Chapter 6

Lily's Crossing

Trailblazers · 4th–6th

Copywork

Still, shafts of light fell across the rug, and the couch, and Eddie’s picture on the end table.

Instead she ran across the field to the viaduct over the water, trying to find enough breath to get her there ahead of the train. She began to wave as soon as she heard the sound of it on the tracks, even before she saw it. She didn’t stop until it was a smudge in the distance, and then gone completely, even though she knew Poppy couldn’t have seen her.

In these sentences, Giff keeps adding one more thing after a comma. How does that feel in the dark house, and how does it feel at the viaduct?

For the educator Two passages, four sentences, in story order. The first comes in Margaret’s dark living room. It opens with “Still,” set off by a comma, which turns the sentence from the dark to the light. It then names three things the light falls on, joined by “and . . . and,” so the eye moves slowly across the room. The second passage is the chapter’s last three sentences. The first opens with “Instead” and adds a long “trying to” phrase after a comma. The second hangs “even before she saw it” on the end with a comma. The third grows step by step, “a smudge in the distance, and then gone completely,” and closes on an “even though” clause that turns the whole sentence. Side by side, the passages hold the still house where Lily hides and the viaduct where she runs.

Discussion

Narration Tell back Lily’s morning in order. Start when she heads barefoot to Margaret’s house, and stop when the train is gone.

1. Lily picks up Eddie’s picture, then puts it back in “exactly the same spot.” Why is she so careful with it?Inference

2. Lily wishes she could see Poppy in line for the Mary L. He would have “his fishing rod and hers too.” What does that wish give her that the real morning doesn’t?Character

3. Last night Lily “acted as if she didn’t care, not one bit.” Who was that act for?Character

4. Albert is alone on the beach, and he turns toward Lily. What makes her hide from the only person in sight?Inference

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone did something that no one would ever see. Why might a person do that?

Vocabulary

Crossword

1
			2
3
				4
		5

	6

Across

Across 1. Long, narrow beams, here of sunlight slipping past the closed shutters into the dark room.
Across 3. Holding several things steady at once so none of them falls, as Lily pictures Poppy doing.
Across 5. Moving with a loud, rattling noise, as Lily's feet bang down the steps in her hurry.
Across 6. Blocking the sun with something, here Albert's hands held over his eyes so he can see.

Down

Down 2. Making something lean or slope to one side, the way Poppy's weight dips the bed.
Down 4. A long bridge held up by a row of supports, like the railroad bridge over the water where Lily runs to meet the train.

The words in the chapter

shafts Still, shafts of light fell across the rug, and the couch, and Eddie’s picture on the end table.
balancing He’d be balancing the picnic basket and tackle box; he’d have his fishing rod and hers too.
tilting He had sat on the edge of her bed, his weight tilting the mattress down, telling her the war would be over sometime and they’d be right back there in Rockaway with everything just the same.

clattering Then she was out of the attic, clattering down the stairs, through the hall, through the kitchen, and out the door, listening for the sound of the train.
viaduct Instead she ran across the field to the viaduct over the water, trying to find enough breath to get her there ahead of the train.
shading He was walking back and forth, shading his eyes with his hands, turning toward her.

Critical thinking

1. Margaret’s note says, “Don’t worry, Lily. I’m coming back.” Does the note leave Lily feeling less alone, or more?

2. Lily planned to stay in the attic all day. Then she runs for the train, but it is too late to get to the station. Did her plan work?

3. Lily starts waving as soon as she hears the train, before she can even see it. Why does Lily keep waving at the train when she knows Poppy can't see her?