In the Reeds

By Robin Brande

A Robin Brande Single.

 

Eleven-year-old Charlie works as many jobs as he can to help support his widowed mother and himself.

 

While fishing for their supper, he discovers a secret cargo inside his boat that could change their lives forever.

 

Maybe if his father was still alive, and maybe if they had more money, it would all work out somehow.

 

Miracles only seemed to happen in the olden days. But Charlie hopes for just one more miracle now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ryer Publishing
• Release date: Jul 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781946627896

Robin Brande

Award-winning author Robin Brande is a former trial attorney, entrepreneur, martial artist, law instructor, yoga teacher, wilderness adventurer, and certified wilderness medic. Her novels have been named Best Fiction for Young Adults by the American Library Association. She was selected as the Judy Goddard/Libraries Ltd. Arizona Young Adult Author of the Year in 2013. She writes fantasy, science fiction, contemporary young adult fiction, and romance.   

Book preview

1

Charlie ducked under the fence at the side of the Hamiltons’ farm and sneaked past where their mean yellow dog sometimes slept. This shortcut was always tricky, but it was the fastest way to the pond. Once he reached the woods behind their farm, no one would be able to see him. Charlie kept low as he ran barefoot across the overgrown field. All around he heard the brrr and click of grasshoppers whirring to get out of his way.

It was already hot and sticky out, even though he had finished his paper route early. The Davy Crockett coonskin cap he always wore was starting to itch from all his sweat, but Davy would have kept his on no matter what, so Charlie did too. Other mornings he might have slowed now that he had reached the woods, but today he only had an hour before he had to mow his first lawn, and he hoped to catch at least a few fish at Stilts’ pond before then.

It wasn’t stealing, not really, although he thought Pastor Weaver would probably say different. The Stilts hardly ever came back to their property now that they had the store up in Kirksville, and besides, it’s not like Charlie was trying to make any money from it. Paper delivery and mowing were about the only jobs and eleven-year-old boy could have in Macon these days, and it took a lot of hustle to get either. He knew boys from his class who only got whatever allowance their parents could afford. Since Charlie’s mother couldn’t afford any, he knew it was up to him.

The fish were for supper. He knew that was up to him, too.

He could smell the pond before he saw it. It always reminded him of moldy old socks. He thought it was probably because of all the weeping willows growing so thick along the bank and hanging so far into the water their leaves rotted and turned the pond dark green.

Charlie crawled under one of the willows and tugged at the edge of a canoe. He had found it hidden here a few years before, already leaky and covered in a worn out old army tarp. It leaked even worse now. Charlie kept an old coffee can on the bottom so he could start bailing almost the minute he paddled out from shore.

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