Elijah+of+Buxton

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis                <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; line-height: 23px;">I got something that's more interesting than watching you fish, I got a mystery. 1
 * Hot one today, why aren't you two off swimming? 3
 * I quit breathing and my blood ran cold when all the sudden he shouted, "Lord, have mercy!" 3
 * I suppose I have to tell you, but i don't want this to get any further than the three of us. 4
 * Listen! and, my young brothers, you better listen good! 5
 * within hours you commence swelling till your skin looks soft and rotten as a ripe peach left in the noonday sun. 6
 * He held up two fingers. "two weeks! its fourteen endless days after your explosion before you pass on." 7
 * i near jumped to the moon when a loud bang came from behind me. 8
 * Seems to me after you die the first time, the ones that follow ain't gonna really matter too much. 9
 * You got to learn to get control of you'self and quit being so fra-gile, sweetheart. 10
 * it's something I'm aiming to do myself, but the trouble is me and her have two different ways of doing it. 10
 * I couldn't understand how things that small could be moving all by theirselves! 11
 * it didn't have a arm nor leg nowhere on it! it looked like it came straight out your worst nightmare. 12
 * In Sabbath school he is always telling us that the Lord loves laughter, and what could be funnier than watching her reaching down into her basket and getting a little surprise? 13
 * it caint be good for you to try to keep a laugh inside, I was this close to busting clean apart! 14
 * she looked like she was fixing to say something but her mouth just opened and shut over and over. didn't no words come out so she walked all a shake-ity into the house. 14
 * 'cause you know the next time you and her is in the same room together, that's what's gunn happen. 15
 * today your lucky day, son. you's 'bout to get two shows for the price of one. 15
 * he'd got just as much fun from everything that happened as I did, but it looked like I was gonna be the only one that had to do any kind of paying for the enjoying. 16
 * i started working up a good apology fulled up with lots of sinerenesss for when I saw her. 16
 * it's funny, just when you think you caint admire your folks no more than you already do, something like that happens and lets you know you're wrong. 17
 * My heart quit beating, my blood ran cold, and time stood still! 19
 * This made the baking in the jar a lot more interesting! 17
 * Well, seem to me what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. 20
 * you're always telling me i can dis it out but i caint take it, so if you know that, how could you do this to me? 20
 * if people could die from laughing too hard, i'd be a orphan. 21
 * i ain't the kind of person that complains for no reason, but I gotta say, I already got one tragedy tied up with my name that is so horrible tht it wouldn't be one bit fair that i'd get another. 22
 * He was giving a speech when the accident happened 'cause every time he made a point he'd givie me a little shake way up there over top of his head. 23
 * Life's gunn be a tough row to hoe for yo uif you don't learn you caint be believing everything folks tell you, not even growned folks. 28
 * if that dont leave you scratching your head you got a better brain than me! 28
 * i was gonna have to work faster than I do most days 'cause a bunch of people were counting on me to bring 'em some fish. 29
 * It waren't just for their good that this was my favouritet job, i was getting something out of it too. 30
 * one helping one to uplift all. 30
 * we don't expect nothing in return, but if we see someone that needs a hand, we rush to give it. 30
 * those words came out of me from being frustrated. 30
 * it's kind of like they put a spell or a conjure on each other and, truth told, once they do, it's easier to hit two at once than it is to hit one. 31
 * Even the sun was frozen in place halfway across the sky! 33
 * his raring to go look's a powerful lot like his not wanting to move look. 35
 * horses do too much shaking of your insides when you ride'em and they're a long way up if you lose your grip and fall. 35
 * Not that i'd've stopped and called on him, it's just that lately, since he's seen Jesus has been giving me gifts,he lets me come with him and watch when he practices shooting off his mystery pisto.l. 36
 * That's what i'm talking about. I've never seen a soul throw a rock like do and, I have to tell you, I'm quite concerned. 37
 * You do know that being left handed is one of the sure signs of being in satan's clutches don't you? 37
 * this was a gift that needed lots of practicing else it went away. 41
 * how come jesus only choose certain folk to talk di-rect to? 41
 * if i'd done everything right the big ones wouldn't have not choice but to come barreling out of the catttails and snatch at the flies. 43
 * But i suppose if you're partial to swallowing horseflies whole, it's a pretty good sign that smartness aint one of the things you been 'specially blessed with. 45
 * You've been given a rare gift from the Lord. 47
 * maybe turning water into wine is more impressive and practical, but what you've done is no mean feat either. 47
 * I should quit trating you like a child and start treating you like the man you truly are. 48
 * he says the sweet talking is like a rattling snak'es rattles, it's like you're getting a warning that you're 'bout to get bit. 48
 * Now I was also wondering, if you know anything a bout a word called tithing. 49
 * Children, we are going to postpone the rest of classes today. I want all of you to make certain your homework assignment is written down and your books are gathered. 55
 * The only sound was birds, and you wouldn't never think that birds singing would be something to make you skittish, but hearing' em singing all by theirselves like that, they might as well've been haints or ghosts singing. 58
 * You suppose a pie be worth a perch? 65
 * I left the guts in the basin for her garden. 69
 * That finger still don't do everything he wants it to do, but at least it's still there. 71
 * she'd draw him up a picture of something she rememberd or thought up, and he'd make it outta wood in no time at all. 73
 * there was a kind of music to him when he was felling trees. 74
 * once you got a bit closer, it started sounding like there were two folks playing music and you could hear something that sonded like CHUH! coming from him. 74
 * The harder anad longer he worked the more regular and music-is the sound he made got. 74
 * this waren't nothingg but a waste of time, though, 'cause soon's the rag left his face, sweat rolled right back all over it. 75
 * fins and bones waren't nothing to him. 76
 * you caint be timid 'bout nothing you do, you got to go at it like you 'specting good things to come out of it. 77
 * i don't care if you study on something all your life, it ain't gonna stick like if it happen to you personal. 79
 * I couldn't make heads nor tails of it till a minute ago when I seen him going at the blackboard like a demon had ahold of him. 80
 * you didn't need to work in no stable to know what breeding is. 82
 * what if they stops thi afore he gets to the real interesting, real nasty paprts? 84
 * I was wondering how long 'twas gonna be afroe he got back in his right mind. and if his mind didn't come back to him, i was wondering whose soul he was gonna grab next 87
 * to my way of thinking, that meant us walking home together was a good time to get a whole lot of the conversating done that we'd been missing out on. 94
 * but like I already owned up to, lots of things were coming together to make me want to talk and not pay too much mind to who it was I was talking to. 95
 * it felt like whatever rope it was that was holding up the moon gave out all the sudden and the moon slipped free and busted through the clouds and came crashing down to earth afore it exploded square on top of me. 96
 * the scar was raised up and shiny and was real plain to see even if there waren't no moonlight atall. 97
 * you think it ain't choke up with the same kind of hate and disrespect it has when they say it? 99
 * sir, i only siad it 'cause i hear lots of children say it. 99
 * that just shows you done swallowed they poison. and swallowed it whole. 99
 * that ain't one the things we need to be carrying to canada with us. 100
 * some of the time when a growned person asks you a question, you're smart to tell 'em what it is they want to hear, but that waren't what I was doing. 101
 * they've seen people acting in ways that caaint help but leave scars and peculaiarities. 101
 * Good. "Cause I really want you to know what I'm trying to say and sometimes I ain't too good with my words. 102
 * I'll always remember that night when there waren't no moon and me and him walked home together. 102
 * It's easy to talk about being helpful, but actually doing what one has promised can be a lot more difficult. 106
 * Once she has prepared herself, she moves on to a more challenging task. 109
 * THe man put his hand to his ear and said, "Hark! what was that? " 109
 * Did I mislead you? DId I not tell you you'd be amazed? But, oh, ye of little faith, the story is not even half told. 110
 * The onlly clothes he was wearing was the bottom half of a woman's dress that looked like it waen't nothing but a bunch of long leafs sewed together. 111
 * PHYSICAL CLUE--- Slingshot
 * Every part of my body was trying to grab attention away from the next part. My ears were steady picking up sounds that I hadn't never heard nowhere else. 116
 * They kept calling out the same words over and over, sounding like the choir on sunday but without no real feeling of happiness in the words. 117
 * Why, terrible as those pictures were, I'd have paid a nickel to not go in and see'em! 117
 * he had sharp, yellow, jaggedy-looking bolts of lightning shooting di-rect out of his eyes. 118
 * His eyes looked a whole lot more like a dead person's eyes than a live person's. They were blank and blue and they 'peared to be looking square at you, but you could tell they waren't really seeing a thing. 121
 * how can you even think of relaxing at teh seashore whwen you are just a very few feet away from bathing in this great lakes waters. 129
 * it mostly reminded me of the cutting sounds that a pack of hounds makes once they commence to ripping a possum to shreds. 131
 * i'd druther have got floated into the ceiling for two hours than to stand there like that for two seconds. 133
 * the spell's over, pull your pants up you little chowder head. 133
 * I'm looking for the owner. and if you put another hand on me youll be pulling back a bloody stump. 134
 * indeed, indeed. I've worked years to assemble this family. 135
 * i just chalked it up to some more of that growned up behaviour that don't make no sense, it don't make no sense atall. 148
 * good morning, scholars, strivers, and questers for a better future! are you ready to learn, are you ready to grown? 153
 * total all of them things together and you end up with a frightsome mess that' likely to give you nightmares. but she toted it near everywhere but school. 157
 * Since we won the race, she always let the sin of envy choke her heart. 157
 * he says that the most hardest step to take is the very last one. 158
 * Don't say nothing more, brother. I know. I know it ain't been easy but you found where you're supposed to be. 161
 * they crashed one into the 'nother so hard ou'd think thy'd've knocked each other over, but they didn't. 162
 * i'll be blanged if bawling ain't someting akin to the measles or the chicken pox or the plague, once it grabs ahold of one person, seems like it snatches on to every other fragile person that's anywhere near. 163
 * look at that land! look at them trees! has y'all ever seen antying that precious? 164
 * i've had it explained to me plenty of times, but i ain't never gonna understand the purpose of having a piece of cloth made just for blowing your nose into. 166
 * and these were poor folks too, but they were so proud of us that they didn't mind doing without some things so's we could have the bell. 171
 * ten times to ring out their old lives and ten more to ring in their new ones, their free lives. 171
 * most times when you're doing something important you're supposed to use your fight hand, but we ask'em to use their left hand 'cause it's closest to their hearts. 171
 * it's loud enough that you'd be hearing it and nothing else for the longest if you didn't shove something in your ears 172
 * if you two cabbage heads don't take that cotton out your ears, I don't know what i'm a do to yall. 174
 * i knowed the next time i saw him he'd be smelling like powder and wearing a old pair of my britches. 175
 * she got a scar like a sliver of the moon on her left shoulder what run over and down on her chest. 178
 * maybe that's why it takes so long for you to grow up, maybe enough time's gotta go by for al lthe sense to get worned right out of you. 179
 * he'd been without that leg for so long that it looked like the crutches were a part of his body. it almost looked like he was dancing when he walked. 186
 * thanks for the kind word laddy. wouldnt matter much what we told him, his mind isn't amongst us anymore. 186
 * seems like they got ways of seeing things that ain't showing, and hearing things that ain't being said. 189
 * i'm afraid this mission is not one of glad tidings. I'm afraid i have some tragic news i must tell you. 196
 * read that part again, please, that part 'bout him getting punished. 197
 * all i hope is that he felt we got through. i hope he felt the joy and love y'all done give us this pass year. 197
 * His body could not endure. 199
 * i felt so proud I was afeared I'd bust, but all that happened was that same stuff in my nose commenced to loosening up and slopping 'round all over again! 200