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Authors: Kristin Levine

The Lions of Little Rock

BOOK: The Lions of Little Rock
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By the Author of

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had

THE

LIONS

OF

LITTLE

ROCK

KRISTIN LEVINE

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
An Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

A division of Penguin Young Readers Group.

Published by The Penguin Group.

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, U.S.A.

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.).

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England.

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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Kristin Levine.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, G. P. Putnam's Sons, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.

G. P. Putnam's Sons, Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Published simultaneously in Canada. Printed in the United States of America.

Design by Annie Ericsson. Text set in Columbus MT Std.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 978-1-101-55044-1

 

To my mother,

for telling me about the lions

Contents

THE HIGH DIVE

COFFEE, TEA OR SODA

QUEEN ELIZABETH

FIVE LITTLE WORDS

JAMES-THOMAS

A NEW PARTNER

A NEW ROOMMATE

A NEW FRIEND

THE FOOTBALL GAME

BEHIND THE GRIN

THE TALISMAN

BLOOD LIKE A JEWEL

NOT THE STOMACH FLU

FACING FACTS

TALKING TO DADDY

SENT AWAY

THE NEGRO CHURCH

WHEN PRETTY BOY DIED

COLORED

THE WEC

THREE GOOD THINGS

THE GEM

THE ROCK CRUSHER

HALLOWEEN

BETTY JEAN'S SON

BEING QUIET

AT THE MEETING

THANKSGIVING

GOOD ENOUGH

THE CHRISTMAS PARADE

AN UNWELCOME CHRISTMAS GIFT

THE AIRPLANE RIDE

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

MAIL, MEASLES AND MORE

MOTHER GETS INVOLVED

FACING FEARS

THE ROLLER-SKATING PARTY

SECRETS ON THE BUS

ROBES IN THE CLOSET

DYNAMITE

CONSEQUENCES

MOTHER'S SPEECH

AFTER THE SPEECH

STOP THIS OUTRAGEOUS PURGE

MAYBE BRAVE

SAINTS, SINNERS AND SAVABLES

THE KEYS

GOD BLESS MOTHER

GOD BLESS DAVID

WORRIES

STOPPING BY BETTY JEAN'S

AFTERWARDS

THE ELECTION

SPEAKING UP

THE LAST DAYS OF SCHOOL

SUMMER

THE HIGH DIVE, PART 2

AUTHOR'S NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1

THE HIGH DIVE

I talk a lot. Just not out loud where anyone can hear. At least I used to be that way. I'm no chatterbox now, but if you stop me on the street and ask me directions to the zoo, I'll answer you. Probably. If you're nice, I might even tell you a couple of different ways to get there. I guess I've learned it's not enough to just think things. You have to say them too. Because all the words in the world won't do much good if they're just rattling around in your head.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. To understand me, and how I've changed, I need to go back to 1958.

It was a beautiful day in September and I was standing on top of a diving board. The blue sky was reflected in the water below, the white board felt scratchy under my feet, and the smell of hot dogs wafted up from the snack stand. It was a perfect summer day—the kind you see in the movies—and I was positive I was going to throw up.

You see, it wasn't just any high dive. Oh, no. It was the super-huge, five-meter-high platform diving board, the tallest at Fair Park Swimming Pool, probably the highest in all of Little Rock. It might have even been the highest in all of Arkansas. Which wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't been afraid of heights. But I was.

Sally McDaniels had told me she was going to jump off and asked if I wanted to come too. Everyone over the age of ten had already jumped off the board a dozen times that summer. Except for me, and I was practically thirteen. It was easier to nod than say no, so there I was.

Sally was waiting behind me on the ladder. Blond and blue-eyed, she wore a pink suit the exact color of her toenails. Sally wasn't really pretty, but no one ever noticed because she acted like she was. “Are you all right?” she asked.

No, of course I wasn't all right. I mean, I wasn't sick or anything, but I was standing perfectly still, frozen as a Popsicle, counting prime numbers in my head. A prime number is a number that can only be divided by itself and one. There are twenty-five of them under a hundred, and reciting them sure does help me when I'm nervous.

“Go ahead and jump,” said Sally.

I didn't move. A plane flew across the clouds . . . 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 . . . I wished I were a stork and could fly away. Or a flamingo. Or a penguin. Except I didn't think they flew.

“Marlee,” Sally said. “There's a bunch of people behind us.”

I hated holding them up, so I took a step toward the edge of the platform . . . 13, 17, 19, 23 . . . but then I got dizzy and fell to my knees.

“Come on,” cried the boy on the ladder behind Sally. “Hurry up and jump.”

I shook my head and clutched the board . . . 29, 31, 37, 41. It didn't work. I wasn't ever letting go.

Sally laughed. “She said she was really going to do it this time.”

I squeezed my eyes tighter and kept counting . . . 43, 47, 53 . . . “Isn't that Judy Nisbett's little sister?” someone said.

It must have only have been a minute or two, but I got all the way to 97 before I felt Judy's hand on my shoulder. “Marlee,” she said quietly, “come on down. I already bought a Coke and a PayDay. We can share them on the way home.”

I nodded but didn't move.

“Open your eyes,” Judy commanded.

I did. Not that I always do what my sister says, but—well, I guess I usually do. In any case, when I saw my sister's clear brown eyes looking at me, I felt much better. She was sixteen and going into the eleventh grade. I could talk to my sister. She was smart and calm and reasonable.

“Do you want me to hold your hand on the way down the ladder?” Judy asked.

I nodded again. It was embarrassing, but I didn't think I could do it on my own. Once I felt her palm on mine, it only took a minute for us to make our way down together.

“What a baby!” said the boy who had been behind me as he brushed past us to climb up again. Sally laughed, and I knew they were right. I was a baby.

“Come on,” said Judy. She picked up her book and her bag from the lounge chair where she'd been reading.

“See you at school tomorrow,” said her friend Margaret.

“See you,” Judy replied, waving good-bye.

Judy hadn't even gotten her hair wet. She'd recently cut it into a short bob and wore it pulled back with a ribbon. My hair was the same brown color as my sister's, but it was long and wavy, and sometimes I still wore it in braids. Sally said I looked like Heidi, but I didn't care. I liked Heidi. She had that nice grandpa and her friend with all those goats.

Goats are okay, but what I really love are wild animals, like the ones you find at the zoo. The Little Rock Zoo was right across the street from the swimming pool. In the gate and down the hill, I knew the lions were pacing in their cages. At night, Judy and I listened to them roar, but during the day they were quiet like me. Judy and I sat on the wall by the zoo entrance as we shared a candy bar and a Coke.

“Sorry,” I said. I'd ruined our last day at the pool before school started again.

Judy sighed. “Why are you even friends with Sally McDaniels?”

I shrugged. Sally and I have been friends ever since we were five and she pushed me off the slide at the park.

“She likes to boss you around,” Judy said.

That was true. But she was also familiar. I like familiar.

“You need to find a friend you have something in common with,” said Judy. “Someone who likes to do the same things you do. That's what . . .”

I stopped listening. I knew all her advice by heart. I needed to find someone who was honest and friendly and nice. I knew all the ways I was supposed to meet this imaginary friend too.
Just say hello. Ask someone a question. Give a compliment.
Maybe it would work, if I could ever figure out the right words.

I know it sounds odd, but I much prefer numbers to words. In math, you always get the same answer, no matter how you do the problem. But with words,
blue
can be a thousand different shades!
Two
is always
two.
I like that.

Judy finally finished lecturing, and I said, “It's easier to put up with Sally. Sometimes she's really nice.”

“Yeah,” Judy said. “Sometimes.”

BOOK: The Lions of Little Rock
10.04Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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