For Jack Hudson and Ella Jane For Jack Hudson and Ella Jane For Jack Hudson and Ella Jane
Chapter One Chapter One Trina pushed up the brim of her baseball cap and strained against her seat belt to look through the dusty bug-smeared windshield Do you see it yet Poppo Her dad shook his head yawning The two full days of driving since they left New Mexico were nothing com pared to the eternity of the last twenty minutes on a nar row two-lane road flanked by nothing but cornfields The ball game on the radio turned to garbled voices and then to static Read me the directions again her dad said turning off the radio The part after we exit the highway Trina reached for the letter The smudged and crum pled letter she had read a million times Go east until you come to the big red barn with three silos Then turn left onto the dirt road After the double bump cross the creek and turn right That’s it That’s all it says Yup Trina said and then she continued to read the letter out loud with brand-new excitement The house is a Queen Anne with six bedrooms four fireplaces a library a parlor a butler’s pantry Wait a minute How could she have missed it all these times Poppo it doesn’t say anything about bathrooms It better have indoor plumbing 11
There’s always you know He pointed at the cornfields No way Trina said grimacing Then she rushed to her favorite part of the letter The Harlan M Roy family is giving you one year to restore the house to marketable condition No mat ter how many times she read that line she couldn’t believe it One whole year was almost like having a real home And now she couldn’t wait to get there Please hurry Poppo Hurry Any faster and I might miss the turn Please Trina insisted knowing her dad was often too calm about important things How about you read and I drive he said Trina scrunched up her face at him and turned back to the letter Mechanical systems are functional but not up to code A credit account has been established at Hank’s Tool and Lumber on Main Street for all your supplies The key to the front door will be under the mat At your service Mr Gerald Shegstad Trina sighed Six bedrooms and four fireplaces Biggest house we’ve ever fixed up her dad said But what’s a Queen Anne The fancy kind With gingerbread and wraparound porches Gingerbread Trina asked You know all that frilly trim they used to put around the eaves of the roof Her dad drew curlicues in the air as he spoke It’ll probably look like a wedding cake Trina imagined the house as big and as fancy as a pal ace and herself as the princess with a grand bedroom and servants But what’s marketable condition 22
So it can be sold It’s been in the same family for over a hundred years but nobody’s lived there for a really long time Some great-great-nephew in New York inher ited it and he’s decided he’d rather have the money than the house Trina looked out her window watching row after row after row of corn corn corn thinking about what her dad had said That’s sad If I had a house that had been in my family for a hundred years I’d keep it forever wouldn’t you Her dad shook his head People always want what they don’t have If they have big they want small If they have the country they want the city If they stay too long in one place they want to get moving And if they’re always moving sometimes they want to stay put Trina added looking forward to calling New Royal Iowa home At least for a year anyway Her dad reached over and tugged on the bill of her baseball cap Until they catch the traveling bug all over again like you and me Trina didn’t actually have the traveling bug Her dad did And her mother had it worst of all Her mother was exactly the restless person her dad was talking about He always said she was trying to find herself Luckily her post cards which came from all over the world had no problem finding Trina wherever she was The last one had come from Tanzania in East Africa Sounds just like Mom she said I guess her dad said 333
