The Truth of Me Read online

  Henry takes a small light out of his bag.

  He shines it in Maddy’s eyes.

  Maddy tries to brush his hands away.

  He feels her head.

  “She’s got a bump here,” he says. “But I don’t think she has a concussion.”

  Very gently, Henry feels Maddy’s foot. He moves it, and she moans.

  “Can you bring the lantern closer?” he says.

  I put the lantern close to Maddy’s foot.

  Henry feels her foot and ankle again. He sits back.

  “She has a broken ankle,” he says.

  “Bad?”

  “Bad enough. She’ll have to stay off her feet for a while. I can put a temporary splint on now to keep her from moving it, but we’ll have to get her off the hill to fix it properly.”

  “Can you wait until morning?”

  “We’ll have to. It’s too hard to move her in the dark. Has she had water?”

  I shake my head.

  Henry touches my face.

  “Scary, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll take care of her.”

  Henry takes a syringe out of his bag and pushes up Maddy’s shirtsleeve. He gives Maddy a shot.

  “Maddy? You’ll feel better soon. I’m here. Could you get some water, Kiddo? And is there any ice? We need to keep the ankle from swelling more.”

  I go over to the food basket for water. I grab the ice pack.

  The bear has gone now. The deer move into the woods. The bobcat still sits by the log.

  His eyes shine in the dusk.

  Henry builds up the fire again.

  “Did you eat dinner?” he asks.

  I shake my head.

  “Maddy fell before we ate. You used the ice pack for Maddy, so I threw the hamburger into the woods for the animals. Maddy made baked beans.”

  “The beans will keep,” says Henry. “I have nachos in my backpack for dinner. And cheese to melt over the fire.”

  Henry and I sit next to each other on the ground, leaning against one of the logs. The bobcat has gone. Maddy’s eyes are closed. Her foot is propped up on the pillow I use for sleeping. Henry has made a splint.

  Ellie comes over to lie down next to Henry.

  “Eleanor,” says Henry softly. “She found me. She pushed my front door open, and there she was.”

  Henry strokes Ellie’s head.

  “And when I didn’t get up from the kitchen table, she pulled my shirt with her teeth and tore it.”

  “Ellie did that?”

  “She wanted to let me know she hadn’t just come for a visit.”

  “And you found the note tied to her collar?” I ask.

  Henry shakes his head.

  “It had fallen off,” he says. “She picked it up by the front door and brought it to me.”

  Henry looks at me.

  “That was very smart of you to send Ellie,” he said.

  “I couldn’t leave Maddy alone. Or Ellie with . . .” I wave my hands, and Henry knows what I meant.

  “With the raccoons, the rabbits, the bear, the deer, and the bobcat?”

  I laugh. Henry laughs, too.

  “I’m hungry,” says Maddy suddenly. “And I don’t think nachos are very healthy.”

  “The painkiller shot is working,” says Henry. “And this from a woman who once served the Kiddo doughnuts for dinner,” he says louder so Maddy can hear him.

  He gets up and goes over to Maddy. He hands her a water bottle.

  “A few sips, Maddy. You can eat in a bit, but not too much. I don’t want you to get sick.”

  “I already feel terrible,” says Maddy. “A little sicker won’t hurt.”

  “It will, believe me,” says Henry. “I’m your doctor. And a very good doctor. Listen to me.”

  “How will we get down the hill?” she asks.

  “I’ll carry you,” says Henry. “It will be quite romantic.”

  Maddy blushes.

  “I’m glad to see color in your cheeks,” says Henry with a smile.

  “Look!” says Maddy suddenly. “A shooting star!”

  We turn and see the star cross the sky. Then another.

  “I told you,” says Maddy. “Didn’t I say you’d see that?”

  Henry sighs.

  “Maddy’s better,” he says.

  Henry melts cheese over the fire, and we spread it on nachos on paper plates. He gives Maddy a small plate.

  The lantern light falls over the clearing, and the fire flickers on our faces.

  “Henry?”

  “What, Maddy?”

  “Did you see my friends?”

  Henry doesn’t answer right away.

  “Yes,” he says finally. “I saw them.”

  Maddy’s quiet.

  “Robbie?” she says.

  “Yes?”

  Maddy takes a breath.

  “When your mother was very little, her father went away and left us.”

  Henry and I look at each other.

  “I never knew that,” I say. “Someone should have told me that.”

  “I’m telling you now. She loved her father, and he just up and left. In some ways, after that, she never quite trusted people in the same way. After all, they might up and leave, too. But she had her violin. And that violin didn’t let her down. She could trust that violin.”

  Maddy took a breath. She was getting tired again.

  “What I’m trying to say is . . .” Maddy stops.

  “That violin wouldn’t go away,” says Henry.

  Maddy sighs.

  “She feels safer loving her violin,” says Maddy. “Do you understand, Robbie?”

  “Yes,” I say.

  And I do.

  For the rest of the night we lie in our sleeping bags—Henry on one side of Maddy and me on the other.

  As the fire slowly flickers out, we watch shooting stars until we sleep.

  12

  The Truth of Me

  The next morning Maddy’s ankle and foot are still swollen and bruised.

  “We’ll eat what’s left of the corn bread,” says Henry. “Can you throw dirt on the fire, Kiddo? We need to get Maddy down the hill.”

  I’d heard Maddy cry out in the night once. I’d heard Henry give her water with a pill.

  There are no animals today. Ellie looks for them. I look for them.

  We pile everything in the garden wagon, except for the tent. I shovel dirt on the fire until I’m sure it’s safe. Then I pour water over it.

  “We’ll come for the tent later,” says Henry. “Ready?”

  I pull the wagon. Henry carries Maddy.

  “This will hurt you some, Maddy,” he says.

  “I know,” she says.

  Ellie walks next to me, down the path through the woods and across the meadow.

  “Maddy?” asks Henry.

  Maddy puts her arms around Henry’s neck and her head on his shoulder. She doesn’t speak.

  “We’re almost there,” says Henry.

  At Maddy’s house Henry lays Maddy on her bed. He puts a pillow under her foot. Her arm is over her eyes. She doesn’t move.

  “I’m going to my house to get my car,” he says. “It’s faster that way. I’ll be right back.”

  I watch Henry run down the road to his house.

  I carry the food basket inside. I put the rolled-up sleeping bags and lantern in the hall closet.

  I stand at Maddy’s bedroom door and watch her. I look down and see Ellie that is standing there, too. I put my hand on her head.

  I hear the sound of a car. Henry is here. Ellie goes to the kitchen door to look out. I keep watching Maddy.

  Henry brushes by me into the bedroom.

  “Maddy?”

  “What?”

  “I’m going to pick you up and carry you to the car. The passenger seat is folded back so you can lie down until we get to the hospital.”

  Maddy takes her arm away from her eyes.

  “What about Robbie?” she says. />
  “I’m fine, Maddy. I’ll stay with Ellie,” I say.

  Henry picks up Maddy as gently as he can. I move aside, and he carries her out to the car.

  “I’ll call you, Kiddo,” he calls. “It will be a while.”

  He drives the car very carefully out of the dirt driveway.

  And then they’re gone.

  We’re alone in the house, Ellie and I.

  I feed her and take her outside for a walk. Then we sit on the bench by the garden. We watch Peter Rabbit eat lettuce. Peter is quick and steady. He finishes one row and is starting on another. I don’t stop him. Maddy has lots of lettuce.

  We sit for a long time, but still Peter eats.

  Birds come to sit on the fence.

  The sun goes behind a cloud, then comes out again.

  The phone rings, and I run inside to answer it.

  “Kiddo? You all right?”

  “I’m fine. Peter Rabbit has eaten two whole rows of lettuce.”

  Henry laughs. I tell him that because I want to hear him laugh.

  How’s Maddy?”

  “Fine. She’s getting a better splint. She’ll get a cast in a few days. I’m bringing her home later.”

  I don’t talk for a minute. I can’t talk. And I know it is because I have been scared.

  “Kiddo?”

  “I’m fine. I’m happy she’s coming home.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Henry?”

  “Yes?”

  “I was scared.”

  “Me, too,” says Henry.

  Maddy comes home with crutches, but Henry won’t let her walk with them. He carries her into the kitchen.

  “Bed or chair?” he asks.

  “Chair,” says Maddy until she sits down. “Bed,” she says. “I’m too tired.”

  “Good choice,” says Henry. “You have lots of medicine in you, too. You might slide down to the floor and become a rug.”

  I laugh.

  Henry puts Maddy on her bed and comes into the kitchen.

  He sits at the kitchen table.

  “I’ll stay here tonight,” says Henry. “In case Maddy needs help.”

  “That’s good.”

  The phone rings and I answer.

  “Hello.”

  “Robert?”

  My mother.

  “Hello.”

  “Your father and I have been thinking that we need to spend some more time with you,” she says. “Our last conversation wasn’t very satisfying.”

  “No,” I say. “It wasn’t.”

  Henry looks at me. He knows who it is the way he knows all things.

  “And we thought maybe you could come to London and spend time here while we’re playing concerts. We could arrange for you to fly over. How does that sound?”

  I wait a second. And in that second I see my mother as a very young child after her father had left her. I never thought about her as a very young child before. Ever.

  “Mother, Maddy has broken her ankle and is on crutches. She needs me. She has taken care of me so far. I’m going to stay and take care of her.”

  There is a hollow, empty sound on the phone.

  “Is she all right?”

  “Yes. Henry is taking care of her. She tripped in the garden.”

  Henry smiles at me.

  “I didn’t get to tell you how good you sounded when you played the Schubert,” I say. “I listened to Death and the Maiden on Maddy’s radio.”

  “Well, thank you, Robert. That’s so nice.”

  My mother is surprised. She doesn’t know what else to say. She doesn’t know how to talk about us: about how we feel, how we think, and how we are sometimes scared.

  But I do.

  I want to say many things.

  I want to say that I know many new truths about myself.

  I want to say I am an alpha and Ellie is a hero.

  I want to say I have fed corn bread to a bear who did not hurt me.

  I want to say I have touched a bobcat.

  I want to say I know my mother was a small child who was lonely and sad.

  But I can’t say all these things.

  But there is one thing I can say.

  So I say it.

  “Mother?”

  “Yes, Robert?”

  The telephone wire hums. We are both close and faraway at the same time.

  “I love you,” I say.

  About the Author

  Photo by John MacLachlan

  PATRICIA MACLACHLAN is the celebrated author of many timeless books for young readers, including Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal. Her novels for young readers include Arthur, For the Very First Time; The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt; Skylark; Caleb’s Story; More Perfect Than the Moon; Grandfather’s Dance; Word After Word After Word; and Kindred Souls. She is also the author of many much-loved picture books, including Three Names; All the Places to Love; What You Know First; Painting the Wind; Bittle; Who Loves Me?; Once I Ate a Pie; I Didn’t Do It; Before You Came; and Cat Talk—several of which she cowrote with her daughter, Emily. She lives with her husband and two border terriers in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors and artists.

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  Also by Patricia MacLachlan

  Sarah, Plain and Tall

  Skylark

  Caleb’s Story

  More Perfect Than the Moon

  Grandfather’s Dance

  Arthur, For the Very First Time

  Through Grandpa’s Eyes

  Cassie Binegar

  Seven Kisses in a Row

  Unclaimed Treasures

  The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt

  Word After Word After Word

  Kindred Souls

  Mama One, Mama Two

  All the Places to Love

  What You Know First

  Three Names

  WRITTEN WITH

  EMILY MACLACHLAN CHAREST

  Painting the Wind

  Bittle

  Who Loves Me?

  Once I Ate a Pie

  Fiona Loves the Night

  I Didn’t Do It

  Before You Came

  Cat Talk

  Credits

  Cover art by © 2013 by Erwin Madrid

  Copyright

  Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

  THE TRUTH OF ME. Copyright © 2013 by Patricia MacLachlan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  www.harpercollinschildrens.com

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  MacLachlan, Patricia.

  The truth of me : about a boy, his grandmother, and a very good dog / Patricia MacLachlan. — First edition.

  pages cm

  Summary: Robbie and his dog, Ellie, spend the summer at his grandmother Maddy’s house, where Robbie learns many things about his emotionally distant parents and himself.

  ISBN 978-0-06-199859-1 (hardcover bdg.)

  ISBN 978-0-06-199860-7 (lib. bdg.)

  EPub Edition May 2013 ISBN 9780062292681

  [1. Grandmothers—Fiction. 2. Dogs—Fiction. 3. Parent and child—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.M2225Ts 2013

  2012040151

  [Fie]—dc23

  * * *

  13 14 15 16 17 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  FIRST EDITION

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