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nancy@nancykeane.com
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Duncan,
Lois
GALLOWS HILL
New York : Delacorte, 1997.
IL YA RL 6.6
ISBN 038532331X |
| (I
brought in a paperweight to use as a prop.) It was supposed to be
merely a paperweight. A paperweight I used to tell fortunes at the
Halloween Carnival. Simply a prop while Kyra fed me information via
her walkie-talkie and my earphones. It was all just a lark until
Charlie came for his fortune. Charlie is overweight and the other
kids call him Lard Ass. He seemed likable, though, so I decided to
give him a good fortune. But as I’m telling Charlie about going
on a cruise to Hawaii it’s as if the paperweight was filling up with smoke.
In the smoke I see Charlie at the top of a flight of steps. A foot
snags his ankle and he pitches down the steps. It’s just a paperweight.
I can’t tell Charlie he’s going to fall down a flight of steps. When
I look back into the globe, it’s clear. No smoke, no visions.
I rush Charlie out of the booth and close down for the night.
On Monday Charlie comes to school with a cast on his right arm. He
had fallen down a flight of stairs. It was just a coincidence.
I couldn’t have predicted it. But after Eric convinces me to set
up a fortune telling business, it happens again, and again. What
sort of force is working through something that should be just a paperweight?
(Mary Huebscher, Librarian, Holy Cross High School,
San Antonio, TX 78228 <marwood45@hotmail.com>) |
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SUBJECTS:
Witchcraft -- Fiction.
Extrasensory perception -- Fiction.
Reincarnation -- Fiction. |
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Permission is granted for the
noncommercial duplication and use of this resource, provided it is substantially
unchanged from its present form and appropriate credit is given.
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