CHAPTER 1 Hazel Hey kid a gravelly voice called from behind me Startled I turned from bailing the afternoon’s rain out of my sailboat and saw this creepy old lady about fi fteen feet away on the dock not far from where I’d left my bike She was sitting in a wheelchair and looking straight at me Kid she called again rolling right up to my boat and touching it with the toes of her rubber-soled shoes Th is boat is it yours I recognized her though I didn’t know her name She owned the Art Barn a tiny garage on Main Street where she sold her paintings of the beach and the bay to the vacationers who take the ferry to our island from the mainland Yes I said And I almost said Would you get your feet off my boat Will you take me out in it she asked Up close like that she looked scary her pink scalp showing 1
beneath her wiry white hair her hands knobby her chin whiskery her face wrinkly and gray as driftwood She wore a baggy blue sweat suit Will you take me sailing Mom and Dad have always told my sister Lizzy and me to be nice to old people and Lizzy being so smart and perfect at everything would have found some nice way to get out of this situation But I just looked down at my soaked sneakers and hoped this old lady would roll herself back down the dock and let me get on with my work She didn’t move Kid will you take me I tried to put her off Maybe Sometime Why not now Was she kidding My boat is an old catboat beat up but beautiful It isn’t much bigger than a rowboat so even if I wanted to take her sailing how in the world would I get her and her wheelchair aboard Couldn’t she see that the boat was still full of water Look I said my sail’s all rolled up When I’m done bailing I have to go She cocked her head like a seagull Where I have things to do Oh One of her wispy eyebrows shot up Like what 2
Things Like homework Math At this she cracked up laughing a kind of cackling sound throwing back her white head so I saw that some of her back teeth were missing Homework Ha On a beautiful afternoon like this In the summer Unfortunately it was true I did have homework usually I’d failed math a few weeks before after it got hard to concentrate on anything So now I had to go to summer school and I had to pass the course to start sixth grade with the rest of my class in September It was also true that on that particular day the day after the Fourth of July I didn’t actually have any homework Now the lady was shaking her head slowly in disbelief like I didn’t even know how to tell a good lie Look I don’t know why you’re asking me all these questions I said I hardly know you I’ve seen you around she replied not laughing anymore And every now and then your mom comes into my shop just to look around She paused thinking The wrinkles on her forehead tightened But I haven’t seen her for a while What did she know about my mom And how was 3
