She watched the newspaper for sale ads and scoured the bargain basement at Hemphill-Wells. Her Christmas layaway at Cox-Rushing-Greer was, of necessity, smaller than usual. The war crawled on until August. There was talk of invading Japan at the cost of a million casualties. Then it ended in a literal flash. “The bomb” was on everyone’s lips. Jonny used his marbles to annihilate a small ant bed in the back yard and renamed his model airplane Enola Gay. Mrs. Lowe said they’d keep the Canteen going as long as there were boys waiting to go home. Celeste didn’t hear from Kent. Sometimes she felt overwhelming anger that kept her too tense to rest, and some nights she cried herself to sleep. Dreaming of the blue velvet curtain seemed to be a thing of the past. When Jonny started third grade the first week in September, Celeste told him he could walk home from school by himself, cautioning him about not deviating from his route or talking to strangers. She gave him a keychain with a key for the back door.
What do You think about Dancing With Velvet (2012)?
