Chapter 9 · Lily's Crossing

Copywork

Already it was hot, the tar shimmering in the haze, the sound of the cicadas beginning. “Listen,” Poppy would say, “it’s the sound of summer.”

She stared at the sidewalk, at a crack running along it, a hill of ants bustling. “He’s very busy,” she said.

The first passage ends with words Poppy used to say. The second ends with words Lily says about him. Which tells you more about how Lily feels?

For the educator Two passages, four sentences, in story order. The first comes on the hot road to Sherman’s, just after Gram’s warning about sunburn. It opens with a short main clause, “Already it was hot,” and then adds two pictures, each set off by a comma and each built on an -ing word, “shimmering” and “beginning”: “the tar shimmering in the haze, the sound of the cicadas beginning.” The next sentence is something Poppy used to say (“would say” marks a habit). His words are split by the speaker tag: a comma inside the first quotation marks, a comma after “say,” and a small letter where the speech picks up again. The second passage comes on the boulevard, just after the mailman promises a letter tomorrow. Lily’s eyes move down in steps, from the sidewalk to a crack in it to a hill of ants, and the sentence ends on an -ing word, “bustling.” Then comes one short line of speech, with its comma inside the quotation marks. Side by side, the passages hold Poppy’s voice as Lily remembers it, and Lily speaking for him when his letter has not come.

Discussion

Narration Tell back Lily’s Thursday morning in order. Start at breakfast, when she hopes for a real letter, and stop when Albert runs toward her, waving his arms and shouting.

The postcard already says “Miss you terribly.” What is Lily hoping a real letter will give her? Inference
Mrs. Sherman gives Lily two cookies for the price of one. What does she think is going on with Lily? Character
Lily scolds the mailman with the words on the bakery poster: “Loose Lips Sink Ships.” Who is she protecting? Inference
On the boulevard Lily hates the mailman, but as she leaves she looks back to wave to him. What changed between them? Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone waited for news that was slow to come. What did they imagine or tell themselves while they waited?

Vocabulary

plucked: Then at last he plucked a letter out of the sack. Pulled one thing out quickly with the fingers, as the mailman picks out a single envelope.
swollen: The water was swollen this morning, the tide high. Bigger and fuller than usual, like the bay when the tide has come all the way in.
shrunken: Up close they looked worse, shrunken and dry. Gone smaller and drier, like the jelly cookies whose juice has drained out overnight.
shuddered: She shuddered. Gave a quick shake of the body, the way Lily does at the bits of cream floating in her milk.
bustling: She stared at the sidewalk, at a crack running along it, a hill of ants bustling. Moving about in a busy, hurried way, like the ants Lily stares at once she knows the letter is not from Poppy.
shimmering: Already it was hot, the tar shimmering in the haze, the sound of the cicadas beginning. Seeming to shake and glow, the way hot road tar looks wavy on a summer morning.
convince: She stopped, trying to think how to convince him. Get someone to believe something, which is what Lily's Secret Service story is meant to do to the mailman.

Critical thinking

The mailman promises Lily a letter tomorrow. How close is that promise to the stories she tells?
Lily's lips tremble while she tells the mailman a story she made up. Are her tears part of the lie, or the truest thing she says that morning?