Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson [43]
Bill and Judy came back from Pennsylvania on Wednesday with a U-Haul truck. No one ever stayed long in the old Perkins place. “We came to the country for her sake. Now that she’s gone…” They gave Jesse all of Leslie’s books and her paint set with three pads of real watercolor paper. “She would want you to have them,” Bill said.
Jess and his dad helped them load the U-Haul, and noontime his mother brought down ham sandwiches and coffee, a little scared the Burkes wouldn’t want to eat her food, but needing, Jess knew, to do something. At last the truck was filled, and the Aaronses and the Burkes stood around awkwardly, no one knowing how to say good-bye.
“Well,” Bill said. “If there’s anything we’ve left that you want, please help yourself.”
“Could I have some of the lumber on the back porch?” Jess asked.
“Yes, of course. Anything you see.” Bill hesitated, then continued. “I meant to give you P.T.,” he said. “But”—he looked at Jess and his eyes were those of a pleading little boy—“but I can’t seem to give him up.”
“It’s OK. Leslie would want you to keep him.”
The next day after school, Jess went down and got the lumber he needed, carrying it a couple of boards at a time to the creek bank. He put the two longest pieces across at the narrow place upstream from the crab apple tree, and when he was sure they were as firm and even as he could make them, he began to nail on the crosspieces.
“Whatcha doing, Jess?” May Belle had followed him down again as he had guessed she might.
“It’s a secret, May Belle.”
“Tell me.”
“When I finish, OK?”
“I swear on the Bible I won’t tell nobody. Not Billy Jean, not Joyce Ann, not Momma—” She was jerking her head back and forth in solemn emphasis.
“Oh, I don’t know about Joyce Ann. You might want to tell Joyce Ann sometime.”
“Tell Joyce Ann something that’s a secret between you and me?” The idea seemed to horrify her.
“Yeah, I was just thinking about it.”
Her face sagged. “Joyce Ann ain’t nothing but a baby.”
“Well, she wouldn’t likely be a queen first off. You’d have to train her and stuff.”
“Queen? Who gets to be queen?”
“I’ll explain it when I finish, OK?”
And when he finished, he put flowers in her hair and led her across the bridge—the great bridge into Terabithia—which might look to someone with no magic in him like a few planks across a nearly dry gully.
“Shhh,” he said. “Look.”
“Where?”
“Can’t you see ’um?” he whispered. “All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you.”
“Me?”
“Shhh, yes. There’s a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arriving today might be the queen they’ve been waiting for.”
About the Author
KATHERINE PATERSON was born in China, where she spent part of her childhood. After her education in China and the American South, she spent four years in Japan, the setting for her first three novels. Ms. Paterson has received numerous awards for her writing, including National Book Awards for THE MASTER PUPPETEER and THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS as well as Newbery Medals for JACOB HAVE I LOVED and BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA. Ms. Paterson lives with her husband in Vermont. They have four grown children.
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BOOKS BY
KATHERINE PATERSON
Angels and Other Strangers
Bridge to Terabithia
The Field of the Dogs
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Jacob Have I Loved
The King’s Equal
The Master Puppeteer
Of Nightingales That Weep
Preacher’s Boy
The Same Stuff as Stars
The Sign of the Chrysanthemum
Credits
Cover art © 2003 by Chris Sheban
Cover design by Karin Paprocki
Cover © 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Copyright
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA. Copyright © 1977 by Katherine Paterson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any