Dance, Kayla!

By Darwin McBeth Walton

* DANCE, KAYLA! is an engaging novel about a young girl’s courage--how she coped with difficult changes in her life. Kayla dreams about her deceased mother--who she never knew--and lives with hope that her absentee, dancing father comes back into her life. Her grandmother’s sudden death robs Kayla of the only mother she had known and she leaves her beloved farm in South Carolina to begin a new life with her cousins and a big, inner-city school in Chicago. Through it all Kayla clings to her dream of becoming a ballerina!

* Reviewers give DANCE, KAYLA! five stars! It was chosen one of the best of children’s books by the Banks Street College Selection Committee. It’s a favorite of Mothers’ and Daughters’ book clubs, and kids say they love it! One sixth grade boy said, “Reading Kayla! changed my life!”

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 28, 2004
• ISBN: 9781418429621

Darwin McBeth Walton

* Darwin McBeth Walton, second oldest in a family of five girls, is the author of twelve children’s books. DANCE, KAYLA grew out of her recollection of fun-filled summer vacations on their grandparents’ South Carolina farm, roaming barefooted through the hot, sandy, pine forests, hunting lizzards and chameleons, and pretending to pick cotton and care for farm animals. She grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their special times were spent writing stories, singing, dancing, and performing for family and friends. * Walton studied at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, Howard University in Washington, D.C. and the Chicago Conservatory of Music. She enjoyed a brief music career, but declares, “My real passion is teaching, and writing for children is the offspring of that passion.” In 1973, while teaching in Elmhurst, IL, her landmark book, WHAT COLOR ARE YOU? was published. Walton has two children and one grandchild and she teaches at National-Louis University.

Book preview

© 2004 Darwin McBeth Walton All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 11/04/04

ISBN: 1-4184-2962-7 (e)

ISBN: 1-4184-2963-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4184-2962-1 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Walton, Darwin McBeth.

Dance, Kayla! / by Darwin McBeth Walton.

p. cm.

Summary: Brown-skinned, green-eyed Kayla demonstrates courage and perseverance when, after the death of her beloved grandmother, she is forced to leave her rural home and begin life anew with relatives in Chicago. She uses her dancing to help deal with her plight and the absence of her dancer father.

Fathers and daughters–Fiction. 2. Farm life–Fiction. 3. Dance–Fiction.

4. Chicago (Ill.)–Fiction. 5. Afro-Americans–Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.W1735Dan 1998

[Fic]–dc21

97-27857

CIP

AC

ID: DW23161

Text copyright ©1998 by Darwin McBeth Walton.

Cover illustration copyright © 2004 by Richard K. Stewart.

The design is by Richard K. Stewart

Dedication

V00_1418429627_TEXT.pdf

To John Claude

And to my favorite dancers:

Claudette, Sherry, Nellie,

Carla, Ingrid, Pamela, and Jerdine.

missing image file

And remembering with love:

My mother, Mary McBeth

And

My sister, Eunice

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For their patience and support I’d like to thank my daughter Claudette W. Giles, friends Ginger Wolgemuth, Eleanor Towns, Carol Shuh for

reading and Susie Farahat for research.

Also special thanks to my friends and colleagues, authors Glennette Tilly Turner; Pamela Pulice, my first editor Kathy Tucker at Albert Whitman Co, my personal P.R. persons Jane Stewart Heckman and Jacqueline McQueen.

My sister Mary M. Rapp for patiently tweaking my memory about the seasons in the South, my late uncle, Zellie Simons who was the Veterinarian of our family and still ‘down on the farm’ when this book was being ‘birthed’, my son John Walton and last but certainly not least, my husband, Claude.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One 

Down on the Farm

Chapter Two 

A Fish Story

Chapter Three 

A Small Miracle

Chapter Four 

The Storm

Chapter Five 

The Train Ride

Chapter Six 

Chicago!

Chapter Seven 

The Locket

Chapter Eight 

Kayla's New Family

Chapter Nine 

A Place to Dance

Chapter Ten 

School Daze

Chapter Eleven 

Everybody Goes When the Wagon Comes 

Chapter Twelve 

No Good News

Chapter Thirteen 

Opportunity Knocks

Chapter Fourteen 

The Audition

Chapter Fifteen 

The Wonder of It All

about -the -author

about the illustrator

missing image file

Prologue

missing image file

Kayla looked up from her food into the piercing green eyes of a tall, dark man entering the dining car. She held her breath. Could it be that her daddy had come after all?

It had been a long time—she was four when he last visited. The man stared at her for several seconds and then looked at Aunt Martha. When Aunt Martha flipped the page of her magazine, he hurried on through the car. Kayla’s heart sank. Maybe he wouldn’t know his daughter, but surely her daddy would have recognized Aunt Martha. She wouldn’t have changed much.

Kayla touched the gold locket hanging around her neck. The train wheels hummed rhythmically and she thought, over and over, Gran’s gone, now what will I do? With the back of her hand, Kayla wiped her burning eyes. She tried to focus on the dinner plate Aunt Martha had ordered. Much as she loved potato chips, these were hard to swallow. The ham in the sandwich was wet and salty and tasteless, nothing like Granpa’s smoked ham.

She thought about Granpa and how he had cried at the funeral.

Kayla hadn’t cried then. The tears wouldn’t come, even though she had stood between Aunt Martha and Granpa thinking that any minute she herself would surely die. People whispered behind their hands, Such a tragic thing for Kayla. What a brave girl. Someone said Poor thing, what’s to become of her?

Aunt Martha looked at Kayla’s practically untouched meal and closed her magazine. She said, C’mon, honey, let’s go. We’ll get a bite later. She left money for the bill, and they went back to the coach car where they would ride all night.

To Kayla, the last week was still like a dark and terrible dream. Her life had been changed forever because of the storm. She knew it had brought on Gran’s heart attack.

She wanted now—more than ever—to be with her daddy. Where was he? He hadn’t come to the funeral. No one had even heard from him.

She clutched her old rag doll for comfort and slumped against the uncomfortable train seat. Over and over she had dreamed about that oddly mixed-up day and dreadful night. Now the rhythm of the train lulled her to sleep, and the dream started again.

missing image filemissing image file

Chapter One

Down on the Farm

missing image file

Just a week ago, Kayla had awakened with a feeling that something unusual was going to happen. She lay still, watching the white lace curtains fluttering in the wind. Maybe I’ll get the letter from Daddy today…nope, that couldn’t be it. Must be something else. Still, it won’t hurt to hope for a letter.

She jumped out of bed. From her window she could see bright green cotton bushes glistening in the sun. Way back in the hills, tall pine trees swayed gently in the morning breeze. The scent of magnolia, mixed with Gran’s fried bacon, drifted into her room. Except for the spooky feeling, it was like any other summer morning.

She put on her underwear, including a new training bra. Gran said she didn’t need it, but wearing a bra made Kayla feel all grown-up. After all, she will be in sixth grade when school opens in the fall.

She slipped a worn sea-green tee-shirt over her head. Her aunt Martha had sent it from Chicago with a note saying it matched Kayla’s eyes. Kayla hated people to mention her eyes. She didn’t know a single person with green eyes—except her dad. Once, when she was around seven, a kid in the supermarket had yelled to his mom to look at the brown girl with the cat eyes! Everybody had turned to look. The woman had apologized. Not cat eyes, Jimmy, she has lovely green eyes. Kayla realized then that her eyes were unusual for a brown-skinned person.

She picked up a gold heart-shaped locket from the table and ran her fingers over the design around the edge. A tiny pearl glowed from the center. She opened the locket and gazed lovingly at miniature photos of her mother and daddy. Then she hooked the delicate link chain around her neck. She put the locket on every morning, and it was the last thing she took off at night. Daddy had sent it for her sixth birthday.

Hey, Kayla! A familiar voice came from outside. Wanna go fishin’?

Kayla went to the window. Cheefus, the boy who lived on the neighboring farm, was standing near the magnolia tree. She rested her arms on the sill. Why you askin’ me? Did everybody die or run away from home or somethin’?

Nobody can go, he grumbled. Jamie and Diggy had to go to the dentist. He moved his bare foot around in the sand. Ma has a hankerin’ for some catfish. You remember that big one I caught in March? I been tryin’ to catch the mate. Ma’s been braggin’ about me being such a good fisherman and all, so I thought I’d try and catch it for her Mother’s Day present.

Kayla said, Mother’s Day is past.

I know, but I didn’t get her nothin’.

A cat fish ain’t much better than nothin’.

"Well, that’s what she wants. But she won’t let me go by myself. She said too many weird things happenin’ these days, even way out here on the farm. She keeps remindin’ me of