Derby.
I wish I’d saved up more money for this trip, though, because when we got to the admissions desk, I saw that I had enough to get in, but riding was extra. Mr. Combs bought the ticket for my ride. I’m eating their food, using their tickets, wearing Catherine’s clothes, taking their money…. Seems like they’re doing all the giving and me the taking. Doesn’t make me feel good. Must be the way Daddy feels most of the time, taking help from Papaw.
But I did learn to ride a horse, and if Sam Feeley ever rides up to our place again with a message sent on his ham radio, I’m going to pester him for a ride!
Ivy June Mosley
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
March 21
Tomorrow Ivy June goes back to Thunder Creek. A week later, Mrs. Fields will drive me to Hazard, and somebody from Ivy June’s school will meet us there and drive me the rest of the way. Rosemary hasn’t said one more word against Ivy June and the exchange program. I’m waiting….
We’ve done a lot this week. We took her to Mary Todd Lincoln’s house and Old Kentucky Chocolates. Saw the state capital and the Lexington History Museum. There was a concert of John Jacob Niles’s songs at the university, and Ivy June liked that a lot because she knew some of the songs.
She liked the Kentucky Horse Park best, though. I knew she would. But she wanted to pay for her own ticket and then found she didn’t have enough left for a ride-it was twenty-two dollars, I think. Dad ‘immediately paid for her, but we knew she was embarrassed. He and Mom. were talking about it, and he said he ought to have made it clear her first day here that we would pay for anything we took her to. But Mom said then the Mosleys might feel they have to pay for every place they take me when I’m in Thunder Creek, and maybe they cant afford it.
The main thing is, Ivy June finally got to ride a horse-a long ride too. We rode all around the park, and I could see how excited she was.
Mackenzie’s back from Cincinnati and has been since Wednesday but she just now called me and said we had to talk. I told her I knew what it was about. She said if I already knew, why didn’t I tell her before about Andy calling me? And I said because she was my very best friend in the whole world, and I was afraid she’d be hurt if she found out.
What if it was the other way around? I asked. What if I was the one who liked Andy best, but he kept calling her? So we talked, and she said she’d already guessed that Andy was calling me before Ivy June blurted it out. What she was really upset about was that maybe I was telling Ivy June all my secrets–about boyfriends and stuff–and I told her that wasn’t true.
I’m sorry to see Ivy June go, though. And maybe a little scared about what it will be like living in Thunder Creek. If there’s anybody as rude to me as Rosemary’s been to her, well …
I wonder what she’s writing in her journal about my family. Wonder what she’ll tell her mom. What she’ll tell her class. We’re supposed to write down all the ways we’re different and all the ways we’re the same. I’m guessing the second list will be longer, but who knows?
Catherine Combs
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ivy June laid out the clothes she would wear for the drive back to Thunder Creek the next morning and put the rest in her suitcase. She carefully placed the playbill from Oklahoma! in last. She was going to keep that forever.
She knew what was coming, because Catherine was sitting expectantly on the other bed, hands in her lap. And when the suitcase closed with a snap, Catherine said, “Okay. Now. The secret.”
Ivy June, still in her pajamas, sat down across from her, pulling a corner of the spread over her legs for comfort. “All right,” she said, “and no one in the whole world knows it except you, not even Shirl.”
Catherine waited.
Ivy June took a deep breath. “Remember that mine accident I told about in class?”
Catherine nodded. “Where the men were trapped and it was
I wish I’d saved up more money for this trip, though, because when we got to the admissions desk, I saw that I had enough to get in, but riding was extra. Mr. Combs bought the ticket for my ride. I’m eating their food, using their tickets, wearing Catherine’s clothes, taking their money…. Seems like they’re doing all the giving and me the taking. Doesn’t make me feel good. Must be the way Daddy feels most of the time, taking help from Papaw.
But I did learn to ride a horse, and if Sam Feeley ever rides up to our place again with a message sent on his ham radio, I’m going to pester him for a ride!
Ivy June Mosley
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
March 21
Tomorrow Ivy June goes back to Thunder Creek. A week later, Mrs. Fields will drive me to Hazard, and somebody from Ivy June’s school will meet us there and drive me the rest of the way. Rosemary hasn’t said one more word against Ivy June and the exchange program. I’m waiting….
We’ve done a lot this week. We took her to Mary Todd Lincoln’s house and Old Kentucky Chocolates. Saw the state capital and the Lexington History Museum. There was a concert of John Jacob Niles’s songs at the university, and Ivy June liked that a lot because she knew some of the songs.
She liked the Kentucky Horse Park best, though. I knew she would. But she wanted to pay for her own ticket and then found she didn’t have enough left for a ride-it was twenty-two dollars, I think. Dad ‘immediately paid for her, but we knew she was embarrassed. He and Mom. were talking about it, and he said he ought to have made it clear her first day here that we would pay for anything we took her to. But Mom said then the Mosleys might feel they have to pay for every place they take me when I’m in Thunder Creek, and maybe they cant afford it.
The main thing is, Ivy June finally got to ride a horse-a long ride too. We rode all around the park, and I could see how excited she was.
Mackenzie’s back from Cincinnati and has been since Wednesday but she just now called me and said we had to talk. I told her I knew what it was about. She said if I already knew, why didn’t I tell her before about Andy calling me? And I said because she was my very best friend in the whole world, and I was afraid she’d be hurt if she found out.
What if it was the other way around? I asked. What if I was the one who liked Andy best, but he kept calling her? So we talked, and she said she’d already guessed that Andy was calling me before Ivy June blurted it out. What she was really upset about was that maybe I was telling Ivy June all my secrets–about boyfriends and stuff–and I told her that wasn’t true.
I’m sorry to see Ivy June go, though. And maybe a little scared about what it will be like living in Thunder Creek. If there’s anybody as rude to me as Rosemary’s been to her, well …
I wonder what she’s writing in her journal about my family. Wonder what she’ll tell her mom. What she’ll tell her class. We’re supposed to write down all the ways we’re different and all the ways we’re the same. I’m guessing the second list will be longer, but who knows?
Catherine Combs
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ivy June laid out the clothes she would wear for the drive back to Thunder Creek the next morning and put the rest in her suitcase. She carefully placed the playbill from Oklahoma! in last. She was going to keep that forever.
She knew what was coming, because Catherine was sitting expectantly on the other bed, hands in her lap. And when the suitcase closed with a snap, Catherine said, “Okay. Now. The secret.”
Ivy June, still in her pajamas, sat down across from her, pulling a corner of the spread over her legs for comfort. “All right,” she said, “and no one in the whole world knows it except you, not even Shirl.”
Catherine waited.
Ivy June took a deep breath. “Remember that mine accident I told about in class?”
Catherine nodded. “Where the men were trapped and it was
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