Jessie's Mountain—an excerpt

Chapter One, Dear Grasshopper (cont'd)

Feels like we’re kin to modern-day sharecroppers living like we do. I saw the last OVERDUE, REMIT PAYMENT NOW letter stuffed inside the “Everything Box�? where Mama keeps important papers regarding our lives. I hate Madame Cherry sending mean letters from her office over in Clyde. All the babies from Maggie Valley are born in the hospital in Clyde, but I don’t think the name has any poetry at all— not like Balsam or Ivy Hills or Hazelwood or Maggie Valley.

No wonder I can’t sleep, worrying over spiteful letters saying “PAY UP OR ELSE!�? Least the cornbread tastes good. I like to be sitting up late while the rest of the world is off dreaming. The lantern light fills the room with a warm radiance, and I pick up my book of Emily Dickinson poems to look for a sign if I should go or not. I come upon one called “I Dwell in Possibility�? all about gathering paradise in her narrow hands. It makes me think about “possibility�? and what it all means.  I got forty dollars saved up from working at the bookmobile all summer. I didn’t give it all to Mama like she thought, and I hope to borrow a little more from the Everything Box. Would that be stealing if I aim to replace any borrowed cash immediately?