 |
| Level 5 | Level 6 | |||
| Level 8 | Level 9 | Level 10 | Level 11 | Level 12 |
| Home |
Blue Willow
by
Doris Gates
Janey Larkin paused on the top step of the shack and looked down at her shadow.
Just now it was a very short shadow even for a ten-year-old girl who wasn’t
nearly as tall as she should be. The squatty dark blotch running out from
under Janey’s feet didn’t reach to the edge of the cracked boards.
It was noon and the sun hung white and fierce almost directly overhead. It
beat down upon Janey, the shack, and all the wide flat country stretching
away for miles and miles in every direction. It was hot, so terribly hot that
when Janey cupped her hands and blew into her sweaty palms her warm breath
seemed cooler than the air she was breathing.
But it was better here on the steps than inside the stifling one-room shack where the heat of a wood-stove added its bit to the best that the sun could do. Besides, here you could look out across the shimmering heat waves to the west, where the mountains were supposed to be. And somewhere on the other side of the mountains was a blue ocean. At this season the heat hid the mountains, which were far off, anyway, and not even a breath from the ocean could find a way through the hidden ranges into this wide and scorching San Joaquin Valley…
| Home |