Shutta Crum - Spitting Image

Clarion Books

a Houghton Mifflin Company imprint
215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003
Copyright 2003 by Shutta Crum

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Crum, Shutta.

Spitting image / by Shutta Crum.
p. cm.

Summary: In the small town of Baylor, Kentucky, twelve-year-old Jessie K. Bovey and her friends confront some of lifes questions during their summer vacation in the late 1960s.

ISBN 0-618-23477-2 (alk. paper)

[1. Family lifeKentuckyFiction. 2. FathersFiction. 3. FriendshipFiction. 4. KentuckyHistory20th centuryFiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C888288 Sp 2003
[Fic]dc21 2002015912

eISBN 978-0-544-30687-5
v1.0913

For my sister, Brenda (Crum) Proos, with love

This book could not have come about without the support and honest criticism of the following people: my good friends Ruth Haldeman, Susan Livingston, and librarian extraordinaire Paula Schaffner; my hard-working and supportive critique groupB.J. Connor, Gail Flynn, Tracy Gallup, Mary Lind, Ginny Ryan, Nancy Shaw, Debbie Taylor, Shanda Trent, Hope Vestergaard, and Joan Weisman; my young critical readersLydia Aikenhead, Anna Flynn, Emilie Flynn, Alec Lind, Anna Lind, Ian Lind, and Rebecca Schaffner; Dr. Marvin Meyer, DVM; my loving and confident family, who never doubted that this book would come to be, especially my husband, Gerald Clark, and my parents, Melvin and Evelyn Crum, who helped me with many of the details of country life in Kentucky; and editor Dinah Stevenson, who took the leap of faith.

I SAT IN FRONT of the hardware store eating ice cream with my best friends, Robert Ketchum and his little brother, Baby Blue. The sidewalk dipped, and the window ledge was the perfect spot to plop down, stretch out our legs, and rest our feet.

It was less than two miles into Hiram from where we lived in Baylor. We had walked into town to buy the cones. It was my treat. Id saved up sixty-five cents from helping my good friend and neighbor, Lester, at the filling station he owned in Baylor, the Gas & Go. When we got to Hiram, we had headed straight for the Dixie Dairy Delight, next door to the hardware store.

Mmm! We barely spoke, eating up that good cold vanilla ice cream. Missy Salyer, who I used to be in Girl Scouts with, called out, Hi, Jessie, as she rode her bike by. Lorelei McMasters and DeeDee Byrum passed without so much as a nod. Loreleis father is the mayor of Hiram and DeeDees father is the banker. Neither ones got a sociable bone in her body, unless youre a boy and happen to be named Billy Lee Wells or Brian Holcum.

Robert and Baby Blue hardly even looked up as Lorelei and DeeDee went by. I stuck my chin out as far as I could and took a great big tongueful of vanilla ice cream and let it sit there in plain sight, for just a moment longer than necessary.

Ugh! Lorelei shuddered.

Grow up, I heard DeeDee mutter.

Suddenly, I noticed something different about both of them. Since school had let out last month, theyd grown bosoms.

Did you see that? I whispered to Robert. Miss Stuck-Up and Junior Miss Stuck-Up have grownout in front.

Robert looked, but theyd already gone by. What dyou mean? he asked.

Booo-zums, I drawled, like the boys from school did. Big ones.

Robert looked again, shrugged, and went back to his ice cream cone.

So... I nudged him with my elbow.

So? he asked.

So theyve got to be fake. Isnt that disgusting?

Hmm, he replied, licking his fingers and neatly dabbing at his chin with a paper napkin. I dont care what Lorelei and DeeDee do.

I swear, even though Robert and I have been friends since we were little babies, sometimes he just makes me want to scream, especially when all he seems to be interested in is whats going on in his own head. Dont you care when someones being a big fat faker? I asked him.

That was when I saw that wrinkled-up, hard-thinking look on his face that he gets sometimes. What? I asked, throwing my hands up in the air. What?

Just trying to guess what youre gonna do with the rest of your money.

Id saved sixty-five cents, and cones were only five cents each. The other two quarters were for something special. Thats for me to know and for you to find out! I shouted, and punched him on the shoulder. Then I jumped up. Cmon! I ran into the hardware store, and Robert and Baby followed.

T HE H IRAM H ARDWARE STORE was stacked to the ceiling with tall dusty boxes full of knobs and brackets and metal hinges. Im twelve now, but when I was little, I thought that if I pulled out one of those boxes all the way, thered be a tiny square tunnel leading in from the world beyond our corner of Beulah County, Kentucky. I thought I might find secret messages there. Or, if I leaned in close, I might hear tales of wonder starring me, Jessica Kay Bovey. I knew there must be a bigger world that I was part of, only I was too little then to pull out any of those heavy boxes.

Finding your place in the world isnt that easy. Sometimes you have to push out and clear a space you can claim for yourself. And sometimes, when youre not even thinking about it, a space just opens up and you walk in and meet the outside world thats come looking for you. Thats what happened to me when we ran into the Hiram Hardware store that day.

A woman I didnt know was standing in front of the counter. She was short and had gray hair. She was so plump and neat, I thought she looked kind of like a fresh marshmallow with a brown belt around the middle. She turned and smiled at us as we came barging through the door.

Old Joe and Adam were waiting on her and Leroy Weaver. Adam was weighing out nails for Mr. Weaver while the stranger looked about, smiled, nodded, and answered one rapid-fire question after another from Adams Uncle Joe.

Yes, Im staying with Mr. Weaver and his family up in Rockcastle, she answered. Rockcastle is one of the hollers around here.

Not sure how long Ill be staying.

Oh, yes, everybodys treating me fine.

Well be holding some meetings soon to find out what people around here need.

Ill be working with the families in the hollows first.

I wasnt sure we could get a word in slantwise, but finally Adam got his uncle to quit giving her the third degree. Then Adam turned to us. Well, right here, Miss Woodruff, youve got three of the finest, upstandingest citizens in Beulah County, he said.

Hello. Im Robert E. Ketchum, Robert said, and stepped right up to her with his hand stretched out. Robert has perfect manners, though God knows where he got them from since his daddy, Doyle, doesnt have a lick, and his mama, Beryl Ann, is usually working too hard to be around much. I figured he must have got them from all the books hes always reading.

Its nice to meet you, said Miss Woodruff, taking Roberts hand and shaking it. What does the E stand for?

Eisenhower.

Were you named after President Eisenhower? she asked.

Well, actually, no. After Robert E. Lee, Robert said. But I just got the E as a middle initial, and Im still looking for the right name to go with it. So it could change.

How interesting. Miss Woodruff beamed and turned to me. And you are?

I wiped my sticky hand on the seat of my jeans and held it out. Jessie. Jessica K. Bovey. The K just stands for Kay. Thats K-a-y, I said, giving Robert a bug-eyed stare over Miss Woodruffs handshake.

Nice to meet you, she replied. She looked at Baby. Sweat, dirt, and ice cream had caked into the rolls of fat around his neck and arms and, somehow, into his pale, almost white hair. His shorts were sliding off his round belly, and his thumb was in his mouth now that he was done with his ice cream. But hed managed to keep his shoes on.