Miles To Go
Page 14
“So Mrs. B would be their foster person for only a few years until they’re both in school?” Maggie asks.
“I hope it works that way. This whole thing has changed our family. Dad’s around more, and he makes the boys do work around the house. Joe’s got a part-time job at the service station now, and Papa lets him drive me in to town.”
“And we’ve got high school in the fall! You worked so hard to pass this year.”
“Miss Alexander said she was proud of me. And guess what, Maggie? She’s invited me to bring the girls over to her house for lemonade next week.”
“I think Miss Alexander has a soft spot for you,” Maggie says.
“Do you? She gave me one of her books, Anne of Avonlea, and I’m reading it now. It’s about Anne’s first teaching job in Avonlea, when she helps two orphans.”
Then without warning the empty feeling comes again. “But Maggie, I still miss Bella so much. At night my arms ache to hold her. I can hardly stand it. She’s growing up out there somewhere. Without me. I’ll never see her again.”
I lie back on the grass and close my eyes.
Maggie sits quietly beside me for a long time, and then I hear her say, “I have an idea.”
I sit up. “What is it? Tell me.”
“Anna, when we’re both grown up, let’s go on a search. A search to find Bella.”
It makes my head spin. Just thinking that some day I could find Bella. “Do you honestly think we could?”
“Sure we can.”
“But we don’t know where Bella is. It would cost a lot of money to travel around until we find her.”
“We can do it, Anna. When we’re older we can work and save money. We can travel all over the United States. We can cross the oceans and search all over the world if we have to. We’ll find your sister!” Maggie’s eyes are sparkling so much it looks like the freckles are dancing on her nose.
I feel my heart racing. “How old do you think we’d have to be?”
“Nineteen, maybe. Whenever we’re ready to start looking. Let’s just do it. Let’s promise.”
“I do promise,” I say.
Maggie grabs my hands and looks me in the eye. “I promise, too.”
And suddenly, my arms feel lighter. Maybe Bella isn’t lost to me forever.
I run my hand over the grass, looking at the clover. Then at the same spot again. “Maggie! Here’s a four-leaf clover!”
We leap to our feet, link hands, and start twirling around.
“We’re going to be lucky. We will find Bella!” I say.
For the first time since Bella was taken away, I believe I might see my little sister again. I’ll tell her about Mama and the rest of us who love her. I’ll remind her how I rocked her through the long nights until the sky lightened.
At home I have the Bluebird of Hope Maggie gave me. That little bird will give me hope through the years until we start to look for Bella. I throw my arms around my wonderful friend.
“Thank you, Maggie. Thank you for everything.”
One thing I know for sure is that we’ll keep our promise. If it takes until we’re old and grey, Maggie and I will search the world. We’ll find Bella. She’s out there somewhere, growing up happy, I hope.
We’ll find her and we’ll tell her about us.
Author’s Note
THIS BOOK WAS inspired by the true story of a family in a small Saskatchewan town very like Deep Creek. As in the book, the mother of the family died in childbirth and the oldest girl promised to look after the baby, who was called Belle. The children were heartbroken when their sister was taken away from the family, but when they were grown, they began a long search for her.
In real life and after many false leads, they found their sister through the Salvation Army, but by then Belle was almost sixty years old. She had been living in the eastern United States and was happily married with three children of her own. Her American parents had never told her she was adopted, so it was a big surprise for her to learn that she had a large family in Saskatchewan. Sadly, Belle’s birth father and her oldest brother had died by the time she was found. Her oldest sister, who had cared for her in those early months, was the first person to meet her. She arranged for Belle to travel to Canada and visit the rest of her family. At the joyful reunion, the family said, “We knew right away she was one of us.”
Belle told them it made her feel guilty to think that her birth had caused them to lose their mother. They told Belle they had never blamed her. They took their sister to the farm where she’d been born and to visit her mother’s and father’s graves. Belle came back to Canada for many more happy visits with her family.
I met this family when I was writer-in-residence at the Wallace Stegner House in Eastend, Saskatchewan. I knew that someday I wanted to write about the young girl’s experience.
I also wanted to capture the feeling of prairie life in the 1940 s. The story is set in a fictional town in rural Saskatchewan and includes a lot of cigarette smoking. Young readers should be aware that adults didn’t know then about all the health risks of smoking. They did know it was unhealthy for children to smoke.
Acknowledgements
MANY THANKS TO Frances and Tom Jenkins, who know all about red-tailed hawks and coyotes; Isabel Nuttall and Marylyn Eckart, who inspired me with their family story; Donny White, who shared his love of prairie stories; Linda Bailey, who taught me to keep my sentences short and much more; Norma Charles, who reminds me to have heart in the story; Dianne Woodman, for teaching me patience; Louise Hager, whose father made her smoke a cigar; Susan Moger, always my first reader; and my grandson Misha, who has good ideas.
Thanks to friends who support me as a writer: Debbie Hodge, Shirley Rainey, Dorell Taylor, Dana Brynelsen, Jinny Hayes, Susan Harris, Bob Heidbreder, Sheena, Victoria and Moira Koops, Harriet Zaidman, Jane Flick, Bob Harvey, Roberta Rich, Penny Perry, Andrea Harvey, and Pamela Porter.
Thanks for editing help to Katie Wagner, Tara Gilboy, Kathryn Cole, Kathy Stinson, and Arthur Slade.
I am grateful to Heritage House for seeing the possibility in this story: Lara Kordic, Leslie Kenny, Lenore Hietkamp, Lesley Cameron, and Setareh Ashrafologhalai.
About the Author
R. Blissett
BERYL YOUNG is the author of seven critically acclaimed books for children. She writes novels, biographies, and picture books, including Wishing Star Summer, Charlie: A Home Child’s Life in Canada, Would Someone Please Answer the Parrot!, and Follow the Elephant. Among many award nominations, her books have won the Silver Moonbeam Medal (US), the Reader’s Choice Award at the Rainforest of Reading, and the Chocolate Lily Award.
Beryl was born in Saskatchewan, where she lived for a year on her grandparents’ farm and attended a one-room country school. She lives in Vancouver now, and while she loves the ocean and the mountains, a big part of her still yearns for those rolling prairie fields. For more information, visit berylyoung.com.
Copyright © 2018 Beryl Young
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, audio recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher or a licence from Access Copyright, Toronto, Canada.
Wandering Fox Books
An imprint of Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd. heritagehouse.ca
Cataloguing Information available from
Library and Archives Canada
978-1-77203-264-2 (pbk)
978-1-77203-265-9 (epub)
Edited by Lesley Cameron
Proofread by Lenore Hietkamp
Cover and interior design by Setareh Ashrafologhalai
The quote on page iii is from Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
The interior of this book was produced on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, processed chlorine free, and printed with vegetable-based inks.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government
of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
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