by Paul Mosier
It’s a beautiful, mild day for early December, so the carousel is open. But there aren’t many people here, ’cause it’s the middle of a school day.
“Do you have a wristband to ride all day?” I ask.
The guy in the ticket booth shakes his head. “Nah, it’s two-fifty a ride.”
I look at the cash in my hand. “Can I just give you a lot so my sister can ride it as much as she wants?”
“Aren’t you gonna ride with me?” Echo asks.
“I’m not feeling well,” I answer. And it’s true. I feel crummy. Like I’m gonna throw up. And I feel depressed. But I smile anyway. “I wanna watch you.”
The guy in the booth looks at Echo, her bald head and hopeful expression. I’ve got the same bald head, which I’ve been shaving every few days so I don’t get ahead of Echo, but I no longer think about how people are looking at it. Hardly ever. The guy in the booth smiles and gives a wave of unconcern. “Ah, go ahead,” he says. “My boss is a jerk.”
Echo squeals and jumps up and down.
“Thank you,” I say.
“Thank you!” Echo shouts.
I follow her in and wipe the carousel pony with disinfectant. I wipe the pole that runs through it. I disinfect everything in reach, using three wipes.
Then I go outside the enclosure and sit on the bench. The calliope music starts up, the carousel turns, the painted ponies go up and down.
I sit on the bench and watch Echo. She grins. She shouts “Yee-haw, giddyup!” just like I taught her years ago. She takes her hands off the shiny silver pole and waves to me. I’m thinking she might fall off, but I wave back.
It comes around again and she makes a crazy face. Her sweet little bald head sets off her big, beautiful eyes.
Each time around she waves at me. In this moment I’ve accidentally allowed myself to stray into thinking the cancer might return, that it might still be in her, hiding. But I wave back.
Clouds have appeared suddenly, and a raindrop falls on my bald head. Then another. Big thunking drops.
The rain feels different with a shaved head, like tapping a melon to see if it’s ripe.
I sit in the rain and watch Echo go round and round. In my mind, each time around the carousel is another trip around the sun. Another year of life granted to Echo by the universe, which may not always be perfectly just, but which maybe sometimes can be tilted by the smallest measure.
Words play in my head to the tune of the calliope music.
Don’t stop, another turn, come around again.
Don’t stop, another turn, come around again.
Then the rain begins to really come down. People everywhere run for cover, but I stay on the bench getting soaked, watching the little kids stay dry under the shelter of the carousel.
Don’t stop, another year, come around again.
I reach into the bag for one of the red Team Echo hats.
It’s not the absolute worst hat I’ve ever seen.
I pull it on and blow a kiss to Echo as she comes around again.
Acknowledgments
Thanks—
As always, to the mighty Central Phoenix Writer’s Workshop.
In particular, Michelle Beaver and Anne Heintz, for their careful reading and helpful suggestions.
If one must experience cancer, I recommend the Coronado Historic District, the professionals at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and the concentric circles of love and humanity in the community my family has found itself the center of.
To the best literary agent, Wendy Schmalz, for believing in my work, and for adopting me into the loveliest family of writers.
To my talented editor, Karen Chaplin, and editorial director, Rosemary Brosnan, for being supportive of a troubled novelist and a book which was very difficult to give birth to.
To the muse, for not giving me a year off.
Thank you.
About the Author
Photo credit KIM BLAKE
PAUL MOSIER began writing novels in 2011 but has written in some fashion his entire life. He lives a short walk from the place of his birth in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, but a very circuitous route brought him there. He is married with two daughters. He loves listening to baseball on the radio, eating vegetarian food, drinking coffee, talking nonstop, and riding trains. In fact, he has ridden most of the route described in his first book, Train I Ride. Visit him on his blog, www.novelistpaulmosier.wordpress.com.
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Copyright
ECHO’S SISTER. Copyright © 2018 by Paul Mosier. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art by Sveta Dorosheva
Cover design by Jessie Gang
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mosier, Paul, author.
Title: Echo’s sister / Paul Mosier.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018] | Summary: “Twelve-year-old Echo finds the courage to help her younger sister fight cancer, and, in the process, finds the love and support of an entire community”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017034538 | ISBN 9780062455673 (hardcover)
Subjects: | CYAC: Sick—Fiction. | Cancer—Fiction. | Family life—New York (State)—New York—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Community life—New York (State)—New York—Fiction. | New York (N.Y.)—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.M6773 Ech 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017034538
* * *
Digital Edition AUGUST 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-245572-7
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-245567-3
1819202122CG/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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