Stella by Starlight By Sharon M Draper-pdfread.net

12
Spoon Man’s Coming!
Saturday morning bloomed bright like, hmm, Stella tried to think of a
description her teacher would like. A sky full of daylilies! That wasn’t so bad,
Stella thought. She had turned the paper in to Mrs. Grayson yesterday,
who had grunted with approval and given her a grade of C. Stella,
relieved, wondered if there would still be a conversation between her
teacher and her mother. Mrs. Grayson did not say, and Stella for sure
didn’t ask.
So that afternoon, when Mama told Stella to get Papa’s hammer and a
few nails and fix some porch planks that had worked loose, she’d jumped
at the chance to be helpful, just in case. “Ouch!” she cried out, putting her
thumb in her mouth for the second time that day. Holding the nail was
easy. Banging it into the wood was a little trickier.
Bap! Bap! Bap! She finally had a rhythm going, enjoying the sun on her
back, when Jojo looked up from slapping whitewash on the front fence.
“Lookie, Stella!” he cried out all of a sudden, happily. “Spoon Man’s
coming!”
Stella dropped the hammer, swung open the front door, and hollered,
“Hey, Mama! The Spoon Man—he’s coming up the road, Mama! Come
outside quick!”
Her mother rushed out to the porch, a bandanna on her head, a scrub
brush in her hand, and a grudging smile on her face. “Well-a, well-a.
Lordy be.”
“Can we look? Please, Mama? Can we look at what he’s got?”
“Of course, honeygirl.” Her mother dried her hands on her apron. “I
might even take a gander at his goods myself.” Jojo and Stella raced ahead
of her.
“What you bring me, Spoon Man?” Jojo demanded, meeting the visitor
before he even pulled into the yard. “You got candy?” Dusty sniffed