Dear Mr. Henshaw / Дорогой мистер Хеншоу. 7-8 классы
Шрифт:
On the way home Mom said, “Katy has a heart as big as a football stadium. It was a lovely dinner for lonely hearts.”
I wondered if she was thinking about last Christmas when we tried to make songs about lonely lost shoes.
Dear Mr. Pretend Henshaw,
I got behind in my diary during Christmas vacation because I had a lot of things to do like going to the dentist, getting some new shoes, and a lot of things that I don’t have the time to do during school.
Today I wrote a fake name, or pseudonym, as they sometimes say, on my lunchbag. I printed Joe Kelly on it because that was the name of the boy in Ways to Amuse a Dog so I knew it was made-up. I guess I fooled the thief because nobody stole the chicken in bacon that Katy roasted just for me. It is good even when it is cold. I hope the thief watched me eat it.
Dear Mr. Pretend Henshaw,
Dad phoned me from a town in Oregon! I just looked in my book of road maps and saw where it is. He said he was waiting for a load of potatoes. I could hear music and some men talking. I asked about Bandit, and he said Bandit was fine, a great listener on a long haul even though he doesn’t have much to say. I asked Dad if I could ride with him sometime next summer when school is out, and he said he’d see. (I hate answers like that.) Anyway, he said he was sending the payment and he was sorry he forgot and he hoped I liked the jacket.
I surely wish that Dad lived with us again, but he said he would phone in about a week and to keep my nose clean. He had to go to make sure the potatoes were loaded.
This has been a good day. My lunch was safe again.
Mr. Fridley is so funny. Lots of kids are having their teeth straightened so when they eat lunch, they take out their retainers and wrap them in paper napkins while they eat because nobody wants to look at a retainer. Sometimes they forget and throw the napkin with the retainer into the garbage. Then they have to look through the garbage cans until they find their retainers because retainers cost a lot of money, and parents get mad if they get lost. Mr. Fridley always stands by the garbage cans to make sure kids put their forks and spoons on a tray and not in the garbage. When someone who has a retainer passes by, Mr. Fridley says, “Look out. Don’t lose your false teeth.” This helps them not to lose retainers.
Mom says that I am like Dad in one thing. My teeth are nice and straight which saves a lot of money.
Dear Mr. Pretend Henshaw,
My little cheesecake was missing at lunchtime which made me mad. I guess somebody noticed that Joe Kelly’s lunch was really mine. When I went to throw my lunchbag in the garbage, Mr. Fridley said, “Cheer up, Leigh.”
I said, “How would you feel if somebody was always stealing the good stuff from your lunch?”
He said, “What you need is a burglar alarm.”
A burglar alarm on a lunchbag! I laughed at that, but I still wanted my cheesecake.
Dad will phone any day now. When I said that at supper, Mom said I shouldn’t hope for it, but I know Dad will remember this time. Mom never really says much about Dad, and when I ask why she divorced him, all she says is, “It takes two people to get a divorce.” I guess she means the same way that it takes two people to have a fight.
Tomorrow I am going to wrap my lunchbag in a lot of Scotch tape so nobody can sneak anything out of it.
Dear Mr. Pretend Henshaw,
It’s funny how somebody says something, and you can’t forget it. I am thinking about Mr. Fridley saying that I needed a burglar alarm on my lunchbag. How could anybody put a burglar alarm on a paper bag? Today I used so much Scotch tape on my lunchbag that I couldn’t get my lunch out. Everybody laughed.
Dad should phone today or tomorrow. Maybe if he came home he would know how I could make a burglar alarm for my lunchbag. He was good about helping me make things in the past.
I reread your letter answering my questions and thought about your tips on how to write a book. One of the tips was listen. I guess you meant to listen and write down the way people talk, like in a play. This is what Mom and I said at supper:
ME: Mom, why don’t you get married again?
MOM: Oh, I don’t know. I guess it’s not easy to find a man when you are out of school.
ME: But you go out sometimes. You went to dinner with Charlie a couple of times. What happened to him?
MOM: A couple of times was enough. That’s the end of Charlie.
ME: Why?
MOM: (Thinks for a while.) Charlie is divorced and has three children. What he really wants is someone to help him.
ME: Oh. (Three sudden brothers or sisters was something to think about.) But I see men all around. There are lots of men.
MOM: But not the right type. (Laughs.) I guess I’m really afraid I might find another man who’s in love with a truck.
ME: (I think about this and don’t answer. Is Dad in love with a truck? What does she mean?)
MOM: Why are you asking all these questions all of a sudden?
ME: I was thinking that if I had a father at home, maybe he could show me how to make a burglar alarm for my lunchbag.
MOM: (Laughing.) There must be an easier way than my getting married again.
End of conversation.
Dear Mr. Henshaw,
This is a real letter I am going to mail. Maybe I should explain that I have written you many letters that are really my diary which I keep because you said so and because Mom still won’t have the TV fixed. She wants my brain to be in good shape. She says that I will need my brain all my life.
Guess what? Today the school librarian stopped me in the hall and said she had something for me. She told me to come to the library. There she gave me your new book and said that I could be the first to read it. Probably I looked surprised. She said she knew how much I love your books since I borrow them so often. Now I know that Mr. Fridley isn’t the only one who notices me.
I am on page 14 of Beggar Bears. It is a good book. I just wanted you to know that I am the first person around here to read it.
Dear Mr. Henshaw,
I finished Beggar Bears in two nights. It is a really good book. At first I was surprised because it wasn’t funny like your other books, but then I started thinking (you said that authors should think) and decided a book doesn’t have to be funny to be good, but it often helps. This book did not need to be funny.