Tending to Grace (11 page)
97
“I bet I owe a huge fine,” I say as I wrap a brown paper bag around the library's copy of
Oliver Twist
that I tucked in my drawer all those months ago. “Here, hold this string.”
Agatha puts her book,
Foraging for Wild Foods,
on the counter. Just the title makes me shudder. She pushes her finger on the string and I tie a tight bow.
“Send 'em a jar of fiddleheads. Bet they'd appreciate that in the city.”
“That's the l-l-looniest thing I've ever heard,” I say, picking up a pen and writing our return address in bold black letters.
98
We climb the mountain a lot come spring. We bring our books and cheese sandwiches and a thermos of sassafras. We give Grace lots of attention because it makes us both feel better. We call it tending to Grace.
Agatha opens a jar of fiddleheads one warm day in May and sticks her fork into the jar. Watching her, I think about how there was a time when I wanted an aunt in an apron with flour on her cheek. Instead I got an old woman who eats fiddleheads and rarely cleans her house. I didn't get what I was looking for, not at all. But I did get an old woman who knows the best fireworks hide in the tails of hundreds of lightning bugs.
She chomps away on the fiddleheads and makes them look almost edible, then licks her fork clean.
“Did you know,” she says, “there are twelve thousand kinds of ferns? They're still finding new ones.”
“How m-m-many are edible?” I ask, digging a hole and planting a ring of daisies.
“These sure are.” She pokes her fork into the jar again and laughs until she hiccups.
“Are you sure?” I ask, leaning closer. “They don't look it to me.”
“I'm sure.” She licks her fork again. “I haven't fallen down dead yet.”
She takes another forkful and munches it peacefully, then takes another, and another after that. I wonder what she thinks about. Maybe Grace. Maybe my mother. Maybe me.
“Can I try some of those?” I say after watching her awhile.
She gives me an odd look, but she hands me the jar. I stick my fork in and catch a clump and put it on my tongueâand spit it out immediately.
“They're awful!” I roll over, gagging. Fiddleheads taste cold and bitter, like wet nails.
Agatha laughs so hard she falls back in the grass. “Fiddleheads ain't for everybody,” she says, her sides heaving.
“N-n-n-neither are you,” I say while trying to wipe the fiddleheads from my tongue with the back of my hand.
She laughs even harder then, and I start laughing, too. I laugh harder and harder until I flop over on my back and hold my stomach and the tears roll down my face and nearly choke me.
“Neither are you,” I say after I can breathe again, and my voice grows strong and deep and I don't look away.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With grateful appreciation to: my mother and father, for encouraging my writing from the very beginning; my editor, Michelle Frey, who believed Cornelia had a voice to share; my husband, Steven, who rooted for Cornelia from the first day he met her; and my children, Daniel, Matthew, Kate, and Laura, the brightest stars ever to shine on my life. Thank you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kimberly Newton Fusco was an award-winning reporter and editor for the Worcester, Massachusetts,
Telegram & Gazette
for fifteen years, covering education and other children's issues. She is a graduate of Roger Williams University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Ms. Fusco lives in Foster, Rhode Island, with her husband and their four children. This is her first novel. You can visit her Web site at
kimberlynewtonfusco.com
.
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2004 by Kimberly Newton Fusco
KNOPF, BORZOI BOOKS, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random
House, Inc.
www.randomhouse.com/teens
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fusco, Kimberly Newton.
Tending to Grace / Kimberly Newton Fusco. â 1st ed.
p. cm.
SUMMARY: When Cornelia's mother runs off with a boyfriend, leaving her with an eccentric aunt, Cornelia must finally confront the truth about herself and her mother.
[1. Emotional problemsâFiction. 2. StutteringâFiction. 3. MothersâFiction.
4. AuntsâFiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.F96666Te 2004
 [Fic]âdc22 2003060406
The American Library Association awarded this book a Schneider Family Book Award in 2006. Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-375-82862-1
eISBN: 978-0-307-43382-4
v3.0_r1