Free A Sliver of Sun by Dianna Dorisi Winget

don’t have to listen to her.”
    “But I think she’s serious, Piper Lee. She sounded real serious.”
    “So tell Mrs. Holloway.”
    “I can’t. She’ll give her detention or something, and Angela will know I tattled.”
    The fear in Ginger’s voice threw me for a loop. It wasn’t like her to give in to threats. She sure never gave in to
my
threats anyhow. It seemed odd she’d be scared of Angela. But then again, Angela was a pretty big kid, and not afraid to shoot her mouth off to grownups either.
    “So what are you gonna’ do?” I asked.
    Ginger hugged her backpack closer. “Don’t know yet. I gotta think.”
    “You could tell your daddy.”
    “No. Promise you won’t either … or Mama for that matter.”
    “Okay,” I said.
    “Scout’s honor, Piper Lee?”
    “Scout’s honor,” I said, which made me think of
To Kill a Mockingbird
, on account of the girl character named Scout. “Hey, that reminds me,” I added, “I thought of a new boy’s name for the kid. Boo Radley.”
    A smile tugged at one corner of Ginger’s mouth. “Boo?”
    “Yeah, it’s in that book Ramsay and I have to read.” I studied her face, ready to pounce if she teased me about Ramsay again.
    “Boo Hutchings,” she said. “I kind of like it.
Huckleberry Finn
is about a boy from Missouri. Maybe we could call the baby Huckleberry.”
    I grinned. “Maybe he’ll come out purple.”
    “Daddy says most babies come out all red and ugly lookin, not like they show on TV.”
    I sat back in my seat. I’d made the sudden decision to hold off sharing my big news about Mama. For one thing, it didn’t seem quite as big a deal as when it first occurred to me. And second, I thought it might be kind of fun to spring it on Mama when we were alone.

Chapter Nine
    M ama was taking sheets off the clothes line when Ginger and I hopped off the bus. A strong breeze billowed the sheets around her like a parachute.
    “Hey, girls,” Mama called. “How was today?”
    I took a quick glance at Ginger. “It was okay,” I said. “Did you have your appointment?”
    “Sure did. Wanna see?”
    “See what?” I asked.
    Mama’s eyes danced. “The baby, that’s what. The doctor gave me a DVD of the ultrasound.”
    My stomach took a dive.
Pictures?
I wanted to see pictures of the kid about as bad as I wanted a plateful of slimy okra.
    “Come on in and get yourselves a snack,” Mama said, “then I’ll show you.”
    Ginger bounded ahead, but I didn’t feel much like bounding. The thought of seeing the baby made me feel all funny and nervous, like I was in trouble for something.
    Mama scooped up the laundry basket and trailed behind us. She waited while Ginger and I slathered some of Miss Claudia’s plum jelly on Graham crackers and then motioned us to the living room. I nibbled a cracker while she slipped the DVD into the player and turned it on. A grainy gray and black picture filled the screen.
    I leaned forward and squinted. That wasn’t a baby. It was a big blob of pancake batter. “What in the world are we lookin’ at?”
    Mama knelt beside the TV and traced her finger around the middle of the blob. “Right here,” she said, her voice full of wonder. “Now look close. See, here’s the back, and here’s its head, and here’s …”
    “Oh, wait,” Ginger squealed, “now I see. There’s a foot, right?”
    Mama beamed. “Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s a foot. Can you see it, Piper Lee?”
    I about gagged on my cracker, because even though I didn’t want to admit it, I
did
see. And I couldn’t look away from the fuzzy, whitish outline of a baby. “I think so,” I said.
    “There it is,” Mama said. “Your first glimpse of your little brother … or sister. And I got to hear the heartbeat too.”
    “What’s it sound like?” Ginger asked.
    “Oh, a baby’s heart beats real rapid, a lot faster than ours.” Mama made a loose fist and started opening and closing it real fast. “It makes a
hush-hush, hush-hush
, kind of