Excerpt from Finding Friends
"Those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others."
Booker T. Washington
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"Strong people don't put others down. They lift them up."
Albert Einstein
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Chapter VI
Rosie!
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Shortly after Nana and Chloe got the Friends inside, Mateo’s mother returned to take her children home. Elena told her mother what a good time she had. Mateo chose not to say anything about the thing that happened, but whispered to Chloe that he would check in tomorrow to see if there was anything he could do to help. Chloe was happy to hear that and thanked him.
When they were gone, Chloe sat down next to Nana. “I’m so sorry this happened, Chloe. I wanted this to be a perfect weekend for you. I’m so sorry.”
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“Don’t be sad, Nana,” said Chloe. “It’s not your fault. Like you said, it’ll be all right. Only one thing, though.”
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“What’s that, Chloe?”
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“Rosie.”
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Nana realized when they were in the backyard that Rosie was missing. She did not say anything to Chloe, because she did not want to add to the shock of the moment. She now knew Chloe was aware all along. Nana was amazed that Chloe had the strength and self-control to keep it to herself, to wait until this quiet moment to say something.
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“What do you say we go out and take a careful look all the way around the house?” asked Nana.
Excerpt from Pea Soup
EMBERS
There was a wood-burning stove in the kitchen,
the one she used for more than fifty years
for cooking food and thawing mittens. She let me fill
the fire box under the heavy metal plates where pots
would boil and frying pans sizzle. A simple stove,
cast iron strong. It’d warm the house, the first floor
and most of the second. Talk about lasting value,
I couldn’t see how it’d ever break down –
nothing to plug in or hook up, no wires, gauges,
gas lines, or built-in electric clock. A gaumy egg-timer,
mason jar half-filled with wooden matches,
and wind-up clock sat in the center of a chrome
and Formica table that was flanked by matching chairs,
duct-taped and old as the stove. No way that stove
could fit through any door in the house (Back then,
I thought it was there before the place was built.).
Still, it was the only home I knew that had a wood-
burning stove for cooking, a perplexing semblance
of our family’s privation (Back then, I didn’t know
the meaning of the word or how it could apply to us.).
Even we had a used electric range, stained as it was
with a bad element. Funny how the things she cooked
smelled so good and tasted even better, how stoves
and people go away, but their value stays behind
and swells like when she let me stoke the embers.
Excerpt from Finding Chloe
Chapter I - "Surprise!"
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What a surprise was waiting for Nana and Pop-Pop later that day when they returned home. Every chair around the table in Chloe's room was empty! Rosie, Big Bear, Cherry Bunny, Little Bear, Big Dog, and Baby Bear were gone. Nana gasped and pointed to a message on the floor. The letters were formed using the colored, wooden blocks Chloe used to play with:
"F I N D I N G C H L O E"
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They rushed out the front door of the house to look for her stuffed animals. They ran around the house and looked in every direction, but the Friends were nowhere to be found.
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As Nana continued to look, Pop-Pop ran inside to call Chloe. The phone rang but there was no answer. The voicemail came on and Pop-Pop left his breathless message:
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"Hey Chloe, this is Pop-Pop. Sorry I missed you, but they did it. They really did it! I don't know how, but when we got home from work, they were gone. Rosie, Big Bear, Cherry Bunny, Little Bear, Big Dog, and Baby Bear too. Nana and I will keep looking for them. We don't know when they left, or how they got out, but we will find them. I can't believe it, stuffed animals, but they even left a note using your colored blocks that they had gone to find you. This sound crazy, I know, but probably not to you. Please let us know if they show up at your place. Listen, don't worry if they don't. We'll find them and call you when we do. We love you. Bye."
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Pop-Pop ended the call and went back outside with Nana to help look for the stuffed animals. Little did they know the Friends were just a few hundred yards away behind the houses on the other side of Sugar Maple Drive. They had crisscrossed up and down and back and forth on the streets near Nana's and Pop-Pop's home.
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Excerpt from Spirit of the Adirondacks
YOU p.47
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Should I have another chance
to find the love of life,
I'd find you -
Regardless when I'd start again,
it would be you -
Wherever first I'd take my steps,
they'd lead to you -
Each "random" act somehow
would draw me here to you -
The sun would rise,
the fog would lift,
the lake awake,
and we would meet again..
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Excerpt from Straining to Catch Every Leaf
BESEECHING THE SONS OF LIBERTY p. 101
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O Sons of Liberty
(her name so sweet),
where are you now
(in whispers ought we speak)?
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By land or sea no martial force
could break your will of stone
with blood-notched guns and swords
to keep you as its own.
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What such ferocious thirst was yours,
her cup to drink at any price,
her honor you preserved throughout
with fierce defiant sacrifice!
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In time her sentries fell asleep,
their battle-hewn resolve forsaken,
our shields of self-reliance shelved,
your rebel masterpiece rewritten.
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Within her house an enemy,
perverted rapist dressed to kill,
is stalking where she lays her head
to smear her name and take his fill.
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O Sons of Liberty,
a fractured nation needs your eyes
to see the way she used to look,
to rip away the reaper's guise.
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If we're too late and find her gone,
we'll form a line, the last to stand,
before your tried and careful aim
return us to our blessed land.