Julia's Hope by Leisha Kelly Read Free Book Online Page A

off the old hips and some buds, being as careful as we could for thorns.
    “This is fun,” Sarah told me, not minding the rain at all.
    “I wish we could live on a farm,” Robert added. “We could run around outside all the time.”
    I looked into my bowl and sighed. They really didn’t care that we’d found only two more mushrooms. Seven in all. They trusted me that much. I glanced at Sam, but he was looking at the sky again.
    “It’s pretty black in the west,” he said. “Storm coming. I guess you’ll get your way for tonight. We can go to town tomorrow.”
    We headed straight for the barn and picked through a pile of boards for something to cover over the broken windows. All the boards had square nails sticking out of them, which we pried up and used to tack the boards in place. One of the broken windows was upstairs in a bedroom, so we got our first look at the second floor.
    There were just two rooms up there, one with nothing but an old bed frame and the other full of boxes and crates. I shooed the kids out of that room and shut the door. “We mustn’t mess with anything unless it’s a matter of necessity,” I told them.
    I rushed out into the rain and picked more dandelion, some lamb’s-quarter, and winter onion to add to the cress for salad. It would have been nice to fry the mushrooms with cornmeal like I’d been taught, but without either corn or grease, I hadn’t any choice but to try something new. I picked up a few sticks in the yard and had the kids roast the halved mushrooms in the fireplace. I then stewed the rosebuds and hips in water, sweetening the brew with sugar, hoping to come up with something palatable.
    Nobody said much over a lunch like that, and the thunder started in earnest before we were through.
    Sarah tagged behind me like a little shadow as I took a look in the basement, where Sam had found the wood. It pleased me to find a pile of rags and an old broom. And Sarah found a toad, which she thought the grandest thing she’d seen in her whole life.
    “They eat bugs,” I told her. “That’s why they like basements and gardens. Lots of bugs.”
    “Do bugs taste good?” she asked, her eyes wide with question.
    “Some of them might be all right,” I told her, though at that moment I was wondering how a toad might taste. But Sarah would have none of that, I knew.
    “Whatcha gonna do with those rags?” she asked as I bundled them up to take upstairs.
    “We’re gonna clean this place up,” I announced. “It’ll be our thanks for staying here.”
    “Can I help?” she asked. “I’m glad we’re not in the thun-nerstorm, Mama.”
    Sam had started knocking down cobwebs, knowing I didn’t think much of having spiders dangling over my head. I swept the dust from the floors into a corner, scooped it up the best I could, and flung it all out the back door.
    I had some paper with me in my bag, and I’d written out a page of sums for Robert, not wanting him to forget such things in the time it would take to get him settled into a school. He sat grumbling and ciphering as Sarah helped me wipe down the kitchen table and counters with water from the well and a couple of old rags.
    “Why doesn’t she have to do any figuring?” Robert asked.
    “Because she’s only five,” I told him. “And hasn’t had even a day of school yet.”
    “Well this ain’t school,” he continued. “Why can’t I wait?”
    “If you keep up, best as you can manage, you won’t have to be left back for all the time you missed.”
    Robert looked out the window, and I let him daydream a minute. Finally, he turned his attention back to his paper but then looked up abruptly. “You think there’s a school ’round here? I wouldn’t mind figurin’ so much, Mom, if it meant having some other boys around to play with.”
    I was glad Sam had gone to the basement for more wood. Both of my kids were as infected by hope here as I was. “When we have a place of our own to stay,” I told Robert,