All Hallows' Eve by Vivian Vande Velde Read Free Book Online Page A

poke your eye out? Anybody remember why we're going to Mount Hope Cemetery today?"

    Janelle joined the others in not meeting Ms. Hurston's gaze. Of course, they
knew
: She'd told them three times this morning alone. But nobody wanted to act like they
cared.
    Ms. Hurston asked, "Are we here just to avoid sixth-period algebra?"
    "Reason enough," someone from the back of the bus called.
    "I want you to look for specific details," Ms. Hurston reminded them. "This cemetery was started in the 1800s. That was the Victorian era. Remember the Victorian poetry we've been studying all month? Anyone? Tennyson, Rossetti, the two Brownings?" She shook her head at the lack of response and joked, "Never heard of any of them before."
    Because she was generally a pretty cool teacher, they were willing to take it as a joke.
    Ms. Hurston reminded them, "Victorians believed cemeteries should be parklike to encourage people to come, to consider their mortality. And they were very big into symbolism."

    The Victorians,
Janelle thought,
with the possible exception of Christina Rossetti, were downright weird.
    The bus passed through the stone gateway, then parked by the fountain.
    "Notice details," Ms. Hurston said as they gathered up their hats and gloves, for the day was overcast and chilly.
    The students noticed the fountain with its lion-head spigots, though nobody was able to determine to everyone's satisfaction exactly what they were supposed to symbolize.
    They discussed, under Ms. Hurston's guidance, the plants around the fountain: what was still blooming at what, for upstate New York, was the very end of the growing season, and which were flowers that wouldn't come again till spring.
    They speculated about—after he left—the creepy-looking guy in the shapeless hat and the long tweed coat, who hadn't come close but who had glowered at them when they weren't even doing anything: just standing there listening to Ms. Hurston and looking at ... well, some of them were climbing onto ... the fountain. "A homeless person," they decided, because of the long, stringy gray hair, and because of the shapeless clothes that gave the impression of being layered over another whole set of clothes. Either that or a crazed mass murderer stalking them.

    Ms. Hurston told them they were so politically incorrect they made her eyes cross, which she demonstrated for them.
    "Okay, now we're heading into the old section." Ms. Hurston pointed toward a brick road that wound its way up a hill. "Susan B. Anthony's grave is in this section, and Nathaniel Rochester, who founded Rochester. Let's see if we can find them. But keep your eyes, ears, and noses open for sensory details. There won't be an assignment, but there will be a discussion. Notice things!"
    "Yeah, well," Janelle muttered to Reid, "what I notice is that bricks are very hard to walk on." Even with sneakers, her ankles wobbled on the uneven surface, and she worried that if she rushed, she might trip and make a fool of herself. So already she was bringing up the rear, except for Reid, who had stopped to tie his shoelace.
    The oldest gravestones were thin slabs of limestone—bright white where they weren't spotted by gray-green lichen growing on them—and so eroded by weather or by people making rubbings that they were almost illegible. The granite and marble stones were generally in better shape, and it was easier to see some of those symbols Ms. Hurston was so eager to have them notice.

    "Wow," Brandon said, "all these people really got stoned."
    Ms. Hurston ignored him. "See these ferns?" she asked, and Janelle ran her finger in the engraving. Each type of headstone—marble, granite, limestone—felt totally different from one another. Janelle noted this for possible sharing in case she got called on to say something.
    "Ferns symbolize sorrow," Ms. Hurston said. "As does the willow. And this calla lily—that symbolizes marriage."
    "What about these three interlocking rings?" D'Vona asked.
    Brandon