Free Part of Me by Kimberly Willis Holt Page B

was the reason she went through the woods. Sometimes she chose to go that way to Faye’s, but maybe she wouldn’t have today. Thoughts spun in his head. He rushed past Aunt Pie and Cooter, and headed toward the front door.
    â€œWait for us,” hollered Aunt Pie, racing after him.
    â€œYou better stay put,” Cooter told her. “Rose might come back and if she sees all of us gone, she’ll worry.”
    Aunt Pie stepped off the front porch anyway.
    They didn’t need to go much farther, though. Rose was walking toward them. She had a quick pace, and Blue was trying to keep up with her, his tail aimed toward the sky. As she came closer, Merle Henry noticed something small and dark in her hand.
    â€œIt’s a mink!” Rose hollered. “I got the mink!” She held the fur up high in the air.
    Merle Henry thought he was about to lose his wits. Since last year he’d tried to get a mink, wanted it more than anything, and now his momma was practically skipping toward him with a mink in her hand. He knew he should be relieved to see her alive and safe, but he felt something rising inside him that wanted to explode.
    â€œWell, hot damn!” yelled Cooter. “Your momma is something else. She can fry chicken and trap a mink!”
    Rose was so close now Merle Henry could see the mink’s beady eyes. “Oh, I didn’t trap this mink. That young man standing next to you trapped it. I just happened on him. He was half drowned when I found him.”
    Aunt Pie’s eyes grew big. “You mean he was still alive?”
    Merle Henry was starting to think Pie’s hair was too blond and her eyes too small. She was more appealing when she was quiet and dancing.
    â€œHe sure was alive,” Rose said. “I thought to myself, now what would Merle Henry do? And I realized, well, he’d put that poor mink out of its misery.”
    â€œYou shot him?” Cooter asked. He was clinging to her every word.
    â€œNo! I don’t have a gun. I found a forked stick and held his head under the water until he finished drowning. I thought he’d never die.”
    Merle Henry felt numb.
    Rose looked up at him. “Did I do right, son?”
    Merle Henry looked at his momma standing there with that mink in her hand. Her hair was wild, and her dress had smudges of dirt. His brother would never have done it, but his momma did. She did it for him because she knew how much he’d wanted a mink. And she was right. He did trap it, after all. She was just delivering it to him.
    â€œYou did just fine, Momma. Now hand that mink over to me so I can dress it out.”
    â€œAren’t you sick?” she asked, so bewildered that Merle Henry realized she had believed him.
    â€œI’ve had a miraculous recovery,” Merle Henry said, taking the mink from her. It really was a beautiful sight.
    Blue barked and twirled in a circle, as if he were part of something special.
    Aunt Pie laughed. “Well, look at Blue. Even he has our family’s dancing genes!”

Fairy Tale
    (1973)
    A NNABETH WAS READY to kill her brother.
    â€œHow to Be Popular, by Annabeth Harp.” Ryan’s voice came from the back porch.
    â€œOne: Smile all the time unless your friends say something sad.” Ryan announced each word loud enough for their grandmother’s neighbors to hear two acres away.
    By the time Annabeth arrived at the back porch, Ryan had escaped somewhere else. She should have known better than to leave the list under her pillow. And to think she’d been concerned about Gamma Rose’s discovering it. She hated the thought of her practical grandmother thinking she was silly and concerned about frivolous things like being popular. But after what happened at school last year, she was going to make sure eighth grade at her new school was different.
    â€œTwo: Join clubs and run for an office,” Ryan hollered from the front porch now. Annabeth dashed past her