and independent consultant, Greenville, South Carolina.

  An Interview with Betsy Byars

  Do you know a person like Mad Mary?

  Mad Mary is based on a real person. I never met her, but I read a story about her in the local newspaper. She lived in a shack and ate roadkill. She even revealed some of her recipes. She made her life sound free, peaceful, and full of tasty food.

  Did you ever eat varmint stew like Junior and Mad Mary?

  One of the good things about being an author is that you get to do enjoyable things without leaving your home. In my mind I did eat varmint stew in Mad Mary’s cave with Mary and Junior. There was the pleasant rustle of vulture wings overhead. There was candlelight, good company, and one of the tastiest stews I ever had in my life.

  Mary’s cave has so many books! What was your favorite book when you were a child?

  My favorite book was The Adventures of Mabel. Mabel was my ideal. She had adventures, her own horse, and long, naturally curly hair—three things I lacked. She knew a secret whistle that allowed her to communicate with wild creatures such as lizards, frogs, even wolves. I worked out the notes on the piano and I too would communicate with wild animals as soon as I learned how to whistle.

  You say on your website that Mud Blossom is your favorite Blossom. Why is he your favorite character?

  Mud is my favorite Blossom because sometimes when I’m driving around the county, I see a pickup truck with a dog in the back. As I look closer, my heart leaps because it’s Mud! It is Mud! I drive on with the happy feeling that I’ve caught a glimpse of a dear and valued friend. That doesn’t happen with any other Blossom. Maybe if they started riding in the back of trucks …

  A Biography of Betsy Byars

  Betsy Byars (b. 1928) is an award-winning author of more than sixty books for children and young adults, including The Summer of the Swans (1970), which earned the prestigious Newbery Medal. Byars also received the National Book Award for The Night Swimmers (1980) and an Edgar Award for Wanted … Mud Blossom (1991), among many other accolades. Her books have been translated into nineteen languages and she has fans all over the world.

  Byars was born Betsy Cromer in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her father, George, was a manager at a cotton mill and her mother, Nan, was a homemaker. As a child, Betsy showed no strong interest in writing but had a deep love of animals and sense of adventure. She and her friends ran a backyard zoo that starred “trained cicadas,” box turtles, leeches, and other animals they found in nearby woods. She also claims to have ridden the world’s first skateboard, after neighborhood kids took the wheels off a roller skate and nailed them to a plank of wood.

  After high school, Byars began studying mathematics at Furman University, but she soon switched to English and transferred to Queens College in Charlotte, where she began writing. She also met Edward Ford Byars, an engineering graduate student from Clemson University, whom she would marry after she graduated in 1950.

  Between 1951 and 1956 Byars had three daughters—Laurie, Betsy, and Nan. While raising her family, Byars began submitting stories to magazines, including the Saturday Evening Post and Look. Her success in publishing warm, funny stories in national magazines led her to consider writing a book. Her son, Guy, was born in 1959, the same year she finished her first manuscript. After several rejections, Clementine (1962), a children’s story about a dragon made out of a sock, was published.

  Following Clementine, Byars released a string of popular children’s and young adult titles including The Summer of the Swans, which earned her the Newbery Medal. She continued to build on her ear
ly success through the following decades with award-winning titles such as The Eighteenth Emergency (1973), The Night Swimmers, the popular Bingo Brown series, and the Blossom Family series. Many of Byars’s stories describe children and young adults with quirky families who are trying to find their own way in the world. Others address problems young people have with school, bullies, romance, or the loss of close family members. Byars has also collaborated with daughters Betsy and Laurie on children’s titles such as My Dog, My Hero (2000).

  Aside from writing, Byars continues to live adventurously. Her husband, Ed, has been a pilot since his student days, and Byars obtained her own pilot’s license in 1983. The couple lives on an airstrip in Seneca, South Carolina. Their home is built over a hangar and the two pilots can taxi out and take off almost from their front yard.

  Byars (bottom left) at age five, with her mother and her older sister, Nancy.

  A teenage Byars (left) and her sister, Nancy, on the dock of their father’s boat, which he named NanaBet for Betsy and Nancy.

  Byars at age twenty, hanging out with friends at Queens College in 1948.

  Byars and her new husband, Ed, coming up the aisle on their wedding day in June 1950.

  Byars and Ed with their daughters Laurie and Betsy in 1955. The family lived for two years in one of these barracks apartments while Ed got a degree at the University of Illinois and Byars started writing.

  Byars with her children Nan and Guy, circa 1958.

  Byars with Ed and their four children in Marfa, Texas, in July 1968. The whole family gathered to cheer for Ed, who was flying in a ten-day national contest.

  Byars at the Newbery Award dinner in 1971, where she won the Newbery Medal for The Summer of the Swans.

  Byars with Laurie, Betsy, Nan, Guy, and Ed at her daughter Betsy’s wedding on December 17, 1977.

  Byars in 1983 in South Carolina with her Yellow Bird, the plane in which she got her pilot’s license.

  Byars and her husband in their J-3 Cub, which they flew from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast in March 1987, just like the characters in Byars’s novel Coast to Coast.

  Byars speaking at Waterstone’s Booksellers in Newcastle, England, in the late 1990s.

  Byars and Ed in front of their house in Seneca, South Carolina, where they have lived since the mid-1990s.

  Turn the page to continue reading from the Blossom Family Series

  CHAPTER 1

  The Green Phantom

  Junior stood in the doorway of the barn. All morning he had been working on his latest invention, and no one in the family had shown the slightest interest. At one point he had even put up a sign that said KEEP OUT—SECRET WORK GOING ON INSIDE, and still no one had tried to come in.

  Junior shaded his eyes from the August sun and scanned the yard. It was as empty as it had been the last three times he came out.

  The truck was gone, so Junior knew that Pap and Mud were off on their can-collecting rounds. Every Monday they went out and got cans from Dumpsters and picnic areas. Pap sold the cans for five cents apiece. Sometimes they didn’t get back until time for supper.

  From the field behind the barn, Junior could hear the sounds of hooves on dry, packed earth—Sandy Boy. His sister, Maggie, was learning trick 1 riding from their mom. This had been going on for two weeks, and neither one of them cared about anything but becoming the first mother-daughter trick-riding team in the history of rodeo. They certainly didn’t care about his invention.

  Junior knew where everyone in the family was but his brother, Vern. Vern went off somewhere every single afternoon and wouldn’t tell anybody where he went.

  Junior sighed. He turned and walked slowly back into the empty barn. It seemed to him that the family had separated, pulled apart like a ripe peach, and he had been dropped to the ground like the pit.

  The thought was so sad it brought tears to his eyes. He brushed them away, leaving dirty streaks on his cheeks.

  The sight of his invention perked him up. This was going to be the biggest, the best, the most spectacular. His other inventions—his wings and his coyote trap—were nothing in comparison. This invention was so great that he got a patriotic feeling every time he looked at it.

  And a lot of equipment had gone into this one. Junior had had to make a list for the first time in his life. He could say the list by heart now.

  Garbage bags

  String

  Wire

  Tape

  Air mattresses

  Patches for the air mattresses

  Day-Glo paint (green)

  After he had made the list he had written a word up in the top corner of the page, and then he had folded the corner down as if he were marking a page in a book. That was because this word was the secret ingredient, and if anybody saw what the secret ingredient was, they might be able to guess the invention.

  Junior heard a noise outside, and he darted to the barn door. A bicycle had just turned onto their road. Maybe Vern was coming back early.

  Junior raised his hand to shield his eyes. No, it was Ralphie pedaling down the hill.

  Junior was not sure whether he was glad to see Ralphie or not. It all depended on what mood Ralphie was in. Junior left the door slightly open behind him so Ralphie could catch a glimpse of the invention, which Junior had now given a name—the Green Phantom.

  Junior had spent the last hour blowing up the Green Phantom with a bicycle pump. This was so that everyone could get the full effect of the Phantom’s grandeur. Some of the air was leaking out now, however, and if someone didn’t see it soon, the grandeur would be completely gone. Ralphie was better than nobody.

  Junior pulled down his shirt as Ralphie got closer. He decided he would tell Ralphie the name of the invention, but he would not tell him what it was unless Ralphie absolutely insisted and promised not to—

  Ralphie stopped his bicycle by pedaling backward. He balanced for a moment beside Junior. Then he looked worried and said, “There’s something on your head, Junior.”

  Instantly distracted, Junior brushed his hand over his head. “What? What is it?”

  Ralphie said, “Hair.”

  Junior knew then that Ralphie was not going to be in a helpful mood. Still he stepped sideways so Ralphie could read his sign. Surely when Ralphie saw the words SECRET WORK GOING ON INSIDE, he would want to know what the secret work was.

  Ralphie said, “Is Maggie around?”

  “She’s down at the field with Mom. She’s learning trick riding.” He turned back to his sign. “Is the word secret spelled right?” he asked. “Secret, you know, like something nobody can see.”

  “Secret is, but work’s spelled with a u—w-U-r-k.”

  “It is not. We had that word in spelling. It’s—”

  Ralphie looked bored. “Which field?”

  Junior shoved the barn door all the way open, thereby revealing his secret invention for the first time to the public eye. It was, to Junior, like the moment when an artist pulls a sheet off his masterpiece.

  “You are probably wondering what that is,” he said to Ralphie.

  “Nope,” Ralphie answered.

  “All right!” Junior was getting desperate. “I’ll tell you its name, but not what it is. Its name is—”

  Ralphie pushed off, and Junior’s shoulders sagged as he watched Ralphie disappear around the barn.

  Junior was once again alone. He went back into the barn. Now, for the first time, when he looked at his invention he did not get that patriotic feeling. The Phantom seemed to have shrunk.

  Junior was instantly ashamed of himself. He told himself that nothing—not even the Statue of Liberty, for example, would look like much lying on the floor of a barn, particularly if the air was leaking out.

  But, he went on, fill the Statue of Liberty with air and set it out on an island, and fill the Green Phantom and put it in the sky! Again patriotism flooded Junior’s body.

  From the field behind the barn came a sharp cry from his sister as she fell off Sandy Boy
. “Did you hurt yourself, Maggie?” her mother called.

  “No.”

  “You want to rest awhile or keep going?”

  “Keep going.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  Junior heard Ralphie yell, “Hey, can I come down?”

  “Yes!” Maggie answered. “I got something to show you!”

  Now, Junior thought, it was going to be Maggie and Sandy Boy who were going to impress Ralphie, not him and the Phantom. And Maggie was impressive hanging off Sandy Boy upside down. Nobody could deny that. She was impressive even in her everyday clothes. When she got in white satin and spangles, she would be beautiful, but not as beautiful as … His eyes turned to the Green Phantom. He didn’t need to finish the sentence.

  “Just wait,” he said to the empty afternoon. “I’ll show them something really impressive. I’ll show the whole wide world.”

  To raise his spirits he began a new train of thought. Maybe at this very moment Pap was on his way home. Maybe Vern was too. Maybe Ralphie had told Maggie and his Mom about the secret work and they were rushing up the hill. Maybe everyone would arrive at the exact same moment and get to see the Green Phantom at the exact same time.

  Junior couldn’t help himself. He smiled.

  CHAPTER 2

  In the Dumpster

  Pap was not on his way home. He was five miles away, standing in front of a garbage Dumpster. His dog, Mud, was at his side. Both of them were listening.

  “Something’s alive in there, Mud,” Pap said.

  Mud didn’t need to be told. He had heard the faint scratching noises in the Dumpster as soon as Pap had turned off the ignition of the truck.