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The kids in Manningsport viewed a native Californian as exotic and fascinating, nother stutter as a little bit glamorous
Em’s relationship with her parents i to look into their faces; the phone and e them that she, who had never joined any school club before, was now on the hockey tea didn’t awaken the stutter like talking did Well, she could hear their relief
Nana’s house was a cozy bungaloith clever little cupboards and sills, and a stained glasson the way up the stairs In the nice weather, Nana sat on the sweet little front porch, chatting with passersby (which just didn’t happen where Ehbor to corandfather had died when she was sht was adorable
And it was nice being useful to Nana, shoveling the sidewalk and scraping the car, running to the grocery store three blocks away E So out and study and eat Nana’s fabulous desserts
Another benefit of living in New York--she could be closer to Kevin
They were still hours apart, but they planned it carefully; if her grandmother would drive her down to Connecticut once in October and once in February (and Nana would--she was a big believer in ro, Christ break, then they could see each other almost every month They wrote, emailed, talked on the phone, and it was always the sareat Kevin was funny and nice andsafe He would never make fun of her Never reject her
In February of that first school year, Eot a call from her mom
"We have a wonderful, wonderful surprise for you," she said "You’re a big sister! Here Want to talk to her?"
"W-hat?"
"Hello?" caela Ahly translated,champion
Emmaline meant little rival Also laborious Her middle naists could ela was ten years old Her biological parents had died long ago, and she’d been raised in an orphanage She was very nice And ses And beautiful, even at ten, big exotic eyes and long graceful limbs She was extraordinarily polite and called their parents Mama and Papa, with the emphasis on the second syllable, sothan plain old Mom and Dad
It was hard not to feel a littlereplaced Her parents would call to list Angela’s accomplishments and qualities So with Nana, but they did seeela loved nothing more than the times Em was home on break She’d leave bouquets of flowers on Em’s pillow, tuck little notes into her suitcase For that first Christmas with the Neals, she made Emmaline a beautiful scarf she’d woven herself in the Ethiopian tradition
So sure, Eet to see her reat
In the ether With hi jokes didn’t get so strangled by the stutter With hih the kids in Manningsport were nicer, E to her parents
But with Kevin, she was norh school, their roan And then, one day during her sopho edy, the professor told the students they’d be reading aloud, just a few lines each
Emmaline’s heart sank Her stutter had quieted down over the years, but it was still there, especially when she was forced to perfore froan, the boy who sat in front of her, was a drama major, and he read in a beautiful British accent, quite e the part of Bad Guy Ed Lear with the body of his beloved daughter The most important part of the play The stutter rubbed its bone hands together in glee Her classined herself as Sir Ian McKellen, then looked at her book and read
"Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are ues and eyes, I’d use theone for ever!"
The stutter’s jawbone dropped in shock
Her words had come out with a British accent, too, and she hadn’t stuttered once
"Nice, Eie, take it up"
Ee sensation filled her chest
It was joy
Froine the words in an accent, and her brain and throat detoured around the stuck sounds like a car veering around a roadblock After all those years, her probleone When she told her parents, they were quiet for a minute Stunned
"That’s wonderful!" Molad for you," Dad said froetting a divorce, by the way," Moe for Angela Or you, for that matter"
One day about a month later, she and Kevin were at his off-ca in his queen-size bed He was quiet
"Everything okay?" she asked
After a long minute, he said, "You don’t stutter any to jinx it
"It’s a little weird," he said "I don’t know We both had athinge first one"
"Well You never know" She paused, feeling al to couess"