As of tomorrow, Mayor Perez will be back to work. In a few days, Mikey will be packed up in an ambulance and driven miles and miles north to the border. I know they won’t simply leave Mikey by the side of the road, but they might as well. Since Daniel is going with him, I wonder if I’ll ever see either of them again.
Even after I finally got Krysta on my side. Even after I stood up in front of the whole school and spoke up. Nothing changed.
Mama knocks on my door. I tell her I just want to be left alone, but she says, “I think you should see this.”
I follow her out of my room and down the hall. In the living room, the TV news is showing the hospital protest. I groan and start to turn away. But then I notice that there aren’t nearly as many people around as yesterday, and many more are holding signs in support of Mikey, or asking for more doctors for their kids. I see only a few SAVE OUR AMBER signs in the crowd.
“Where did everyone go?” I ask.
“Without Mrs. Perez, the protestors no longer have a leader,” Mama says. “Once Mikey is sent home, I have a feeling things will go back to normal.”
Normal. I’m not sure what that means anymore. I’ll go to school and life will go on as if nothing’s changed. But how can I forget everything that’s happened?
“And after my boss makes an announcement tonight,” Mama goes on, her eyes sparkling behind her glasses, “I think people will be a lot happier.”
I look at her. “You mean your experiments are done?”
“It will still take a few months before we’re sure the ‘New Amber’ is safe, but once it’s available, it will mean that people won’t need to use as much Amber.”
I sigh, hoping she’s right. I hope that people will be a lot less angry once they realize that their most precious natural resource won’t run out for a long time.
The doorbell rings. I follow Mama to the door and am shocked to find Mayor Perez standing on our front steps in the exact spot where his wife’s tomatoes landed. He looks different from the last time I saw him. A little thinner, but also healthier somehow. The look in his eyes is less intense, less scared.
“Hello,” he says stiffly, as if we’re strangers. “Is your husband here?” he asks Mama. “I was hoping to speak to all three of you.”
“He’s out painting houses,” Mama says. “I dropped him off this morning. He’ll be gone all day.”
Mayor Perez nods and holds out a paper bag. “In that case, here. This should get the boy started. If you need more, send Mira over and I’ll give it to her.”
Mama glances into the bag and gasps. “Where did you get all this Amber?”
I know the answer. From the Perezes’ well.
“It’s for Mikey?” I ask, not sure I believe it. When Mayor Perez nods, I can’t help adding, “But why?”
“Because… because if your father hadn’t been there when I had my heart attack, I might be…” He shakes his head. “Just make sure that boy gets it before I have him sent home, all right?”
Mama nods.
“And have your husband call me when he gets back, okay? I have a job for him.”
“A job?” I repeat.
Mayor Perez looks at me, and a slight smile tugs at his lips. “My wife told me that a very clever girl had the idea of using foreign doctors and nurses to help heal the sick and train volunteers.”
I look at him in surprise. I doubt Mrs. Perez would ever call me “clever,” but is he saying…? “You’ll let them work at the hospital?”
“Not exactly. They would need to go through the proper training first. But we’re setting up a temporary health clinic at my office, until the crisis is over. We can use all the hands we can get.”
“So my husband will be able to help people again?” Mama asks.
Mayor Perez gives her a sad smile. “He already has,” he says. Then he turns and hurries away.
39
Mama and I nearly run to the car so that we can drive the Amber to the hospital. There are some people still camped outside, but the group looks even smaller in person than it did on TV.
Mama hands the Amber to Aunt Flora. Based on their past training and research, the two of them quietly work out a plan to slowly increase the amount over the next few days so that Mikey won’t overdose. The amount Mayor Perez gave us should be enough to completely cure the blood disorder and make Mikey an everyday kid again.
After we leave the hospital, Mama and I drive over to the house where Tata is working. When we find him, he’s covered in paint and looks flushed from being out in the sun all morning.
He frowns when he sees us. “What are you doing here so early? I thought you were picking me up before dinner.”
Mama and I quickly tell him about the Amber for Mikey, and about the temporary clinic and Mayor Perez’s job offer.
“I’ll be a doctor again?” Tata asks in disbelief, and there’s something in his face I haven’t seen in a long time. Purpose. Ever since we moved here, he has looked lost, but not anymore.
I can’t help rushing over to throw my arms around him.
Tata laughs in surprise but squeezes me back. “What’s this?” he asks.
“Thank you,” I tell him. There’s more to say, a lot more. But this is a start.
“If I’m going back to work, I suppose I’ll need to read through those flash cards you made me,” Tata says, giving Mama a rare smile.
Mama laughs. “Maybe a language class at the university would be a better idea.”
Tata nods and glances at me. “I might need your help with some of the homework, Mira. Now that you’re officially an A student.”
My smile fades. Even though I finally got on A+ on an assignment, it doesn’t feel as perfect as I thought it would. “Mama, if I want to donate my Amber rations to the hospital, can I do that?”
She blinks at me in surprise. “Why?”
“Because I want someone else to have them, someone who really needs them.”
“But your schoolwork,” Tata says. “You were doing so well.”
“I almost won a writing contest without Amber,” I say. “Maybe next time I will win. And when I do, I want it to be all me.”
My parents exchange a look, and it takes me a second to realize what it means. They’re proud of me. Even though I’m not perfect like Krysta, even though I’m too foreign and not foreign enough, I’m still enough for them.
40
In the morning, I find Mama sitting at the kitchen table with tears on her cheeks.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Nothing,” she says, wiping her eyes. “I had a beautiful dream last night. About Henryk. He was older, almost your age, and he was sitting in a field of those flowers you like so much, the yellow ones.”
“Black-eyed Susans,” I say.
Mama nods. “He was pulling them up and throwing them into the air and laughing. He looked so happy. As if he were telling me that he was all right.”
I wrap my arms around Mama, and she holds me tight. Then I glance out the window and gasp. A thick patch of black-eyed Susans has sprouted in front of our house seemingly overnight, right in the spot where Tata poured out the Amber. I don’t know if Tata will be thrilled at having giant weeds taking over his garden, but they’re the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen.
Suddenly whatever block I’ve had these past few weeks, whatever has been making my words freeze up inside me like icicles, disappears. I can’t wait to pick up my pen again and write about everything.
* * *
Krysta and I meet Daniel at his house after school. He’s going through his closet, deciding what to pack. I was surprised when Krysta said she wanted to come with me, but maybe she wants to apologize in her own way.
“You’re really leaving?” I ask.
Daniel nods. “Mikey should be all better in a few days, once the Amber’s had time to finish healing him. Then he’ll be sent back home. Aunt Flora said I could stay with her, but I want to be with my brother. And my parents. I miss them.”
“I don’t know how you could be away from them for so long,” Krysta says, echoing exactly what I’m thinking. “I’d be too much of a wimp to do that.” She laughs. “I mean, my parents are no picnic or anything, but you know, they’re still my family.”
“Thanks, by the way,” Daniel says to her. “I haven’t said that yet.”
Her eyes widen. “For what? Being a total jerk to you ever since you moved here?”
“Because of your family, Mikey’s finally going to be healthy.”
“It wasn’t right for us to have a big well in our yard when people really needed that Amber,” Krysta says.
The Perezes’ well is boarded up now, and is completely dry. It will take Krysta and her family time to get used to not having Amber whenever they want it. I’m not sure Mrs. Perez will ever be okay with that. But the fact that Krysta has been working on her pirouettes every day, trying and trying to get better, gives me hope that she’ll be able to handle life with a little less magic in it.
“Is your dad okay now?” Daniel asks her.
“He’s back at work, but he can’t use any Amber for at least a month.” Krysta smiles at me. “Maybe I’ll have his rations donated to that Amber reserve bank you’re starting, Mira.”
“I was thinking of naming it after Mikey,” I say. “What do you think, Daniel?”
“Oh boy,” he says. “As if my brother needs an even bigger head.” He laughs, but his eyes soften. “I’m sure he’d really like that.”
“Maybe I’ll come visit you guys this summer.” I groan and add, “After we go back home to visit my grandmother.”
“Could I come too?” Krysta asks. She laughs at the shocked looks on our faces. “What? You keep talking about how much better things are in other countries. I want to see it for myself.”
“Not better,” I say. “Just different.”
Krysta squints. “I only hope I can see it. My eyes have been kind of weird lately.”
“Weird how?” I ask.
“Ever since we started rationing the Amber, things have been sort of blurry. Do you think there’s something wrong with me?”
Daniel and I exchange a look. Then he pulls his glasses off his face and hands them to her. “Do those help?”
Krysta looks surprised for a second. Then she slips the glasses on and lets out a startled laugh. “Yeah, actually. That’s a lot better. Wait, but does this mean…”
I put my arm around Krysta’s shoulders. “Hey, Four-Eyes,” I say with a grin.
“Daniel!” Aunt Flora calls from downstairs. “I’m heading back to the hospital in a minute. Are you coming?”
Daniel gives us a little smile and puts his glasses back on. “I should get going. Thanks for coming by.”
I don’t want to say good-bye, not when I’m unsure if I’ll see Daniel again, so I give him a little finger wave for luck, the way Krysta and I have done for years. He must understand what it means, because he returns the gesture with a nod.
Outside, Krysta and I hop onto our bikes and start pedaling for home.
“Wanna race?” she asks.
I laugh and shake my head. “Maybe next time.”
So we don’t race. Instead we ride together, side by side.
Author’s Note
I was born in then-Communist Poland and immigrated to the United States with my family when I was five years old. While the details of my story are very different from Mira’s, the feelings of acclimating to a strange and “magical” land are very much the same. Like Mira, I loved writing poems when I was in elementary school, and eventually I began writing plays, short stories, and novels as well. Many years later, I became a published children’s author and people began asking me why I didn’t write about being an immigrant. But the idea of telling my own story never felt as exciting as telling someone else’s. So instead I focused on writing the kinds of stories I would have loved to read when I was young, many of which—probably not surprisingly—were about characters who felt like outsiders.
A few years later, as the global discussion (and disagreement) about immigration grew louder, my thoughts kept coming back to my own experiences. Around that time, I also learned the term “third-culture kid,” which refers to children raised in a culture different from their parents’, and it perfectly described the “in-between-ness” I’d felt for so much of my childhood. But the idea of writing about my own life still didn’t seem terribly exciting… until I came up with the notion of sprinkling in a little magic. Thus Mira’s story was born. As I wrote about her world and her struggles, I found myself asking what it means to belong and who should (or shouldn’t) have the power to decide if something is a “weed” or a “flower.” I don’t pretend to have the answers, but if nothing else, I hope this story encourages us all to keep asking the questions.
Acknowledgments
The more personal a story, the scarier it can be to write. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me throughout the creation of this book, especially my agent, Ammi-Joan Paquette, and my editor, Krista Vitola. Thank you to Erin Dionne, Heather Kelly, and Megan Kudrolli for the thoughtful feedback; to Josh Funk for help brainstorming titles; and to Alisa M. Libby, Sarah Chessman, Susan Lubner, Susan Lynn Meyer, and Patty Bovie for much-needed emotional support. Finally, as always, thank you to my family and friends, especially to Ray and Lia, for always cheering me on.
About the Author
Author photo by Sedman Photography
Anna Staniszewski is the author of more than a dozen books for young readers, ranging from novels like Secondhand Wishes and the Dirt Diary series to picture books such as Dogosaurus Rex and Power Down, Little Robot. She was a Writerin-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award. Currently, Anna lives south of Boston with her family and teaches writing and children’s literature at Simmons University. Visit her online at annastan.com.
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Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
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Also by
Anna Staniszewski
Once Upon a Cruise
Secondhand Wishes
My Very UnFairy Tale Life Series
My Very UnFairy Tale Life
My Epic Fairy Tale Fail
My Sort of Fairy Tale Ending
The Dirt Diary Series
The Dirt Diary
The Prank List
The Gossip File
The Truth Game
Switched at First Kiss Series
I’m With Cupid
Finders Reapers
Match Me If You Can
Picture Books
Power Down, Little Robot
Dogosaurus Rex
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2020 by Anna Staniszewski
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Staniszewski, Anna, author.
Title: The wonder of wildflowers / Anna Staniszewski.
Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2020] | Summary: In Amberland, where natives rely on a dwindling supply of magical fluid and foreigners are unwelcome, ten-year-old Mira juggles her loyalty to her immigrant roots and her desire for acceptance.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019002125| ISBN 9781534442788 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781534442801 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Interpersonal relations—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Immigrants—Fiction. | Illegal aliens—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.S78685 Won 2020 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002125
The Wonder of Wildflowers Page 12
