For as long as I can remember I have had a huge map of the world on my wall. Beside it, on my desk sits a small box filled with painted pushpins. I put a different colored pushpin on different parts of the map, I mark important places.
Maddy stare at the map intently and then says "What do the colors mean?" I hand her a list which reads:
MAP PUSHPIN COLOR KEY
*RED-PLACES I HAVE BEEN
*YELLOW-IMPORTANT BIRTH PLACES
*BLUE-IMPORTANT HISTORICAL PLACES
*GREEN-WAR SPOTS
"Wow." She murmurs. I walk up to the map and point to a blue pin. "This is where the Japs started this whole mess." She looks at me for a second and I go any sit down on my bed. Maddy follows and then whispers "December seventh of last year, at seven fifty-five A.M. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor Hawaii. Two-thousand,four hundred and two Americans killed." I look at her eyes widened and say "How do you know that?" Instead of answering she walks up to the map and says "Do you know where all the pushpins go?" "Yes, I have another list."
She nods and takes off every pushpin, and then says "Watch this." She puts every pin,correct color and all, in the exact same place it was. Of course you could see the holes where the other pins originally were and any dumby could put them back exactly. But not like that. Not with the correct color. I look at her dumbstruck. She places yellow pin on a spot in Louisiana.
"I was born here."
"Why'd you move?"
"Long Story."
"I have time." I say and Maddy begins.
YOU ARE READING
Strawberry Jam
Non-FictionGrowing up during the forties, Kate Anderson's life has been tough. She has always kept to herself. Until shes meets the Balms. An eccentric and interesting family. She decides that keeping to herslef might not always be that easy.
