Down Sand Mountain (33 page)
Read Down Sand Mountain Online
Authors: Steve Watkins
“But you’re not old and you’re sad a lot, too,” I said back to her. It was true but I hoped it didn’t sound mean.
Mom said when you’re older, sometimes you have more you’re sad about but that she had mostly blessings she was thankful for and I better know I was one of them. It was the second time she talked about blessings and how we ought to be thankful for them and count them, etc., which made me wonder if maybe she didn’t really think we had all that many. But since it was my mom I didn’t say anything. We sat on our cardboard, me in front, her in back, and I lifted up the front edge so it wouldn’t get caught under the sand and flip us over. She said, “Look, Dewey, you can see the moon,” and I did, a crescent moon already rising in the sky so close to the top of Sand Mountain that you could probably grab it if you had to.
Mom said, “Are you ready, Freddy?” I wasn’t but said I was anyway, even though I kind of wanted to stay up there forever. Mom said, “Me neither,” and then shoved us over the side. Everybody down at the bottom was waving at us and I wanted to wave back, but when you’re doing something like that, going a million miles an hour down Sand Mountain, you don’t want to mess around or anything. You just better hold on for dear life.
My profound gratitude to everyone who helped me climb Sand Mountain — not something I could ever do on my own: Bucky McMahon, Heather Montanye, and Pamela Ball; wonderful Kelly Sonnack and the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency; Candlewick Press and the gifted Kaylan Adair; my daughters Maggie, Eva, Claire, and Lili; and my wife and partner, Janet Marshall Watkins, who read, critiqued, edited, and reread with patience, grace, and love.
Steve Watkins
is an accomplished author whose fiction, poetry, and nonfiction articles have appeared in numerous publications, including
The Nation, Poets
&
Writers,
and
Mississippi Review,
and have received many awards, including the Pushcart Prize. In his day job, he teaches journalism, creative writing, and Vietnam War literature at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. He also teaches Ashtanga yoga and works as an investigator and advocate for abused and neglected children.
Down Sand Mountain
was his first book for younger readers. He has written another novel for young adults called
What Comes After.
About
Down Sand Mountain,
he says, “Every time I look in a mirror I see Dewey Turner—twelve years old and always so worried about making mistakes. I want to tell him not to worry so much—that life is about the trying, and the stumbling, as much as it is about getting things right. I want to tell him what the writer Samuel Beckett once wrote: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again.
Fail better.
’” Steve Watkins lives in Virginia with his wife and four daughters.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2008 by Steve Watkins
Cover illustration copyright © 2011 by A-Digit/iStockphoto (boy on bike)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2011
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Watkins, Steve, date.
Down Sand Mountain / Steve Watkins—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: In a small Florida mining town in 1966, twelve-year-old Dewey faces one worst-day-ever after another, but comes to know that the issues he faces about bullies, girls, race, and identity are part of the adult world, as well.
ISBN 978-0-7636-3839-9 (hardcover)
[1. Family life—Florida—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Self-actualization (Psychology)—Fiction. 4. Race relations—Fiction. 5. Bullies—Fiction. 6. Florida—History—20th century—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.W3213Dow 2008
[Fic]—dc22 2007052159
“R-O-T-A-R-Y, That Spells Rotary” from the Rotary songbook by Norris C. Morgan. Copyright © 1923 by the Rotary Club of Wilmington, DE. Reprinted by permission of the Rotary Club of Wilmington, DE.
While every effort has been made to obtain permission to reprint copyrighted material, there may be cases where we have been unable to trace a copyright holder. The publisher will be happy to correct any omission in future printings.
ISBN 978-0-7636-4835-0 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-7636-5431-3 (electronic)
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