“Probably not,” I said.
We had tried at first. I had called Gwen a couple of times, and then she had called me, but the afternoon at the creek seemed like a line that had been drawn between us. About two weeks later the ice was gone, and Gwen started walking home from school with Kara Rockcastle, whose family had a trampoline in their yard and a nanny who let the kids do whatever they wanted. She almost seemed like a different person. And so did I.
Austin poked his head through the sliding door and said Nenna wanted someone to set the table. “And I’m going to take a shower,” he said. “So it needs to be you.”
Jocelyn followed me indoors. “Have you finished your notebook?”
“No.” I got the dishes out of the cabinet. Counting Ralph, there would be twelve of us for dinner.
“I think you should finish it.” Jocelyn counted out the napkins. “You said you were going to discover something.”
I found a sheet of paper on the counter. It was an ordinary piece of loose-leaf. I picked it up.
“I wonder what it will be?” Jocelyn asked. “Maybe you’ll discover something secret that no one ever knew before.”
I started tearing the sheet of paper into twelve small pieces.
Truth #99: I have always wanted to set up a round of the dinner game.
“Or maybe you’ll discover another planet.”
I was scribbling names. There were so many different combinations, so many interesting possibilities. I remembered what my mother had told me in the airport: You might find out something new about who you are.
“Maybe you’ll discover a cure for a disease so that you can help Granda,” Jocelyn said.
I glanced around at the circle of plates. Soon the table would be full of Grummans, arguing and shouting and eating and guessing.
“Where do you want to sit, Jocelyn?” I asked.
Truth #100: I already know who we are.
Julie Schumacher is the author of Grass Angel, a PEN Center USA Literary Award Finalist for Children’s Literature, and The Chain Letter. She is also the author of numerous short stories and two books for adults, including The Body Is Water, an Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award Finalist for First Fiction and an ALA Notable Book of the Year.
An associate professor of English at the University of Minnesota, Julie Schumacher lives with her husband and their two daughters in St. Paul.
OTHER YEARLING BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY
THE CHAIN LETTER, Julie Schumacher
BEFIDDLED, Pedro De Alcantara
WATER STREET, Patricia Reilly Giff
LOOKING FOR BAPU, Anjali Banerjee
DONUTHEART, Sue Stauffacher
PIECES OF GEORGIA, Jen Bryant
A DOG FOR LIFE, L. S. Matthews
CORNELIA AND THE AUDACIOUS ESCAPADES OF THE SOMERSET SISTERS, Lesley M. M. Blume
Published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books a division of Random House, Inc., New York
Copyright © 2006 by Julie Schumacher
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eISBN: 978-0-375-84920-6
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The Book of One Hundred Truths Page 13
