Read an Excerpt
Lily was having a picnic with her father and her little sister, Ruby, but it wasn’t much fun. “Get off, Ruby,” Lily said, and pushed her sister.
“Hey, take it easy,” said her father. He scooped Ruby into his arms.Lily kept her head down and cleaned up the pieces, some of which were pennies and nickels because Ruby had lost the checkers, and she folded the board back into its box, which was more flat than box shaped because Ruby had been sitting on it.
It’s not fair, Lily thought, Ruby ruins everything and she gets all of the attention,
“Here,” said her father,. He slid a book from the stack in the picnic basket and handed it to Lily. “Take a look.” “It looks like a journal,” Lily said, flipping through its pages, “but with drawings.” “It is a journal,” said her father. “It belonged to my grandfather.”
Lily stopped at a sketch of a boy on a bicycle. In the background was a lily pond, and at the top of the page in faded pencil, the date.
June 4, 1923. “That was a long time ago,” Lily lay down on the blanket and turned the page.
.June 4, 1923
Today started out like any other day. It was warm and damp from the morning rain and I was in in my secret hideout counting crickets. That’s when my sister barged in, frightening the insects.
“Get out, Cam,” I said. “You can’t stay here.”
“Yes I can,” she insisted.
“No you can’t!” I shouted. “GO AWAY!”
Cam ran towards the house.
I already knew how this would turn out.
“Lanh?” My mother called. “Let your sister play with you.”
“But, Mom…it’s my—!”
“Let her in, Lanh!”
“It’s not fair, Mom. She always—”
“I said, let her in. Now!”
Cam came running back in, this time kicking dirt and soot all over my fort. Some of the bugs jumped out and I did too. I ran to the end of the yard, to my bike, and rode away from home. The road through the village was muddy, and each time I saw a puddle, I made sure to ride through it. Standing up on the pedals, I soared past the town, past the people. Whoosh went the world.
The further I rode, the taller the grass grew. Soon it was taller than I was, filled with the chirping of crickets and frogs. The mud was thick, and I was tired and hot, but I pushed and pedaled until I made it to the end of the path, to a pond covered with…
“WATER LILIES,” Lily whispered.
At the pond’s edge, I used a stick to poke at a water lily and its tangled roots. I was hoping to find a frog or turtle or something, but all that I saw was my own face, flushed and mud-splattered, staring back at me from the water.
“Nothing’s going right today,” I grumbled, and threw the stick through my reflection. “Hey, watch it!” someone said. I jumped back and looked around the pond. “Who said that?” I called out. “Who’s there?” “It’s me, over here!” The voice said. “You were just looking at me.” .....
