Leeva at Last 1: Leeva 2: The newspaper 3: Fetching the newspaper 4: Jumped off the step, waded through the weeds, worked her hands through the hedge 5: Towering hedge 6: The person who delivered the paper 7: A woman gripping a little boy by the hand 8: From the right 9: Hello! I am here! And you are here! 10: Saying, I am here! And you are here! 11: The words seemed too important to call through a hedge 12: Scooped up the toddler and crossed the street 13: Avoiding an invisible barbed wire fence 14: Until she was out of sight 15: Better luck next week 16: The improve your vocabulary column filler 17: There was never any actual news, but a new word, complete with definition, every week 18: Nutsmore Announces Opening Day of School for Children Six and Older 19: 8&9 20: She didn't know her birthday 21: Five weeks and 3 days 22: After dinner 23: They would be in the least rotten of moods they simmered in all day 24: Her mother was the mayor and her father was the treasurer 25: Her parents probably already knew about the school 26: The soap opera The Winds of Our Tides 27: The Cleverton family 28: Twin daughters 29: For you, darlings! Ta-da! 30: There was a first time for everything 31: Bookkeeping problem, sharpening mother's shoes, chores, exercise, watch soap opera 32: Bedtime in the Cleverton house 33: Vim and Vigor at Any Age 34: Half-gasp, Half-wail 35: A place between 2 cabinets where a diswasher used to be 36: Leeva had grown tall enough to reach the sink 37: Sunk to the floor in shock, calculated if she spent 30min washing dishes for 10yrs, 109560min traded 50$ 38: School! Finally out into the world! 39: Deluxe-Notably luxurious or sumptious;of a superior kind 40: A tingle 41: 6:20 42: When her parents came 43: Heaved a sigh 44: She hasn't made us any richer, she hasn't made us any more famous. She might as well serve our meals! 45: 2 46: Cheap-O-Depot grocery warehouse, Rock-Bottom-Sale shelf 47: Cheezaroni 48: Mac & Cheese, but they were indistinguishable from each other and the box 49: Flavourless cardboardy mash that smelled powerfully of feet 50: Once a month 51: It reduced the cost of turning on the oven 52: Night and day 53: Celebrities this week 54: Famous people dining on trendy dishes 55: Actor in restauraunt eating eel custard with boar's knuckle jelly 56: Leftovers from parents' meals 57: 6:40 58: 2 59: Money talks 60: Celebrities tonight 61: Crawling on her hands and knees 62: Fame 63: Fame is the most powerful power there is 64: Shoot them a glare hot enough to fry bacon 65: Don't you know who I am? If you have a complaint, I will fire you. Do you have a complaint? 66: No 67: Fire me? From what job? 68: The job of being mayored by me, Also now I'm fining you a Talk-Back-Tax. Stop talking and go away. 69: Her shoes 70: 100s of pairs 71: Stacked in a tower 72: 5 inches 73: Powerful height advantage and a signature look 74: Splinter shins 75: Crystal beads at the bottom 76: Clink when she walked and scritch when she ground them in fury 77: People knew when to get out of Mrs. Thornblossoms way 78. Malicia Thornblossom 79: Money 80: The townspeople 81: In shoeboxes in a locked bedroom upstairs 82: Why 2 despicably selfish human beings ever had a child 83: The host said, Here’s Hollywood’s most famous couple with their new little bundle of joy 84: A baby is a fashion accessory that adds to one’s signature look, Like a pocketbook. We’ll get one 85: They signed a contract to star in a movie for the most money ever 86: A nincompoop 87: After both her parents had finished their dinners 88: Stretch out her arms 89: Comment on how notable Taffy Glamoo’s new hairdo was 90: A throne like chair 91: Jabbed his calculator keys at a determined clip 92: That her arms were dropping 93: Turn up the volume on her set 94: Hunched closer over his calculator, muttering 95: Her nails bitten as neatly as she could manage, her brown finger-combed braids, faded yellow dress 96: Child stars in mother’s magazine, winds of our tides characters 97: As if they couldn’t see or hear her 98: Because of the exciting news 99: Blew a quick kiss at her reflection in the mirror 100: Said it exactly the same way the Cleverton girls greeted all their suprises 101: Cast a suspicious glance over at his wife 102: The statue of herself 103: Look of alarm 104: Calm-down hands 105: The townspeople 106: Statues are of famous people and famous people have statues 107: 50 feet 108: Seperate sculptor, 5 feet at the heels, gold-plated 109: Life-size, her mother’s shoes were alarming enough 110: Breathtaking finality, she had a lot of practice saying people can’t do things, showed 111: All children six and older are expected to attend grades 1 through 12, in 5wk & 3dy 112: Counting money 113: Tap a stilletoed heel 114: Her father was trying to solve a 3 percent divident yield and Leeva supplied the answer 115: Picked up his calculator 116: Zeroed in on Famous in a Flash 117: Random person given 10-year contract to live in Hollywood as a reality star 118: Because Leeva’s parents didn’t tell her about the school even though they already knew 119: Why should we 120: Since always, big deal, who cares 121: That they were only in soap operas and that real towns didn’t have them 122: Because the truth hit her like a bowling ball: her parents had lied to her 123: The stories they told to each other at night, how they got their jobs 124: Devastating, what you thought was solid ground is nest of spider bones 125: All senses quicker, eyes & ears crackles, skin zizzle, sharpen wits, boldness and lazer-like 126: Human Inanities, Music la-di-la, Literature-shmiterature, poetry-shmoetry, art 127: Because she only has to make them money 128: “Money can get you fame and fame can get you money” giving her husband a sly wink 129: Locked bedroom, shoeboxes came in but didn’t come out 130: Because he never used it 131: Both programs ended 132: People 133: You think people are more important than money or fame 134: What are people for 135: As if it had been an accomplishment 136: Getting money from and being famous to 137: In the winds of our tides people were looking for others 138: Burst into rooms, careened through towns, flew across continents 139: The most important question ever asked 140: Her Employee Manual 141: Mr. Thornblossom seemed confused 142: A pen and Leeva’s Employee Manual 143: So hard her hair-tower fell off 144: Like something was trying to push its way out of her 145: Cheap-O-Depot grocery warehouse, Little Miss and Little Mister Nutsmore Pageant 146: Aisles a wonderland of colors and signs and smells 147: Hustle into an office, ask for Leeva’s job shelf stocker night shift 148: Shelf stocker, 8pm to 4am includes mopping 149: Bring her back when she’s sixteen 150: Hauled her out of her crib, slapped makeup on face, shellacked hair into fountain, wrap in sequin netting 151: At a break in her program 152: Lights, banners, dozens of other little boys and girls 153: Leeva had never learned a dance step, a note of music or a line of poetry 154: Money monthly and Celebrities this week magazines 155: Using the magazines 156: At the next door building because she had seen people inside 157: 7 days a week 158: Paved drive with yellow arrows, passed a stoop, walk past pot of herbs, chair, table, opened door 159: Boxes, umbrellas, skateboards, gloves, helmets 160: Frame draped in canvas, cushions, geraniums, chairs, rugs, open doors, books 161: The room 162: Winds of our Tides, mother’s program 163: Because he was wearing a tie 164: Being really looked at 165: Because she studied the Winds of our Tides 166: She wanted to say it for years, but there was nothing roomy or comfortable in her house 167: Because his aunt cracked her knees 2 months ago while doing an ollie-with-a-three-sixty and she can't get down the stairs 168: Harry Flowers 169: Pauline Flowers 170: Fiction and non-fiction and Harry and Pauline lived on the third floor 171: Oatmeal-apricot cookies 172: To make every cookie recipe in the world 173: His aunt washing the dishes 174: Such complex emotion that Leeva couldn't read it 175: Matching books up with readers 176: Gave at pat on the sholder because in the winds of our tides it was comforting 177: The sentences were all about someone called Nancy who never did anything interesting at all 178: The ones his aunt suggested 179: Fluffed the branches back in place 180: Twelve-one o' clock 181: Nurse Blackberry told her mother to leave a space but she ended up having to write it in in an attractive manner 182: It made her feel like she was on the team of people who visited the library 183: Harry really listened to her 184: New kid, Charlotte's web, Where the mountain meets the moon, Bud, not Buddy, Other Words for home, One crazy summer, Because of Winn-Dixie 185: Incredible, courageos, somber, hilarious, steadfast value of dogs 186: Find dog afraid of lightning, eat pickles with, save your life because you are a runt, pretending to be family for runaway boy meal, lonely, scared 187: Go back to bed 188: Scarf, earrings, purple hair, glasses as pink as flamingos 189: Royal Shakespeare acting school 190: Funny or serious, here or far away 191: Put his finger to his lips, plucked paper from pot of basil, hurried inside without answering Leeva 192: Cheap-O-Depot give 5% of to senoir citizens 193: Powder his moustahe, bend over a cane, shuffle into the store to claim discount on 50 Cheezaroni blocks 194: If he saw her, how would Leeva avoid saying her forbidden name 195: He could hear if the phone ringed 196: A few books tumbled onto a folded quilt 197: Tuna fish and frilly lettuce on soft buns, carrot sticks, a bunch of purple grapes 198: Do not tell that child I am angry. I am way beyond that. I am infuriated. I am seething with rage. I am on fire with righteous indignation 199: Indignation is a kind of outrage, righteous means the outrage is about something unfair 200: To walk someone else's path 201: She could walk Harry's path 202: Almond Avenue 203: 115 Filbert Street one half cup sesame seeds 204: Birds sang, Trees reached their leafy arms into the blue sky, flowers waved their sweet-smelling blooms as if greeting her 205: Swing sets, tree houses, popsicle sticks, gum wrappers 206: FRISK INSURANCE- Life Is Risky, Insure With Frisky 207: Crocodiles, Avalanches, Rolling out of bed, Blowfish livers, sword-swallowing, murder hornets, strangle, trip, swallow in sleep 208: Twenty-seven ninety-nine a month, peace of mind 209: A hazardous material suit 210: Osmund 211: Beady black eyes, striped forehead, tail like someone had forgotten to finish the job 212: Bob 213: Bob sneezed, Osmund scooped him to his chest, parents went screaming to get the hatchet 214: To make a nest under the kitchen sink 215: The encouraging way it straightened her shoulders, the way it seemed to say You can do it 216: Tie was gone, red running shoes, dress shirt flap open over bright T-shirt and jeans 217: It helps centre him while going from Harry the librarian to Harry the actor 218: All sizes, ages, colors, shapes, sitting along, walking in pairs, playing in groups 219: Our Town by Thornton Wilder 220: She refused to take part in the play 221: Buying an elevator for the library 222: No and yes with more oomph and pizzazz 223: Crispy, Chewy, Crunchy, Double-Ginger, Triple-Ginger, Old-Fashioned, New-Fashioned 224: Snapped batteries into calculator, turned up volume on television 225: Half-eaten Cheezaroni block 226: One of the characters from the books she read 227: Appaling, bad-tempered, malodorous, related to skunks and weasles 228: Making a promise 229: Waking up in an anxious cloud 230: Coffee and grapefruit, coffee and half of Cheezaroni block 231: To let him know she hadn't meant what she said 232: The gasket 233: Pressed Cheezaroni around the area where the gasket had been 234: They were in the book return that morning 235: If a certain small badger needed someone to take care of him, Leeva would be a good choice 236: She would tell Harry who she was before Mrs. Flowers opened the window 237: Grilled cheese sandwich on rye bread, mug of creamy tomato soup 238: One dried orange peel 239: Guatemalan champurradas 240: Because Osmund took the books out and he had hidden them from his parents 241: She bundled up the old Nutsmore weeklys 242: There were so many things he could use the old issues for 243: Burning them for heat, fans, window shades, coverlet, slippers, stool 244: Only improve your vocabulary pages 245: Her father said she should to save on the cost of electricity 246: Top floor filled with greenish paper, bottom filled with grayish paper 247: Glittery napkin ring 248: Osmund 249: How to get onto the sidewalk 250: Hedge in the back 251: Worms which were delicious, cigarette butts were not, smashed wren's egg fragility of life, torn lottery tickets optimism & desperation, clown nose interpretation 252: One's point of view 253: A hazardous material 254: Animals, action figure caped in surgical mask, board written safety-land, path of squares, middle 2 dice and stack of cards labelled danger 255: Blue, Steel toes, level C, graded for outdoor hazards 256: He thought there could be rocks, poisonous snakes, falling trees, asteroids, trains 257: Cheezaroni trays and masking tape, extra one in winter 258: It's harder to become famous or make money without going to school 259: An old man had read a poem to himself and he had been crying but smiling, he put it back on the shelf and his bow tie on top 260: Choose an animal, roll the two dice, move that amount, choose the card, do the animal movement or say protect us Osmundio 3 times. 261: Divine protector 262: The little kid saying that's the worst dog I ever saw 263: Her father or mother does it 264: She saw photo of child star in mother's magazine with braids with parents gazing adoringly the braids felt like parents hands so she kept them 265: Fern 266: Kitchen filled with strange, sharp odor, old couple sprawled over the table, sleeping 267: Fern's great-grandparents 268: Fern patting their heads 269: Dandelion stew 270: To put vim and vigor at any age 271: As a symbol for luck 272: Tax-Challenging Tax because parents asked why taxes were high 273: Bright and comforting 274: A comb wrapped in cellophane, red plastic, stamped in gold Frisk Insurance, Let us Untangle your Insurance Needs 275: Her father kept a ledger and she had to pay for them when she got a job 276: Watering the herbs with the spigot around the corner, across from the book drop 277: Orange Biscotti 278: Half-moon 279: A dud, slept, waddled around, dug holes, disposition uniformly crabby, almost no intrest in Leeva, always raised a skeptical eyebrow 280: Sometimes, nothing is exactly what you want to hear 281: 3 muffins, 3 hard-boiled eggs, 3 tall glasses of orange juice 282: Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth 283: Glasses like scallop shells, earrings silver books with tiny strings of red beads for bookmarks, smell of vanilla and baked sugar 284: Downstairs, cookbooks and town reports 285: If she fit Bob's paws with Cheezaroni trays, he would sleep most of the night 286: Luminescence-the emission of light by an object that has not been heated 287: All the constellations, periodic table, all 195 countries, depths of the lakes, height of mountains, length of rivers, salinity of seas 288: In case Bob's badger nature became a problem 289: To the park 290: ''Rusty nails, pesticides, wolverines, I don't know what else! Bring him back!'' 291: Round blue tin decorated with snowmen and sparkly little snow mice with a dozen cookies 292: The inprove your vocabulary words sprinkled around 293: The golden compass 294: Crypt 295: You can't put an oak tree into an acorn, rainstorm back into cloud, milkshake back into cow 296: Map, comb, library books, cookie tin, pajamas, change of clothes, toothbrush and toothpaste, onion bag with scrids from mom's soaps 297: Write I quit in the employee manual 298: To hide out in the book drop 299: Size and shape of thinking spot, faded yellow-and-white checkerboard quilt, soft, blue satin border had been rubbed off at one place 300: Hippopotamuses run amok 301: Cool air from angled roof no rain her parents will not come in and Harry and his aunt were close 302: Washed in the public park bathroom, long, isolated route back to the library, choose wilderness survival books on non-fiction 303: ''Sharing. Everything that happens is better when someone else shares it with you. Happiness, sadness, being scared, being excited, Even this! Spitting!'' 304: Over the driveway 305: Cold milk and a thermos 306: Half-pound of cream cheese, 222 Walnut way 307: Insuring 308: Shabby, old 309: Kittens 310: Old couple, whole room for cats which was screened, with plants and tree branches nailed up, gave pop-bead collar to Leeva 311: Harry gave first cat ten years ago, shovelling driveway and they gave cocoa after and said how lonely they were 312: 1.9 313: Because he saw a poster for the statue unveiling 314: If they had kids, they would probably turn out awful too 315: Reading in the library until closed, circled block until Harry emerged at five-fifteen 316: Fern could act as the little girl 317: To watch families in kitchens, making meals together 318: Made her throat hurt 319: Karate magazine, picture book about bees, how-to Living Big in Your Tiny House : 'Hang mirrors! Take the doors off! Paint the walls a light color!' 320: Woke early, erase all traces, park bathroom, library helping, lunch, ingredient-fetching, park, Fern's house, wandered through streets, read books 321: Acted scene at dog's grave so compellingly they cried real tears 322: Have you ever noticed such high hair Mrs. Thornblossom has 323: Mrs Thornblossom asked to put up statue unveiling poster and her portrait but Mrs. Flowers didn't 324: Workers measuring & carting materials said, ''Now she wants the pedestal taller. Says she wants people to look up to her. Fired sculptor yesterday, fired me twice!'' 325: So violently it snapped off 326: A rainbow 327: He had trouble with the dialogue in his play 328: Toast 329: The people choosing books 330: Nearly made her swoon, eyes closed in ecstacy, sighing in bliss, beyond deluxe, half-suprised to find she was still on earth 331: Curled up in a pot of oregano 332: Blistering crack, cleaved metal, Harry cry out, ''Stop! Stop!'' and worst sound ever heard in her life, Pauline cry out, ''No! No! No!'' as if heart being cut out 333: Books knocked from shelves, armchairs overturned, front doors hang crookedly from hinges, chunk of plaster fell at Leeva's feet, ragged hole in ceiling of non-fiction 334: The elevator 335: In shock, carried as if Mrs. Flowers was a large, fragile egg, eyes glassy, pupils huge, Leeva made him lie down and feet on a stool 336: Sweeping and placing books on shelves 337: Pauline saw her coming through the hedge on the first day and she told Harry 338: Peppermint sprinkles, Coco-Mint Pinwheels 339: As if somebody had dropped a lead blanket over her shoulders 340: Do children always turn out like the people who raised them 341: Raised his hands and pointed down at himself as if to say yes, here's proof 342: So kindly it felt like he was patting her shoulder with his eyes 343: Smelt like vanilla and baked sugar, felt the way cookies would feel if they were made into a coat 344: We ourselves not the stars hold our destiny fear not the fickle storms of fate welcome instead the steady currents of your soul take thou thine clay & sculpt from it a stairway to reach thine dreams 345: What your parents give you is like a car and you can do anything with it 346: A puddle 347: When a bird seemed to disappear into her ear 348: Drowning, broken glass, germs, bacteria, mosquito larvae, parasites, rat bites 349: She thought she wasn't fit to give him advice 350: Shoving a tall bookcase across the room 351: Because there was no plot or characters 352: 499, 611 two years ago, 328, 640 last year, 1 million to each elementary, middle and high school, 200, 050 to the community theatre 353: Cheated, using shady accounting 354: Because she had been doing the accounting ( The bookeeping problems she did ) 355: At the base of an old oak tree 356: Like someone had scraped out her insides with a grapefruit spoon 357: Fill the money boxes with dandelion-stew-stained newspaper 358: Leeva ran up and down the stairs fetching books and Harry manned the checkout desk 359: Because she did the accounting 360: Pecan Place 47, 48 orange jelly beans 361: Filled-up-with-a-soup-ladle feeling 362: She knew that quoting doomful probabilities made Osmund feel calm 363: Gave him the smoking glare 364: Her great-grandparents got so vimful and vigorous that they take care of her brothers and sisters 365: Because they grew with no one caring for them 366: Osmund was tongue-tied by fear, and Fern by shyness 367: Squeezed her hands behind her back? 368: Just nodding 369: He had an early end to his tunneling 370: For Bob to go through her bedroom wall to get to the money 371: 10,000 dollars 372: Put sheets of newspaper in cupboards, erased afternoon film 373: Astonishment, disbelief, hopefulness, disbelief, belief, joy 374: Books, computers, fixing the stairs, story-hour pillows, puppets, tambourines, health insurance, another elevator 375: Stew with chewy bread to dunk and crunchy new apples 376: Dried figs 377: Almond butter balls, crunchy with a tart orange jelly bean on top 378: Community theatre tomorrow, park, police and fire station over weekend, schools on Monday 379: Fiddle with the velcro at his cuffs 380: Alacrity- a brisk and cheerful readiness, a good one, but not good enough to produce a tingle 381: Shock-absorbing pool noodles duct taped to the sides, hazard lights looped around roof, seat with protective harness and crash helmet, black bugle horn 382: To stick to the pedals so Osmund could reach them sitting down 383: He did show readyness but it was by no means brisk or cheerful 384: When she reached for the horn Osmund shot her a look that made her shove her hands into her pockets, she took them out to wave at the people who waved at her 385: Because Bob woke up in a bad mood 386: In the waistband of her shorts 387: The person in the cape, Broad type 388: Direct your acting to only one person 389: Eyes squeezed shut: heart attack, fluttered closed: fainted 390: She wanted to tell her family about being in the play 391: A relative of Bob, twice his size 392: Pleased, but made her throat sting as if a sour lemon was stuck down there 393: Because someday you have to let it go 394: Gave her a single braid? 395: Because it gave her a comforting pat at every step 396: Because Leeva had nothing to give 397: Most adults don't believe children because they are children, that not believing them is foolish 398: Shiny bell look like it want to ring itself, swings shifted like they couldn't wait to get swinging, sliver slide winked in morning sun 399: School's guard dog, short, stout, black and white dress 400: Young woman in snappy red tracksuit 401: To give to the townspeople 402: 210 people each one gets 8,460 dollars 403: Giving them out at the play 404: Gave his first hazmat suit because Osmund used to be so scared he couldn't leave his house 405: To protect principle Buggums head because he didn't have any hair and his skull might crack 406: That it was the third Monday of the month 407: He had been telling Mrs. Thornblossom that Leeva could easily make a drape for the statue out of newspaper instead of gold 408: By helicopter 409: ''Did you see my portrait everywhere?'' 410: Nope 411: Picking things up, dusting, wiping, tried to do Vim and Vigor at any age, tried to talk to Harry through the hedge, ate Cheezaroni, write to Harry, watch opera 412: That she mattered 413: Osmund 414: Only few lines, important one an address up to universe 415: ''I'll be so famous! Admission, ten dollars!'' 416: Single braid, newest dress inside out, pillowcase ver shoulders, strappy sandals from pizza brochure 417: For a flyswatter 418: Sparkled crisp like ginger ale 419: To tell everyone to open it sitting down at home later 420: 15 packets 421: March Fourth 422: Tree, desk, chair 423: The question 424: Soft and healing light, like moon's glow over dark and aching world 425: After a dozen curtain calls 426: Using the scenery tree trunk 427: When she was tracing Pegasus 428: Like daggers 429: She knew the pedestal would not hold 430: To send Famous in a Flash the film 431: The shoeboxes and mirrors 432: Like if she had been trying to push an enormous boulder her whole life and had finally given up 433: Grateful Relief 434: Move into Leeva's house, Mrs. Flowers' room beside Leeva's, Harry in other bedroom 435: Cut an opening through the hedge, cut off the briars 436: Third floor to cookbooks, town reports shelf up front 437: Nutsmore voted for it in the New Voices scholarship