Shades of Truth (14 page)

A
s I stood in front of the class and clicked on the first image in my PowerPoint, the drawing of Ruth stargazing, I had another moment.
Pay attention. Notice this
. I’d stood here, the first day of school, showing my squat little drawing, and they had mocked me. I’d seen one-toned faces, people to win over. A month and a half later, not much was different between us, but everything was different for me. I was different.

“The definition of the word alive is:
Having life
:
not dead or inanimate
. At first, I focused on the second part of the definition, not being dead.”

I clicked again. Higgins chasing his tail. “I kept thinking about hunting, and dead animals, and how wrong that felt to me.”

Next, the picture of Dad with his scrambled eggs. “But
when I started drawing examples of my word, I realized being alive is more about having life, about happiness and fun.” I looked up at the image, Mom laughing, so beautiful, the way I wished she could always be.

I clicked one last time, bringing up my last slide, the image I had drawn last night of Helen and Humphrey walking side by side away into the trees.

“Being alive isn’t always easy, though. I think being alive, really having life, means risking hurt. Helen gives her whole heart to her research, even though she knows she will lose bears she loves. Being alive means being willing to trust the people you care about, even though you know they will make mistakes, believing that tomorrow they may be stronger or more reliable, or more truthful than they are today.”

The bell rang. As people left, I realized Frankie hadn’t made any remark at all. Maybe I just hadn’t heard it. Or maybe she’d been warned to be on her best behavior. Or maybe, just maybe, now that hunting season was almost over, things would be different.

“Sadie, you didn’t tell me about the drawing of me!” Ruth rushed up and threw her arms around me.

“I made you another one, too.” I handed her a thank you card. On the front she sat with her cheeks puffed out, blowing into a balloon.

As Ruth studied the image, I grabbed her hand. “Mom’s waiting with the balloons in the car. Dad took Helen and Andrew out for ice cream to get them out of the house.”

We hurried outside, where Higgins wiggled in Mom’s
lap. “Here, Sades, hold him. He wants nothing more than to pop as many balloons as he can sink his teeth into.”

The car was stuffed full of garbage bags filled with balloons.

“I owe you, all of you!” I said.

Ruth and I squished in and we sped off to the research cabin. Mom hid the car behind a group of pine trees so we wouldn’t ruin the surprise. We hauled the garbage bags inside and attached Higgins’ leash to the kitchen table. Then we pushed and shoved and wrangled the slippery balloons between the front door and the inside door so the entire mudroom was filled. Trapped inside now, we strung streamers all around the kitchen. I put the card I’d made on the table.

“They’re coming, they’re coming!” Ruth called from the window.

I held Higgins up so he could peek with us out the window. Mom knelt down with us as they all piled out of the Jeep. Ruth grabbed my hand and Mom’s hand as Andrew and Helen stepped onto the front porch.

Andrew turned the doorknob.

Balloons cascaded onto their heads, rolled across the porch and out onto the lawn.

We ran over to the doorway. “Surprise!!”

“We’re celebrating because all the bears are safe!” I said.

Andrew picked a few of the balloons up, and with his very best Andrew smile began pinging them in our direction. Higgins batted at the balloons as they flew over, popping them
with his sharp teeth, and Helen ran over to give me a huge hug. Andrew waded through the balloon sea and came into the kitchen. I handed him the card I’d drawn of us watching four sets of claws bury themselves in a snowy den.

We stayed at the research station until dark. After the party had begun to wind down Andrew took us up onto the top deck of the station. The first star of the evening twinkled to life.

“Make a wish,” I said.

“I don’t know what to wish for after being buried in balloons. Isn’t that enough for anyone?”

“Yes,” I said. “YES!”

Mom called up, “Time to go, girls.”

We took Ruth home and then turned toward our own cabin. Mom and Dad argued over whether to play the country station or the classical. I felt another tug. This moment. Mom, feeling good. Laughing with Dad.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

Higgins wiggled in my lap. I couldn’t sit still either. It was finally time for reason one.

“Night, Mom. Dad.”

“Night, Sades.”

I hurried up to my bedroom.

Just one picture this time, a picture of Pippa and me, arms around each other, standing on the beach, taken on our last day together back home. Above the picture she’d written,
Happy Adventuring
.

“It
is
an adventure, Pips,” I whispered. “A very, very good adventure.”

THE END

NAOMI KINSMAN
has always dreamed of plunging into a fictional world, like Lucy does in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In Naomi’s fi rst career, acting and directing for the theater, this dream was inches from her reach. Writing, however, has made the impossible possible, and now Naomi regularly slips into book worlds and has fanstastical adventures. Naomi shares these adventures through her company, Society of Young Inklings, dedicated to empowering young writers across the country. Naomi lives in Northern California with her husband and identically colored pets: a tuxedo cat and a Portuguese water dog.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Other Books in the Growing Faithgirlz!
^™
Library

Fiction

From Sadie’s Sketchbook

Shades of Truth (Book One)
Flickering Hope (Book Two)

Sophie’s World Series

Sophie’s World

Sophie’s Secret

Sophie Under Pressure

Sophie Steps Up

Sophie’s First Dance

Sophie’s Stormy Summer

Sophie’s Friendship Fiasco

Sophie and the New Girl

Sophie Flakes Out

Sophie Loves Jimmy

Sophie’s Drama

Sophie Gets Real

The Girls of Harbor View

Girl Power

Rescue Chelsea

Raising Faith

Secret Admirer

The Lucy Series

Lucy Doesn’t Wear Pink (Book One)

Lucy Out of Bounds (Book Two)

Lucy’s Perfect Summer (Book Three)

Lucy Finds Her Way (Book Four)

Boarding School Mysteries

Vanished (Book One)

Betrayed (Book Two)

Burned (Book Three)

Poisoned (Book Four)

Nonfiction

My Faithgirlz Journal

The Faithgirlz! Handbook

The Faithgirlz! Cookbook

No Boys Allowed

What’s A Girl To Do?

Girlz Rock

Chick Chat

Real Girls of the Bible

Faithgirlz! Whatever!

My Beautiful Daughter

Beauty Lab

Body Talk

Everybody Tells Me to Be Myself,

But I Don’t Know Who I Am

Girl Politics

Bibles

The Faithgirlz! Bible NIV

Faithgirlz! Backpack Bible

Faithgirlz! Bible Studies

Secret Power of Love

Secret Power of Joy

Secret Power of Goodness

Secret Power of Modesty

Check out www.faithgirlz.com

ZONDERKIDZ

Shades of Truth
Copyright © 2011 by Naomi Kinsman Downing

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EPub Edition © OCTOMBER 2011 ISBN: 978-0-310-72663-0

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Requests for information should be addressed to:

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Downing, Naomi Kinsman, 1977–

Shades of truth / Naomi Kinsman Downing.

p. cm. — (Faithgirlz!) (From Sadie’s sketchbook ; bk. 1)

Summary: When twelve-year-old Sadie has to move away from her home in
         California, she wrestles with questions of faith.

ISBN 978-0-310-72662-3 (softcover)

1. Moving, Household — Fiction. 2. Christian life — Fiction. I. Title.

PZ7.D75933Sh 2011

[Fic]—dc23                                                                       2011038069

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible,
New International Version
^®
,
NIV
^®
. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan.

Editor: Kim Childress
Cover design: Cindy Davis
Interior design and composition: Greg Johnson/Textbook Perfect

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