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At least that's what my grandma Nettie said. I spent two weeks with her this summer. I didn't want to go, but by the time I got back I was glad I did. On the last day I was there I found a hat my grandma's attic, a magical hat. I'm not making this up, magic! When I got back I told Sybil and Sarah what happened, but they said I was lying. Well, I wasn't and they're liars and fibbers and tellers of' untruth. I have proof that Grandma's hats have magic. The proof is in my diary. Special
Note: Diary Day 14 Sarah, Sybil, and I had our summer all planned. We knew what we were going to do every minute of every day or every week of the vacation. We had already had our "Welcome to Summer" sleep over and Sarah's birthday party was really pop. But Mom, the wicked woman who is married to my dad, told me tonight that I had to go to Grandma Nettie's for two weeks. Two weeks? It might as well be two years. The whole summer will be gone. Sarah and Sybil will be married and have kids by the time I get back. And who knows if I will get back. What if Grandma Nettie isn't my grandma? What if she's an alien? What if she's a witch or a serial kidnapper of little kids. I don't want to go. Mom, the wicked woman who is married to my dad, just came in and told me to go to sleep. "Big day tomorrow, sweetie!" she croaked. I'll write longer later. Diary Day 14 (later... a lot later) I am back! Alright, so I forgot my diary. I forgot to pack my toothbrush, too! The two weeks went pretty fast. The last night before I flew home Grandma Nettie cooked a special dinner and I set the table. My Grandpa died when I was 3 but Grandma Nettie always set a place for him. I don't remember him very well, but while we ate Grandma Nettie told really cool stories about him. He loved horses and had a horse of his very own whose name was Ginger. He loved wearing leather chaps and his cowboy hat. He went out to the farm where he boarded her and rode as often as he could. Grandma said he took me for a ride on his horse once. I kind of remember that, but not very well. I wish I could have met him. After dinner we went in to the living room and both of us read a book. Grandma Nettie fell asleep after only two pages of her book. I almost did, too. I had been reading a really dumb book while I was there. I must have fallen asleep because I woke up with my nose smashed on page 34, the very same page where this stupid girl doesn't another stupid thing and, "...is so scared that she pulls the covers over her head!", like that's going to save her. Grandma
Nettie was sound asleep in her chair so I started I climbed up the stairs. It was really spooky, just like the book I was reading, but I wasn't scared, not at all. The attic was empty except for an old sweat-stained cowboy hat just laying there in the middle of the floor. I don't know why I did it, but I put on the hat. Now this is the hard for believing part, but I suddenly wasn't in the attic anymore. I was standing in the middle of a grassy meadow. The grass was knee high and kind of whispered. Suddenly, I heard the pounding of horses hooves. I turned around and up rode a man on a horse. The man was wearing a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up and blue jeans and boots. He had a red bandana tied around his neck. His hair was blowing back and he had a big smile on his face. The horse was so beautiful. It was gold colored and had a flaxen mane and tail. It ran with its head up high and it's tail snapping in the wind. The man rode the horse right up to me and kind of skidded to a stop. Though stopped the horse still minced its hooves like it wanted to run some more. The man looked down and me and if he could, his smiled grew even brighter. "Hi," he said, "you must be Hattie. You sure have grown." I didn't say anything. My heart was in my mouth. The man laughed. Not a mean laugh, but a low happy laugh that made me feel good. "You know, Hattie," he said, "I sure could use your hat." Before I could tell him that it wasn't even my hat, he reached down and plucked it off my head. "This will do just fine," he said. "Tell you what, I'll trade you." With that he untied the bandana and reached down and tied it around my neck. "Isn't much," he said, "but when you wear it, you'll never forget me." He spun his horse ready to ride away, but he stopped, reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a picture. "Give this to your grandma. Tell her there's a note on the back." With that he squeezed his legs and the horse leaped into a gallop and just like that, he was gone! And just like that I woke up sitting on the couch with my book flopped over in my lap.
I
reached up and grabbed the ends of a red bandana that was tied around
my neck. It was then that I realized that I had a picture all crinkled
up, clutched in my right hand. I folded out the picture. It was
a photo of a handsome man sitting on a horse. I gulped and handed
it to my grandma who Well, I'm back now and wear the bandana every day so I won't forget. Sarah and Sybil don't believe my story. But who cares? They are liars and fibbers and tellers of untruth. My diary proves it! Love, Hattie MacGruder (to be continued)
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©S. Cosgrove, all rights reserved Children's entertainment developer and Putnam Penguin
author Stephen Cosgrove has written over 300 children's books of
which the Serendipity series has sold over 80 million copies since
1974. |
prowling
around. Grandma calls this "getting into mischief." I
call it
prowling around. That's when I went up into the attic. The doorway
to the attic is in hallway off the kitchen. It's a narrow little
door that opens on to narrow little wooden steps that go nearly
straight up. In all the times that I had been to Grandma's house,
I never went up to the attic. I guess that I thought the door was
just a closet.
My
grandma who had been asleep in her chair woke up with a start. She
looked over at me, smiling, and then her eyes got really big. "Where
did you get that?" she asked pointing at my neck.