Blackberry Juice

Blackberry Juice — page 1 — Chapter One Where are the sudsy sheep and the horses with velvet noses The grumbling tractors and shiny silos When Mom said we were moving to a farmhouse I pictured a wide front porch and a tire swing strung from a huge tree Like in a picture book But I guess real life isn’t a picture book We’ve unfolded our bodies from the stinky moving van Rudy my little 1

Blackberry Juice — page 2 — brother holds the mason jar with our goldﬁsh Einstein I hold Wigglechin our cat whose fur is standing on end We’re staring at a crooked porchless house in a ragged yard beside a gap-toothed barn with a slumped roof So it needs a little love Dad says He rufﬂes Rudy’s hair and kisses Mom on the cheek Too bad I’ve got to go He tosses me into a mangy haystack then untangles his bike from a lamp in the back of the van He slings an enormous duffel bag over his shoulder as if it’s as light as a cloud then pedals down the gravel road getting smaller and smaller until he’s the size of a ﬂy Then poof he disappears 2

Blackberry Juice — page 3 — Dad is headed to the airport to catch a bush plane Dad’s a lumberjack He operates a feller buncher which fells trees then bunches them into piles 3

Blackberry Juice — page 4 — He’s gone half the time living in logging camps but I’m used to missing him Mom reaches into her jeans pocket and drops a couple of coins in my hand Okay Cyrus go to the neighbors and get us some eggs You want me to go to a strange house and ask for their eggs 4

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