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Where Love Goes - Excerpt 3
by Joyce Maynard

Published 1995, Crown

.....It's been just the two of them living here in Blue Hills for a long time now -- Ursula and her dad. They're doing fine too.

School days she wakes him up and he makes her eggs. She puts out the silverware and pours him his juice. Sometimes she pretends she's a waitress and he's the customer. "What can I get for you, sir?" she asks him in this voice she has that sounds like a grown-up.

"Cup of coffee would be just dandy, little missy," he says. He has made it, but he lets her pour his cup now, and she has never spilled, not even once. He takes milk and sugar.

"Your paper, sir," she says.

"Much obliged, ma'am," he says. He talks in a cowboy accent. "Why don't you just set down a spell and join me? Give them dogs a rest."

Then the two of them have their eggs, and maybe a bowl of cereal and a doughnut or a muffin. Saturdays he makes French toast. Sundays, waffles. They watch cartoons together. She may color. He reads the sports page.

On school days he walks her to the bus before heading out for his job, teaching biology at the community college. Ever since her dad heard about the big kid that used to tease her at the bus stop, he waits until Mrs. Kolivas pulls up. "You're my little treasure," he whispers in her ear as he hands her her lunchbox. They bought it before she found out that all the popular kids just carry bags. She still carries the lunchbox so she won't hurt his feelings.

Jake -- the big kid -- never messes with Ursula anymore. Not since her dad went up to him and told him, "I understand you've been making some comments to my daughter. Mind repeating them to me?"

All the kids at the bus stop looked at them then. Jake is a very big kid -- fifth grade -- but Ursula's dad is much bigger. He used to be on the wrestling team. Also football. He could squish Jake with his little finger.

"It was nothing," Jake told him finally, after a minute or so passed and Ursula's dad was still holding on to the back of his jacket. "I didn't mean nothing."

"You think calling a six year old kid Miss Piggy is nothing, huh?" he said. "You planning on holding on to your nuts a few more years?"

Ursula knows some kids would be embarrassed if their dad did something like this. But she was just proud. Nobody in the whole world has a dad like hers.

"What was that," he said. "I didn't hear an answer."

"Yes," said Jake. "Yes I do."

"You plan on giving my daughter any more trouble, son?" her dad asked him. He was still holding on to Jake's jacket. None of the other kids at the bus stop was saying anything, not even Wayne, the patrol. Ursula knew patrols were supposed to report it if grown-ups gave anybody trouble at the bus stop. She also knew Wayne never would on account of he also planned on holding onto his nuts.

"No way," he said.

"That's what I thought," said her dad. "Just checking."

Excerpt 1 • Excerpt 2

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Where Love Goes Soundtrack

A soundtrack for a book? That's right! Find out how the recording came to be, who's on it, listen to samples, and order a copy for yourself -- available only here, on the official Joyce Maynard website.

 

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