Flipped

by Wendelin Van Draanen

mason

lookout

He gets this look in his eye like he’s transcended the yard,

I needed to start looking at the whole landscape.

“Proper lighting is everything, Julianna.”

“A painting is more than the sum of its parts,”

he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light,

but put them all together and you’...

And the higher I got, the more amazed I was by the view.

I wanted to see it, to feel it, again. And again.

blazing

It was on a day like that when my father’s notion of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts moved from my head to my heart. The view from my sycamore was more than rooftops and clouds and wind and colors combined. It was magic.

marv...

How was that possible? How could I be so full of peace a...

Turn down a chance to feel magic for fear of a little dirt?

felt a somewhat lonely joy as I looked out over the world.

I found myself talking to the tree. An entire conversation, just me and a tree. And on the climb down I felt like crying. Why didn’t I have someone real to talk to?

implying

tunneling

Love is something to be afraid of,

doofus.

bouncing

“You don’t have to be an immediate expert at everything,

The idea here is to learn something new.

poultry.

sensible

roly-polys

wound up

dazed

retreat

I felt odd. Out of sorts. Disconnected from everything around me.

startled

flustered

dive!”

choked out,

cracked open.

harass

cluck-faced jerk.

thrashing

grunting

gro...

snuck

trekking

crouched

knee-high in nettles,

check out the digs?

“One’s character is set at an early age, son. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life.”

the next time you’re faced with a choice, do the right thing. It hurts everyone less in the long run.

being all chatty,

callously